Just been reading through some old posts re changing from puppy food to adult food, and was surprised to see some posts suggesting changing to adult food at around 4 months old.  Would this be right??

I would love to get my 2 Labs eating the same food.  My pup is just over 4 months and if I could start introducing adult food It would make life easier.  He certainly has no problem eating the larger chunks as he will steal them from Molly if I'm not careful.

What do you think??

Thanks.

I think the early change over is due to the protein levels in most puppy foods. Todays thinking is that too higher protein levels cause rapid growth, especially in larger breeds of which Labs would be included, and that it is better to feed a lower protein food and allow them to grow at a slower rate reducing the risks of accelerated bone growth. At over 4 months I personally would have changed him to adult by now. :-)

The adult food I'm using has 21% protein, would this not be too low for a puppy.
I do add tripe, chicken and sardines sometimes.  

People have commented on how big the puppy is getting, not fat, just tall.  Maybe he is growing a little fast.

On the pack of the food my pups on it says that giant breeds shouldn`t change over to adult food till their around 18 months! I thought that was a bit long?!

At 4 months my pup was on Burns Adult which is 18% protein and he grew at a good rate. He is now 22" at the shoulder - a good height for a collie, so no I don't think 21% is too low.

As to Giant breeds, they are a different kettle of fish to deal with but even so I do not agree with keeping them on puppy food until they are 18 months. I would have thought it even more important to keep protein levels low to stop them growing too fast.

Alot of of owners of large and especially giant breeds omit puppy food altogether and put their pups straight onto adult food.All i have heard from the people i know who have done it is that their pups grow wonderfully slow and steady compared to when they used puppy food in the past where their dogs shot up and out in record time :(

I would say the 18mth rule could apply to toy breeds but definately not large/giant breeds,call me cynical but i think it is just the manufactures way of keeping their customers on their food for as long as they can :o

I know most people dont compare our modern day dogs to the wolf,but you dont see wolf pups eating differently to the adults of the pack ;)

I agree with omitting puppy food completely. I used to have GSD's and in the very early days when I was a novice owner, I fed them a complete food that was for "growing puppies". They shot up far to quickly and the end result wasn't what it should have been and was detrimental to their health.

Now owning a larger breed, my latest one being 5 months old, she has been fed on Barf from 7 weeks and is growing nice and steadily without any of the upset tummy traumas (she did have, but that was nothing to do with diet) a nice calm temperment and a wonderful puppy coat, which in my breed is a plus. Everything is happpening more slowly and naturally.

I saw her sister a few weeks ago, she is fed on a complete and she is bigger but with less body mass if that makes any sense, gangly and without any substance.

>>call me cynical but i think it is just the manufactures way of keeping their customers on their food for as long as they can

Couldn't agree more Frodo ;)

Hi Mrs Mop My Labs just grow too fast on puppy food. First I was told to take him off of it at about 5 months because the vet was worried that it would hurt his joints so the next one I let her settle in for about a month to 6 weeks (cant remember exactly when the food ran out) then put her straight on to a low protein adult food.

Put it this way in a natural environment once they are off of mums milk they will eat the same as an adult dog. So im not really sure why they would need extra anything in puppy food.

BTW the one that came off of puppy food really early has always had a steady growth rate, less upset stomachs and has been much less hyper. Now it could just be that she is a different dog but who knows?

The food I'm using is Skinners ruff and ready, (economy drive I'm afraid) and at 21% protein, 5% Oil and 4% fibre, is this going to be sufficient for a pup?  As I said I do add sardines and chicken sometimes.  Would I need to add any oil?

It would make life easier if they ate the same, but I am a little  concerned that this food wouldn't be nutritious enough for a growing pup.

Put my mind at rest please somebody!!

Thanks

Ok let me put it this way. What are you scared the adult food will do to your puppy? The worse I can think is that it may start to look a bit thin. If that is the case just increase the quantity fed (I would do this by giving it 3 meals per day).
It is almost unheard of for a pup to miss out on any major vitimins and minerals, if it is this you are worried about you could always suplement - whole eggs including shell are great as the clacium in the shell is really easy for the dog to use if it needs it.

So when would anyone reccommend changing over to adult food for a dane?

What does your breeder recommend?  Giant breeds are very specialist when it comes to rearing and the best information is going to come from someone with lots of experience in this area.

I havent picked him up yet so i havent been given a food/diet sheet yet but im sure she will advise me when to change him over, just wondered what everyone else thought :)

My last collie went across to adult food at about four months and has ended up taller than my previous one who didnt change until about 7 months.  never done him harm whatsoever.  To my thinking the manufacturers just like to charge you more to say it is for a puppy much the same they do for a senior food. 

My danes are on a bog standard biscuit and tripe.
They had never been on puppy food but then again there wasnt much then in the way of giant breed puppy foods so as per breeder advised they went on adult food.

I go by how my dogs look and alter accordingly.

I have kept all my pups on puppy food and I haven't had any shoot up or any ill effects from it infact at one point we were thinking that Curtis might not make the minimum height standard for a Munster male but he just grew very slowly and by 18 months he was the correct height.

Personally, I wouldn't go swapping a large breed off of a specialist large breed puppy food, they have been formulated to give giant breeds everything they need and infact a lot of the 'giant breed' puppy foods are lower in protein/fat that just the bog standard puppy food.

Why not look at something like Arden Grange's junior food if you are a bit worried?

Sorry I dont know anything about giant breeds. I would only say check with the breeder and uses your commonsense. As has been said else where there was no specilist puppy food until a few years ago and the breed appears to have survived OK till now :)

Thanks peeps il have a chat with my breeder :)