When Should I Switch My Lab Off Puppy Food

When Should You Switch from Puppy Food to Adult Food? The short answer is: It’s complicated. Most vets agree it should be done somewhere between 6 months and 24 months of age, but that’s a big window! The long answer is more nuanced, and it has everything to do with your dog as an individual. The baseline is that you want to switch your puppy to adult food when she is at or around her adult height. That point can be hard to identify, though, so how do you know exactly when that is?

When should i switch my lab off puppy food. If your puppy is a large or giant breed: You should switch to an adult dog food when your puppy is anywhere from 18 months to 24 months old. Large or giant breed puppies take a little longer to reach maturity, and many of them are still growing until they turn two years old. Switch slowly. The recipe for successful food transitioning is to do it gradually. Mix a small amount of the adult food with your dog’s favorite puppy formula and slowly increase the amount over a week, while decreasing the puppy food. By the end of that week you should only be feeding your dog adult food. As previously discussed, smaller breeds typically peak earlier than larger dogs do. A lab tends to reach adult size between the age of 12 to 18 months. At this point, you should switch from puppy food to adult food, even though your pooch might continue to fill out until the age of two years. Photo: Vicky TH/Flickr. For the first two or three days, mix a greater percentage of old food than new food, about three-quarters of the puppy food he now eats with one-quarter of his new food.

Give your puppy meat-based baby food, which is palatable to most puppies and easier to eat with a sore mount. Add warm water or no-salt chicken broth to dry foods to make a slurry in the blender. Warm up your puppy's food by zapping it in the microwave for 10 seconds or so, which can unlock the food's aroma and pique your pup’s appetite. When it’s time to stop feeding puppy food, you want to transition to adult dog food gradually. A gradual transition helps avoid stomach upset. The process can take 7 to 10 days. See our guide for changing dog food for step-by-step instructions. The bottom line? Your puppy may reach maturity in less than a year, or it could take up to two years, depending on his breed. At 4 weeks of age, your puppy begins the transition from mother's milk to puppy food. The process is slow, starting with a mixture of milk and just enough puppy food to produce gruel. It takes another four weeks before your pup has transitioned to eating solid puppy food. He is approximately 8 weeks old when he is ready to eat dry kibble. Medium breeds, such as Beagles or English Bulldogs continue growing until they're a year old. Thus, until they reach 12 months of age you shouldn't make the change from puppy to dog food. As with the smaller breeds, you should also reduce the number of feedings to twice a day. 4

After spaying or neutering, switch your puppy from puppy food to adult maintenance food. Small breeds should make this switch between 7 - 9 months; larger breeds can switch after 12 months. After age 1: Feed your adult dog two half-portions a day. Hello! I recently switched my 3month black lab onto Lillys Kitchen puppy food as I was given a bag by my friend and her behaviour has become quite strange. I was feeding her Eukanuba lamb and rice before this. So I am trying to gauge if this would have happened anyway. On the first day, you will want to feed your dog predominately puppy food and add only a small amount of adult dog food. Then, on day two, you should make sure that the mixture of puppy food and adult food is half and half respectively. The third day should consist of more adult dog food and only a small amount of puppy food. By the fourth day, the transition should be complete and your dog should only be fed adult dog food. There are many reasons why a dog or puppy might go off their food. If a dog eats nothing for a few days or loses his appetite over a period of time this can be a sign of a serious illness. A mild illness, like a tummy upset, could cause him not to eat for a day or two.

When Do I Switch My Puppy to Adult Dog Food? Depending on the breed, most dogs will not stop growing for the first year or two. You can continue feeding them a puppy formula until their growth plates have sealed, as long as they are not overweight. However, you must work closely with a veterinarian to assess your puppy’s body condition score. This will ensure that your puppy switches from puppy to adult dog food at the ideal time. Many times people say that the puppy food is pretty much irrelevant because they are rapidly growing, as long as they are getting the essential nutrients (mainly protein) in their diet. I would say switch foods right around the 12 month mark, I don't think it would hurt give or take a couple months but definitely by 12 months your pup should be off the puppy chow. Ideally, these transitions should happen over 5-7 days. During this transition, you will gradually incorporate more and more of the new food by mixing it with your dog’s current diet. Most veterinarians recommend sticking to puppy food for the first 12 months. In a large breed like the Labrador, however, your dog may not be fully grown at 12 months. You should plan to fed him a large breed puppy food for 12 months to control his growth and switch to a large breed adult food when his growth starts to slow down.