Feeding a puppy

Hey everyone! When you have a mixed dog it can be difficult to decide what is the best food to feed and how much you should feed. Labradors and Newfoundlands are very similar, except Newfoundlands are HUGE and often a little lazy... I did a lot of research and came up with feeding 4-5 cups a day if my pup was going to be 100 lbs or more full grown.. The problem is that Max is mixed and can range anywhere from 60 to 150+ lbs.... I finally decided to let him be the judge. I put down food and let him eat til he was full. For a week I have been monitoring and have come to the conclusion that first of all, I have another awesome dog who doesn't eat more than he needs, and second, based on how much he's gained and the fact that he's not overweight the 4-5 cups he's consuming each day on his own must be the right amount. Does this mean he will be 100+ lbs?... I don't know. If you don't know how much to feed your pup put down a dish full of food and measure how much he eats until he is full (when he lifts his head from the dish/walks away). Some people say your pup will need this twice a day, honestly for young pups I say 3-4 times a day because their stomachs are pretty small. Max eats typically 3x a day. The biggest thing is to make sure your puppy is growing up, but not growing fat! If your pup is getting fat, cut back on the food! Food brands can be a big deciding factor as well, cheap brands with a lot of by-product or corn fillers will not typically save you money because your dog will eat more of it due to a lack of nutrients. Also, your dog is more prone to getting fat on these types of dog food because they eat a lot more calories than they need to get all the nutrients they need. I always feed limited ingredient or grain free foods due to my border collie/labs skin irritation but you don't need to go grain free (infact it can be harmful to not include some grains), just get high quality food. I recently switched to "Taste of the Wild" brand because it is a little more affordable than other high quality food yet it is one of the highest ranked dog foods. (I used to feed Natural Balance until their prices went up almost 10 bucks a bag!) When you have a large breed puppy a lot of people recommend a large breed puppy food. Taste of the Wild offers this in their Pacific Salmon puppy formula. The problem is that a Lab puppy may do extremely well on this where a Newfoundland puppy will grow too quickly.... I am giving Max half Pacific Salmon puppy formula and half regular adult Southwest Canyon (cheapest Taste of the Wild option). Max really does not like the puppy formula so once the bag is gone I may switch him strictly to the adult formula. Within reason I try to trust my dogs instincts... We will see how this works out! Here is a link to a website that ranks high quality dog foods, I found it very useful!
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/

Let us know what you are doing with your Newfie mix or other large breed pups!

Welcome everyone to Newfoundlabs! This is a blog dedicated to dogs and their loving owners but ESPECIALLY to any Newfoundland Labrador mix owners out there. There is a serious shortage on internet information for Newfoundland Labrador mixes so lets share our experiences with temperament, growth, health, training and food!