11 Best Puppy Foods for Labs – 2024 Reviews & Top Picks

Purchasing puppy food for a Labrador can be more challenging than many people consider. There are so many brands of dog food available that it’s impossible to weigh the pros and cons of each brand, and many people have a lot of questions about the type of food they need.

We’ve assembled a list of popular brands of puppy food for Labs to review for you. We’ll tell you everything we like and don’t like about each brand, and we’ve included a buyer’s guide where we take an in-depth look at what makes good puppy food for a Labrador.

Please continue reading for our detailed reviews of each kind of puppy food, and we’ll discuss ingredients, preservatives, and omega-3 fatty acids so you can make an informed purchase.

A Quick Comparison of Our Favorites in 2024

The 11 Best Puppy Foods for Labs

1. Ollie Lamb Dog Food – Best Overall

Ollie is a dog food company focused on creating the highest-quality food that’s all-natural and perfectly portioned. It manufactures its products in a human-grade kitchen, and that may be why Ollie is the #1 best dog food for lab puppies on the market.

The company’s Fresh Lamb Dish with Cranberries is the perfect example of how far Ollie goes when creating its recipes. The first and third ingredients are real lamb and lamb liver: both excellent protein sources. Seven of the first 10 ingredients are fruits and vegetables, providing a variety of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. All of the ingredients in this recipe are human-grade, with minimal processing. There are no fillers and no artificial ingredients of any kind. One look at Ollie’s Lamb Dish with Cranberries dog food is all it takes to know that this dog food is as good as it gets!

A bonus of this particular Ollie recipe is that it’s made with allergy-prone dogs in mind. All of the ingredients are low-inflammation and non-allergenic. Its ingredients are superior, and it’s manufactured in the United States. If providing your pup excellent nutrition for a healthy, happy life is your goal, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better dog food than Ollie’s Lamb Dish with Cranberries.

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2. Rachel Ray Nutrish Bright Puppy Chicken & Brown Rice — Budget Buy

The best puppy food for Labs for the money is Rachel Ray’s Nutrish Bright Puppy Natural Real Chicken and Brown Rice. It has real whole chicken as the main ingredient and contains all the right vitamins and minerals for a growing puppy.

It includes taurine for overall health and EPA and DHA to support vision and brain development. There’s also calcium for strong bones and omega-3 and -6 for skin and coat health.

It doesn’t contain any artificial preservatives, flavors, or fillers. The only real issue with this food is that some puppies might experience an upset stomach.

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3.  Royal Canin Labrador Retriever Breed Puppy Dry Food

Royal Canin Labrador Retriever Breed Puppy Dry Food is another good pick, as it’s formulated specifically for Labrador puppies. The kibble is designed to have a donut shape to slow down puppies that tend to eat too quickly, and it includes a mix of antioxidants with vitamin E to support the immune system.

There’s also phosphorus and calcium for joint and bone support, along with prebiotics for a healthy digestive system. But it is quite expensive and some puppies might not like it.

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4. Purina Pro Plan Large Breed High Protein Puppy Dry Food

Purina Pro Plan Large Breed High Protein Puppy Dry Food is geared for large breed puppies, which means your Labrador will receive the best joint and growth support with purposeful nutrition.

This includes DHA derived from fish oil for vision and brain development and glucosamine for cartilage and joint health. There are also calcium and phosphorus for healthy and strong teeth and bones. However, some puppies might develop stomach issues, particularly gas and diarrhea, after eating this food.

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5.  Taste of the Wild High Prairie Puppy Grain-Free Formula Dry Food

The top three ingredients of Taste of the Wild High Prairie Puppy food are all natural. This food is full of vitamins and minerals that come from superfoods and includes omega fatty acids for healthy skin and coat.

It includes antioxidants, prebiotics, and probiotics, which all work together for immune and digestive system health, as well as overall health. However, some puppies might develop a food allergy to this food.

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6. Nutro Max Puppy Dry Dog Food

The Nutro Max Puppy Dry Dog Food is a brand that doesn’t contain any meat by-product. There is also no corn, wheat, or soy to give your pet digestive trouble. This food has omega-3 fatty acids but leaves out the chemical preservatives. Nutro Max only uses tocopherols and other natural preservatives.

The thing we didn’t like about this food is that it contains peas, which are known to be bad for dogs. They also expire quickly, and a few of our puppies didn’t like them.

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7. Diamond Naturals Dry Dog Food

Diamond Naturals Dry Dog Food is a well-known brand that features lamb as its main ingredient. It contains antioxidants in the form of blueberries, carrots, and other vegetables. It also contains Omega-3 fatty acids in the form of salmon oil.

While we were using this brand, some of our puppies didn’t like it, and it gave the others some foul-smelling gas and loose stools.

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8. Wellness Core Natural Dry Dog Food

The Wellness Core Natural Grain Free Dry Dog Food features chicken as the main ingredient and has no grain or chemical preservatives. It features antioxidants in the form of carrots, broccoli, and other vegetables to help keep your pet healthy.

The biggest downside to this brand is that it contains a lot of peas, like many other grain-free dog foods. Peas are known to cause problems with your dog’s heart, so we try to avoid them whenever possible. This food also gave most of our dogs very loose stools and diarrhea.

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9. Eukanuba Puppy Dry Dog Food

Eukanuba Puppy Dry Dog Food contains no chemical preservatives. It has chicken as the main ingredient, and it also contains omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. It has omega-3 fatty acids and includes prebiotics for a healthy digestive tract.

The downside of this brand is that it contains chicken by-products, and it also contains a lot of corn ingredients. Our puppies did eat it, but it gave them loose stools and diarrhea.

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10. NUTRO Wholesome Puppy Dry Dog Food

The NUTRO Wholesome Essentials Puppy eDry Dog Food is another brand of puppy food that features lamb as its top ingredient. Like many of the others, this brand has omega-3 fatty acids to help with brain and eye development. There are also no harmful chemical preservatives to worry about giving your pet.

What we didn’t like about this brand is the kibbles are inconsistent from bag to bag, almost as if you’re getting a different brand, or bought the wrong kind. There are also a lot of peas in this food, which can lead to heart problems if your dog eats them long-term. Most of our puppies also got very loose stools and diarrhea from this food.

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11. Diamond Dry Dog Food

The Diamond Dry Dog Food is the final brand of dog food on our list. This food uses a unique puppy blend that contains DHA omega-3 fatty acids in the form of salmon oil and also has antioxidants to help boost your puppy’s immune system.

What we don’t like about this brand is that it has chicken by-products listed as its first ingredient and corn listed as its second. We noticed that it has a terrible smell while we were using it that will transfer to your pets for an hour or two after they eat it. Several of our puppies wouldn’t eat it at all.

Buyer’s Guide: Picking the Best Puppy Foods for Labs

Let’s take a look at some critical things to look for when choosing a puppy food for a Labrador. Like most larger dogs, Labradors need a little extra consideration as a puppy to make sure they get the nutrients they need to build strong bones, a healthy brain, and a stable digestive tract.

Protein

Protein requirements are always high in puppies, and even more so in labradors. These powerful work dogs need large amounts of protein to build muscle and provide energy. Protein comes in the form of whole meats like lamb, beef, chicken, and bison. There are even some exotic brands that contain alligators and so forth, though we recommend keeping exotic meats for teats because alligator meat isn’t something a dog naturally eats.

Whole meat, like chicken or beef, should be the first ingredient. Especially at this delicate stage of your puppy’s life, you should steer clear, or at least minimize the use, of food that contains meat by-products or has the meat pushed down on the list of ingredients.

Calcium and Phosphorus

Calcium and phosphorus are a team of nutrients that build stronger bones at teeth. Finding puppy food that contains these nutrients is essential when raising a large dog like a labrador to ensure proper bone development. Tooth decay is also a significant issue with all breeds of dogs, and purchasing food fortified with calcium and phosphorous will help safeguard your pet from that problem as well.

Antioxidants

Foods high in antioxidants will help your pet develop a stronger immune system. Antioxidants are especially important when your pet is young because some problems that develop now can carry with them throughout their life. Antioxidants are in foods that contain fruits and vegetables like blueberries, carrots, and broccoli.

Omega-3 and Omega-6

Another essential nutrient that your puppy requires is omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Often labeled as DHA, these acids help with brain and eye development. These acids also help with the heart and liver, they prevent cancer, and they will reduce arthritic inflammation later in life.

Omegas generally come in the form of fish oil fortification, or with salmon or other fish ingredients. The downside to omega-fortified food is that it tends to smell more than other types of food.

Preservatives

The last thing we recommend you look for in your puppy food is the type of preservatives it uses. You don’t want to purchase food that uses the BHT or BHA chemical preservatives. These chemicals are prevalent even in human food, but they are harmful and we recommend avoiding them, especially in your puppy food.

Look for a preservative like tocopherols, which is a natural preservative. Others include Vitamin E and rosemary. You don’t need to know them all, as long as you stay away from BHT and BHA, you should be fine.

Other Criteria

Besides these critical ingredients, there will be a few other things to consider, as well. Some foods can smell bad, as we’ve mentioned. Some foods can give your puppies gas, loose stools, and even diarrhea. Gas and loose stools don’t mean it’s a portion of bad food, but you don’t want your puppy to have diarrhea because they can lose a lot of fluid and nutrients.

Some dogs don’t like certain brands of food, and the cost is a critical concern because you may go through quite a lot. Weight can also be a concern if you need to carry it far.

Conclusion

We hope that you had fun reading over these reviews and have learned something new from our buyer’s guide. If you’re still stuck, we recommend our choice for the best overall. The Ollie Fresh Dog Food is great for large puppies because it is made with whole foods, and real meat protein is listed as the first ingredient. Rachel Ray’s Nutrish Bright Puppy Natural Real Chicken and Brown Rice is our pick for the best value. It’s an excellent choice for most people that won’t hurt the wallet as much as some of the other foods.

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Featured Image Credit: Olya Maximenko, Shutterstock