Feeding a Lab puppy with allergy risk

With a litter history of food allergies, you're wise to get ahead of this early — true food allergies in dogs are actually less common than intolerances, but a genetic predisposition does raise the odds meaningfully. The best move at this stage is usually a limited-ingredient or hydrolysed protein puppy food from the start, rather than waiting for symptoms to appear. To point you in the right direction: how old is the pup now, what are you currently feeding them, and have any of the littermates shown specific reactions that the breeder mentioned?

That's really useful context. Chicken and beef are the two most common triggers in dogs with food sensitivities, so the fact that two siblings reacted on a chicken-based food is a genuine flag worth taking seriously. At 12 weeks, his gut is still developing, and this is actually the ideal window to switch — you haven't built up months of exposure to an ingredient that might later become a problem. Before I suggest anything specific, one quick question: is he otherwise healthy, eating well, and has he had his first vet check since coming home?

Good — a clean bill of health makes this straightforward. 'Watch and wait' is fair advice in general, but when you have litter evidence of a likely chicken sensitivity, being proactive makes more sense than waiting for the itch and loose stools to start. My recommendation is Royal Canin Hypoallergenic puppy food. It uses hydrolysed soy protein — the protein molecules are broken down small enough that the immune system typically doesn't recognise them as a threat, which sidesteps the whole chicken problem entirely. It's also nutritionally complete for puppies and widely available on Amazon UK. Transition him gradually over 7–10 days: mix roughly 25% new food with 75% old for a few days, then 50/50, then 75/25, then fully switched. Labs can have sensitive stomachs at the best of times, so a slow transition matters here. If you see any skin changes or stool shifts during the switch, note them and mention them to your vet — but most pups on hydrolysed diets do very well.

If he stays symptom-free on it, there's no reason he can't stay on it long term — it's a perfectly complete diet, not a short-term fix. Some owners do a controlled reintroduction of a single protein at around 12–18 months to see whether there's a true sensitivity, but that's something to do with vet guidance and only if you want clarity for the future. Honestly, if he's thriving on the hydrolysed food, a lot of people simply stick with it. The main practical thing is to make sure everyone in the household — including kids — knows not to feed him treats with chicken in them while you're establishing his baseline. Even small amounts of a trigger ingredient can muddy the picture.

Perfect plan. Keep a simple log — just a note every few days on his coat condition, stool consistency, and whether he's scratching. Labs are prone to skin issues anyway, so having a baseline from now will be genuinely useful if you ever need to discuss it with your vet. Good luck with him — you're already doing the right things by thinking about this at 12 weeks rather than waiting until there's a problem to fix.