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When to Change from Puppy Food to Dog Food

Max. D Gray
By Max. D Gray. Updated: January 16, 2017
When to Change from Puppy Food to Dog Food

During the first months of your dog's life, food is essential to ensure proper growth and development. It's the stage when more energy input is required and you should provide your dog with food that's rich in nutrients and protein, calcium, phosphorus and fibre that has a high energy concentration. Getting rid of puppy food and starting with adult food before time can result in serious abnormalities, especially in the joints. To prevent this from happening and to know when to change from puppy food to dog food, check out this article at OneHowTo and we'll give you all the details, depending on the breed of your dog.

You may also be interested in: How Much Food To Feed My Dog
Steps to follow:
1

The change of dog food from puppy to adult must be done at the end of the dog's development and growth. Thus, your puppy's breed plays a crucial role, since each one develops at a different time.

2

Small breeds, such as Chihuahuas or Yorkshire terriers, reach maturity long before the larger breeds. Puppies belonging to these breeds reach adult size at around 10 months old. Therefore, it's at this point that you should change the puppy food to regular adult food and reduce the number of feeding times daily. If you want to know how much food to give your dog depending on its age and size, check out this article on how much to feed your dog.

When to Change from Puppy Food to Dog Food - Step 2
3

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.

When to Change from Puppy Food to Dog Food - Step 3
4

Large and giant breeds, like Siberian Huskies and German Shepherds, or Great Danes and St. Bernards, take the longest time to reach an adult size. Not until they're 18 months of age do they fully reach maturity. Therefore, you must wait until then to change their puppy food to adult. Remember that these breeds require more food per day than before, as well as more exercise to burn all of their accumulated energy, so that it doesn't cause stress or anxiety.

When to Change from Puppy Food to Dog Food - Step 4
5

Once they've completed their growth and development and reached an adult size, it's very important to change from puppy food and adapt it to their current age, to ensure that they're getting all the nutrients they need. If you don't change its food, the dog could suffer an imbalance due to an excess or lack of protein, vitamins, nutrients, carbohydrates, etc. Remember that puppy food contains a very high amount of protein and fat that is excessive for an adult dog and could cause it to become overweight.

If you want to read similar articles to When to Change from Puppy Food to Dog Food, we recommend you visit our Pets category.

Tips
  • Change your dog's food gradually mixing the amounts of food so your dog doesn't notice.

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