Choosing a commercial food for your dog is more difficult today than ever; marketing is clever and labeling is confusing. Puppy foods, breed-specific foods, weight management foods, senior foods, high energy foods - the choice can become crippling. Commercial diets for dogs labelled for "All Life Stages" (ALS) may help simplify choice - consumers can presumably choose one food and feed it forever. But consider this: in order to meet nutritional requirements for a dog at each stage of life throughout all life stages, ALS foods must be formulated for the most demanding life stage, which is reproduction and growth.
What does this mean? The All Life Stage (ALS) foods are puppy foods. Like foods labeled specifically for puppies, ALS diets have higher levels of calcium and phosphorus required for optimal skeletal development and increased amounts of other nutrients such as sodium and chloride, iron, copper, zinc, manganese and amino acids compared to foods labeled for adults (i.e. "Maintenance). Generally ALS foods will be more energy dense; they have more kcals per measure than their maintenance counterparts, mostly due to the higher fat content and to a lesser extent, the higher protein required to support the energy demands of reproduction and growth.
So? What's the big deal? While ALS diets have benefits such as convenience in households or kennels where both puppies and adults are being fed, or for the consumer who is adverse to dietary changes for their dog (for whatever reason - and their are some valid ones - expense, availability, time-constraints, food sensitivities to name a few), the reality of the ALS diet is that a senior dog requires a food with a different nutrient composition than does a female nursing a litter of eight, 3-week old puppies. While many dogs appear to proceed through life just fine consuming an ALS food, there are definitely scenarios where an ALS food should not be fed and doing so may risk the development or progression of nutrition-mediated disorders such as obesity and canine kidney disease.
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© Fiona Robertson Cert. ACN