What it costs to feed a Labrador Retriever — and the smarter way to do it

Labrador Retrievers typically weigh 55–80 lb, and the breed brings the breed most likely to be overweight in nearly every survey taken. Feeding one well is less about filling the whole bowl with something premium and more about what goes into every single meal.

Our recommendation for a Labrador Retriever: make Loyal Saints at least 20–25% of the bowl. At a quarter that is 1¼ cups a day — $5.48; at a fifth, 1 cup for $4.38. Raw muscle meat, organs and fish-oil omega-3s in every meal, at a cost that stays sensible for a dog this size.

You can feed a Labrador Retriever entirely on freeze-dried raw — Loyal Saints is complete and balanced for All Life Stages (for a large-breed puppy, choose Beef or Chicken). At 75 lb that is 4¾ cups a day, about $21.92 a day or $666.46 a month. Some owners choose it. Most large-breed households choose the quarter bowl, and it is what we recommend.

Why freeze-dried belongs in the bowl. In a 2024 controlled feeding study, adult dogs digested 94% of the protein in a freeze-dried raw diet against 82% in an extruded kibble — and produced less than half the stool (Geary et al., Translational Animal Science).

What an all-kibble bowl misses. Every meal has been cooked under high heat and pressure, many kibbles get a large share of their calories from starch, and there is no raw muscle meat or organ in the bowl at all. Across 67 commercial pet foods, extruded dry dog foods had on average about 13% of their lysine — an essential amino acid — damaged by processing heat, and up to 23% in some (van Rooijen et al., Journal of Nutritional Science, 2014). Freeze-drying has no cooking step.

And against fresh? Fresh-cooked delivery is a real step up from kibble, but it is cooked, it needs the fridge and the freezer, and it ships on a cold-chain schedule. In the same 2024 study, the freeze-dried raw diet also out-digested the fresh diet on protein (94% against 86%). Freeze-dried raw is never cooked and lives in the pantry.

Swap, don’t stack. Take out about a quarter of what your dog eats now and put Loyal Saints in its place. Adding it on top is a 25% calorie increase, and on a big dog extra weight lands on the joints first. Because every Loyal Saints formula is complete and balanced, blending it with another complete and balanced food keeps the whole bowl balanced.

Feed to body condition rather than to the chart — you should be able to feel your Labrador Retriever’s ribs without seeing them. On a dog this size, staying lean is the most useful thing you control.