Being able to understand the diet required throughout each stage of your dog’s life is important for its wellbeing. A diet appropriate to the dog’s age can give it the best chance of being happy and healthy according to many vets.
Including a furry companion to a household comes with its own responsibilities, such as ensuring nutrition requirements are right from the early stage of life. It should be understood, that puppies need to be fed a puppy diet, and so on and so forth. Understanding the importance of a balanced diet appropriate to your dog’s age will give them the best chance of being happy and healthy.
Especially as their nutritional needs continue to change over their lifetime. Feeding inappropriate or unbalanced diets can lead to many health problems. The following are the stages and what should be known.
During the puppy stage,arguably the most important nutritional stage of a dog’s life. The nutrition must be tailored to support their growth, their developing immune and digestive systems, as well as brain and muscle development. It is important the diet puppies are fed is also appropriate to their size in order to support an appropriate growth rate. Small breeds will complete their growth at around 10 months of age, whereas large or giant dog breeds can continue to grow to up to two-years of age. Having the right balance of vitamins and minerals, particularly vitamin D, calcium and phosphorus is vital to support healthy bone development and mineralisation.
As your dog develops, the adult ordesexed/neutered dog requires a significant decrease in calories as compared to when they were growing puppies. It is important they are feed an appropriate diet for this stage of life to ensure they are getting the right amount of calories to minimise the risk of becoming overweight but without missing out on important nutrients. Supporting their dental and joint health is also important for their overall health and longevity.
At the senior stage your dog reaches its senior years differs depending on their size and increases their risk of kidney disease, dental disease and osteoarthritis. So feeding them a diet targeted to this stage of life can help manage or reduce the risk of these disease processes. Older dogs also often have a reduced sense of smell, so ensuring they are fed a senior diet that is designed to have a stronger smell can be important. Senior diets are often more easily digestible to make absorption of nutrients easier for an ageing body.
There are also considerations and risks associatedwith feeding the incorrect diet for a particular stage of life. For puppies, it can include problems with growth and development, such as musculoskeletal disease due to inappropriate bone mineralisation or growth rates. Adults may be at increased risk of obesity and dental disease or deficiencies in essential nutrients. If our senior canine family members are fed a diet that does not cater to their age, they may have more strain being placed on their ageing kidneys, less support for joint health and hence more significant disease faster.
Medical conditions, including kidney, dental, liver, gastrointestinal, urinary, skin, endocrine and joint disease, as well as obesity, can also alter the dietary needs of your pet. If you are still unsure, speak to your veterinarian about what diet is going to be the most suitable to maximize their nutritional health. Let us know your thoughts and what you feed your dog to keep it fit and healthy.
