Am I feeding enough?

[joella]

Just curious if I should be feeding Anka more. I feed her Purina puppy chow, about 4 cups a day, and its mixed w/ 1/4 to 1/2 can of Alpo canned food. (2 meals of 2 cups puppy chow, at least one of which is mixed w/ 1/4 can Alpo). Is this enough for a 6 month old lab who currently weighs about 50 pounds? The puppy chow package goes by estimated full grown weight. When I look at full grown weight of up to 75 pounds (is this a good estimate for a female lab?), it says 5-6 cups a day. Any thoughts?

[erdog3]

Have a check back on some of the lab threads just posted lately, there are a lot of pics on how the dogs should look, for ideal weight. There is one I posted of Sophie at 9 months. Which is not far off your 6 months.
4 cups may not be quite enough. You are probably best to follow the packet. That is correct how the estimate. it goes on what the dogs weight will eventually be.
Labs range from 28kg female to 32kg males. But there are variations inbetween as labs are comming in all shapes and sizes now.

[Moo]

Estimated full grown weight, now that's goofy. What if you don't know? What if you have a 8 wk old puppy.... Doesn't make sense to me, but follow the packages, they'll know.

But it always depends on the brand of food, how many calories are in it and how much activity the dog gets. Does she always eat everything you put down?

[joella]

For the past couple of days, she hadn't been eating it all right away, but today, she wolfed it right down. (Both meals.)

So, I shouldn't be subtracting from the amount of dry food I give her if I'm mixing it with wet?

[joella]

By the way, she also gets treats throughout the day, and another handful of puppy chow during training sessions.

[erdog3]

It is pretty hard to overfeed a growing lab. You are better to err to more than less. Don't go overboard with it, just watch her growth rate, if you start to see more than a couple of back ribs then up the amount.
I would not decrease for the sake of a 1/4 or 1/2 of tin food.
She will have many growth spurts, especially around the 9 months, then again at about 14 months. They can look lanky, up and down, ugly. Till they get their full bulk and size.
Check the pics I posted on Lab puppy pictures. It also talks about the bone structure.

[joella]

Right now, I don't see ANY of her ribs, so I assume she's certainly not starving, but I will up the amount of dry food so as not to stunt her growth (as I read in the other thread.) Here's a pic where you can see her from the top, look okay?

[erdog3]

Bit thin, feed her up, have a look at the other thread, Too Thin I think it is, I just posted a pic of Ellie today. Thats the ideal. Cause your girl is growing you may find at times you need to increase, then when the growth spurt is over, decrease again.
Don't worry about the other thread, here is the pic again. Click on it for a larger version.

[joella]

Thanks. I showed my hubby the picture Ellie and he's giving her some more food right now. Tomorrow, we'll either up the amount at the 2 meals, or add a meal the same size. (Any thoughts on which would be better?)

[erdog3]

Just up the amount at the two meals. Once she looks like Ellie, you will be just about able to give one big meal a day, which is how I feed. Just personal preference. But by 10-12 months I have always done that.
Just make sure you increase the food according to her age. That is what you feed now will have to increase in a months time and so on.

BTW pretty looking lab.