Your thoughts on "puppy food"?

Is it necessary?
I've heard both sides..
1. that puppy food is essential for growing puppies
2. that it causes fast growth and is unnecessary

What are your thoughts?

I don't use puppy food. I never did believe in it in the first place, but especially don't now after what happened to Ripley. He was weaned onto a quality puppy food (Now! Puppy) and when we got him from his breeder, we continued with it. She always recommends switching to adult or ALS food by the time they're 4 months old and so that was what we were going to do. But then he started growing too fast and knuckled over (so basically he woke up one morning with deformed looking legs and I panicked a little). We took him to the vet (one that actually is knowledgeable about nutrition) and we were told to stop feeding puppy food and to give him Vit C to help correct it. He said that his problem is common in larger breeds fed puppy formulas apparently. And I don't believe puppy food is necessarily bad (it's likely better for some puppies), but I won't ever feed it again. Especially to a dog that is going to grow to be more than 50lbs. My puppies have all done well on adult or ALS foods.

I use it, it's a great tool.

The Hill's (Science Diet) people will tell you that "All Life Stages" food *is* puppy food, since it has to meet puppy food requirements.

I don't use puppy food but I do raise my puppies on different food until about 7 weeks old. More protein, more fats, more moisture.

Agree, also if you have a toy dog, it can be better since the kibble pieces are smaller and easier to chew for those tiny mouse like teeth.

I never used puppy food for Teagan or Emme.

I have decided though that any puppy I get in the future will be started on raw as soon as it enters my house!

I don't think all puppy foods are bad, some are really well made like the Acana Classic line (which is a grain-inclusive life stage line).

I don't think they're really required, since many many dog foods are all-life-stages with high protein and fat. But some folks prefer to see foods designated for the various stages in life. We get a ton of customers who get really nervous about all life stages foods and we have trouble convincing them otherwise, so usually they're given Now! Puppy or Acana Puppy.

I don't use it. Not because I think it's bad or anything.... That's just how it's worked out for my dogs.
They turned out all right.

I would use it for smaller dogs like Papillons but I may or may not for a larger dog.

I fed Nia puppy food until 8 months then switched to adult food and she did fine on either.

For a giant breed I definitely will not use it.

Generally I don't recommend a puppy kibble unless you know the puppy is going to grow to be less than about 50lbs. The smaller the puppy, the less you have to worry about accelerated growth issues. Very occasionally I'll recommend a "large breed" puppy for those over the 50lb mark, but it depends on the formula and how similar it is to a true adult food.

We don't feed puppy food just because you never, ever want to feed a dane it. Even large breed puppy food. My puppies are put on TOTW kibble until about 10 months and then are switched to raw, just because I cannot guarantee that I will include all the required nutrients a growing puppy needs. Maybe once I get more confident with my raw feeding abilities (and my memory improves to include more organs/variety) I will feed my pups raw from the get-go.

The only time I have fed puppy food was to an underweight picky adult JRT

No even though my dogs are small I don't feed puppy food. Either they get raw or a good quality high fat/protein kibble.

Stryker is the first puppy I've had in the house in 11 years. She's been getting a mix of Fromm Large Breed Puppy, Adult Gold, and Duck. I was so conflicted about what to do so I just throw it all together!

I think it depends on the individual pup and we evaluate each separately, we generally don't tend to use it on the puppies, preferring an ALS but some puppies seem to need a lot more from the food then the ALS can provide unless feeding huge amounts of it so on those ones we tend to use LB Puppy. Our theory is use what works as you are generally the best evaluator of your puppy.