Ensuring healthy growth
Here is what you can do to set your Labradoodle up for a healthy growth and solid adult weight:
Nutrition and feeding
Without the right nutrition, your pup cannot grow well. You need to feed your Labradoodle a high-quality food with a lot of protein. Protein is what our bodies are built of – your growing pup needs a lot in order to grow tall and strong.
You can choose from a variety of different foods, such as:
- Dry food
- Wet food
- Dehydrated food
- Raw food
- Premade raw food
Or any combination of those!
You should absolutely refrain from cooking your dog’s food yourself. Dogs’ nutritional needs are very different from humans’ and they do not do well on a diet of e.g. chicken, rice and carrots. Your dog needs different muscle and organ meat, and not as many carbohydrates as we tend to eat.
In the beginning, feed your Labradoodle 4 times a day for optimal growth and development. Once he is about 4 months old, you can switch to 3 daily feedings. Around the first birthday you can cut this down to two meals if you would like.
However, there is no inherent benefit in only feeding your dog twice a day, and most Labradoodles do best with three smaller meals. This is due to the fact that they are usually very food-motivated and might scarf down the food if they are not fed several times a day, risking bloat.
Slow feeding bowls can help with that!
Labradoodles, like all Doodles, tend to be very mouthy as puppies. Provide plenty of appropriate chew items to reduce the tendency to chew and bite.