When to change to adult food?

Helen1976

My Golden Retriever is 7 months. I recently changed his food from Arden Grange to Whites (following great reviews here!) and he's doing fine on it.

My question is when should I change him to adult food? I thought it was 12 months
but Whites website suggests 4 months for large breeds??

Is there a rule or does it depend on the dog?

Apologies if this has been asked previously...I couldn't find anything when I searched

lorebringer

Totally a personal chioce, but I switch when dogs (both male and female, large and small!) are around the 6 month mark - I have found it works well so 7 months would be fine to switch you dog over to adult food.

Shanao

Like Lorebringer said, its a personal choice, but in my opinion a big dog shouldn't be changed until they are an adult. For a retriever, that's generally 15-16months as they are growing up until that point. For small breed 10-12months, medium breeds 12-14months, large breed 15-18 months and for the giants I'd always give them the full 24months before switching them over. In saying that, if you notice the pup putting on weight, then certainly try him on another food as you dont want them overweight while young. If the calcium count is higher than 1.3% on the adult food though, I would reccommend leaving him on the puppy food; bigger breeds are better off with a lower level of calcium as it can otherwise cause their bones to grow too fast and inevitably the wrong shape.

cora2

Personal choice. Everyone has their own opinion on it but what made me realise the pup can survive at any age is when my lab took a full chicken breast which she regurgitated still whole & gave it to 9 week old pups. I suppose when you think about it, when they were in the wild what did they eat? Meat, bones & fur

magentas

I put my pup onto adult food shortly after she turned 6months, some people may think it's too early but I felt it was the right time. She was starting to put on a fair bit of weight and she gets plenty of exercise and had really grown into herself. At 9months now she's bigger than her mum! She's a collie so about the same size as your fella I'd imagine.

Make sure when you do change over that you do it gradually. I mixed her pup food with the adult food, starting with a ratio of 1:4 adult:pup until he's fully on adult food.

I've heard really good things about Whites, hopefully he enjoys it and does well on it:)

Taltos

Haven't heard about whites.
We feed our Orijins (I think that is the spelling).

In terms of timing - OP - our route was to do as you are doing - checking the net, looking to owners of a similar breed (ours are X) and also talking regularly with our vet.
Due to some hip issues we have to monitor their weight carefully and our vet has been brilliant in keeping us focussed.

No matter when you decide - do take the transition slowly - rushing it will probably just mess up your little one's tummy a bit too much. We took it very slowly and still had to deal with clean up of very mushy excrement on and off for a number of weeks.