Labrador Retrievers are a popular dog breed due to their friendly disposition. They require an active lifestyle and a healthy diet to match. As with all animals, ensuring that nutritional needs are holistically met early in life will paint a healthy future for their active, playful life. Taking the time to learn about your labrador’s nutritional needs early in their life also will instill in the owner a habitual routine of being involved in the pet’s health needs.
As pups, labradors require collistum which is a nutrient found in the dam’s milk (their mother) that is required to build the immune system. Ensuring that this nutrient is present in the labrador retriever puppy’s diet will set the stage for their long-term health. If it’s missing from the lab’s diet, with immune system development then being repressed the owner can expect a possibly very sickly dog. The good news is that because it is naturally provided in the mother’s milk, there’s no reason to worry about having some costly supplement. If however the mother isn’t present and the milk needs to be supplemented, it is essential to find a milk replacement that contains collistum.
Usually we do not ‘get’ the puppy until days or weeks after birth, and this is a concern because the very first days of the puppy’s life are nutritionally most important to ensure long-term health. The nutrition that a puppy labrador gets, or doesn’t get, in the first few days of it’s life seriously sets the stage for how healthy they will be in all future life stages, even into old age! For this very reason it is essential that lab puppies are adopted from a reputable breeder. The money you may think you are saving by purchasing a labrador retriever from a less-expensive breeder will likely cost you tremendously down the line. If the breeder did not fulfill the nutritional needs of your puppy in the first days of life, as discussed above this can mean that your lab’s long-term health will be greatly jeapordized – and this can cost a pretty penny in vet bills. Purchasing a labrador puppy from a pet store can be just as risky! If you purchase from a pet store it is so incredibly essential that you take the time to ask questions about where they purchased the puppy from, and even investigate the place where they bought the puppy from on your own via phone calls or inquiring emails.
In short, puppy and dog nutrition is important to maintain health and thereby a necessary investment to prevent costs, and physical pain/health problems down the line. When inviting a puppy, labrador retriever or otherwise, into your family it’s essential that the future costs of caring (including proper nutrition and pet supplements) are seriously considered aside from the whimsical infatuation that comes with seeing that cute pup in a window. Purchasing your labrador puppy from a reputable source, costs aside, will help ensure the longevity of the active, playful and loving life you wish to have them in your life for.
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