Charley is 7 months now. I was under the impression that he should stay on puppy food until 1 year. Does anyone have any imput regarding this subject? He is so big for 7 months that I wonder if keeping him on puppy food for another 5 months will hinder him in any way. My vet says 1 year. I would appreciate any feedback.

i've always been told 1 year too

Kobey is 9 months and still on puppy food, we were told 1 yr as well.

My vet told me that she likes to take labs off of puppy food much earlier than what most vets recommend. She said around 3 months to help limit the rate of growth in large dogs to help avoid hip problems. - I think this is also the reason for a difference between regular and large breed puppy food.

I asked this question before and heard 6 months from lots of people on here.

homer's breeder told us 4 months, for the same reasons that gradus mentioned. the vet told us 6 months. we switched him at 4 months.

LB Puppy foods are designed to limit growth, so if you're feeding LB Puppy food, they can stay on up to a year of age.

I advise my puppy buyers to switch to adult food once all the adult teeth are in, which is about 6-7 months.

Well I guess that explains why he is 95 lbs at 7 months old. I questioned the vet every time we went in for his monthly visits becuase it just didn't normal to me that he started growing so quickly. I asked my vet if I should switch to adult food but he told me not to worry, keep him on puppy food until 1 year. I was concerned about future bone problems but was assured multiple times that the puppy food was fine. I have never seen a dog grow this fast in my life! Anyway, thank you all for the advice. I will start incorporating adult food into his diet right away. I heard the same advice from another Labrador source recently too. Again, thank you!

Wow! Great information!

LB Puppy foods are designed to limit growth, so if you're feeding LB Puppy food, they can stay on up to a year of age.

LB means Large Breed right? If so, Kobey is on Large Breed puppy food. Mom is going to try and take him to the vets on Friday, since she has the day off. I'm curious to know what he weighs now at 9 months

Yes...sorry, I have a tendancy to abbreviate.

LB=Large Breed

We feed Layla Royal Canin LB Puppy Food and the info on the bag says Large Breed Puppies mature slower and need to be kept on the puppy food until they're 15 months old...is this right? Or should I stop at 12 months? Or maybe ask my vet?

My vet referred to a study where they took a litter of pups who all had dysplastic hips. They fed half of the litter regular puppy food and the other half some sort of dietary food that didn't have very many nutrients. The pups on the dietary food had 50% less hip problems than the ones on regular puppy food. None of us are feeding puppies dietary food or food without many nutrients, but this is why she recommends switching to regular LB food from LB puppy food at 3 months. She said this isn't going to impact the final size of the pups, but regular puppy food can cause muscles to grow too quickly relative to the bone growth.

-hopefully I didn't butcher her story too bad.

Wow! lots of great info. I was just wondering what to do with Raven and puppy food. She is on LB puppy food also, she is getting close to 6 months. I think when she is 6 months I will start mixing in LB adult food with her puppy chow to make the switch over.