Labrador puppies, like puppies of any other breed, need timely and balanced feeding. Compliance with the necessary standards in terms of feeding a dog is the key to its health and longevity.
In order for the Labrador to live a long and happy life, delighting the owners with its charm and boundless devotion, first of all, you should take care of its proper feeding. By eating only the food that contains the required amount of nutrients, vitamins and minerals, the puppy will actively grow and develop. A balanced diet will support the formation of the puppy's skeleton and teeth, as well as the proper development of the immune system.
You can feed your Labrador puppy with complete dry food or natural food. And in fact, and in another case, it is necessary to adhere to certain recommendations so as not to harm the animal. It is important to remember that Labrador dogs are very prone to obesity, so overfeeding is not recommended.
Dry food
For many, feeding a dog with ready-made dry food is a priority option and is quite reasonable. The dry food contains all the microelements and vitamins necessary for the puppy, besides, this type of feeding is very convenient, since it takes little time.
However, there are some points that every Labrador owner should know about. First and foremost, you should never give your dog cheap dry food. The so-called "economy options" are not appropriate here, since they can contain anything you like, but not natural and useful substances.
Eating cheap dry food, beautiful advertisements of which can be seen on TV almost every ten minutes, a dog can acquire a whole "bunch" of diseases. Everything can begin with constipation or diarrhea, and end with very serious diseases of the stomach, liver and other vital organs.
To prevent this from happening, you need to buy food only from manufacturers proven by dog breeders, including Royal Canin, Hill's, Purina Pro Plan. The most affordable super premium food is sold under these brands, but if finances allow, you can buy products from such companies as Orijen, Innova EVO, Acana and others.
Important: having opted for one or another super premium feed, you must strictly adhere to the manufacturer's recommendations. As a rule, all feeding norms are prescribed on the food packaging itself, depending on the age and weight of the puppy.
Natural feed
When feeding natural food, care should be taken to ensure that the diet of a Labrador puppy always contains raw meat, which is a source of protein and essential amino acids. In addition to meat, products such as sea fish and cottage cheese will be extremely useful for the dog.
Of the meat products, Labrador puppies can only be given beef, since this meat contains little fat. Also, the dog can be fed with offal - sometimes you can give boiled beef liver, lungs, heart. Grown up puppies can be pampered with beef scar (stomach) and testes, but only periodically - no more than once or twice a week.
It is strictly forbidden to feed pork to Labrador puppies, as this product contains a lot of fat and eating it can lead to malfunctioning of the pancreas. Also, river fish, which may contain all kinds of parasites, must be excluded from the diet.
