i have a 3 and a bit month old jack russell and am very confused about when she's supposed to come off puppy food. her food says that she should stay on it for 12 months (yes, the food regularly talks to me...) but many posts on here say anything from 4 months to 6 months, etc. help !

ps. she's on eukanuba small breed puppy (i've heard all the bad things about eukanuba, but that's what she was on when i got her and she seems to like it, sometimes... she also has canned hills science plan puppy food)

thanks ! :)

My breeder told me to take small dogs off of puppy food when they are 2yrs. but most people do it at 1yr. old, i think if your dog is thriving there is no hurry to swap him.

christine

Lily,

Check with the breeder if you can, but a small dog like a Jack Russell would normally be off puppy food by the time they are 6 months old. They are over their big growth spurts by that age, although they continue to develop and mature until they are about a year old. You could always compromise and keep her on the puppy food until she is 9 months. :-) It honestly will not matter much to your puppy. Puppy food is higher in kalories, protein, calcium and some other nutrients than needed by adult dogs.

Don't believe what it says on packets of food. For one, most people find that the amounts suggested are well above what their dog really needs.

Stacey

Eukanuba is an expensive food, and this usually causes all the comments about it.

The manufacturers feeding guidelines on good quality feeds are usually fine to follow, after all experts have spent a great deal of time researching for the product. The recommended feeding amounts can be followed with confidence as long as you are reading them correctly. Different breeds, different ages, different metabolisms, will all need different types and amounts of food. Gauge the amount of your dogs food by deciding whether he/she is overweight or underweight, not too difficult we all do it for ourselves......don't we!!!

I get my puppies off of puppy food by around 6 months. I never use a Junior food prefering to go straight to adult food. I like to bring my puppies on slowly. There is so much rush these days to get puppies "Mature" early in order to get them into the show ring as soon as possible and also possibly to score points for Junior Warrant.

We hear so much about things like OCD these days, something we almost never heard of in the old days before puppy food was thought of!

Regards, John

Hi John,

So completely true,there is so many puppies that don't look like puppies 'rushed' on,to
mature quicker and at what cost or for the sake of a Junior warrant,I ask myself after these dogs gain there warrants half of them we don't see them in the ring anymore ,show
careers cut short they gone passed it what a shame?
Some minor puppies and puppies could easily hold their own in a junior class what an earth is going wrong?Apuppy should look like a puppy and behave like one not a smaller version
of a finished adult.Let these dogs mature with time.

Briony:-)

so does this mean i take her off puppy food onto adult food earlier so as not to give her so much extra protein and the like, so that she doesnt get big and bulky too soon ? she is quite a skinny little girl as she is at the moment, so i guess she may need a little longer

thanks for all the replies :)
there seems to be a few conflicting answers so i guess i'll just have to see how she goes, hopefully i'll notice if she starts to turn into a pudding :)

hi there i also own jack russells and my youngest 81/2 months has been on adult food for about 3 weeks now and is doing great,

John hope you dont think this silly but what is ocd

thanks Jean

I have Border Terriers and they all stay on puppy food until around the 6 month mark, depending on how they are looking. If they still look a bit leggy then they stay on it a little longer, if they appear to be fairly wellbalanced they they come off it sooner.

Like John I go straight on to an adult food from puppy food, I too prefer a late maturing puppy to one that is pushed on to hard.

So often you see a flyer in the ring as a puppy to find that by 15-16 months it is over the top and heavy. Whereas I have dogs of 5-8 who are still able to challenge younger dogs in the ring.

Jayne

Arent dogs still classed as puppies until they are 1-2 years old? I dont understand the rush to get them onto adult food,i always thought that dogs needed all the extra's in the puppy food until they have fully stopped growing. Bigger dogs may be different but i think this applies to the smaller dogs.
To the breeders who switch from puppy food to adult at 6mths.,what is your reason for doing this,i would have thought they still have alot more growing to do therefore need the extra vitamins and protein ect. available in puppy food.

~christine~

Hi,
The reason for this is too reduce the protein,too much high protein over a long oeriod of time makes a dog grow too fast and his muscles have not caught up with bone growth leading to bone and joint problems.I personally reduce by switching to adult food by 6 month and after 4 month I carefully watch apuppy as not to carry too much weight putting stress on joints there is more than enough protein in the adult food at 6 months in my opinion to give a more gradual growth which is better for bones and muscle.

Regards Briony:-)

Hi,

Sorry forgot to say there is enough protein in the adult food at 6 months depending on the food you feed so check.

Briony:-)

Hi Christine,

It depends on the breed when you switch to adult. Toys and small breeds will have finished most of their bone growth (height, length) by the time they are six months old. They don't need puppy food at that point, the rest of their growth and maturation comes at a much slower rate until they are physically adults at 9-12 months old.

Larger breeds need more time to grow to their adult size and mature. Anywhere from 18 months to two years, in general. When large breeds are rushed to maturity by food that is too rich for them, like puppy food, they bulk up in muscle and other organs faster than their bone structure can support the weight. It's not that they are fat - it's that the bones cannot grow and mature as fast as the muscle and body they are intended to support. As a result, a large dog that grows too quickly may end up with skeletal problems because of stresses put on the bones too early. Manufacturers have responded to this problem by introducing "junior foods", which are somewhere between puppy and adult in terms of nutrional composition.

There isn't a rush to get dogs onto adult foods. It's healthier for dogs not to be rushed to physical maturity.

Stacey

O.k thanks for the replies,i understand a bit better now:)