[Cerberus]

We usually have about ten or so dogs in the house, ranging from newborn puppies to 4-year-olds. We free-feed them, as in, we keep the food bowls filled, and they eat when they are hungry.

We have been feeding them all puppy food for their whole lives. Is that bad? If we tried to segregate the feeding, it would be much more complicated, and harder. I don't think we'd be able to free-feed them any more, because the big dogs would just eat the puppies' food.

I just wanted to put it out there and see: is it harmful for adult dogs to subsist solely on puppy food?

[FourIsCompany]

Usually, puppy food is higher in fat and protein and has different nutritional values. If I were you, I'd switch them all over to a dog food for all life stages. My dogs have never eaten puppy food.

Myths about Feeding and Nutrition

[MrsJohnnyG]

I've been ashamed to admit this, but I don't separate our dogs when I feed them, and Dixon (the grown-up) ALLLLLWAYYYYS wants to eat their puppy food. So basically I put three bowls of puppy food plus a bowl of adult food, and the adult food never gets eaten.

Both foods are Chicken Soup, and I've compared the ingredients list and they don't seem all that different. Dixon is actually leaner now (she had crept up a few pounds but is back to her slim self now -- but that's probably more that she has companions she can run around with for hours now) but I hope her taste for puppy food doesn't cause other problems.

[Love's_Sophie]

Our 3 year old Terrier mix doesn't maintain a decent weight on regular 'adult' foods, so right now she and the 9 month old Poodle are on Chicken Soup Puppy...This seems to be fitting the bill for the older dog. She has so much energy, that I don't think adult foods really 'keep up with her' even with 3 meals, or free choice. On free choice she really nibbled, and lost even more conditioning, so I knew that was not going to work; she does much better with set meals, either way. But, yeah, in some instances puppy food for adult dogs can work.