# Feeding Adults Puppy Food?



## PrettyPartis (Sep 5, 2017)

OK, we have 2 toy poodles that will be 1 year old on April 2nd & 3rd. We also have another toy poodle that will be 5 months on March 26th.

Right now we leave food out for them all the time and they eat however much they want. If anything they are on the slender side, so overeating is not an issue. Every few days we feed some sort of "treat" such as a chicken foot, sardines, or a bit of raw hamburger.

Just trying to figure out the logistics of everything. (We also have an older dog that we feed separately). Would it be a big mistake or problem to continue feeding puppy food to the older dogs until the younger pup gets closer to a year old?


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## asuk (Jan 6, 2017)

I won't feed puppy food to an adult, I believe puppy food is for rapid growth, etc. Maybe try to find an all life stages food that they all like?


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

My understanding is that special puppy food is more an issue for large breeds - the aim is to keep big puppies growing slowly and steadily. With that exception, the whole large/small/puppy/adult/breed-specific food thing is a bit of a marketing ploy in my opinion. I would feed them whatever you can afford that they like and do well on - if your young adults are very active and not gaining weight I don't think the puppy diet is a problem, but nor would feeding the pup a good quality all stages diet, especially with the healthy, high protein "treats" you are adding. But if you are free feeding do watch their weight - they are at the age when the metabolism changes as they finish growing; they may well self-limit their intake to compensate, but I would weigh them regularly just in case.


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## galofpink (Mar 14, 2017)

Puppy foods in general have higher protein levels and a higher calorie density. Most of it, like fjm says, I feel is marketing; there aren't huge differences. Puppies can eat quality all life stages food and adults can eat puppy food. Since puppy food is higher in protein, usually you will pay more for it.

The biggest risk with feeding everyone the puppy food is that you will have to monitor your "older" dogs to ensure that they aren't over conditioning. 

I fed puppy food with my first dog and a large breed puppy food for the first two months of my second (spoo) puppy, but then switched to an all life stages food from there. For larger breed puppies, it is important to have the proper calcium and phosphorous content as well as the proper ratio. Too much calcium or an imbalance between those two minerals can create unnatural bone growth, so that's the rational to large breed puppy food being encouraged for larger dogs. Not as big of an issue in smaller dogs, particularly in breeds that don't typically have hip and elbow issues.


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## PrettyPartis (Sep 5, 2017)

I appreciate the comments and input. I had actually done some research and found a few charts showing the recommended percentages for the different ingredients, and that is actually what lead me to the question. 

On the charts there is not much difference in what is recommended (for each ingredient) for adults and puppies, so that led me to wonder if it's really a big deal. I knew that the puppy food would have more calories, protein, etc., so my first thought (since our dogs aren't over-eaters anyhow) was that it wouldn't be such a big deal to continue feeding them the puppy food.

I think what we'll do is try to continue feeding the puppy some puppy food when we can, and try to feed the adults some adult food when we can (we had already bought some of their favorite food when our local petsense was discontinuing the brand). In addition we'll probably get a good life stages food to provide to them at all times, and beyond that just not really stress out over who's eating what as long as the pup is not eating a ton of adult food.


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

PrettyPartis said:


> OK, we have 2 toy poodles that will be 1 year old on April 2nd & 3rd. We also have another toy poodle that will be 5 months on March 26th.
> 
> Right now we leave food out for them all the time and they eat however much they want. If anything they are on the slender side, so overeating is not an issue. Every few days we feed some sort of "treat" such as a chicken foot, sardines, or a bit of raw hamburger.
> 
> Just trying to figure out the logistics of everything. (We also have an older dog that we feed separately). Would it be a big mistake or problem to continue feeding puppy food to the older dogs until the younger pup gets closer to a year old?


I'd say not a problem at all unless the adults are fat


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