Question about Adult Dog Food and Puppy Food

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

As many of you know, we brought home our new puppy this Saturday. This little guy eats like a horse. Our other dog, Fudge, is a grazer. I have always left her food out and she eats when she is hungry. She does not overeat and is at a good weight. Anyway, I cannot do this with the new puppy because he would eat all her food plus all of his food. Right now, I am feeding Fudge Innova...switching the formula every time I buy a bag.

I am also slowly switching the new puppy to Innova puppy food. The problem is when I put their food down, Fudge is trying to eat his food and Vern is trying to eat Fudge's food. They seem to want what the other one has in their bowl. I would like to get them on the same food, but not sure with the difference in age if this is feasible. Can anyone suggest a food for all life stages that would work for both? Thank you.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

If you feed the puppy in his crate, that will take care of Fudge trying to eat his food. It's her grazing that's the problem. Maybe you could try adding a few morsels of something extra special to Fudge's bowl to entice her to eat her food when the puppy is eating his.
I think Fromm is an all-life-stages food. As long as you aren't feeding grain-free anyway, that might be a good choice for you. There are lots of flavors to rotate through, and most dogs love it.
Just checked...the Fromm Four-star line is an ALS food.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Thanks, Karen. I thought about Fromm and was considering it, so glad to get your opinion. I also like the lots of flavors thing....Fudge seems to like the variety. I knew I would get the answers here.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Welcome to double dogdom. This is just the way it is and will be for a while. We switched to an all-stages food for a while just to make things easier. Our two older dogs do not eat each others food even if it sits all day and they never touch Ned's either. Ned has gotten much better, but since he is our grazer we have been able to leave it down so that he can have his midnight feasts. Now that we have Clancy we are watching food dishes again, although he is pretty good about it and I think will learn pretty quickly.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Fromm is all life stages - Peri has been on it since Day 1 pretty much. I HIGHLY recommend it. They have 5ish varieties of proteins in their 4-star line and you can rotate each bag (give your puppy a few months of the same though - let him get settled). We do pork & applesauce one month, duck the next, salmon the next - you get the point. Sounds like you want variety anway and I think you would be happy with this food.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

That's an interesting question. I've been feeding Murphy Orijen puppy with a tablespoon of home cooking (that way he leaves Guinness's food alone). It is very hard to find...most of our stores carry Orijen, but not the puppy formula. I did go out of town today, and I found a bag. The saleswoman at the store told me that Orijen adult formula is actually "all life stages" food. Sure enough, although the large print says Adult, the fine print says that it is suitable for all life stages. Does this sound right? I can't figure out why they would produce a puppy product if their adult food is actually for all life stages. I guess I need to get a bag of each and compare the ingredients, but I though someone might have already looked at this.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Orijen puppy:

GUARANTEED ANALYSIS
Crude Protein (min.) 40.0%
Crude Fat (min.) 20.0%
Crude Fiber (max.) 3.0%
Moisture (max.) 10.0%
Calcium (min.) 1.6%
Calcium (max.) 1.8%
Phosphorus (min.) 1.2%
Phosphorus (max.) 1.4%
*Omega-6 (min.) 3.2%
*Omega-3 (min.)
*DHA
*EPA 1.2%
0.7%
0.4%
*Carbohydrate (max.) 18.0%

*Glucosamine (min.) 1400 mg/kg
*Chondroitin (min.) 1200 mg/kg
*Microorganisms (min.) 120M cfu/kg

Orijen Adult:
GUARANTEED ANALYSIS

Crude Protein (min.) 40.0%
Crude Fat (min.) 16.0%
Crude Fiber (max.) 2.5%
Moisture (max.) 10.0%
Calcium (min.) 1.5%
Calcium (max.) 1.7%
Phosphorus (min.) 1.2%
Phosphorus (max.) 1.4%
Omega-6 (min.) 3.0%
Omega-3 (min.)
DHA
EPA 1.1%
0.6%
0.3%
Carbohydrate (max.) 20.0%

Glucosamine (min.) 1200 mg/kg
Chondroitin (min.) 900 mg/kg
Microorganisms (min.) 120M cfu/kg

The puppy food is considerably higher in fat, slightly higher in fiber, lower in carbohydrates, and higher in glucosamine/chondroitin, which is interesting. All of the other values, including the protein, are the same or too close to make a difference.
You would expect to see a difference in calcium & protein levels, but apparently not.
(This is the regular puppy formula analysis; I assume you aren't feeding large breed puppy.)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The vitamin content is identical, except for B5 (pantothenic acid) which is lower in the puppy food. I will have to look that up in one of my textbooks to see why. Mineral content is also identical.

[Becky, Savannah, & Raleigh]

We are kind of in the same boat. We just adopted a rescue labradoodle, Raleigh. I am feeding our current dood, Savannah, EVO and bought a small bag of puppy Fromm for Raleigh. Van has eaten Fromm in the past, and didn't seem to like it as much as the EVO. she is extremely finnicky, and i have to always put some tasty morsels on top of it to entice her to eat...she also has a tendency to get loose stools if her food is changed even the slightest, so i'm not real big on wanting to switch her up at this point.

Raleigh is currently eight months old, and im guessing close to 60 pounds. He is a little skinny, but not malnourished (no ribs sticking out or anything) He seems to like both EVO and Fromm (he was getting pro plan puppy from foster care, which is not the best, i know!), but he seems to be an enthusiastic eater, which delights me!

Our doggie day care center has several great lines of high quality supreme food, but i have not seen EVO puppy. im wondering if this exists? thanks!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

EVO puppy formula does exist, in a couple of different versions.

[Becky, Savannah, & Raleigh]

karen, because he is 8 months and prob 60 lbs do you think that I need to keep him on puppy food?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I would check with the vet to get his opinion on how close to full skeletal growth he is; they all continue to gain body mass (weight) for awhile after reaching full height, but once they're at full skeletal size, you can usually switch them with no problem. The smaller the expected adult size of the dog, the sooner they reach full skeletal size.

[Becky, Savannah, & Raleigh]

thanks so much for your insight, as always, Karen!! we meet with our wonderful vet on monday, and i will ask him! for now, i will just offer both to him, he can use some bigger meals these days!

on a side note, laure, fudge, and vern: we live in york, so really close to seven valleys, PA! we should meet sometime!