Hi,

I will be weaning my pups (Large Gundog breed) onto Royal Canin starter but am not sure whether to then use the Babydog or the junior food at around 6 weeks of age. The Babydog kibble seems very small for greedy pups. Has anyone used the Junior instead at such a young age.

Thanks in advance,

I've got LB gun dog pups too and weaned them on to the starter food.  I then went on BD for a while then went on to Junior about a month ago because the kibble is larger, but they've lost weight being on that so last week I went back to BD and they are gaining weight already.

I think the Junior was 14% fat and the BD is 22% from memory so I'll be sticking with that until they've grown up more. :) 

They are now 4.5 months old.

Not that it's much help but my pup is on junior, she is 10 weeks tomorrow & is looking good. This is what her breeder fed her on but not sure when she started her on this.

20% fat, 32% protein

My pups stay on RC Starter until they are 12 weeks, for some reason my pups can't tolerate the junior food until around this age

I didn't have much success on the RC Starter so have now gone back to Babydog.  As per RC's guidelines, I will be feeding this to my own pup until she is 5 months old when she'll go on to Junior.  She is a gundog, now over 4 months and the size of kibble isn't a problem, although I did initially feed it to the litter moistened until I was happy they could cope with it dry.

I would continue with the Babydog and see how they cope before changing it again so soon, especially as you want them to be settled in a feeding regime before leaving for their new homes.

Before Barf we always fed babydog until at least 12 weeks before moving on to the next stage.

My toy puppy went onto Junior...

Have any of you used the Royal Canin HT42D Pro on pregnant bitches ? also,what suplement milk do you use ? RC ?

I use the RC HT42D as soon as my girls come into season if I want a litter from them.  They like it and it seem to do well on it - change to puppy food if confirmed in whelp at 6 weeks.

Thanks,I was planning on doing this too,but was in two minds as some things you read say to keep the bitch on the usual food ( which is just Giant pro RC any way!). Do you use the Royal canin puppy milk at all?

I don't use milk anymore.  Didn't particularly like RC one anyway.  Used to mix it with their first food but found they like it better on its own.  I do sometimes give goats milk which they love and no upset tums.

Same as LucyDogs, I have all my pups on junior.  Not large like yours, I use the mini as I have toys, but I've never used anything but junior, and my tiny toys are crunching well on it at 6 weeks.

I usually find them licking at mums bowl of the kibble as early as 3 weeks.