[pugmomsandy]

It depends on the size of the dog. For large/giant breeds, picking a food with the proper amount of calcium and phosphorus and proper calcium:phosporus ratio is more important than picking a food for “growth” or “all life stages” during the first year to 2 years. Large/giant breed pups need controlled amounts, where as toy/small or medium does not require the controlled amounts. You can be feeding too much calcium and phosphorus even though a food is rated for “growth” or “all life stages” during the large/giant breed puppy phase. So I would feed a large/giant breed pup a food with proper Ca/Phos for a year or two.

I deal with toy dogs so I would hypothetically switch as young as 8 months to “adult” food, but personally, I feed “all life stage” or “growth/puppy” food all the time to my toy dogs, even to seniors.

It is somewhat confusing and not as black and white as just “puppy” or “adult” food. If you have a large/giant breed pup, there is a forum topic for that:

/forums/topic/large-and-giant-breed-puppy-nutrition/

and there is a link to a document created by Hounddogmom with foods appropriate for large/giant breed pups in there. I think around page 15 and an updated list around pages 34-35. I haven’t looked in that topic for a while since I have only toy dogs!

• This reply was modified 11 years, 6 months ago by pugmomsandy.
• This reply was modified 11 years, 6 months ago by pugmomsandy.