When to switch foods?

I have a 7 month old pup and I've been feeding her Science Diet puppy food. But I heard that larger dogs need to switch to adult maintence food earlier because of their quick growth rate. Does anyone have any advice on this?

 

I am just curious on how you feel about the scietific dog food. I was told that a bag is $40 for like a 20lb. bag but you will see a huge difference. Not only will it widen their chest but also buff them up very good. Just curious on what you thought about the food.

 

I definitely like it. It costs me about $28 for 44lbs. But I don't get it at the pet stores, I get it at Atwoods Town and Country Store. But my dog is only 7 months and she seems huge to me! I saw one that was 8 months old and compared to mine, she looked about 3 months! I think it does make quite a difference when I can compare Dixie to her sister that is 8 months older, who is being fed Diamond. Dixie definitely got to her max height and filled out pretty quick, though she still has lots more to go.

 

Science Diet is garbage kibble and not designed for or with a dogs nutritional needs in mind. There is also no reason to feed a “large breed” kibble, nor is this a large breed. If you do a search on the board you’ll find better quality, more suited kibbles to feed your pup. There is not even a need to feed a “puppy” feed!

 

Eukanuba is what I feed my dogs. My vet suggested that I keep my puppy on puppy food for a year to 18 months because he is a large breed. Eukanuba is a good brand for my dogs, they are muscluar and in great shape. My brother feeds his dog Iams, which is about the some stuff (Eukanuba makes Iams), just a cheaper product.

 

what about the anti-allergic prescription diet by science diet, my vet put my female on it because he thinks she has allergies.
She has been on it about 8 weeks and im not seeing any improvement if all she has lost some more hair....is there a better anti-allergen food?

 

When you do switch foods do it over a week or 2 week period to get your dogs GI tract use to the new food. The will help decrease the chances of GI upset (vomiting and diarrhea).
As far as good commercial kibble Canidea and Chicken Soup are what I feed and feel that they are great foods.

 

Socks is the food Z/D perscription diet by Hills? There are a lot of different diet foods out there, but honestly none really work for long. I had 2 awesome dogs that had bad allergies and nothing worked for long. I spent a small fortune and found out that all the medications and diets worked for a few weeks to a few months, that was it.

 

I feed Science Diet because I like it and I like the results I have seen from it. As for a need for "puppy feed" that is your opinion but I would like to feed a food that promotes healthy development, not "bulk up as quick as possible". I plan on switching to Diamond Lamb and Rice because lamb and rice is easier on stomaches than chicken. I didn't ask the question on what age to switch to adult food to be criticized on what I feed. I asked the question to know when is an appropriate age to switch to adult from puppy (for those of us who feed puppy). My dog is bred for show and I'm not trying to make her huge, I want her to meet the standards and so far she is perfect. Just some filling out and we got ourselves a good one!!

 

Gold is a good brand but it's one of the most expensive you can get. My mom has one that's got allergies from hell and this food nipped it in the butt. It's got no preservatives or added flavor at all. Great food... bad bad price. But it's worth it to your dog.

 

thanx...not even sure if its allergies yet, one vet said demodex, one vet didnt care because she is an apbt, and my new vet thinks its food allergies and said to try the food before we go running more tests by the skin scrap came back negative.

 

thank you for the info.

 

Well I use to use Nutro Maxx and everyone has been telling me to try Diamond for puppies, because it gives them a shinny coat and has enough protien and fat. So I just switched to Diamond and now I will just wait to see some results. My pup is 3 months old now and is beautiful. Check her out on my gallery and tell me what you think.

 

Everyone thank the lord that the skin scrape was negative!!!! I hope I don't ever have to go through that again and hopefully you don't either!
Yes Gold is a pretty good dog food. Her dog can only eat their treats too or she'll start losing her hair. It took a lot of switching around but Gold seemed to be the best. Also, does he/she have really dry skin? (dumb question because they all do, but is your's worse than normal) I found that using Emu Oil dog shampoo (I could only find it at UPCO.com or dog shows) really helped with the dry skin and a lot less shedding!

 

yeah her skin is kinda of dry, her hair is mainly missing on her ears and her stomach, after looking at her puppy pics her hair on her stomach has always been thin but her ears were fine till i had them cropped; the hair never grew back

 

What a cute pup! I miss those "fat little tummy" days! lol. I am about to run out of my science diet, and so I believe I'm going to start on Diamond lamb and rice, but I'm not sure what to start the new pup out on. I sure like the way my girl turned out so far at 7 mos. on Science diet. Decisions decisions...

 

i had better results with natural choice than nutro maxx, the coat looked alot better and she liked it more

 

Have you tried putting baby oil on them? I didn't believe that would work until an old indian man told me to do it! I used it on mange spots and everything and it truely helped put moisture into the skin and the hair growth process was rather quick.

 

hmm.... ill have to try that...i tried nu-stock but it didnt do anything but stink!lol!

 

Socks, do you have other dogs also? I'm getting my new pup this weekend and plan on cropping his ears, BUT I also have one that just loves play with other bulldogs and won't quit until you make her! I'm nervous about her messing up his ears. What did/would you do about that.