what food?

[tito05]

hi, i have a 7 week old puppy so i have two question, first one.
Which is better to feed my puppy adult food or puppy food, i have heard you can feed them adult food. second one. I am confused about the type of food to feed him, i have read almost all the thread here and i cant decide which to go with. i want him to be strong have a beautiful coat, right now we are feeding what the breeder fed him which is IMAS, he eats but i know that not for him. so whatever infor please let me know thanks.

 

[boxer]

Hi tito

There's absolutely no reason why you can't feed a puppy adult food. In a natural environment, and post-weaning, puppies would eat exactly the same food as adults just proportionately more of it. And that's the case with all mammals, humans included We don't feed our children special "children formula" versions of our own food, not sure why we imagine we should with puppies.

In some cases, the difference between puppy and adult food is simply the size of the kibble bits - and in that case, the puppy food is fine. But in some others, the levels of protein and calcium have been inflated and that can be problematic. Excessive amounts of protein and calcium in particular, when fed to puppies, is responsible for or contributes to a wide range of growth and musculoskeletal problems in dogs. Seems safer to simply feed an adult formula from the outset.

An "ideal" level of protein for both dogs and puppies is around 22-25%. Anything in excess of that should be avoided in puppies, and anything but very active adults.

You could simply choose a good quality all-life-stages food such as Canidae (who don't even make a puppy formula) or you could choose a food from the Whole Dog Journal's list of quality foods, any of which would be a good choice. The current list, plus their selection criteria, is posted in this thread: http://boxerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66384

And to help you get a better idea of what to look for and what to avoid, there is some good information on our feeding page here at www.boxerworld.com/feeding