Dog Food - differences in puppy/ adult/ all life stages and small / anysize

[RebuildingMyself]

Can somebody please clarify what the differences are supposed to be between puppy, adult and all life stage foods? Also the difference between ones targeted at small breeds or any size dog?

If anyone has any good sources on minimum nutritional requirements for a small breed puppies and adult dogs, I'd love to see it too.

I've been looking at so many foods I've got my self more confused than when I started!

HI there. i feel your pain. I have a 12 weeks cocker spaniel puppy. i researched online and WOW so many options, Im feeding him one called Origens that is supposed to be really good with wet food. But i have signed up with tails.com - they do an amazing delivery and cant wait for my dog to try it. in his diet he has rice pudding at mid morning at goats mil for dinner. i think its a bit weird but will follow instructions until he is 3 more weeks, then all dog food.

Thanks, will take a look at tails.

Any one else got anything to add?

Puppy food is generally higher in protein and fat

Small size dog food: if you're talking about dry food the kibble is a lot smaller.

Suspect a lot of the 'life stage' stuff is just marketing, expect puppy food as Wyldfyre says.

*except puppy food

There is a huge range in the nutritional breakdowns of different dog foods and puppy foods.

In some brands the puppy and adult formulations are almost identical when it comes to percentages of protein and in some there are huge differences. An adult dog food of one brand might have higher levels of protein and fat than another brand's puppy food.

For example Orijen adult food has 38% protein and 18% fat whereas Burns Original puppy food has 24% protein and 12% fat.

I feed my dogs a food which is also of suitable nutritional value for puppies so I just feed the same regardless of the age of the dog. At one point I had dogs varying from 10 weeks old to 14 years old all doing really well on the same food.