hello all, this is my first time using this and i hope you can all help!
we have a year old bitch staffordshire bull terrier and we know its now coming up to the time when we should be changing her food.
we have her at the mo on a diet of John Wellbeloved puppy performance lamb and rice kibble, mixed with pedigree supermeat in tins for some variety and a different flavour.
should we keep her on the dry until she is 24 months old as the books state and then change? or should i change it for a junior puppy wet food to be on till she is 24 months old and then change to a adult diet? does anyone have any recommendations? what did you do with your staffords when it came to changing diets?

this is our first staff so we want to get it right! as we dont want to impare her build and filling out as she is a well bred staff and we would want to waste that by feeding her foods at the wrong times!

Hi Rach85
Firstly, welcome to the forum!
I'm not a staffy person (as you may guess from my username!) but when I used complete foods I went straight on to adult whilst they were still puppies.  It sounds like you bought her from experienced breeders as you say she is well bred - why not have a chat with them?  They should be able to advise you.
Best wishes

Hi Rach85, I've got a staffy and switched from pedigree bum which was her puppy food to burns at approx 9 months as I knew staffs were prone to weight gain.  She is still on it and does well on it.  She often gets raw food too just for change and a wee bit of variety but that is just my experiences and my dog is alive and looking well!  TBH I give a lot more consideration to my dogs diet than I do my own!

Hi and welcome

I have a male staffy. I switched him to Naturediet at about 8 months and he does really well on it. Plus theres not an ounce of fat on him :) Good luck with whatever you do.

Caroline

I know I haven't got staffs, but I feed my two jrts james wellbeloved in the morning and naturediet in the evening. They also get extras such as pieces of fruit (they love blueberries) and veg and the odd bit of meat from our meals. (I underfeed a little bit to allow for this.)  They are in excellent condition, shiny coats, no doggy smell and very robust - very good teeth as neither of these foods contains hidden sugar.  I also give them Logic dog chews and fish4dogs sea jerky to clean their teeth.  They also have a bone on the go which lasts them ages!  Interestingly, during the season they picked pears off the bottom of our pear tree and were getting through about two a day! 

thanks you all so much for your help, and please keep the advice coming! so we will keep her on her puppy performance kibble and switch her wet food to an adult brand and when shes a bit older we'll swap her to adult food as well for kibble, think i have that right!
out of intrest does anyone here know if its ok to feed staffords raw meat? a friend of our used to feed his staff raw meat from his butchers and now he is just massive with muscle!
does anyone else do this?

Hi Rach85

Im not the expert on feeding raw meat and bones in terms of what meat to introduce and at what age. However, there are loads of others on this site who will be able to give you loads of info on this. I can tell you though that generally speaking, there is no reason not to feed some raw meat as part of a balanced diet so long as she enjoys it. My boy has raw bones with meat still on them on a regular basis and absolutely loves them. You will find that by giving the bone, she will have a bit of a challenge and it should keep her quiet for half an hour or so and she will love it im sure :)

With regards to building your girl up, I wouldnt worry too much about it :) Many stafford owners that I have met judge their dogs appearance on what they see on other staffords. When I first got Sox I was concerned about the fact that he was so lean, not skinny, just not stocky. The one thing that I have learned is that Staffords are sooooo different eg some are taller and leaner and others are shorter and stockier. The other assumption that owners make is that all Staffords are unfussy and can cope with eating anything - not true! I have learned a very pertinent lesson (hes very fussy and is not unfamiliar with the vets waiting room) that it is far more important to a)find a diet that your dog likes b) find a diet that agrees with your dog (and your purse ;) ) and c) to make sure that whatever you feed her on results in bright eyes loads of energy and a fab coat as these are the best indicators of a healthy dog. If she is going to turn out to be a big girl then she will!

Anyway, I hope this helps and do let us know how you get on. Id love to see some pics of her sometime ;)
Good Luck
Caroline

I feed raw,my husband was convinced my boy would turn into a savage dog feeding him raw,but instead he calmed down,it is fine for a Staffie to have raw,I belong to a forum for raw feeders and there are a lot of Staffie owners on there