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You just brought home your new Red Fox Labrador puppy, and you want to know the best food to feed them. Starting your puppy on the wrong kind of diet now can lead to costly health problems down the road. We want to help you prevent that, and get your puppy off to the best start possible. We’re gonna take all the guesswork out of choosing a top quality puppy food for your new Lab.
We all know picking a puppy food can be really hard. It’s one of the most common questions we get from our new puppy parents. There are literally hundreds of dog foods on the market, all competing for a share of your wallet. Unless you’re a breeder, a vet, or an animal nutritionist, how are you supposed to know which one is right for your pup?
Now, if you search the Internet, you’ll find there are a lot of strong opinions on the subject of puppy food. There are even what we would call “Hollywood diets” for dogs. You may hear a lot about raw diets or grain-free diets for dogs, but we’ll tell you why those might not be the best choice for your Labrador puppy. I’m also going give you our top three recommended brands for puppy foods, so make sure you read through till the end. Lastly, none of this information is sponsored content. We’re not being compensated by any of the brands mentioned to provide you this information. It’s simply our recommendations and opinions as a top quality breeder.
AAFCO Labeling
The first thing you should look for on your label, or online, is the manufacturer of your puppy food adhering to the AAFCO standards. AAFCO is the Association of American Feed Control Officials, which is a nonprofit organization that establishes standards and test protocols for all kinds of animal foods, including dog food. AAFCO does not certify or actually test any foods. They do not endorse any specific manufacturers, but they do establish the voluntary standards for pet food labeling, nutrition, and testing, which most state regulators have adopted. Many of the reputable brands follow these standards, and will put a reference to AAFCO on the label for the pet food or online for their website. It’s one of the first steps to make sure your pet food is coming from a reputable manufacturer.
Be aware of homemade dog foods or treats that you buy online or even at local farmer’s markets. They may not adhere to the AAFCO standards, so you really don’t know what you’re getting in that pet food.
Nutrient Profiles for Labrador Puppy Food
The second consideration for puppy food is the nutrient profile and where these nutrients are coming from. Puppies and large breed dogs like Labs need higher levels of protein with certain vitamins and minerals until their skeletal systems are mature, which is around 18 to 24 months of age for Labs. A balanced puppy food for a Labrador should contain about 28% – 30% protein from animal-based sources, like chicken or lamb. The fat content should be greater than or equal to 18% and carbohydrates around 22%. Proper nutrition helps to regulate the puppy’s growth rate, and growing too fast or too slow can lead to bone and joint problems later in life.
Grain-Free and Raw Diets for Labradors
I mentioned earlier we would touch on grain-free and raw diets for Labrador puppies. Some people swear by grain-free meals for their own personal diets, so it must be good for a dog, right? Well, not so fast. There are published veterinary studies associating grain-free diets with cardiac issues in large breed animals. Therefore, we don’t recommend grain-free diets for our puppies. Unless your puppy has some type of grain allergy, avoid the “grain-free” craze out there right now.
With raw food diets, there’s a higher chance of food borne illnesses getting passed on to the puppy. Since the puppies don’t have mature immune systems yet, a small amount of food-based pathogens, like salmonella, can have dire consequences for a puppy. We don’t recommend raw diets either for our pups either. We’re more open to raw diets after the pups are one year old and our dogs do receive raw foods from time to time but we’re very careful about food safety for them and our family. It’s more of a treat for the dogs rather than a regular diet.
Price Per Pound of Puppy Food
The last thing consider when selecting a puppy food is price, especially if you’re feeding multiple puppies or adult dogs in your household….it can get expensive. The best thing to do is calculate price per pound of food, and with a lot of things these days, puppy food has been subject to “shrinkflation“. Here, with “shrinkflation“, price remains the same, but you get less food in the bag. We just researched 28 of the most popular puppy foods, and calculated the price per pound for you. There link to our report is below. It is free and you can see where your dog food is on the list, but cost should absolutely be one of your considerations.
Download 2022 Labrador Puppy Food Review List
Download our PDF file that contains our top brand picks and price per pound review of 28 popular puppy foods. List updated September of 2022.
So there you have it. Our top three items to look for in selecting a puppy food:
- checking the label for the AAFCO standard;
- checking that it meets the recommended nutrient profile;
- and making sure you’ve picked a puppy food that fits in your budget and that you can stick with long-term.
Top 3 Labrador Puppy Food Recommendations
I told you we would give you our top three brands we recommended as a breeder, and here they are:
#3: Coming in at number three on our recommended list is Royal Canin. They are one of the more expensive brands on our list, and we like them for dogs that have special dietary needs. Most vets will recommend Royal Canin, and we think they’re a top quality food, but they do have one of the highest prices per pound. If you have a puppy with a sensitive stomach or special dietary need, you should absolutely consider them. If budget is no issue, then Royal Canin is a great overall brand. For puppies with no health concerns, we would recommend one of the other choices on our list because of the high cost per pound.
#2: Number two on our recommended list is Hills Science Diet. We’ve been a Science Diet customer for over 12 years, and have been really happy with their product overall. From a pricing perspective, they fall in that mid-range, value category where budget and quality are balanced. They’re also a brand that our vets recommend. We recently switched away from Science Diet for our dogs to the number one brand on our list….
….Drum roll please….
#1: Our number one puppy food brand recommendation is Purina Pro Plan. This brand was formally known as Focus. Pro Plan is a quality puppy food with the right nutrition and ingredients at a better price point than Science Diet, but price was not the sole reason we switched away from the brand. During the pandemic and all the supply chain issues that followed, we actually had a hard time finding Science Diet and getting it when we needed it. Now, that was not the case with Pro Plan. While there may have been just a bag or two on the shelf for Pro Plan, we never ran out of it and we’ve always been able to find it, either locally or online. The other bonus for Pro Plan was a recommendation by our vets. And yes, I said vets, plural. We use multiple vets for our dogs for different reasons. Pro Plan is the only puppy food that was on every vet’s recommended list. So price, availability, and our vets’ endorsement make this our number one pick.
Well, there you have it. Our recommendations for finding a good Labrador puppy food and our top three recommended brands.
