Lagotto Romagnolo Nutrition: Notions and Practical Tips

Feeding your puppy: How and what.

Puppy feeding Monge bag

In our kennel both for adult dogs but also for puppies we are using Monge or Royal Canin croquettes. For the feeding and weaning of puppies the product is Puppy and Junior Medium. In the picture on the right you can see the Monge bag with its colours so that it is easily recognizable. Monge has more tastes for puppies too, you can be wrong. Royal Canin has only Medium Puppy chicken nuggets. The prices are virtually identical per kilo of product, although obviously the larger bags significantly lower the price per kilogram.

It’s not a frequent occurrence but sometimes it happens that a weaning litter is not so enticing on a type of croquette and then we change, generally things get much better.

For those who want to stock up on croquettes in advance, simply ask us what brand of croquette we are using at that time.

We want the puppies to continue with this diet.

It is a certainty if the puppy loses some appetite due to the stress of insertion. Knowing for certain that the food is to his liking is an element of security. Changing food also leads to further discomfort for the dog. Changing food is not recommended during insertion.

For the quantities we should refer to the table on the back of the bag.

Monge rations table puppy feeding

In the picture beside I have put a zoom.

The first thing to look at is the adult dog’s weight. In the case of the Lagotto Romagnolo I have coloured in pink the column to follow for the females and in blue that of the males.

At this point the game is done! The rations we read are in grams and refer to the daily ration based on the months of the puppy’s life.

Up to the age of 6 months the ration will be divided into three meals with the convenient dispenser that is delivered at the farm. Better if moistened with water.

After six months the ration will be divided into two meals.

After 12 months we will switch to adult croquettes.

The above mentioned doses are a fairly precise reference. However, they do not take into account physical activity, season and metabolism, which can be different from puppy to puppy.

Usually the rations in winter are more abundant. The cold makes them consume more. In summer they are slightly reduced.

Weight control of the Lagotto puppy

Palpate the puppy along the hips. The fantastic curly hair of the Lagotto can be deceiving. Evaluating the shape of a shaved dog is quite simple. For the Lagotto, no! Especially when it is a puppy with fur.

We’ll weigh the puppy to see if growth is progressing regularly. He won’t have to gain weight too quickly. Even touch control is a good way to assess excesses.

Let’s try to see a normal weight gain for the Lagotto Romagnolo.

Theoretical considerations that can serve as a reference to evaluate the growth of the puppy or remove some doubts.

The puppy is given to the 10th week and its weight will be about 5 kilograms.

Until the 24th week the weekly weight increase will be almost constant.

It will reach 80% of its adult weight (around 500 grams per week for a Lagotto that will weigh 15 Kg when adult).

After the 24th week until the end of the year the weekly weight gain will still be constant but much less noticeable.

Just to give a reference we are in the order of 80 gr per week.

Foods forbidden for the Dog

There are foods that are harmful to dogs. It seems appropriate to report them:

• Chocolate is extremely dangerous
• Salt as it accumulates in the dog’s body due to the absence of sweating
• Sweets in general are to be avoided.

Last recommendation are the delicacies, biscuits and hyper-points that we could use as prizes.

We must not satiate the Dog with these… I don’t get the term!

We risk providing him with an unbalanced excess of food. Different digestion times so that either the dog skips the meal or even worse, doubles it.