feeding an adult dog puppy food

[Brookesmami]

I have an almost 5 year old brindle girl. She is a free feeder. No matter how hard Ive tried over the years, we cant get her to eat on a schedule. so she eats when she wants. She is a low energy girl, and we fight her weight (she is underweight)

NOw, is it ok, to feed her puppy food? I dont want our new pup eating the adult food, and Im sure Brooke will end up eating the puppies food. what a conundrum Ive found myself in....

 

[gmacleod]

How about an all-life-stages food for both of them? It is very likely better than either of the limited life stages foods anyway.

 

[Brookesmami]

which ones are all life stages? Ive been reading them all day and Im crosseyed with the choices. Brooke has been on wellness puppy, then wellnes super 5, then core when she was throwing up a lot. She doesnt seem to like the taste of core, so we had to go back to super 5.

 

[gmacleod]

Well there are many all life stages foods. Wellness Core is one of them, and so technically is Wellness adult (though I think the latter is actually a bit light for a pup with only 22% protein, which is the minimum for growth).

Personally, I'd just choose an all-life-stages food that has at least 24% protein, from good quality animal sources. It will say right on the packaging what life stage the food is rated for. What you need is one that says "XX is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) Dog Food Nutrient Profiles for all life stages" Every dog food package has such a statement.

 

[BoxerMoments]

I've been using taste of the wild which is all life stages and grain free for my boy and he loves it and has been doing great on it. It's actually the first food we've tried him on that he's finally had solid poop on. And it's also priced well.

 

[RileyandMax]

If you don't do an all stages food, maybe just use the same brand for both.

We have a 4 year old wheaten terrier and a 9 week boxer pup. At the beginning we were mixing wet and dry food of a brand he was eating at the breeders, and our other dog always would try to eat it when we weren't looking.

Out wheaten is on Blue Buffalo adult, and we have since switched our puppy to Blue Buffalo puppy food, which looks and smells the same (at least to me), and our older dog hasn't touched it yet.

 

[Brookesmami]

I saw that our local petsmart/petco carried blue buffalo but I couldnt find a review on it from the link????

 

[BxrMommieNAZ]

I saw that our local petsmart/petco carried blue buffalo but I couldnt find a review on it from the link????

Are you talking about on dogfoodanalysis? If so, it's under the 4 star foods, obviously under the B's.

 

[Brookesmami]

well she is on a five star food, I would like to go to another five star or a six star food so those are all I was looking at.

 

[BxrMommieNAZ]

well she is on a five star food, I would like to go to another five star or a six star food so those are all I was looking at.

I do not think they make an all life stages 6 star food as many of the 6 stars are grain free and most of those state that they are not for dogs under 12 months old.

Maybe a few 5 stars. Nothing wrong with 4 star foods, most of them simply state their meat content is low, but you can easily rectify that by adding some of your own meat or a good quality canned food or something like Wellness's 95% meats. Plenty of good quality 4 star foods that just have a lower protein content, but ingredient wise are great foods.