Pretty cute puppy. My last three dogs never ate puppy food at all and none of them had any problems. I feed ProPlan sport and it claims for all life stages. Getting a new puppy soon and considering puppy food but even if I do I wouldn't bother with one that goes for two years. By 1 year I believe the pup is definitely grown enough for adult food. Even if I decide to go with puppy food I probably would switch to adult even before the dog turns one.

 

Hello TGT and welcome to the Retriever Training Forum. I never bother with puppy chow. An argument years ago was pups grow too fast? Somebody may expand.
I do try and keep them off pizza and beer until two ish.😉

 

Ideally your breeder would have wrote down what the pups were on. Purina is confusing with so many varieties. I did 26/16 then it was gone and then they had 27/17. My vet said use the puppy large breed for the first year and then go with what works best for their activity level. They weren’t hot on the all age dog food, but I know many do that with success. Good luck with that beautiful puppy, before you know it you will be looking at senior foods. 🙁

 

The primary predisposing factor to most juvenile orthopedic diseases is over nutrition which means excess calories, calcium, and Vit D. The so called puppy diets are designed to reduce caloric density but it is possible to achieve the same goal by monitoring weight and condition and keeping them lean by feeding a lesser amount of a performance diet. There is an ingredient in the large breed puppy formulas that is alleged to enhance brain development so that would be the argument for feeding large breed puppy diets until they are 6-7 months old.

 

I don't feed puppy formula.
Be very diligent about watching the pups weight every day.
Treats are a big problem in many households for dogs of all ages.

 

Yeah....Mrs. C has been cutting back on my treats for awhile now!!🤣🤣

 

We don't feed the puppy formula, we use PPP Sport (all life stages).

 

I have a 12 month old that I stopped feeding puppy food at 4 months. The orthopedic vet I used in California said to removed large breed puppies to adult at 4 months. Despite the “new research backed recipes”.
Also talking to my regular vet they mentioned a study where they fed dogs/puppies “near starving” diets calorie wise and found no issues.
So I keep my guy lean and hope he stays that way!!

My last 2 generations of dogs I have fed that way, including my last boy who was huge and 95#! He was really big and muscular!! And skinny!

Beautiful puppy!!

 

You should be feeding the "large breed" puppy food. Different dogs do better on Different foods but Purina is a good place to start.