Royal Canin Labrador Retriever Puppy Dry Dog FoodUp to 15 months · adult weight 26–40 kg

Labradors carry a genuine genetic variant — a deletion in the POMC gene — that leaves many of them without a working sense of fullness. She is not being greedy. She physically does not register having eaten, and she never will.

So fat here is 14%, the lowest of any large-breed puppy food in this range, with protein at 33% to build muscle instead. A fat Labrador puppy grows too fast for her skeleton and the joint disease follows her for life. Calcium at 1.25% and phosphorus at 1% are balanced for controlled bone development, glucosamine and chondroitin support cartilage, and the flat, wide kibble makes her slow down. She moves onto Labrador Adult at sixteen months.

• Healthy Growth
• Weight Management
• Joint Support
• Immune Support

Ingredients

Dehydrated poultry protein, maize, vegetable protein isolate (L.I.P. — protein selected for its very high digestibility), rice, maize flour, animal fats, maize gluten, hydrolysed animal proteins, wheat flour, beet pulp, fish oil, minerals, vegetable fibres, soya oil, fructo-oligo-saccharides (0.34%), psyllium husks and seeds, hydrolysed yeast (source of manno-oligo-saccharides), hydrolysed crustaceans (source of glucosamine), borage oil, yeast extracts (source of betaglucans), marigold extract (source of lutein), hydrolysed cartilage (source of chondroitin). Additives (per kg) — Nutritional additives: Vitamin A 26,500 IU · Vitamin D3 800 IU · Vitamin E 490 mg · E1 (Iron) 56 mg · E2 (Iodine) 3.6 mg · E4 (Copper) 6 mg · E5 (Manganese) 41 mg · E6 (Zinc) 119 mg · E8 (Selenium) 0.17 mg. Technological additives: Clinoptilolite of sedimentary origin 10 g. Sensory additives: Yucca extract 125 mg. Preservatives. Antioxidants.

Looking after it

Store in a cool, dry place, sealed. Use within six weeks of opening. She will convince you she is starving. She is not — go by her ribs, which you should be able to feel easily. A slow-feeder bowl or a food puzzle stretches the meal out and helps. Limit stairs and jumping until she's a year old. Everyone in the house has to stop giving her things, or none of this works.