I don't know that particular food but as far as I know from other posts on here 'puppy' food seems mainly to be a good way for manufacturers to get us all to spend more money and isn't really a necessity at all, lots of LF members put their pups on to adult food without any problems at all pretty early on so hopefully some of them will be along soon to advise you with this one. I didn't know skinners even made a wet food!
My Lab was brought up on Skinners F&T puppy and I changed to the adult versions when he was just 5mths old with no problems at all. My Pointer has eaten Wainwrights trays for the last 2years and I've just started adding a little Burns dry purely because 3 trays a day was getting a little expensive!
What you're already feeding is fine and if Koli's doing well on the Wainwrights trays and dry I'd be tempted to stick with them.
I think to say puppy food is a way to make you pay more than you need to and is not necessary is a big genaraliasation. Once again I cannot mention names but the difference on dogs started on optimal is incredible.
I am sure some manufacturers may do it as a money making exercise but others put in serious and continued hours of research into bone growth and all other functions needed to produce a fit and healthy dog from a puppy.
But is enhanced bone growth a good thing Konch? When you look at dogs in "Puppy" at shows now, and compare them with the dogs in Puppy in the 60's and 70's, before puppy food was invented, there is no comparison. The pups are so much bigger and mature than in the old days. So yes, you can see the difference in that respect. But hips have not improved to any great extent, OCD seems far worse than in the old days and the incident of Panosteitis seems far higher. OK, I accept that some of that is to do with better diagnostics, but not all. For my part, I only use puppy until the pup has grown enough to be able to handle the larger size food. I prefer my pups to grow at a nice slow steady rate.
I think once again though it is about people buying the bag and not the product.
Depending what you require to do with your dog really dictates how it should grow in terms of size and bone growth. Lots of people still buy puppies without ever seeing both parent dogs. And they still buy the pretty bag of food without actually knowing the reason they have chosen that brand.
You can't always expect to see both parent dogs when buying a pup though. You should be able to meet the mum, but not always the stud dog because the breeder often won't own him.
Puppy food - I fed it to Charlie until he was about a year old, but I did think he was gaining weight rather too quickly by then, and put him onto adult food. If I ever have another puppy I shall look to swap from puppy to adult food rather earlier, say around 8 months old.
I don't know anything about Skinners Gold. Is it a puppy food?
Personally I am opposed to feeding puppy food, some of the reasons have already been posted by others.
What I can tell you is the original skinners food was known as cube locally. it was about 19% protien and working litters than you could shake a stick at have been fed this. at firs its fed moistened and eventually dry, no different to how we feed dry now.
I do not know of any dog that suffered from this feeding regime. various slops have been added in some situations.
The dog may not have shot up as quick as some seem to now, but i do not consider them to have bee restricted in any way for working.
The only thing I would add is that you are not creating a puppy but a dog for life.
Research shows that Puppies not given the right start can develop problems in older age.
And as for how long to feed a puppy a puppy formula depends on the breed, size and type of dog.
Its a sweeping statement to say companies just write puppy on a bag to make more money and if you know they are doing this I would personally change to one that cares for your dog for an average of 15 years and not 4 months.
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