# Puppy food bad for puppies?



## nainai0585 (Jan 30, 2010)

I was looking at another forum and people where attacking others who fed their pups puppy food. They're general statement was that too much calcium in the puppy food caused the pups to grow too quickly then their suppose to, causing a lot of bone/hip/other problems, and more along those lines. They also stated that its best to give wetted adult food to the pups instead.

My question is, is there any truth to these statements?


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## Elocin (Jan 30, 2010)

Some puppy food probably sucks but I think that most of it is okay for puppies to eat, just read the ingredients and make sure what you are giving them if good for them. 

My vet told us on Charlie's last visit that there is no reason for us to feed him puppy food. He said the most current data on dog nutrition says that the protein content in adult food is okay for puppies to handle and in the wild they would be eating what their parents ate anyway. He did caution us on the calcium content but said not to stress out. He also said that since this research is relatively new to play it safe we might want to feed Charlie puppy food until he is six months old but after that he should be okay on an adult food. I know that they do make life stages food for dogs of all ages.


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## Labsnothers (Oct 10, 2009)

There is far more to it than the calcium, although it does need to be less than 1.5%. Most puppy chow is carefully formulated to produce fast growth. Excessive growth along with over weight puts too much stress on growing joints. The larger the puppy, the worse it is. 

Not only is puppy chow rich in nutrients, it carries a high mark up, thus highly attractive to those selling dog food. The service dog schools are far more interested in a long active life than getting big fast or the profits of food vendors. They instruct those raising puppies for them to keep them lean and make an early switch to adult, actually an ALS, food.


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