Changing food for puppy

Hi all,

In need of some advice, Rolo (8 month lab) has been on beta puppy large breed since she was 6 months (prior to that standard beta puppy) our breeder reccomended changing to junior/adult food around 8 months but beta do not do a junior range any advice on whether to put her on to adult food yet or leave it for a bit?

Thanks

Sarah

I have just been onto the Beta website and would have posted it here (but I don't know how to do it). There is a little questionnaire on there and for weaning up to 12 months and for yor labrador the questionnaire comes out with Puppy Large Breed. So it would seem that you are on the right Beta brand of food for your pup until he is 12 months old.

Puppy foods are formulated for maximum growth, not the best for large breeds. The faster they grow, the more stress on the developing joints. Worse yet if you fail to keep them lean. I would switch to an adult, actually an all life stages food. Make sure it has less than 1.5% calcium.

I think that you will find that the puppy LARGE BREED food is formulated to take into account that the larger breed pup will be growing for longer than a smaller breed puppy and they are specifically designed for the purpose. They are a lifestage and size specific food, which is what I think you mean.
It is the correct thing to do to provide a large pup with this type of food for the first 12 months of its life. Admittedly brands of dried foods (whether puppy or not) are high density foods and as they have not got the water content, it is easy to over-feed - it is over-estimation of quantity to feed that can be a problem - not necessarily the food.
As I have said before the best thing anyone can do is to keep an eye on how your dog is developing, read the labels, compare and make a calculated decision based on individual need.

Large breed puppy foods aren't as bad as others. In fact some of them are very similar to an ALS food except for the premium puppy food price.