Puppy is eating adult food
 

Hey guys dont yell at me! I know this isnt good. I have 7 month old yorkie and to adult dogs. This requires me to put 2 different types of food down and attempt to regualte feeding time. Now truth be told we have always just left dry food out for them to eat whenever they want. We do not feed them can food. Now of course my 3 year old boxer prefers to eat the puppy food since she is not supposed to and OF course the 7 mo yorkie prefers the adult food. When I first got chloe(the yorkie) we had hypogylcemia problems and she didnt always eat her food which can be a HUGE problem. My vet said as long as she eats ever couple of hours we should be able to keep the hypoglycemia under control. Long story short she would only eat the adult food which I gave up and thought 'Fine as long as she is eating". Iknow she is not gettin all her puppy nutrition that she needs. She is way past the hypoglycremia problems but she still only wants the adult food. I have tried different brands of puppy food wet and dry and she wouldnt eat any of it. I used to give her nutrical but now I am not doing anthign outside of the food. Should I give her puppy vitamins? If so what? Its pretty clear that she WILL NOT eat any kind of puppy food so I do not consider that an option. She won that battle. So how bad is the adult food for her? And how should I try to make up for what nutrition she is not getting?
by the way I feed them nutro.

I have two adult yorkies and one 3 month old tiny baby that weighs 1 lb my vet said as long as the puppy is eating the adult food it's okay, and not let the older dogs eat the puppy food, he said sooner or later the dog food company's are going to switch all puppy foods to just adult food. so my little one has been eating adult food since I got him, and he's doing fine with it.

Now I had heard to put them all on puppy if you have an adult dog. I will have to reconsider that advice after reading the last post. My adult dogs hav been eating the puppy food too. ughhh.

Thats good to hear. I thought there was special nutrition that puppies needed in "puppy food" :confused: though.

And I stopped leaving any puppy dry food out since only the adult dogs were trying to eat.

:confused: Isnt puppy food fattier? Thats why I have heard its not good for adult dogs to eat it. They cant metabolize it as quickly. But puppies need it for growth and energy. Thats just what I have heard....

Shana: I believe you are right with this. I feed Chewy Natural Balance. He's almost 5 months and they don't have a pupy food per se, just what's call the "ultra premium" one they say it's not good to feed the flavors like duck and potato to the pups. At what age anyway do we switch them? Isn't it 10 months?

The vet said to feed the mother puppy food both before and after birth, because it had more calories, etc. that she needed; before birth for the developing puppies and after birth for milk production. The other dogs can't get at the puppy food because mom and puppies are in a separate room. But I still have to put out adult small bites and adult large chunks for the others. They sometimes try to eat each others food or even eat the catfood. Just like kids, they think it's a treat when they get the kind they're not suppose to have. So far they're all doing fine! :eek: :confused:

BTW, being an avid reader and a stickler for language, I have to acknowledge that my grammar in the last post was horrendous, LOL, LOL

I have never used puppy food IMO it tends to make puppies very hyper - they are calmer on adult food and have all grown and matured very well on it too :)

I fretted over this issue when Bentley was 2 years old and I brought Mia home. I wanted Mia having the extra fat and nutrition that the puppy formulas have and I wanted Bentley to eat his adult food because I didn't want him packing on some extra weight. I tried for less than a month feeding the 2 different foods (puppy and adult formulas). Well, it didn't work because Mia ate Bentley's adult food and he ate her puppy food. I learned on another forum that has lots of good info on nutrition that there are some brands that make an all life stage formula. So I started using Dick Van Patten's All stage formula and my problems were solved. Some of you may be too young to remember Dick Van Patten but he was on a TV show years ago called Eight Is Enough. His company also make a zoological food line.
. http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/pro...allstages.html
"Natural Balance® Ultra Premium Dog Food is made for All Life Stages and provides premium nutrition for every stage of life. In Nature, your pets would not have the choice of puppy formulas, nor lighter formulas for their senior years; they would simply live on a diet of mostly meat and and some grain. In a natural free environment, animals instinctively eat more or less, depending on their age and activity level."

I have a similar problem - they want each others food.
I asked the vet and she said - for the adult mix her food with puppy food. But do under NO circumstances give the puppy adult food =( The reason is there is too much of something in it and it will weaken her bones...
So I get a little worried when I hear you are feeding them adult food.

Come on - yorkies couldn\'t even live in nature, so that\'s a bad argument!

What are you talking about? That "blurb" is copied from a food companies website. I\'m not "arguing" anything, what a ridiculous statement. I have no idea why you perceived this as an argument. There are high quality premium dog food brands that have "all life stage" formulas. I just shared a link and blurb from a company whom produces one of the lines. It\'s a company that also produces a zoological line. With the major investment in zoo animals and the knowledge of Veterinarians I seriously doubt they would use a company with an inferior product. Natural Balance all stage formula is just one option for those that share in this dilemma. There are those that also choose to feed BARF.

Mya does get a bit of adult food but I try to pick it up then feed her on my bed, sofa, ottoman so that Comic does not eat her food. Once she is full she is not interested in Comic\'s adult food. Then I put Comic\'s food down for him. I must say our 16 year old cat has never looked better since sneaking the RC Puppy 33 food. So I give her a little and also put down her canned cat food. The cat eats at a feeding station on top of the dishwasher so that the dogs don\'t eat HER cat food. Life is easier with heights around here *grin*

I think about the only difference, is that Puppy Food has more nutrients to keep up with their fast growth. When an adult eats Puppy Food, they start gaining weight, because they don\'t need that extra growth energy.

Sorry, I thought it reflected your opinion and as so, it was used as an argument.
My bad.