At what age do u start feeding your dog adult dog food? Thanks for any info?

The decision to switch from puppy food to adult food is dependent on the dog. A harder keeper or more energetic dog that does not gain easily, should stay and can stay on puppy food for far longer. A dog who is getting heavy quickly can go to an adult dog food.

I have a 3 yr old Cav that is fairly energetic. Her hindquarters are just solid muscle from running around the yard etc. She burns calories like no tomorrow so she is kept on high calorie high fat food. My AB usually has good weight in the summer but tends to get fat in the winter...so she is put more on a maintenance diet in the winter time and a lower cal food to control her weight gain. The rest of my dogs are fed a normal adult dog food. I choose the food based on the dog and its development and weight.

Puppy food tends to be higher in fat and protein. Puppies can eat adult food but they must eat a larger quantity to get what they need. People with large breed dogs are often told to forgo the puppy food and simply go straight to adult food. For the most part there is no danger switching a dog to an adult food at 8-9mos old. They may just have to eat more of it. Altho this too can depend on the quality of food given.

It is a personal decision based on the condition of your dog. If you have doubts when to switch your pup over simply ask your vet at your next appt who can give you a better estimate based on your dog.

I feel homemade is healthier if you can do it. I live in the middle of a rural area full of slaughter houses and meat processing plants. I KNOW, because I have seen it and have had family working in these places, that animals that are not good enough for human consumption are sold to pet food companies. If a pig comes in with an infection or some other problem that the vet will not clear for processing into human food, the pig is secluded with a group of other substandard pigs. The pet food company, the BIG one that starts with a P, comes and buys these pigs or cows or whatever animals are rejected to take to make into petfood. Almost all pet food makers do this same thing at markets and meat processing plants around the nation. Trucks of animals come to the plant. Vets either clear or reject each animal for human consumption. The rejected animals are sold for petfood. The same thing happens at the grainery market. If a load of grain is rejected due to mold or too much debris, the petfood companies will buy it. The same thing with grease. In back of every fastfood place you see a grease bin. That is the horrible smell you smell in back of those places at time. All that grease goes to petfood factories. Those substandard, rejected ingredients are what go into most pet foods. Very few use human grade ingredients. So, yes, if you can make your own from human grade ingredients it is better. The problem comes when you have many dogs and simply cannot make enough to feed all of them.

Usually you feed puppy food until your dog is a year old. then switch to adult dog food. I feed my puppy natural diamond large puppy food because larger pups need more protein for growing. I feed my other dogs natural diamond adult dog food. They also have a senior dog food that ill be switching one of my dogs over too soon. Natural diamond has no corn, soy, or wheat so its more digrstible for your dogs. It's also recommend to feed adult dogs 2 times a day and puppies 3 times a day.

I agree about 9mnth is fine but please slowly introduce it to your pup's stomach. For example...first day do mostly all puppy food with just little bit of dog food....next day little bit more dog food...then couple days into it give half and half for couple days....do this over as much time as it takes to finally have full bowl of only dog food. This way the food won't tear up your pup's belly and cause diarrhea and/or possibley vomiting. Hope this made sense. Also if you do see any signs of an upset belly you can give pepto bismol and I wouldn't up the dose of dog food until your pup's belly settles down from that current dose.

When they are full grown, which is going to be different based on the breed.

Small breeds can be done growing as soon as 10 months. Extra large breeds can take up to two years to finish growing. Medium and large breeds will fall somewhere in between.

Ask your vet if they feel your dog is done growing and if so, switch to adult food.

Usually sometime around a year...but I've known a couple dogs who h ave had to stay on puppy food for a little longer because they had trouble gaining weight. But if you want to be completely positive you could ask your vet...they'll tell you if your dog is ready for adult food.

9-10 months is fine to start them on adult food. Most companies recommend 1 year, but they get the extra 2-3 months of money from you buying the pricier puppy food.

I started weaning my Miniature Schnauzer off puppy food at 10 months old.

For small and medium sized dogs, one year. For big dogs, two.

To think about it realistically, they don't have puppy food in the wild, so mine always got what their parents got. No trouble whatsoever.