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When, Why, and How to Start Feeding Your Pup Grown-up Nutrition
As your puppy grows into an adult dog, he needs nutrition that keeps his body as strong as your love, and that means a high-quality, premium adult formula such as IAMS™ ProActive Health™ Adult MiniChunks
Why move your grown-up pup to a premium adult dog food? Because quality counts. It's crucial to continue his superb puppy nutrition into adulthood. Downgrading to a lower-quality brand at this stage of his life may upset his digestive system, and won't provide him with the same level of nutritional excellence he was raised on.
Think of a baby. When it's time to start giving him solid food, you wouldn't dream of feeding your child anything less than the best nutrition you can buy. The same is true for your maturing puppy. He needs the best age-appropriate food there is to help maintain his overall health.
Premium foods, such as IAMS, are specifically designed to provide your dog with a food that has:
What does it all add up to? A happy, healthy dog. With premium dog food, you can expect key indicators that contribute to providing your dog with a long, healthy life:
Founded on more than 60 years of research into canine nutrition, premium formulas from IAMS help maintain your dog's health and provide him with the nutrition he needs for a long life. Basic brands may not provide these benefits or match the level of expertise that goes into every bag of dog food from IAMS.
Your puppy's transition to adult food should begin when he approaches adult height. His breed type will also help determine when to switch. Small-breed dogs tend to mature physically much sooner than large-breed dogs. Follow these guidelines to help you decide when to switch formulas:
Large- and giant-breed dogs, those weighing more than 50 pounds when fully grown, might not be ready to switch to an adult food until they're 12 to 24 months old.
To avoid upsetting your dog's intestinal tract or causing diarrhea, make the change from a puppy formula to an adult diet over a period of four days by mixing the two foods in your dog's bowl.
How much food should you give your dog? Check the daily feeding recommendations established by the pet-food manufacturer and read the label. Dan Carey, DVM and Director of Technical Communications at IAMS, suggests using the recommendations, then weighing your dog each week. If he's gaining or losing weight and shouldn't be, slightly decrease or increase his daily intake, and weigh him again in another week.
If you have specific concerns about your dog's weight, talk to your veterinarian. He or she can assess your dog's needs and give you a feeding recommendation.
DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) is an omega-3 fatty acid important for neural development of puppies. DHA is a major structural component of the brain, as well as the most abundant fatty acid in the brain. It plays a vital role in the development of a puppy’s central nervous system and retinal function.
To help your puppy be as smart and healthy as possible, DHA should be an essential component of your dog's diet. The DHA in IAMS™ ProActive Health™ Smart Puppy food helps encourage healthy brain development, which can make your puppy more trainable and help forge a stronger bond with you.
Common dietary DHA sources include fish (such as salmon, sardines, tuna and other seafood), eggs and organ meat. In pet foods, sources of DHA include fish, fish meal and fish oil.
Prior to weaning, puppies get DHA from their mothers. The puppy’s mother transfers DHA from her body tissues to her offspring during pregnancy and lactation.
After weaning, puppies can obtain DHA through their diet.
One IAMS study looked at beagle puppies whose mothers had been fed enhanced or typical dietary DHA from breeding on through weaning.* After weaning, puppies were fed the same diets as their mothers throughout the remainder of the study (up to 16 weeks of age). To evaluate the effect of diet on trainability, all puppies were taught to associate a symbol with a direction in a t-maze, with correct responses resulting in a food treat.
In the 30 days of testing, puppies from the enhanced-DHA group consistently outperformed the puppies from the typical-DHA group on the maze test. Results of the study indicated that puppies nourished on high DHA levels were more trainable.
*Data on file. The IAMS Company.
