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Originally Posted by Michael Romanos
Peggy - you've missed my point again. Not all adult and senior dogs are suited to a daily intake of food that is suitable for puppies too, vis the all stages, all ages.
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DUH!!!
How much clearer does the below have to be?
A bit more on the life stages issues. An "All Life Stages" product is a general use, "one size fits all" product which is formulated so that no nutrient (of the 30-40 required) will be below the minimum for any particular life stage. What this means is that such a product will likely be over-formulated for certain life stages, particularly for maintenance. All Life Stages diets are perfectly safe nutritionally, however, a mature couch potato pet may gain weight on this type of product since it will have higher energy and protein values than what is required for maintenance purposes.
In most consumer situations, growth and maintenance are the life stages of interests and an all life stages product and will work out for a normal and healthy animal if a person watches their adult pet's body condition and avoids overfeeding an older animal. Again, All Life stages is OK for a healthy animal, but, for example, an older animal with kidney issues should not be fed an all life stages/growth/lactation/reproduction diet because the protein levels will add additional loads to the kidneys.
Examples of some "exceptions" are given and explained in the above excerpt. Protein levels in puppy foods can range from 26 to 28 to even 30 and 32%; those same percentage levels can be found in "adult" foods and one that comes to mind has a 40% protein level and it isn't a puppy food. And yes, all of these different foods have an AAFCO statement on their packaging or "approval" as you are so intent on calling it. Furthermore, believe it or not, there are even foods that exceed AAFCO's minimum nutritional requirements.
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Not all all-stages, all ages food fulfills requirements to obtain an AAFCO approval rating. Any food company can state that their food is for all ages, all stages. Now do you get me?
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Labeling requirements are very strict in the US, so it isn't quite as easy to put something on one's package that can't be substantiated as you would like to protray it to be.
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I personally would not want to give my dog "all purpose' food daily because I believe my Corgi is normal and should have the benefit of separate stages food to maximise the benefits.
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And in that vein, during heavier training seasons for agility do you feed performance formula foods?
Debbie