Feed Types
Baby Food, Senior Food, Less-Active Food, Maintenance Food, Giant Breed Food, Little Dog Food, Skinny Dog Food, Big Bites, Little Bites…
What's a Mom (and Dad) to do?
You ever get the feeling that either we are all getting a whole lot smarter about everything or is it the marketing folks are getting a whole lot smarter about selling dog food? I mean a few years ago we had a couple of choices about dog food….puppy food or adult. Our buddies seemed to do pretty good, right? Well, not really. That is probably why I got into dog food. In my practice I saw many things going on with my patients that I felt that diet either caused or diet could help with. I think health drove the engine that produced some pretty good foods. Now, however, it appears that marketing is the engine that is driving the production of a lot of our foods. Having said that, I am going to try to dissect the categories of food into an easy to understand, no-nonsense way. I will try to impart what is real and what sounds good but may not mean a thing and in some cases may be detrimental.
Oh, before I get started, remember that although nutrition is the most important thing you can do for your friend, genetics is the most important determination in your dog's health and athletic potential in most respects. As I have always said you cannot make a Golden Retriever into a Schutzund III. It is against the genetic nature of the breed (ok, here is my disclaimer: I am sure there was or is a Schutzund III Golden out there somewhere).
Puppies: It is pretty common knowledge now that most of the older puppy foods were actually detrimental to the growth of larger breed dogs that were genetically predisposed to bone problems (most of our working dogs). Now we have the large breed puppy foods. They are an improvement. I like to have folks look at the label of any regular maintenance dog food. It will state that it is sufficient for all life stages. That means that as far as puppies are concerned it will have all the vitamins and minerals needed for growth as determined by the official feed councils. The problem was the marketers took control and made us think the pups needed something extra. In reality they really need about the same thing i.e.: calcium and phosphorus levels should be the same proportion as adult foods are and protein and energy levels about the same. The fact is that pups just need more food overall per pound of body weight due to the rapid growth. It is the same with people. Do you feed your kids a special dinner or do they sit down with you and eat what is on the table? We all know they eat a whole lot more of it (especially adolescents) but basically they eat (or should eat) about what we eat as adults. They do not need special diets. Our pups do not either. Having said that, I do feed and recommend feeding puppy food to pups. Today some puppy foods have been fine tuned so most are good to feed the pups so do not worry if you are feeding puppy food if it is one of the newer formulations.
I do not automatically feed puppy foods or I will mix with adult food or sometimes I just feed adult. It all depends on the dog! Remember all through everything that although breeds of dogs have most of the genetic code of each other every dog and situation is different so there are no hard and fast rules.
If I feed puppy food I usually transition to a regular adult food at about 12-16 weeks. If my dog has a family history of growth problems (dysplasia, OCD, etc.) I keep him on the thin side and choose a food lower in energy for up to a year and a half of age.
If my dog is a pet I keep things pretty much the same. I will adjust for health concerns such as skin/coat concerns, lameness, gastro-intestinal, etc. If I start training my dog I will change to a food high in energy that is made for training and competition. Currently, the only food on the market for this stage is Best Breed Working Dog Diet. It is a high fat and moderate protein diet. One point here also is that sometimes I mix two types of food to fine tune the final product. Each dog owner or kennel knows best what works in each circumstance.
Probably the biggest nutrition area is in older dogs. The senior diets are usually fat restricted diets and I almost never recommend restricting fat too much. It is far too important of an ingredient for body function to do without. Again, as in pups, it is the proportion of fat (or whatever ingredient) in the diet that is important. Seniors just eat less per pound of body weight. It is a fact that 90% of obese animals gain weight on Senior (low cal) dog food. It has to do with hunger and carbohydrate metabolism combined with the lack of fat (one of fat's functions is satiety). Also, the "too much protein" thing of a few years ago is pretty much considered a myth in normal healthy dogs. Kidneys can handle good quality protein in moderate to high amounts all through life. Remember, it is quality, not so much as quantity that is important.
So, when do I switch to senior diets? Probably never. Some Senior Diets on the market now have been reformulated to be adequate for our pets but in general stay away from them (they usually cost more for less also…..there are those marketers again).
Ok, so you saw the big bite, little bite in the title of this article. Basically that does not matter so long as your dog eats it; however, research has shown that most dogs prefer the little bites. Oh well. I hope you are not more confused now. It all boils down to finding the best quality of food you can find and fine tuning it if you need to for the results you want.
Gary Cotton, D.V.M.