Pet
Food
Review

Lifestage diets and size specific diets for dogs

We're used to the idea of starting a puppy on puppy food and then, at about 6 - 8 months changing over to an adult food, but now the choice and confusion has increased as more and more products are finding their way onto the pet shop counter.

Over the past few years there has been the appearance and rise in prominence of pet foods for every stage of a pets life, and the question has to be asked... 'How did pets survive until now with such a limitted range of diets on offer, surely they must have all died young or suffered badly withl ill health?'

And the answer is of course 'Pets did live long and healthy lives with very basic diets!' So why all these new foods, other than pandering to the marketing department!

According to Purina
'Every dog is unique. Each has it's own special character, likes, dislikes and needs. And just like humans, dogs have specific nutritional requirements too. A lot can depend on breed, age, lifestyle and condition. It's not surprising that a growing, energetic puppy needs a different balance in its diet than a less active senior dog. Most manufactured pet food brands now offer an increasing range of special recipes designed to meet the specific needs of dogs in this way. So you can be sure you're getting the balance right.'

How much of this is simply a bit of good marketing on the part of pet food manufacturers, or an essential consideration in the feeding of our pets?

According to Royal Canin's website
'A small breed dog’s digestive tract (7% of its Bodyweight) is more than twice the size of a Large breed dog (2.7%) So the answer is to feed large dogs with smaller meals of a concentrated energy food.

'Small breed dogs grow to adulthood in 8 months while larger breeds can take up to 24 months
So small breed puppies need enough nutrients to support their rapid development while large breed puppies should have a moderate energy level to sustain steady growth over a long period.

'Small breed dogs need nearly twice as much energy for their size as medium and larger breed dogs. So small breeds need a food that isricher in protein and fat to sustain them richer in protein and fat to sustain them.

'The average life expectancy varies from 14 years for small breeds to only 8 years for large breeds
So it is vital to slow down the ageing process at an early stage for large breeds'

Whether or not you actually need specific lifestage diets other than for puppy and adult is open to question. For the past generations of pets this wasn't an issue, and I guess that common sense prevailed - as a pet got older its requirements for quantity of food went down through engaging in less exercise... so we fed less.

At the end of the day it's up to the consumer to make a choice - and for the manufacturer to give honest and accurate information.

So let's have a look what's out there....