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Moms View Message Board: General Discussion Archive: Archive November 2005: Dog question ????
At what age should it be ok to switch our dog from puppy chow to dog chow? He is 16 months old now. He weighs around 65-70 lbs.
At about 16-20 months dogs go thru their second big growth spurt. You will notice more muscle tone, etc. I would keep your pup on puppy food for four more months.
I'd keep him on puppy food until about 18 months and at that point I would gradually switch him to adult. You don't want to go back and forth with puppy/adult food because it could upset his gi tract.
BTW- what kind of dog is it? Each breed is different for needing puppy food longer. I know since Mastiffs are such a big breed and it's takes them longer to fully grow, most vets recommend keeping them on puppy food for about 2 years. But if you have a Chihuahua, puppy food would probably make him overweight by year 2.
Our Jacks were on puppy food for 1 year, as recommended by our vet.
I didnt realize that dogs go through another growth spurt between 16-20 months. With that said our new almost 2 yr old dog is on puppy food. Mainly because she was so skinny(you can see her ribs,still, not so bad now) when we adopted her in August. The Vet suggested it saying it has more calories.
My vet tech Scott says it depends on the breed. A large breed - mastiff, Great Dane, etc., will still be growing at 16 months. But if you fed puppy chow to a Jack Russell for 16 months, you would probably have an overweight Jack Russell. He also notes that some makes of dog kibble are coming out with kibble specifically for large breeds, and that is what we are now feeding his Sascha, a 110# Rottweiler. I think it has more protein, less fat in the nutritional balance.
Our Black Lab puppy is only 15 weeks old and weighed in at 53 pounds this week. The vet recommended we give him adult food instead of puppy food. He said puppy food has too much fat. I would ask your vet when to stop.
Wow Yvonne, hes going to be a big dog. Our new dog is barely 50 pds, and she is a yellow lab mix. We are trying to fatten her up with the puppy food per vets advice.
The vet said he is going to be a larger than average lab. His feet are absolutely huge! He will not stay out of the pool. Every time he goes outside he either jumps in or walks in on the steps and splashes his feet (like a kid would). We constantly have a wet dog. LOL.
Yvonne, one the first dogs that I rescued was a chocolate lab PUP. He was just over a year. His person had a stroke and passed (the dog was with him at the time), his family took everything but left the dog at the house. The neighbors were taking care of him. When I went to pick him up OH MY GOSH! He was huge, I took him to be weighed, he weighed in at 130 pounds and Still growing. He is about 150 and was adopted by a guy that is 6'5.. What a match! He was a purebreed lab with AKC papers (which are useless). I bet your pup is also going to be huge!
Ours is a purebred with AKC papers
babysitbarb
Hey,
Ours is a black lab and only 15 weeks old. The vet wants him on adult food now. I think you will be fine changing yours to adult food now. The vet said that labs do not need the extra fat that is in puppy food. Adult food has enough nutrition in it. Has your lab outgrown the chewing stage? Our puppy chews EVERYTHING!
No he hasn't and he's 16 months old. We even had him fixed about a month ago and he still chews everything. He has went through many food and water bowls and I finally bought him metal ones. He would bring them out of his kennel when we first got them but, now he doesn't.We luckily have the invisible fence in our yard, landscaping,and around our property because he would destroy more if we didn't.He has destroyed some flowers and even chewed on one of our trees. I will be gald when he out grows this.
Thats Cosmo. He is worse than a toddler. He wants to put everything in his mouth! We have a ton of chews and toys that we offer him. training is going slowly. Our Lab book states that chewing is typical for the first 2 years! That is a l-o-n-g time! We are crate training but mainly only put him in there if we are going out. We want him to have free run of the house like our other dogs (eventually). Cosmo hasn't done any damage in the back yard. He always jumps in the pool though as soon as he goes outside. So we have a wet dog daily. LOL.
Chico is a outside dog and even this morning I found a couple pieces of tarpoline ripped up in the yard. My DH had covered some things for the winter and I have no idea were he got some of it. I'll have to wait and ask my DH when he gets home from work.
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