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  1. #1
    Real Retriever PinkDragon14's Avatar
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    How Much to Feed/Switch to 2x?

    I've read on here (and other websites as well) that the bag "servings" are not very accurate, but I feel like Murphy isn't getting enough food. Right now, he's getting 3 3/4 cups a day with 3 meals a day (1 1/4 at each meal). I know that Labs are always looking for more, but I'm just wondering if he's getting enough food? He seems "hungrier" too, but I mean that could be your average Lab stomach. Last time we were at the vet (September), he said that Murphy was getting enough food...but that was almost 3 months ago and he's definitely grown. Right now, he's probably about 65lbs and a week shy of being 7 months.

    My questions are:
    Is he getting enough food currently? If not, should I follow the bag's suggestions?
    Should I switch to 2x a day? When I do switch him, should I wean him off of the 3x or can I just switch to 2x immediately?

    Another question - the vet also suggested that 6-8 months is the time that most people switch their dogs over to adult food. Should I get an adult bag and start mixing it in? He is really growing like a weed (especially at 65+lbs) and I'm not sure where he'll stop. He isn't "fat" or "chubby" by any means either. I can feel his ribs with slight pressure - he's just getting tall.
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  2. #2
    Senior Dog doubledip1's Avatar
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    You can switch to twice a day. I don't switch my dogs to adult or ALS until they're a year old but your breeder may switch earlier.

    Comet's 8 months and getting about the same amount of food.

    I wouldn't increase or decrease if he looks good. Go by your dog's appearance and feel, not the bag's suggestions. When you do switch foods, the kcals per cup of each food will be listed on the bag by the nutrition/ingredient labels. That's how you figure out how much of the new food to feed. It'll be a good baseline, but you may need to adjust based on your own individual dog and activity level.
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  4. #3
    Senior Dog Jeff's Avatar
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    I agree with doubledip.

    You are way past time to switch to 2 meals a day, that's usually at about 4 months. So you can start switching anytime. I would just start moving 1/4 cup every day to transition.

    So you are 1 and 1/4 cup per meal now, so tomorrow you are 1 1/2 cup for breakfast, 1 cup lunch, 1 1/4 cup for supper. Then the next day 1 1/2 cup for breakfast 3/4 cup lunch 1 1/2 cup for supper. And so on until lunch is gone. If you want to stretch it out 2 days each feeding thats fine too. Now once lunch time is gone I would include a lunch time snack. When I transitioned my bot off I took that time to train, train, train, so our lunch time was spent training and he got training treats. I would throw in the occasional puzzle toy and so on as well.

    To this day he still gets a little snack for lunch, some baby carrots, or green beans, maybe a little peanut butter in a kong, something.

    As far as when you transition to adult food or All Life Stages, you can do it as early as 5 months, but I wouldn't go over a year. At 7 months he is pretty much done growing and now will be filling out. He might grow a little but nothing like the last several months.

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  6. #4
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    I switch my dogs to 2x a day at 4 months, also switch to adult food around 4-5 months as I prefer nice slower growth in my youngsters (especially the girls that aren’t going to get a big as the males).

    We switched the pups cold turkey with no problems. What happened is I had forgotten to give them lunch a couple times and they didn’t seem to miss it (I gave them extra at dinner to make up for it) so I said the heck with trying to remember lunch and just started dividing their daily ration into two instead of three.

    With switching to adult, we went from Pro-Plan puppy to Pro-Plan Sport which are very similar, so although we may have mixed in for a day or two as the bag of puppy dwindled, it wasn’t a huge transition and they never missed a beat. If you are switching to a completely different formula, you may want to take the transition more slowly by gradually introducing the new food.
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    Scully (HC Coventry's Truth Is Out There, UD, TD, RN) 4/14/1996 - 6/30/2011
    Mulder (Coventry's I Want To Believe, UD, RN, WC) 5/26/1999 - 4/22/2015

    And our foster Jolie (Windsong's Genuine Risk, CDX) 5/26/1999 - 3/16/2014

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  8. #5
    Real Retriever PinkDragon14's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff View Post
    I agree with doubledip.

    You are way past time to switch to 2 meals a day, that's usually at about 4 months. So you can start switching anytime. I would just start moving 1/4 cup every day to transition.

    So you are 1 and 1/4 cup per meal now, so tomorrow you are 1 1/2 cup for breakfast, 1 cup lunch, 1 1/4 cup for supper. Then the next day 1 1/2 cup for breakfast 3/4 cup lunch 1 1/2 cup for supper. And so on until lunch is gone. If you want to stretch it out 2 days each feeding thats fine too. Now once lunch time is gone I would include a lunch time snack. When I transitioned my bot off I took that time to train, train, train, so our lunch time was spent training and he got training treats. I would throw in the occasional puzzle toy and so on as well.

    To this day he still gets a little snack for lunch, some baby carrots, or green beans, maybe a little peanut butter in a kong, something.

    As far as when you transition to adult food or All Life Stages, you can do it as early as 5 months, but I wouldn't go over a year. At 7 months he is pretty much done growing and now will be filling out. He might grow a little but nothing like the last several months.
    He does get the occasional "snack" when I'm trying to get things done and I need to keep him busy after lunch/afternoon (some veggies in his kong, puzzle), so that's why I'm not rushing to give him more food. To me, it seems like he doesn't need the lunch anymore - TMI, but since he's gotten bigger and changing, he's only been going #2 twice a day rather than his old 3 or 4 times. So to me, his body is definitely changing and that's why I felt like he's ready to move up to 2x a day (but apparently I missed that by 2 months lol).

    Quote Originally Posted by Annette47 View Post
    I switch my dogs to 2x a day at 4 months, also switch to adult food around 4-5 months as I prefer nice slower growth in my youngsters (especially the girls that aren’t going to get a big as the males).

    We switched the pups cold turkey with no problems. What happened is I had forgotten to give them lunch a couple times and they didn’t seem to miss it (I gave them extra at dinner to make up for it) so I said the heck with trying to remember lunch and just started dividing their daily ration into two instead of three.

    With switching to adult, we went from Pro-Plan puppy to Pro-Plan Sport which are very similar, so although we may have mixed in for a day or two as the bag of puppy dwindled, it wasn’t a huge transition and they never missed a beat. If you are switching to a completely different formula, you may want to take the transition more slowly by gradually introducing the new food.
    He's on Wellness Core Puppy and would be switching to the Wellness Core Adult (or their original formula, whatever the regular one is). I would definitely switch the food slowly, but I'm just wondering if I should order 1 more puppy bag and then start this next month when he's closer to 8 months? The food states that the puppy is for dogs under 1yr, but as Jeff mentioned, his growth is slowing down. So I'm wondering how much he's actually depending on the things in the puppy formula at this point.

    As for the 3x a day, I think I'm going to slowly wean him off. I had a 1pm final yesterday and he usually eats around 1:45-2, so I fed him half of his meal at 11:30 before I left and then the rest when I got home. He didn't seem to mind at all, so fingers crossed he takes to the change quickly.
    ~Alyssa
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  9. #6
    Senior Dog doubledip1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PinkDragon14 View Post
    As for the 3x a day, I think I'm going to slowly wean him off. I had a 1pm final yesterday and he usually eats around 1:45-2, so I fed him half of his meal at 11:30 before I left and then the rest when I got home. He didn't seem to mind at all, so fingers crossed he takes to the change quickly.
    To be honest, I just cold turkey mine to 3x a day whenever they stop wanting lunch. I go by their appetites more than age.
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  10. #7
    Real Retriever PinkDragon14's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by doubledip1 View Post
    To be honest, I just cold turkey mine to 3x a day whenever they stop wanting lunch. I go by their appetites more than age.
    Trust me, he would eat 100 meals a day if I let him LOL so I've just accepted the fact that he will always be looking for food. He's pretty good though - he did snub his lunch the other day so I let him nibble at it for 10mins and then I took it away. I'll try tomorrow and see what happens!
    ~Alyssa
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