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Feeding Instructions
Your puppy is eating Purina Pro Plan Sport 30/20 Chicken and Rice formula. This is a higher calorie, all stages food that they do well on. I highly suggest that you don’t switch their food until they are fully settled in, around 4 months or so. Puppies immune systems aren’t fully developed, so keeping their diet and routine as consistent as possible will help to keep them healthy as they grow.
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​​​​​​​​If you do decide to switch foods, I recommend staying away from grain free foods, and make sure you find a food that is low in copper levels, ideally somewhere between 7-15 mg/kg. Please see the dog food copper levels chart. If you don’t see a specific food on there, please do some research to find out the copper levels of that food. Copper levels are not listed on the nutrient value charts on the dog food bag. Copper toxicosis has become a big issue for Labrador Retrievers in recent years as copper oxide added to foods has been replaced by the more bioavailable copper sulfate.
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Your pups is eating around 2 cups a day at 8 weeks. You will want to slowly increase their food as they get older. Our English labs are meant to be thick and have big bone, and one of my mentors always says “you want them to grow from their fat, not from their bone”. If you keep your pups lean as they grow, they will not develop the bone that they might have if they are kept a little more…plump. Your vet and everyone you pass will make comments that they are too heavy, so it’s up to you how to want to raise your pup. I personally like to keep my pups fairly heavy, and then I lean them out when they are about a year old. Here is my recommended feeding schedule for pups:
8 weeks: 2-3 cups/day
12 weeks: 3-4 cups/day
16 weeks: 4-5 cups/day
6 months: 5-6 cups/day
1 year: 3-4 cups/day
