New pup new food

I'm about to pick up my beautiful Labrador puppy and I've been reading up about nutrition. The breeder feeds something very cheap and full of E numbers. I'd like to move on to something much healthier but I'm too nervy to take the jump to raw feeding and to be honest I don't think I can commit to the shopping!
What healthy puppy foods can you get and how do I change her diet over.
Jerry Sampson, Stow-on-the-Wolds

Bringing home a new puppy for the first time is a thrilling experience for everyone concerned.
By the time you acquire your puppy he will already be weaned on to solid food. Changing your puppy’s diet should be done gradually over a period of a few days. Any sudden changes in diet could upset the puppy’s digestion or deter him from eating. Breeders will usually provide you with some of your puppy’s usual food which will help him settle into his new home. When changing the diet to a new type of food, mix the old and new food together gradually increasing the amount of the new food he receives and decreasing his old diet over a week or so.
It should be remembered that for the first six months of life puppies grow at an astonishing rate, a growth that we humans take up to 14 years to achieve. This rapid development requires a high calorie intake to enable the dog’s full growth potential to be achieved. At peak growth this feed intake can equate to as much as twice the requirement of adult consumption. Though this should be split across at least three meals per day, as puppies’ stomachs are small and only able to cope with small frequent meals.
The higher the quality of nutrition at this stage, the better chance the puppy has of developing to its full potential. Feeding your puppy correctly is essential to support resistance to the initial challenges of life, ensuring long-term health and providing solid foundations for adulthood.
A feed especially formulated for puppies should be your be your first choice.
Naturediet Puppy/Junior has been developed specifically to meet the nutritional needs of the growing puppy. Like all Naturediet feeds, Puppy/Junior is 100 per cent natural, with at least 60 per cent real meat content and no artificial preservatives or ingredients. The feed contains all the nutrients required for growth, while ensuring that your puppy’s body condition does not develop too quickly for his bone growth.
For more information on Naturediet Puppy/Junior click here
Carl-Michael Carey, Naturediet PR

Puppies have higher energy needs than adult dogs (up to twice as much weight for weight). But this does not mean that puppies should have large amounts of high energy food. Many health problems of growing and adult dogs are caused by excessive energy intake in the growth stage. For example, it is well known that overfeeding puppies contributes to skeletal and joint problems particularly in larger breed dogs. Your Labrador comes into that category. Hip dysplasia is a real concern.
For a long time it was believed that hip dysplasia was purely a genetic defect which could be eliminated by selective breeding. That failed to work and it is now accepted that over-nutrition is a major contributing factor. In spite of that, most commercial foods for puppies and growing dogs contain high levels of fat and protein which encourage too-rapid growth and excessive weight gain. The aim is to keep your puppy lean. But beware - If you do people will stop you in the street and tell you he or she is too thin; there are so many overweight dogs that this has become the norm.
Slight underfeeding is not harmful whereas overfeeding causes lasting problems.
Of course you don’t want his bones sticking out.
The Burns Puppy Guide may be helpful.
John Burns, vet, Burns Pet Nutrition

Unfortunately most pet foods don't list all the artificial additives, colourings and chemicals they put into the food they produce as there is no legal requirement to do so. It means the customer has no idea what's in the pet food they are buying. The only guarantee that you are buying a pure food is if it's certified organic. I emphasis certified as the law currently also allows pet food companies to call their food organic even if it isn't - so you must look for certification on the pack!
The word 'natural' on the pack is no longer an indication of something good, as this word is used all over the place by marketers and can mask all sorts of unnatural things!
A good thing to do is to take a good look at the food you are buying - how does it smell? Does it smell rancid or just yukky? That's a clue to what's being used. Do the kibbles look very dark? This could be a sign that they are full of fat. You can also do a 'home test' on this by putting a small handful in a bowl of water and waiting for about 30 mins - if it's very greasy you will see a very thick film of grease on the top of the water. There should just be a very thin film on the top.
A good food should smell delicious, not overpowering and if it's a wet food, you should be able to see nice pieces of ingredients, rather than a brown mush!
Henrietta, Lily's Kitchen


Although diet is crucial in maintaining good health in all dogs, at no stage is it more important than during puppyhood. This is when the foundations are laid for the rest of the puppy's life in terms of the puppy's immune system, bones and joints and temperament. The sheer number of options available can be daunting for a new puppy owner, and since every food claims to be the best, the whole issue can become a bit of a minefield. There are both good and bad dry and wet foods alike but price is rarely the best indicator of quality. When choosing a new food, always start by looking at the ingredients list. Firstly and most importantly, each entry should be clearly defined and should not leave any room for error. Ambiguous terms like cereals, by-products and derivatives are usually a bad sign. If you're looking to feed naturally you'll want to steer clear of any foods with ingredients like preservatives, flavourings, colourings, E numbers or EC permitted anything. The order of the ingredients on the label reflects their abundance in the food - the first ingredient is the most plentiful and so on. Most natural nutritionists agree that meat should be the primary ingredient in a dog's diet and should therefore be the top ingredient in your puppy's food. There are also a number of ingredients that are well known for being problematic in dogs - wheat, soya and dairy products are usually best avoided.
Once you've chosen a food for your puppy you'll have to make the switch.
Changing the food can be a stressful experience for the puppy, so don't try changing until the puppy has had at least 2 weeks to settle into its new home. For a healthy puppy the change should be made over roughly 3-5 days to allow the system time to adjust. Start by replacing a small amount of the current food with the new food and day by day increase the proportion of the new food until only it remains.
Alan Creaser, Director, Natural Dog Food Company