when to stop feeding puppy food?

[GusGus1/1/2011]

Hey everyone,
My Gus is 4.5 months old now and i'm feeding him 3 times a day - breakfast lunch and dinner. Just wondering when i should stop giving him his puppy food and change to adult? And when/if i should stop feeding him 3 times daily.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Adriana

[Tippsy'smom]

My GSD mix girl, Dixie, is 10 months old and still eating puppy food. We're mixing adult food in to try and switch her now(only been doing that a couple weeks now) and we plan on having her switched over by the beginning of July(she'll be about 1 then). But she's been eating 2 meals a day since I got her(my friend who actually adopted her and had her for a couple weeks before I got her was feeding her twice a day from the day she got her) and she's done real well on that. My chow mix boy, Jasper, has been on adult food since he was about 1 too. Did the same thing with him that I've done with Dixie.

[Merlin]

anytime after 6 momths.
Puppy food in general has hormones in it and is geared to make the dog grow faster, which is not a good thing.

Just stick with a quality food and your puppy will be very fine.

[Victory]

Definetly by the time he's a year old. However, don't be surprised to see more growth after that, most males grow for three years. Keep him on a good quality food, (without hormones, corn, wheat, artificial color and preservatives) and he'll do fine. All my chows except the first two I got from my mom, have free fed all day long on dry food. If I give wet food for some reason, they get it in the morning.

They will adapt to whatever feeding regime you decide on. Just figure out the amount they need and split it into two meals if you want, or if necessary, (some dogs eat everything too fast and then spend the day sick, so they should be fed smaller amounts more times per day, not normal with chows who eat like cats anyway)

The thing with a young chow is to make sure he is getting enough food, they do eat less normally than the amount shown on most dog food packages. But if you notice the food disappearing in less than 10 minutes and he's still looking for more while he's growing then increase just a bit.