My bullmastiff, Star, is almost 6 months old. She is fed Orijen Large Breed Puppy food in the mornings, and raw in the evenings. We quit mixing the two and that has resulted in no gas, and better poop! It really is true that they digest them differently. She is doing absolutely great on this system.

My question is, since she's a large breed, when do I switch her to adult food? Orijen is a grain free, high protein kibble (baked at low temps and preserved naturally). I know the reason people switch to adult earlier for large breeds is because adult food has less protein which causes them to not grow as fast, thus helping their bones and joints develop. But in this case the difference is puppy food is 42% protein and adult food is 40% protein. Not much of a difference. And since she is doing raw at night which is ALL protein, I'm not one that believes that less protein is better.

The adult food does have less fat - 16% as opposed to 20% in the puppy food.

I've also asked the breeder this question but haven't gotten an answer back, yet. But she is not a raw feeder and is of the camp that large breed puppies should have maximum 24% protein, so her opinion might not be 100% correct anyway.

thanks for your help!

I switched all my pups to adult food at 4 or 5 months of age.....and the new pups will be raw fed.