Seniors Diet

[chuckie500]

I'm just curious as to the difference between a regular dog food and a seniors diet. The seniors diet seem to have less protein and less fat. Why is that better for a senior dog? Also if you are feeding barf, how do you make the same adjustment to diet?

[Stitch]

Sometimes seniors don't need a lot of fat in their diet and bone marrow is fat.

Also if they have gut problems they sometimes need a low residue diet so that their food is more easily digested.

Have a wander through this link for all dogfood questions www.dogfoodproject.com

Sorry link doesn't work automatically, you will just have to enter it in manually.

Edited April 30, 2009 by STITCH

[tomas]

I'm just curious as to the difference between a regular dog food and a seniors diet. The seniors diet seem to have less protein and less fat. Why is that better for a senior dog? Also if you are feeding barf, how do you make the same adjustment to diet?

This will answer some of your questions...

http://web.archive.org/web/20050404212053/...ary.asp?page=20

Tomas.

[toshman]

I'm just curious as to the difference between a regular dog food and a seniors diet. The seniors diet seem to have less protein and less fat. Why is that better for a senior dog? Also if you are feeding barf, how do you make the same adjustment to diet?

This will answer some of your questions...

http://web.archive.org/web/20050404212053/...ary.asp?page=20

Tomas.

I'm a bit cynical when dog food companies such as contained in the above link do write-ups and 'scientific studies' on what we should be feeding geriatric dogs!! They're in it for the sales, aren't they? The more different types of food they produce and can market to people with old dogs, young dogs, small dogs, big dogs, dogs with skin troubles, dogs with anything else you could possibly think of (and I see now you can even buy breed-specific foods!!) then presumably the higher their sales are. Fifteen years ago none of this stuff existed and dogs did perfectly well without them.

So in answer to your question, if you're a BARF feeder then I don't think you need to think about adjusting your dog's levels of fat/protein/calcium/phosphorous etc. as it grows old - that's the beauty of a natural diet! I have a 13YO cattledog racing around the back yard here and she still gets the same raw diet she did 12 years ago. Her teeth are strong and white and she copes perfectly with anything I throw at her. Just like the younger terriers.

JMHO, of course!

[tomas]

I'm just curious as to the difference between a regular dog food and a seniors diet. The seniors diet seem to have less protein and less fat. Why is that better for a senior dog? Also if you are feeding barf, how do you make the same adjustment to diet?

This will answer some of your questions...

http://web.archive.org/web/20050404212053/...ary.asp?page=20

Tomas.

I'm a bit cynical when dog food companies such as contained in the above link do write-ups and 'scientific studies' on what we should be feeding geriatric dogs!! They're in it for the sales, aren't they? The more different types of food they produce and can market to people with old dogs, young dogs, small dogs, big dogs, dogs with skin troubles, dogs with anything else you could possibly think of (and I see now you can even buy breed-specific foods!!) then presumably the higher their sales are. Fifteen years ago none of this stuff existed and dogs did perfectly well without them.

So in answer to your question, if you're a BARF feeder then I don't think you need to think about adjusting your dog's levels of fat/protein/calcium/phosphorous etc. as it grows old - that's the beauty of a natural diet! I have a 13YO cattledog racing around the back yard here and she still gets the same raw diet she did 12 years ago. Her teeth are strong and white and she copes perfectly with anything I throw at her. Just like the younger terriers.

JMHO, of course!

I feed raw myself,but felt the article had some useful information.

Feeding an older dog I would up the protein level slighlty as like people food just is'nt as well absorbed as you get older.

Tomas.

[puggy_puggy]

If your feeding a BARF diet to a senior then it's more then likely you would just cut down the amount of food being fed. This would be because your senior pet was doing less exercise.

But really with BARF diet you adjust the amount to suit your dog no matter what age it is.

[toshman]

If your feeding a BARF diet to a senior then it's more then likely you would just cut down the amount of food being fed. This would be because your senior pet was doing less exercise.

But really with BARF diet you adjust the amount to suit your dog no matter what age it is.

Yes, I agree with that, and that's probably the only adjustment I make to the old girl's diet...she gets a little less than she would have done when she was actively doing agility and tracking etc.

And I agree, too, that you adjust amounts to suit the dog at any age...I'm always just looking at my dogs and thinking (almost unconsciously) "She's looking a bit porky today - she needs a little less than usual this week" or the opposite for my boy Tosh as he has more trouble keeping the weight on. It's all a matter of common sense, isn't it?

Cheers...