When do puppies switch to adult dog food?
Just as you don't give a baby a steak and French fries, you don't give an adult dog food. The needs of puppies are not on a par with adult dogs. Just as with people, the nutritional needs of a dog also depend on its age and those needs change over the years.
Tip: just as it is not a good idea to give a puppy adult dog food, it is also a very bad idea to continue giving an adult dog puppy food.
There is a big difference in nutrients between puppy food - junior dog food and adult dog food. Read all about the differences here and how to make the transition between the different foods as easy as possible.
Puppy food
Puppy food contains extra building blocks that support a stable growth of your puppy from the start. Delcon Puppy contains lots of proteins and fats which means it gives your puppy all the nutrients it needs to get through the first months of life in a healthy and balanced way and to build up the immunity system.
Opposite of adult dog food
While puppy food is packed with protein, calcium, phosphorus and the like, adult dog food is overloaded with other nutrients, minerals and vitamins that are less caloric. Therefore, it is in your dog's best interest that you match his diet to his age. Feeding an adult dog puppy food for too long can lead to obesity because it is such a high calorie food. Whereas if you feed a puppy adult dog food too early, this can trigger growth problems (which in turn can lead to bone and joint abnormalities).
Delcon Junior
To give your dog even better support while growing up, it is best to take another step between puppy and adult food, namely junior food.
Delcon Junior dog food is the perfect food for the transition from puppy food to a variety for adult dogs. In this phase of life it is very important to build up the muscle mass in the right way, and to make sure that the constitution and joints get their final shape in a balanced way. This pellet contains all the necessary nutrients to support growth in a stable way.
When should you switch from Delcon Puppy to Delcon Junior?
When your puppy arrives at your home he is - at the youngest - 8 weeks old. From then on you may feed your dog Delcon Puppy food. How long your puppy stays on puppy food depends on the size of his breed. Small breeds (like Chihuahuas) can be fed puppy food until they are 1 year old. Medium breeds (such as Boxers) until 8 months of age and large breeds (such as Bernese) you can switch to puppy food at 6 months.
Small breeds may be switched to adult food after 12 months.
When should you switch from Delcon Junior to Delcon Adult?
Has your dog reached the age of 15 to 18 months? Then it's time to switch to Adult dog food. Keep in mind, every dog is different. Some dogs are ready for adult food faster than others. Feel free to ask us your question to make sure it's the right time to switch.
What is the best way to make the switch?
Changing your dog's food from one day to the next is not a good idea. In that way you get the complete feeding pattern of your dog in the confusion. To let your dog get used to the new food, you mix that best with its current pellets. Do on day one 1/4 of the new pellets at your dog its food. The next day you do there again a quarter and so on. Notice you that the overschakeling not so smoothly runs for your dog? Then make the portion of the new food slightly smaller so that the overschakeling over a longer period runs. Thus can your dog quietly get used to its new delicious food!
Guidelines
New food means new feeding guidelines. Look certainly always good the food table at the back of the bag of food. & you can read it like this:
For puppies:
In the left table you will find the weight your puppy will have when it is an adult (e.g. a boxer puppy weighs about 25kg as an adult). Then you look at how old your puppy is at the moment, in the row below you can see how many meals your puppy can eat per day. Until they are 6 months old, divide the amount over 3 meals. Later you can switch to 2 meals. At recommended quantity you can see how many grams your pup can eat per DAY. Divide this amount over the number of meals your pup is allowed to eat.
For adult dogs:
In the table on the left you see the weight of your dog. In the first row on the right you see the activity level of your dog. Look at the weight of your dog and his activity level, how many grams your dog may eat per day. This weight you may then divide over 2 meals.