What is a good age to transition from puppy to adult food?
So, I guess 2 questions for you experts out there..... 1. What age do you think is a good age to transition? 2. What are some of the high quality, large breed adult dog foods out there that others have tried and would recommend? I do love Orijen but the adult food ranges from $80 to $97 a bag...ouch!! In fact they just had a price increase on the puppy formula that is now $80 a bag. If he was an "only child" I would not mind but I have 3 other dogs  , another 3 year old Sheepie, a 5 year old Lab and a 15 year old Golden (my dog food bill every 3 weeks is $190 without all the cookies and treats I get them). The others are on Merrick Grain Free but they only offer one type of food for large breed dogs. I guess I am looking for other high quality brands (and grain free) that offer various selections for large breed dogs so as to rotate the food without problems. I have checked the Dog Food Advisor website and of course there are many they recommend but I would love to hear from you normal, loving pet owners and your ideas. I would like to get all 4 of the monsters on one food to make my life a little easier. All are large breed and I would like to feed grain free to all off them. I love the idea that some foods allow rotation without causing stomach upset.Any input out there is welcome.  |
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| It's a marketing ploy, plain and simple. I switch mine to adult at 5-7 months of age. I haven't been on here much lately, but I'm an experienced and reputable person.  I'm sure others will vouch for that.My show CH, multi sport, multi titled Chewie I switched at about 7 months. He's going to be 9 yrs old in a couple weeks, and still a top 5 in the US ranked OES agility dog. Bond is 3 , a Grand CH, also multi titled events dog and I did his transition from Puppy (Fromms Large Breed) at 5 months. Edit - and about your other foods question - I rotate foods, and I use foods from Fromms, NutriSource a lot, also Purina ProPlan, Farmina, and a couple others in there as well. I also alternate formulas with grain and grain-free. Orijen can be a bit too much for some sheepdog digestive systems, and kind of overkill. I also feed a pack - right now it's 5 of ours and one foster dog. I rotate the whole group every 3 months or so - mine and any fosters we have. They do it easily too - I can feed one food at breakfast, and do the transition to another for supper. Re: grain - if your dog has no allergies to an ingredient, the fiber in a grain included dog food is just fine. Think of it like us eating roughages, it's good for our GI tract. We don't get nutrients from it, but it keeps the GI tract healthy. Same for dogs. The all grain-free diet push is also a current hype and marketing issue. It is counting on making you feel like a bad dog owner if you feed a food with grains.  |
Yes, Dawn is very well educated about dogs in general, and specialty stuff.  When I first got Tinsley and always asked questions, Dawn was always kind enough to answer. Miss you Dawn  ....I got Tinsley when she was 6 months old and was feeding Lucy grain free because of her allergy issues. I asked my vet if I could feed Tinsley the same and she looked at ingredients on food bag and said it was fine. had nutrients for all stages. After Lucy passed I used same brand but switched to limited ingredients and sometimes will use the grain free turkey and potato. I do not give any store bought treats. I use baby carrots and they work like a charm. I can ask her if she wants a carrot and she goes to fridge and sits. My vet had told me a lot of treats are too fattening bla bla....I also just use the kibble as treats for training as well. Yours might like the baby carrots. Yes, I cant believe how expensive the food is, but it is worth it, the quality food verses xxx brand dog chow mostly made of corn. A good site is dogfoodadvisor.com and it ranks food based on ingredients. I thought it was an interesting site. The owner of the pet store recommended pup staying on puppy food. Ask your vet. |
| Well hi there Dawn....and yes, I know that you are very reputable. You have been gone for quite some time. I have been monitoring this board for over 3 years (before I got my sheepdog, Beau) and have been following you and Chewie and Bond's adventures since. Thank you for answering my post. Beau is an AKC CH working on his GC, also a certified therapy dog and taking herding lessons. Gunner, who is 10 months is a wannabe and will be entering the show ring shortly. Hopefully once he calms down a bit he will also work towards his therapy certification. I love visits to Hospice and nursing homes the most with Beau. I am interested in how you rotate all these foods. Do you have to do a transition with each food slowly and if not how do you accomplish it? I do like the idea of multiple flavors and food. I know darn well I would be bored as heck eating the same stuff day in and day out!!! I did have Beau on Orijen's Puppy but OMG, did he ever have the most stinky gas on the planet.  He (and I) only lasted 3 months on it before switching to Merrick which he has been on since.Let me know how you mix all these foods successfully without tummy upset. |
Hi Mabel....I only wish my pooches would like carrots and other healthy treats. They spit the carrots right back out at me  Of course if the treat happens to be a piece of left over steak there is a long line waiting patiently and sometimes not so patiently  for a piece. |
| When I first started with rotating foods almost 10 yrs ago I was careful. Made sure I saved enough of the old food so I would have enough to mix for a few days. Then sometimes I miscalculated amounts left, and found myself starting the new food almost immediately. I really had no difference in how they did. So then I mixed if I had enough, but if I didn't, I stopped worrying about it. This was my dogs and foster dogs, all ages, several breeds, young and old dogs. Now I use up one type, and start the next. They may have one kind for breakfast, and another for supper. You might think this was because they are used to it (and it probably is part) but I also do this with foster dogs - they fit into the rotation wherever it falls and join in like the rest of them. My current foster is a basset, and she even came with prescription canned food, as her vet records stated she had stomach issues in the past. She also came with the leftover dry food they were feeding her. (She was an only dog, so they gave the rescue everything dog related) I used up her food, then she started in on the food everyone else was on. No problems. She actually had loose stools on HER food, but that was from the initial stress of being returned to rescue and being in a new living situation. It resolved after a couple weeks as she became situated and more settled. Food choices - I have several criteria. Overall quality of ingredients, availability, price (feeding 6 dogs!), and caloric values are main ones. I want a food I can dependably get. A company I am comfortable with. And I also want a high calorie food - 400 kcal/cup or higher. I get most of mine from family companies, rather than large national chains, or ones owned by mega-corporations. I rotate among several brands, and varieties within brands as well. When I switch, I try to make at least the 1st 5 listed ingredients be different than the one they are on. Yes, I do a LOT of bag reading! For sure I want the protein sources to be different. I also use both grain and grain free. Reasons - rotating foods with different ingredients was thought to avoid food allergies years ago when the trend started, and that has been pretty well proven by now. Formulations are different, so what one lacks, another makes up. Variety is good too - it keeps them looking forward to eating (not an issue with all dogs - some gobble up anything!). I also like the fact that if in a pinch (traveling, etc) I can buy a different food and know my dogs will not have trouble with it. So by now, I have a core group I use and rotate with. But I'm always looking for new options. If there is one I am interested in, I buy a big bag and add it in as a new food. I feed through the bag, and then evaluate how my dogs did on it. If I don't like how it performed, I ditch it. If I am happy with it, I buy another bag and keep trying it. I usually feed about 2-3 months, then switch. Mostly it's just when the mood strikes  . I recently added a new brand. I was at a show, and the vendor had a booth. I got some sample bags, and Bond LOVED it. When I got home, I ordered some (this one is new in the US - imported - so it does somewhat violate my availability rule ) I am on my second variety from this company, and I am very happy with it. So it just earned a spot in the rotation! |
| Thank you Dawn. Let me ask you from your experience, which brands that you have used that allow varieties within the brand itself based on ingredients, calories, etc. that can be rotated and seem to be of the same quality so as not to cause tummy issues. Some foods that the pet shop offers have promotions as buy "X" amount of bags and get one free (Nature's Instinct is one). I have to admit that my "little tribe" are all gobblers regardless of what is put in front of them. It seems to be a contest of who can finish first and then stalk the others for any possible crumbs left. Goodness knows they are all well fed and at a great weight but it is just something about the competition of eating in the same room as each other. |
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