times/day to feed puppy and when to switch to adult food
Also, the vet tech said to switch him to adult food soon-ish - I can't remember exactly, but I think she said 4 or 6 months. That seemed early to me, and a quick search of this forum indicated that most of this community switched at around a year. Is that about right? I'd love to add a picture of the two boys together; they very quickly became best buddies! But I can't figure out how to add a picture... |
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| We switched our puppies at around one. Looking forward to the pictures! |
| Yeah, let them decide when to go to two feedings. You don't want them stuffing themselves at any one meal, so monitor carefully. Feeling here is to keep them on puppy food for as long as they will eat it.......up to a year. These guys are still growing for longer than some pipsqueak dog and need the extra nutrients. Those foods that have milk with them.......if any left....probably should be discontinued as many pups become lactose intolerant...assuming they use lactose rich milk to begin with. Yes, there is the school of thought that keeping the pups on puppy food allows them to grow too quickly and thus more prone to structural problems. I'm not buying that. Use a high quality puppy food, crap puppy food with more fillers than nutrients isn't good for any dog. I'd also resist your vet's suggestion to spay/neuter the pup soon that later. Here we strongly urge you to wait as long as possible, up to a year--providing you control the dog's environment so pregnancies don't come about. Vets will scare you: even one heat predisposes the girls to breast cancer, developed testicles predisposes boys to prostate problems later. What vets aren't telling you is earlier the neutering, the more structural problems develop during growth unevenness that the hormones control. And some school of thought believes (me included) is early neutering in boys leads to greater chance of bone cancer. Having has several boys who were neutered early die of bone cancer....I believe. Yeah, studies I've seen show a low probability....but I don't trust early study numbers. |
| I'm going the other way with the food recommendation - for OES it's better to get them off puppy food by 6 months. For their adult size, they are a breed that tends to grow really fast initially. It's not to their advantage to keep the puppy food going. Chewie who's 7 was just about 6 months when I switched. Bond who's 20 months was at 5 months when he was switched to adult food. As far as the 3 meals - if he's not going to eat, you can't make him.  It is a less risk option to keep the 3 feedings going, in regard to bloat risk. Any time you have smaller, more frequent meals it's better. Bloat risk is greatly increased when they have a large amount of food in the stomach. My adult dogs still eat twice a day (the daily amount split into 2 servings) for that reason. We are really active, doing lots of dog sports and activities. The wait time after one large meal, waiting for it to digest through would be really long too! |
| I always feed twice a day for the bloat reason. Smaller meals are better. Exception would be free feed...........IF....they don't gobble it all at once. If they snack throughout the day, fine. I might mention none of my puppies would stay on the puppy food. By 5-6 months they personally wanted something else. |
| We stopped the puppy food at 5 months and I think it was about 6 months that the 3rd meal stopped and we just do breakfast and dinner. She is a slow eater anyway....eats a little, takes a breath, eats a little more, walks around and then a little more. She never rushes through a meals |
| Thank you all for the great feedback! I am finding this forum to be so helpful and supportive! So it sounds like I at least have another couple of months to do more research on when to switch him. We'll wait until 6 months at the minimum - but probably go for 1 year depending on how he's growing or whether he rejects the puppy food at some point. Any suggestions for brand of food? He was on IAMs Large Breed Puppy Formula when we picked him up and we kept him on that initially, but this bad is about to run out and I want to switch to something better (I can tell just by the volume of his poops that this has a lot of undigestible fillers!). Blue Buffalo, Wellness and Innova have been recommended to me... |
| Susan - what kind of structural problems *might* they be prone to? I'm inclined to think that as long as they aren't turning into a chub they should continue to have the high calorie puppy food until they've done most of their growing. So we are thinking about the one year mark... but I have some time to do some more research. For now we've gotten another month's supply of puppy food: Blue Wilderness, which we will mix with the remaining IAMs until it is gone. Dawn and Susan - I am considering going to free-feed once the other two dogs go home (Monday). He is definitely not a gobbler, so there should be no problem there and he would benefit from getting smaller amounts more often throughout the day. I do however like the discipline practice he gets by "waiting" while I measure out his food and place his bowl. He's really very good about it and it's an opportunity for him to practice patience 2 or 3 times a day, so I am also just thinking about going back to the 3 meals per day. Actually, I may have just talked myself into that LOL! And if he doesn't eat the mid-day meal, like you said, I can't make him! But without the other dogs to distract him he may go back to eating lunch. And Susan - did I mention that the vet said that we could neuter him any time now, or did you just assume that most vets will pressure you into doing it early? At any rate, she did say we could do it any time now (that was when he was just 10 weeks) and when I said that I thought you were supposed to wait longer with large breeds - like maybe even 18 months - she said that seemed awfully late and that his testicles were down so any time now would be fine. She also said that around 4 months was standard, mostly because you get a break on licensing fees. I did not feel pressured at the time - just surprised. But we'll see whether she turns on the pressure on Monday when I tell her we've decided to wait until 18 months! Yes, I've been doing research on it and, while the studies may not be controlled and may have been one breed only and may not differentiate between early neutering and just neutering at all, I don't want to risk it. Because other research has also shown me that many Sheepie and other large breed owners have had several boys die of bone cancer - and that $#!+ SCARES me! Yes, we can can control the environment - although I'm wondering if that means no dog park until then..? Probably. So the goal is 18 month or until we cry "uncle". And even then, it would probably be more about other dogs wanting to pick fights with him as the hormones come in than about his own behavior - because, as I understand it, even if we neutered him now, he'd still go through that defiant adolescent stage, so I need to be prepared for that regardless! |
| One more note on neutering - I was initially concerned about his developing any so-called "male" aggressive tendencies by not being neutered before puberty. I am finding very conflicting information on this, and my suspicion is that the development of these behaviors can be curbed by a mindful owner. I am no expert, and Merlin is actually my first dog, but I feel pretty confident that I will be able to handle him (I think...) - or if I can't, I have resources I can draw on. |
| Hello. We are on our 4th male oes and have never had any of them "done"-the vet had asked with each and we just said that we didn't see a need for it at that time. We have never had any problems,apart from the usual trying to push the bounderies etc,no aggression tho Sprocket has been attacked 4 times now,twice whilst in a training place. The other dog just went for him instead of going back to his owner on a recall. Sprocket was non the worse,he has always been a "scaredy dog" but we are learning how to help him and he is improving a lot. We changed to adult foods at about 14 months and they have all had adult James wellbeloved. We tried the large breed but they would still eat it quick and then be sick as didn't chew the bigger lumps so stayed on the smaller lumps and Sprocket tends to have a pot of meal twice a day with a small amount at lunch time instead of any other biscuits which tend to upset his tum. He will be 2 in October,is long haired and doing very well.x |
| Hi Allyson - my husband and I were discussing this last night and wondering what the problem would be with never neutering at all...? We figured it would be just what you said: other dogs trying to pick fights with him. So it might mean not going to dog parks or other places where dogs socialize and only arranging play dates with dogs we know. But I do really want him to be able to get along with anyone and everyone, and not just dogs he knows. did you take any of your boys to the dog park? I imagine the risks there are not just social, but there may also be an unspayed female so you may run the risk of creating an unwanted opportunity to mate. |
| I continue to feed twice a day and my dogs are five and seven years old. Mostly due to the risk of bloat, I prefer two smaller meals. I think they like it too! I can't remember when I switched to adult food  If you do switch his food, be sure to do it slowly - mixing the new food with the old food - for a few weeks and then using all the new food. Helps them adjust without tummy upset and/or poop problems! We use Orijen Six Fresh Fish and my dogs do great on it and love it. Select a food that works well for your dog. Not all dogs are the same. Welcome to the forum and look forward to your pup pictures!  |
| Hi Merrilee,sorry haven't been able to get to the laptop for a couple of days. We don't have dog parks in the uk,or the bit where I live. We just have various footpaths,bridle paths and roads. We walk around the field opposite where the dogs from this end of the village mainly walk but very rarley see another dig-that's why we went to training classes to meet other dogs. With our other three we were racing our sidcar a lot so they went to meetings and got to meet dogs and folks,with Sprocket,due to prolapsed dics for me we haven't raced this year. We do got to car shows etc and take Sprocket with us. Also he goes down the pub saturday nights!! He goes under the table after being stroked by anyone who is around. There is the wandering to "find a female" to consider but our garden is well dog proof. Also our vet says they are more likey to get a prostrate cancer-we haven't so far. Neuterd dogs are supposed to be calmer and not get attacked etc-my in-laws poor retriever had a life of constant "humping" from the local males and died of prostrate cancer so who can realy say. It is a personal thing and my husband is dead against so that is that!!!xx |
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