Can a puppy eat adult formula?

Question

My wife and I brought home a 7 week old male Boxer puppy yesterday, and I have a quick question about what he should eat. The breeder feeds her puppies EaglePack Adult Formula dog food, rather than giving them dog food specialized for puppies.

I'm just curious as to whether or not we should follow this, or if I should switch our little guy to puppy formula. Thoughts??

Answer 1

EaglePack Adult Formula is said to be a very good food.

"Eagle Pack® Super Premium contains the superior quality of human grade ingredients. The first ingredient is a "specific" meat meal protein like chicken meal"

Many of the commercial foods like Purina Puppy Chow and Pedigree Puppy are not made with the human grade ingredients and have many fillers in them, such as Soy, Corn and Wheat. These are all very, very bad. (I have been doing a lot of research because I that a puppy with food alergies.)

I would stay with the EaglePack food! The breeder seems to really know what they are talking about.

Answer 2

We are not familiar with "EaglePack". We feed PROPLAN Adult to all our puppies and have had excellent results. Puppy foods have too many unnecessary additives and can stimulate too much growth at the wrong times in large, active breeds. Your boxer is a large, active breed. If your breeder has a track record of producing top rated Boxers, then by all means keep feeding the Adult formula recommended by your breeder.

Answer 3

A puppy should be on puppy chow, and so should be the mama dog, from the time she conceive to about two weeks after weaning the pups.
I've found that some breeders, especially those that are not so reputable, feed adult dog food because is cheaper than the puppy one.
Small, medium, and large dogs should eat puppy chow until they are 12 months of age. Extra large dogs, as in St. Bernard, Newfoundlands, Great Danes etc. should eat puppy chow until 3 years old, as that is when they stop growing.
Puppy chow has what a puppy needs to grow properly, especially when it comes to bone structure, and building a strong immune system.
Those who think they're saving money now when they're puppies, in using dog chow, will pay up in the long run, i.e. a broken leg, skin problems, allergies.

Answer 4

I'd leave him on the quality adult food or switch him to a puppy formula until 4-6 months of age. Many people don't know that there could be too much protein regular puppy food and cause joint problems so you have to be careful. Boxers are medium sized breeds.
Read this
http://www.boxerworld.com/feeding/

Other good thing to read
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=main

Answer 5

Ask your vet at your initial puppy wellness check, which should be within seven to ten days of bringing your new puppy home.

FYI, Eagle Pack has a puppy formula for large breeds, if you'd want to switch to that.

Answer 6

Eagle Pack adult formula is perfectly fine for a puppy. Eagle pack is a very good quality food and has a lot of good ingredients and nutrition.
Puppies , especially large & giant breeds (giant breeds should NEVER EVER be fed a puppy food)do not need to be fed a puppy food if they are on a good quality adult food and not one of the low quality foods such as Science Diet, IAMS/Eukanuba, Purina, Pedigree or other "supermarket" brand food.

Knowledgable, responsible breeders of large will often feed their pups quality adult food. They know it is better for their growth.If they do feed a puppy food they will only recommend it be fed until the puppy is 6 -7 months.. Knowledgable, responsible breeders of giant breeds NEVER feed puppy food and will make sure to inform the buyer NO puppy food ever!! Puppy food can cause some very serious growth issues.

Answer 7

In the case of the larger breeds, it is actually better in most instances for them to be on an adult food. The puppy foods can be too fatty and actually more apt to cause developmental problems with their joints.

Eagle pack, as a few have mentioned, is a great food. I prefer the holistic brand to the regular, but either way is fine.

You can use puppy foods that are developed for large breed puppies as they are geared towards the slow nature of the breeds' development. That being said, if you did your homework and your breeder is reputable, FOLLOW THEIR INSTRUCTIONS! If your breeder is reputable, this is a discusion she would be more than happy to have with you. Unless the people answering this work in the veterinarian field or are experienced breeders, the advice may or may not actually be knowledgeable.

Answer 8

eagle pack is a good quality food but i would check into the eagle pack puppy food as they need extra nutrition when they are puppies. Do not switch to a lower quality food like what is at your vets or the grocery store, but get the pup on a good nutritional puppy food that eagle pack puts out, or wellness, canidae, innova, solid gold or california natural are some good all natural good quality foods.

Answer 9

Puppy food is just a gimmick, they don't need it. Puppy food is too rich and can cause structural problems in many breeds (including mine), especially larger breeds. 26% protein is plenty rich enough for a Boxer pup.

I am not fond of Eagle Pack though, you can feed better. Try Sensible Choice, Natural Balance, Chicken Soup, Wellness, or Canidae.

Answer 10

Puppy formula!I'm a dog breeder and all the dogs eat puppy food if they don't there teeth will rot faster id say give him puppy formula just in case.