My wife and I got to stop in and see our daughter's new puppy last weekend and it was quite a treat. He must be twice the size he was just a month ago. He's going to be a good sized Lab when he grows up. I'd guess he'll be somewhere around 75 to 80 lbs a year from now.
He's about 14 weeks old and he's going through a very rapid growth phase. This is a very important phase for his overall health too, especially the health of his bones and joints. Big dogs like Labs are prone to developing bone and joint abnormalities like
hip dysplasia and shoulder and elbow problems and how you feed them as puppies can have a big impact.
You might think that this is the time to really push the food, vitamins and minerals to them so they grow up big and strong. In reality, that is precisely the wrong thing to do. Encouraging rapid growth by overfeeding in puppyhood can increase the chances that your large breed puppy will develop bone and joint problems.
Hip dysplasia has a genetic component but not all dogs with the genetic predisposition for hip dysplasia will develop the problem. One way to discourage the expression of hip dysplasia in a genetically predisposed dog is to feed them correctly.
You may have seen puppy food labeled for large breed puppies in the grocery store or pet supply store. These products are slightly different than other "regular" puppy foods. The main difference is in caloric density and overall caloric content. There may be minor differences in calcium and phosphorus content too.
Large breed puppy foods should have fewer calories than regular puppy foods. This can help if you are tying to "manage" the growth in your large breed puppy.
The goal is to keep them on the lean side during growth. A rolly, polly puppy may be cute but not
necessarily healthy. You should be able to feel the ribs with gentle pressure and you should be able to discern an indentation behind the ribs kind of like a waist in a person. Purina has a great system for visualizing this called the
body condition scoring system.
Claire and I have discussed this at length and she is doing a good job of keeping Miles on the lean side during growth. This will not affect his eventual adult size but it will have health benefits. Not only will he be less likely to develop hip dysplasia, he'll be less likely to become obese as an adult, too. And obesity has a number of adverse health consequences including a shorter life span.
Purina did a life long study on this topic that proved the importance of proper nutrition on health and longevity. You can read about it
here.
At PurinaCare we
cover hereditary conditions that are not pre-existing. In the case of a lab puppy like Miles, if Claire bought him a policy today, when he's healthy and happy, he'd be covered if he developed hip dysplasia for some reason later in life. We're doing everything we can to make sure that does not happen though, and feeding him correctly now will definitely help in the long run.