Puppy Food to Adult Dog Food

[Sloan]

I know, it's been asked before but now I have a new puppy and I have just transitioned him to the Innova Puppy so both of my dogs are eating the same food. My new pup is 5 months old and my other pup is 9 months old. How much longer do I keep my 9 month old puppy on Puppy Food before he needs to be on Adult Dog Food? I was getting excited about not having to worry about one pup eating the other pup's food and getting sick but I think I need to transition to Adult Dog Food soon for my older pup. Please let me know the timeline for Puppy vs Adult Dog Food. Thanks!!!

[meli]

You can keep them both on puppy food for as long as you like. I know a breeder who never takes her dogs off of puppy food because they need the extras for nursing and pregnancy so everyone gets puppy food since they all share food. Her puppy are extremely healthy.

Puppy food is different from adult food because of the higher fat content so what you need to watch for is that the older one doesn't get fat. But a Yorkie is consider a puppy until age one. At one year , you can switch to adult food safely so you don't have that long of an overlap.

I am feeding a one year old and a 5 month old both puppy food. I feed them both in their crates so that I can control the amount of both of them. This way should the older one get too plump, I can cut her back. I can also be sure that the younger one can get as much food as he needs without having the older one determine that for him. So far it's working out well. Sometimes they do get confused on which crate is theirs but that is mostly on the puppy's part. LOL puppies are so goofy!

[JeanieK]

I believe that keeping them on puppy food once they no longer need all that protien and calcium for growing, is hard on their liver. I feed Royal Canin and it says to put them on adult food at 10 months.

Putting pregnant or nursing females on puppy food is a good idea, but I don't think other adult dogs shoud be kept on it.

[Sloan]

Thank you for the great advice. I really do appreciate it. I understand that nursing moms need to be on the puppy food as well, that makes perfect sense. I just want to be sure it is ok to have my older pup on adult food until he is a year old or if it is best to change him over at 10 months. It won't be fun to have them on two different foods but it won't last forever either. My vet told me to keep them on puppy food only for the first 4 months of age and then to switch them to adult food at 4 months which I obviously didn't agree with thanks to my knowledge from YT. My older pup in no way whatsoever has any problem with his weight....he is very lean.