I see a lot of breeders feeding their puppies Pro Plan Puppy Chicken and Rice. Does anyone start their pups on Performance right away? I have an 11 week old that I bought and just started her on the Performance. Is this okay, or should I have started with the Puppy? This is my first time with a pup, have always purchased adults to show. She has nice bone and and I am concerned about keeping it and feeding her up nice and right for that bone growth.

I raise my litter on puppy C & R and then any pups I run on are switched to PPP at the end of the bag. I personally feel 11 weeks is fine as PPP is for all life stages.

Thanks so much for the reply! I think we'll stay the course then.

I raise mine on PPP for years now! LOVE IT!!!

ProPlan Performance is the only thing my puppies ever get.

Choice of food is a very individual one. I wouldn't dream of feeding ProPlan Performance to puppies, but then
I wouldn't feed ProPlan to any of my dogs. Not highly enough rated by the sources I trust.

Well, I tried Wellness with a litter and what a disaster. . . diarrhea, failure to thrive. My vet tested for everything before we said it had to be the food. I switched to ProPlan Puppy and in two days everything was normal. I did have puppies who went home weighing 9 pounds, though. They couldn't catch up by 8 weeks.

As much as I wanted to try something that the food gurus call "better," it's Proplan all the way for me now. For my recent litter raised on PP Puppy (and had no digestion issues) I switched to PP Performance for the puppy I kept when he was 4 months old. All my adults eat PP Performance. For my next litter, I will try PP Performance from the beginning.

What about your pet puppies? What are you telling your pet people to feed? I left Proplan when the shreds came out to try so called "better" foods according to websites written by unknown people with unknown credentials. I recently decided to go back to Proplan, since nothing I tried worked as good. I am feeding performance and very happy. I used to send my puppies home on the C&R puppy then told the pet people to switch to the C&R adult at 4 months, but the original C&R is still not so easy to find around here. Are you telling your pet people to use the performance?

Yes, I am telling puppy buyers to feed ProPlan Performance.

My litters start out on ProPlan Chicken and Rice Puppy and I send paperwork home with all the puppies that by 4 months switch the pups to Performance. I have fed everything under the sun and just love the Performance food for my dogs of all ages.

If you are going to buy kibble of any brand, you must keep up on the ingredient changes. It's not sufficient to read even the most recent reviews of dog food.

Wellness was sold. The ingredients were changed. Similar to Eukanuba, and many others.

I now feed California Natural Chicken and Rice puppy; I will do so until I hear that the ingredients have changed due to the fact that it was sold to Proctor and Gamble in June. I haven't been anything but pleased with the long term results of California Natural in the original formulas. Who knows what will happen in a year?

I looked into ProPlan and could not find any of their foods that met my standards.

Is not the whole idea of switching off puppy food to slow down growth so the puppy grows slowly and evenly? Yet by switching to performance you are going to a food that is even higher in protein and fat and more calories than the puppy food, so would it not do the opposite? Have you ever had puppies go down in the pasterns from the higher protein?

I believe in slowing the growth -- so I feed Pro Plan Puppy until 6 months, switch to PP adult C&R original formula until 12 months, then PP Performance if I plan to show them. For pet puppies, I advise owners to keep them on the adult food.

That is exactly what I have done in the past. Has anyone tried the Proplan large breed puppy instead of switching to adult or performance? Any Proplan reps out there to give advice?

Glad to hear most are using it on their keepers/babies.

Does anyone find they eat less on the performance beings it is so high in protein/fat? How much are most puppies, say 10-14 weeks old, eating for some of you? I've got mine on 4.5 cups a day, but I'd like to have her at 5.

What a strange topic for everyone to be anonymous for, lol.

Puppies here are started on PP Puppy and pet families are told to switch to PP Adult (or another agreed upon adult) at 4-5mo. My keepers get put on a rotation of Performance, regular adult and sensitive skin (for the protein change) with the rest of the crew at 4-5mo as well. Seems to work.

I have a 14 week old girl here on PPP. She gets 4 cups a day and looks super. I should also add she is VERY active and is spending the better part of the daylight hours outside. We have nearly an acre fenced and the young ones are out there having a ball. They have to be burning a lot of calories. They don't think it is cold.

I'd email Tom Shearer. He gave me great advise on nutrition.

Can you share some of it here?