Puppy to adult food

[Traceyp]

We have been advised by a cocker spaniel breeder to start the changeover to adult food for our puppy at 6 months old? further advise and whether others also do this too please? Thanks

[cazza]

Hi and welcome to COL

All depends on what you are feeding- I would go by the instructions on the food.

Mine is on orijen and I changed to adult food at 8 months

[Traceyp]

Our puppy is on Cotswold choice food. And like when you look at most puppy foods it says to change at 12months. Also when you read online most advice is 12 months. Is this just marketing and they don’t need to be on puppy food for so long. Like you said you changed over at 8 months. Hope you don’t mind me asking what made you choose to change over at 8 months rather than 12? Is it to stop them growing too big as the puppy foods are higher in Proteins and fats etc? I would like to change him to adult food soon as has been suggested to us, I just don’t fully understand why and make sure I’m doing the right thing and not inhibiting him in any way…. Thanks

[vixen]

Looking on the Cotswold choice web site it does says puppy food until 9 to 12 months.
However, I feed raw and i chose to feed my now one year old on adult food earlier than that as she would have more choice in the variety of meat given. 

[sophie.ivy]

Hi Tracey,

I started gradually introducing Burns adult food to my girl at 8 months and she was adult food-only from 9 months. I think the period of rapid growth slows down at 6 months so I can see the logic behind starting to switch over at this age, but I just went with the advice from Burns and also checked it with my vet who said that you can start changing over from 8/9 months. She was absolutely fine with the switch and took to the new food well.



 
 

[cazza]

Our puppy is on Cotswold choice food. And like when you look at most puppy foods it says to change at 12months. Also when you read online most advice is 12 months. Is this just marketing and they don’t need to be on puppy food for so long. Like you said you changed over at 8 months. Hope you don’t mind me asking what made you choose to change over at 8 months rather than 12? Is it to stop them growing too big as the puppy foods are higher in Proteins and fats etc? I would like to change him to adult food soon as has been suggested to us, I just don’t fully understand why and make sure I’m doing the right thing and not inhibiting him in any way…. Thanks

With orijen you can feed puppies on adult but need to increase the amount. So after I had her on two meals a day and had nearly run out of the puppy food I moved her slowly onto the adult food

By 8 months their growth starts to slow down

You have to go with what you think is best and also on what the guide of the food you are feeding.

An 11.5kg bag of orijen adult is approx. £70, however divide that by nearly 3 months it works out about £24 per month (a bag lasts my girl nearly 3 months, but then she also gets veg as well)

[Pearly]

A great deal depends on the pup and how fast it is developing.  In my experience they appear to slow in physical growth around 8-9 months old but then develop internally and broaden out - it always surprises me that the back length continues to grow to around 18 months!

We have moved the pups on to a 50/50 puppy and adult kibble mix (Four Friends) they are similar in essential values but the adult kibble is larger and both pups seem to enjoy it more.  I’d expect both to be on adult only once the puppy bag is used up (17Kg = 3-4 months for both pups).

Jayne