When can we use complete dog food?

Question:
Our Labrador puppy seems very playful and happy but we're a bit concerned about his diet. He is now ten weeks old and when we got him from the breeder at eight weeks, she told us to feed him minced chicken and milk, with ground-up biscuits. We've been doing this but it's a lot of trouble to prepare and he seems to have a bit of a runny tummy. Can we change over to a prepared diet like the sort you buy from a pet shop or does he have to stay on this food for now? At what age can he have 'normal' dog food?
Theresa Clapton, Hampshire.

Answer:
At ten weeks, your puppy is old enough to manage a complete dog food.
However, because of his slight digestive problem any change should be made very gradually, over a period of a couple of weeks.

Try to find a highly digestible dog food, one which will not cause his system to be overworked. This can usually be determined by looking at feeding amounts. Pet foods that have relatively small feeding amounts will be higher in quality and should result in the productionof small amounts of waste (stools)

A growing puppy will probably need a higher energy food than an adult. However, do not pick the highest energy food you can find. Research shows that excess protein and calcium in the diet whena dog is growing can lead to osteochondrosis (OCD), arthritis and other skeletal problems linked to rapid growth. I would also avoid pet foods which contain wheat, soya or dairy products, as some dogs have difficulty digesting these.

If you find your puppy gets loose motions when you begin to introduce the complete food then you could be mixing too much in too quickly. Overfeeding will also cause this problem.

_{source Your Dog Mag.}