when do you all take your puppies off puppy food? I'm thinking of taking Xara off the puppy and putting her on the adult Eagle Pack this coming week. She's 4 months old now and I usually do take mine off puppy food between now and 6 months depending on how they are doing.

Xara is doing great, growing like she should, holding a great weight and is all over healthy as a horse. She's on Eagle Pack puppy now, and would transition to the adult formula of the same food.

No dobut you're going to get a lot of responses to your post with differing opinions.  There have been many posts regarding this topic in the past and all have created a stir.  Why don't I fire the first shot:

Remember everyone, these are just my OPINIONS: 

First, any puppy that will have a full grown (healthy) weight in excess of 50 lbs. should be fed a high-quality LARGE BREED puppy food to ensure that they are getting the high-quality protein, restricted calories from fat and the proper levels of calcium.  That being said, I think that until the puppy reaches adult height (around 8 - 9 months) I wouldn't even think of taking them of the large breed puppy food.  I will not take my puppy off of his current food until he is around a year old. 

I would have to second the opinion of the above poster.  My pup just turned one today and I have just started changing over to an adult food.  This was the recommendation of our breeder, our vet, and friends/acquaintences with sporting dogs.

I have always switched to adult food at 6 months and recommend that all my puppy buyers do the same. My vet is the one who suggested this transition age. We don't feed large breed either.
We're in Canada and feed Acana. It's Canadian made. My youngest Ryane is 15 months and is on the thin side. She gets the Sport and Agility formulation. My others between 7 and 12 years are fed regular adult.

Gail

Just going by what the AVMA defines as large breed -- > 55 lb. adult weight (I think I cited 50 lbs in my original post).  Wolfgang's dad was 70 lbs and his mother just north of 60 (around 62).

Okay, I knew this would happen...  Let me first say the Bev & Pixie are far more versed in raising GSPs than I am & I totally respect them.  Wolfgang is my first GSP, but certainly not my first dog (he's my 6th).  Until my previous dog (a wonderful Shar Pei named Murray who lived a healthy life of 13 years) I didn't quite understand the imporance of quality foods and fed my dogs "lower quality" foods that were not the worst, but certainly not the best and readily available at an inexpensive price at Petsmart or Petco.  Only in Murray's senior years did I start reading about the topic of canine nutrition.  I agree with Pixie that all large breed puppy foods are not better than, say, an all life stages food.  I currently feed Innova LB Puppy and will be switching to TOTW High Prarie Formula in a few months.  Are they the best? Probably not, but they are the best that I can reasonably afford.  This is one of the best resources that I have found that explains things in a simple manner and seems to make sense to me give my understanding of human anatomy and physiology:  http://www.newmanveterinary.com/large.html. 

All that being said, I stopped in to the place where I buy my dog food and discussed this issue with Toni, the owner (www.healthypetproducts.net/index.html) and she simply said:  "Paul, you're going to drive yourself nuts!"  She agreed that puppy food, large breed or not, should be maintained until around 6 - 9 months for most dogs or feeding an ALS food is nearly as good in most cases. 

So, if I've offended anyone, I'm sorry -- I was merely stating my opinion and will be switching Wolfgang to TOTW adult @ about 9 months instead of a year.