Normal vs. small breed?

S

snkoyle15

Forums Enthusiast
So im getting to the bottom half of Gizmo's bag of puppy food, which got me thinking. When i do switch him to an adult formula, do i give him just regular adult/medium or do i go with small breed? what is the difference between the two? we havent weighed him recently, but i would guess he is no more then 10-12lbs (and 8.5 months old), probably closer to the 10. the breeder said he would be a small one. i dont know if this makes a difference in it, but we feed him Blue Buffalo.
 
If I remember correctly small breed has different protein/fat because small dogs have a higher metabolism, so they burn though it quicker and can become hypoglycemic...now hes 8 months old so it should be safe to switch him to adult, but you may want to keep him on the small breed because 1 of his size, and 2 because he may not be able to handle the larger size kibble of regular food.
 
Lightplum said:
If I remember correctly small breed has different protein/fat because small dogs have a higher metabolism, so they burn though it quicker and can become hypoglycemic...now hes 8 months old so it should be safe to switch him to adult, but you may want to keep him on the small breed because 1 of his size, and 2 because he may not be able to handle the larger size kibble of regular food.
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ok. thanks guys. i was thinking of doing a small breed one mainly because of the kibble size. the breeder gave us a little baggy of what he was on, purina pro plan adult, and the bits were pretty big. we decided to switch him to blue buffalo puppy and he seems to handle the smaller bits a lot better. i think we will go ahead and switch him to the adult small breed when i get closer to the bottom of this bag. there is still about 1/3-1/2 left, so maybe when i get to 1/4 or so ill start the switch. only thing is, are we going to have problems with his weight during the winter on the small breed adult stuff? or should we not worry about that this year where he isnt full grown yet?
 
It depends on the brand. Lightplum is right, there is a difference in the fat/protein content -- a slight one in the better dog foods; I don't know about the cheaper brands. I like the small breed food because the kibbles are smaller and some brands have kibbles so big I use them for treats!

You do have to factor in the difference though in the analysis, so check the bag and judge by that.
 
I use to feed Blue Buffalo. I used both the "normal" adult food and the Small Breed formula. (I used the Chicken and Brown Rice formula.)

The only difference I noticed between the two, aside from kibble size, was the amount of protein. The Small Breed formula was a little higher on the protein than the regular adult formula by a few grams. Beyond that, it's pretty much the same food.
 
I did for a time give Deska gian breed kibble. He was inhaling his food at that stage and the giant breed slowed him down. It actually taught him to chew so that when he went back on to his normal size kibble he started chewing it and now always chews. The kibble I use is relatively small as Tully has such little teeth I don't want to wear them away (she already has some wearing from tennis balls).
 
My little guy, whose ideal weight was 12 pounds as an adult, always had to have the smaller kibble, simply because he was just a very small little guy. He would try his best on the big kibble foods, and for a while I had him on fresh frozen food (Bil-Jac) which he loved, but it put way too much weight on him.

I always had him on small breed formulas, for the most part because of the smaller kibble size.

Bela (whose target weight is 20 pounds) is completely different. I've kept her on medium size kibble, and she has no trouble. I don't put her on a small dog formula because she's got a tendency to put on weight. So just regular adult formula food for her (Wellness Core).

Since Shelties vary so much in size and scale, it's sometimes just a judgement call or trial & error.
 
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