How Much to Feed a Labrador Retriever: Portions by Weight and Age

"How much should I feed my Labrador" sounds like a question about cups. It is really a question about calories, converted to cups using a number printed in small type on the back of the bag. Get that conversion wrong and the portion can be out by 40 percent while still looking perfectly reasonable in the bowl. This guide takes an adult Labrador's calorie target and turns it into grams and cups — then does the same for every life stage from eight weeks to senior.

Step One: Find the Food's kcal per Cup

Every complete dog food sold in the US carries an AAFCO nutritional adequacy statement and a calorie content statement, usually expressed as metabolizable energy in kcal/kg. That is not the number you need. You need kcal per cup, and many brands print both. Where only kcal/kg appears, convert using the weight of one measured cup of that kibble, which is typically 90-110 g for a standard 8-ounce dry measuring cup.

The arithmetic: kcal per cup = kcal/kg × cup weight in kg. A food listed at 3,700 kcal/kg with a 100 g cup delivers 370 kcal per cup. Large-breed adult formulas generally fall between 340 and 400 kcal/cup; performance and puppy formulas run 400-450. This single number explains most of the disagreement between two Labrador owners feeding what they both call "four cups a day".

Cups per Day for an Adult Labrador

The table below assumes a neutered adult at the 1.6 activity factor, with the calorie figure from the RER formula. Read across to your food's density, then split the result across two meals.

Read the last column when accuracy matters. Grams are unambiguous, cups are not: the same scoop filled level, heaped or shaken down can differ by a fifth.

Feed the Target Weight, Not the Current Weight

The table above only works if the weight in the left column is the dog's healthy weight. For an overweight Labrador, feed to the target and let the dog catch up. A 95 lb Lab whose ideal weight is 75 lb should eat the 75 lb row — about 4.1 cups at 380 kcal/cup, not the 5.2 cups its current weight would justify.

Decide the target with your hands, not the scale alone. You should feel the ribs under a thin layer of fat without pressing, see a waist behind the ribcage from above, and see the belly tuck up from the side. A Labrador at a healthy 5/9 body condition score often surprises owners by how slim it looks, because the breed's broad chest reads as "solid" even when it is carrying extra fat. The Pet BMI & Ideal Weight Calculator gives a starting number to check against.

A Labrador's Portions by Age

Puppies are not small adults. Growth costs energy, so a young puppy eats roughly twice as many calories per kilogram as an adult of the same weight, and the requirement tapers as growth slows. The energy factors below are standard veterinary values; the cup figures assume 380 kcal/cup.

Notice that cups per day barely change from six months to adulthood even though the dog nearly doubles in weight. The growing body becomes more efficient, so the raw calorie total plateaus while the dog keeps adding mass. Owners who keep increasing the portion alongside the weight are the ones whose Lab is overweight by its first birthday.

Puppies: The Growth Window

Feed a Labrador puppy a large-breed growth formula, which is formulated to AAFCO's growth and reproduction standard for dogs over 70 lb adult weight, with calcium held around 1.2-1.8 percent on a dry matter basis. Excess calcium and excess calories in a growing large breed both increase the risk of developmental orthopaedic disease, including hip and elbow dysplasia. This is the one period in a Labrador's life when overfeeding is not merely a weight problem but a joint problem.

Do not chase fast growth. A Lab puppy that reaches its adult weight early is not thriving, it is being pushed. Weigh the puppy monthly, keep it lean enough that the ribs are easy to feel, and use the Puppy Weight Predictor to sanity-check the growth curve rather than a neighbour's opinion. Four meals a day up to about four months, three meals to six months, then two.

Adults: Two Measured Meals

By twelve to eighteen months, a Labrador is on adult food and two meals a day. Large breeds mature later than small ones, so a Lab on puppy food until twelve months is reasonable and until eighteen months is not harmful for most, provided the calorie total is controlled.

Three habits do most of the work. First, measure by weight in grams, not by scoop, at least until you have calibrated your scoop once against a kitchen scale. Second, keep the same food for the same dog, because switching brands changes kcal/cup and silently changes the portion. Third, never free-feed. A Labrador left with a full bowl will typically empty it, and free-feeding removes the only feedback signal you have.

Splitting the daily ration into two meals also reduces the size of any single stomach load, which matters in a breed at elevated risk of gastric dilatation-volvulus. Avoid vigorous exercise within an hour either side of a large meal.

Seniors: Smaller Portions, Denser Nutrition

From around seven or eight years, a Labrador's energy requirement drops to roughly 1.4 times resting energy — about 15 percent less than the 1.6 factor of a middle-aged neutered adult. A 70 lb senior moves from about 4.1 cups to 3.4 cups a day on the same food. The trap is that appetite often does not drop with the requirement, so the portion has to be cut deliberately rather than waiting for the dog to self-limit.

At the same time, protein needs stay level or rise, because older dogs lose lean muscle more readily. Cutting the portion while switching to a senior formula with adequate high-quality protein is the right combination; simply feeding less of an adult maintenance food is not. If a senior Labrador loses weight despite a full ration, that is a veterinary conversation, not a portion adjustment.

The Bottom Line

Portion size for a Labrador is a three-step calculation, not a lookup. Find the dog's healthy weight, get its daily calories, then divide by the actual kcal per cup of the food in the bin. For a typical 70 lb adult that lands near 4 cups of a 380 kcal formula, split in two. Puppies need more per kilogram and a large-breed growth diet; seniors need about 15 percent less and more protein. Measure in grams, weigh monthly, and adjust by a tenth rather than a quarter when the scale drifts.