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When to switch from puppy to dog food??

18K views 32 replies 8 participants last post by  UniquityBelgians 
#1 ·
I was just wondering when the best time is to switch my dog from puppy food to dog food??? I have heard so many different opinions just wondering what you all have found that worked out the best???
 
#2 ·
I have heard different opinions as well, like 12 months, 2 yrs, etc. I started to mix in adult food with my 70 lb dogs puppy food once he hit his goal weight, I also cut back from 2 cups 2x per day to 1.5 cups 2 x per day. My vet (as well as our dog food) said 18 months which is right about where he is and now 99% on adult food only (there are still some kibbles of puppy food mixed in).
 
#17 ·
SLOWLY switch. now is a good time to start considering switching, or I personally think (as long as he is not overweight) it could wait another month or two before slowly mixing in adult food. Not all boxers are big. My parents boxer is 85 lbs pure muscle and his mother was only 40-45lbs. Do you have recent photos of him for opinions on size? :)
 
#20 ·
Wow he is gorgeous!!! I think he looks perfect sized! It says the typical boxer is between 55 and 70 lbs. I think he is fine, they still fill out sometimes between 1-2 yrs. He may gain another couple of pounds during that time. His weight looks perfect, not carrying any extra fat, good muscle structure in the legs, and not too thin
 
#23 ·
Well for my large breed (70lbs adult weight) I switched them over to adult food at 5 months which is what was recommended by their breeder. I guess during a growth spurt to much protein is a bad thing. Right now my one guy weighs 69lbs. He will continue to grow until about 24 months and he is 20 months now. After that he will have reached his adult height. I know some people who never even put their large breeds on puppy food. Their dogs had no health concerns at all. My vet says to keep them on it for at least 18 months, but then again keeping them on it longer means more trips to the vet which equals more money for him. Any vet down in my area I will always ask for an opinion here, a friend before my vet.
 
#24 ·
Well for my large breed (70lbs adult weight) I switched them over to adult food at 5 months which is what was recommended by their breeder. I guess during a growth spurt to much protein is a bad thing. Right now my one guy weighs 69lbs. He will continue to grow until about 24 months and he is 20 months now. After that he will have reached his adult height. I know some people who never even put their large breeds on puppy food. Their dogs had no health concerns at all. My vet says to keep them on it for at least 18 months, but then again keeping them on it longer means more trips to the vet which equals more money for him. Any vet down in my area I will always ask for an opinion here, a friend before my vet.
Why would keeping your dog on puppy food mean more trips to the vet?
 
#27 ·
I don't believe in puppy food at all -- in my opinion it's just one big huge gimmic that the dog food companies put together so that they could outdo eachother. After all, babies get baby food with lots of vitamins and nutrients. Why not make puppy food and pack a bunch of extra calcium and vitamins into that too -- after all, they need it to grow right??

I had a white GSD that had to be PTS at 6 months old. He was on puppy food. The bones in his legs grew too fast (due to puppy food having excess amounts of calcium and vitamins) and he was in so much pain he could no longer walk. Being a big Pat Hastings fan (she is amazing, everyone should go to her structure seminars) I have seen the affects of puppy food in many many dogs. Generally these tend to be large breed or giant breed dogs. Their pasterns can "knuckle over" causing deformity, the legs can grow too fast and become deformed, etc. Pat Hastings says that all of these nutritional problems can be reversed at a certain puppy age, but once the dog is past this age, it will remain with these issues for life. She keeps track of which foods dogs tend to develop their best potential structure on, and the puppy foods (actually she says Purina Puppy consistently produces the worst results), and puppy foods are always at he bottom of the list. A dog at 8 weeks old, kept on a decent food, will be structurally equivelent to what it will be as an adult. Puppy food does not produce these consistent results, as it changes the bone structure of the dog.

I always look at it this way. In the wild, pups get very little nutrition. Once they are old enough to be on solid foods, they are put to the bottom of the pack, and they eat leftovers, which tend to be very few scraps of meat and organs, the disgusting stomach contents (vegetable matter) that the adults refused to eat, and bone/hair. Basically they recieve very little nutritional value until they are old enough to make their way up in the pecking order. This is nature's way of letting them grow very slowly. The slower a pup grows, the better it grows, structurally. You don't see as many issues like panosteitis, hip dysplasia, knuckled over pasterns, easty-westy pasterns, etc.

So I start all of my puppies off on raw (with lots of veggies as pups -- I take out the veggies when they are adults) supplemented by adult dog food. I'll never feed a puppy food to a puppy -- in my opinion, puppy food is for thin adults who need to keep their weight up. Btw -- large breed pupyp food is as bad as normal or small breed puppy food. It's just a gimmic made by the dog food companies.
 
#28 ·
UniquityBelgians, Thanks for the input, but I started this topic to see when to start switching from puppy food to dog food...not if you agreed with puppy food or not...I just wanted a answer and this post has turned into something alot bigger than i indened...I still havent recieved a very good answer...I am not wanting to offend anyone at all I really enjoy this website i just feel there are some "know it alls" who give to much insite. Once again I hope I havent offended anyone.
 
#30 ·
UniquityBelgians, Thanks for the input, but I started this topic to see when to start switching from puppy food to dog food...not if you agreed with puppy food or not...I just wanted a answer and this post has turned into something alot bigger than i indened...I still havent recieved a very good answer...I am not wanting to offend anyone at all I really enjoy this website i just feel there are some "know it alls" who give to much insite. Once again I hope I havent offended anyone.

If your looking for a "do it at X number of months/days for your breed" that answer does not exist.

You should look at all the pro/cons provided and make the decision based on the info provided :) thats why we all are providing info/opinions...to help you decide..not to be "know it alls"..... there is no definitive answer...people decide based on opinion with this.

Hope that helps. :)



 
#29 ·
No offense taken or intended -- just thought I would say why I thought he should be weaned off of puppy food onto adult food now rather than later -- as opposed to just saying that he should be. Always good to get a good explanation as to why. I like people to give me the facts to back things up when they give me an answer. :) Maybe I should have just posted some resources.
 
#31 ·
btw -- didn't want to imply that anything was wrong with your baby! Most people end up feeding puppy foods and don't have any serious issues. :) It was just really sad fo us to lose our boy, Polar, but that certainly isn't always the case. Your boy is probably mostly done growing and if he's fine, he's fine. I'd just wean him to adult food now if you can. :)
 
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