When is a dog considered a "senior"?

[dontpugme]

Max is six and turning seven next year (or if you are reading this in 2011 he will be seven this year.) I was wondering when a dog would be considered a "senior" dog and when (or if) to change his food.

[runlikethewind]

Interesting question!! Purists would argue that dogs fed a more natural diet don't need their diet changing as they get older. Just check body fat and feed less accordingly. Maybe add in a joint supplement, but do some research as there are so many! Commercial pet foods will have you follow a prescribed programme - puppy - junior - adult - senior. If you feed a commercial food, I would follow what they themselves advise. If you are loyal to one brand, try contacting them and see what they consider senior and the food they recommend?

[maximoo]

I believe age 7 is considered senior for most dogs. However very large breeds (Great Dane, St Bernard, Irish Wolfhound, etc) whose life span is less than 10 yrs I would think the senior status will be younger. Not sure what it would be, I'm guessing age 5.

[dontpugme]

I'm reading all of my pug books and they're all saying 7.

I'm exploring the Nutro website. Right now we feed max Nutro Natural Choice Small Breed Adult. They seem to have some foods for all lifestages. (is this wise to get?) They also have a special senior food that says its for 5 years and up.

Kind of getting confusing, but I'm gonna dig around some more.

[MPbandmom]

Not that she is a dog, but my cat is 12ish years old and fed on Royal Canin intense hairball formual (She is a long hair cat.) When I asked the vet about switching her to a senior food, he said she was very healthy for her age, and seemed to be doing great on her current food, so there was no need to change to a senior food. I was actually pretty happy to hear that as there is no intense hairball formula senior food.

So before you change Max's food, you might want to see what your vet thinks.

[dontpugme]

Thanks! Gonna call the vet and do more digging at the website.

[mum24dog]

When I asked the vet about switching her to a senior food, he said she was very healthy for her age, and seemed to be doing great on her current food.

And the same applies to dogs.

It used to be thought that older dogs needed less protein but actually more recent research suggests that the opposite is true and that too little protein can be damaging.

The only thing to watch out for is weight gain, in which case use a variety of food with lower fat, not lower protein.

Pam

[Nettle]

Sometimes older dogs (cats, people, whatever) don't get the nutrition out of their food the way they used to. In this case, the answer is to feed suitable supplements rather than different food. Which supplements one should feed depend on how the dog is responding to its food - if it ain't broke, no need to fix it. If your dog is full of life and bright and active, no need to worry. If she seems to be slowing down, coat or breath smells, eyes are dull, she's scratching a lot.... then a health check and a nutritional adjustment is a good idea.

[Mattie]

When Tilly arrived she was 20 weeks old, I also had Gracie who at that time would be about 15 years old and several dogs of various ages in between, all were fed on the same food, I didn't feed any different for my pup as my other dogs nor for my really oldie who was 17.5 when she went to the bridge still fed on the same food. My 3 dogs that I have now are fed on the same food just as Cyril will when he arrives tomorrow.

[wvvdiup1]

I'm like Mattie when it comes to feeding dogs, because when you feed whole, nutritious food to your dog or puppy, they're getting the nutrition they need. Sure, I make sure any puppies I have in my care get the protein, vitamins, and minerals they need as they are growing, developing, and are still active. And, I watch what I feed to adult dogs, including "seniors." The way I see it is that if I won't eat it because it is processed such as additives and other chemicals added to the food, my dogs and puppies won't eat it either!

However, to answer the question "When is a dog considered a 'senior'?", I believe it depends on the breed of dog as some breeds live longer than other breeds. Take Collies, for example, Collie live on average -what 10 to 12 years of age- however, I have collies live to be 18 years old, with the oldest living to be 21-1/2 years old! Her name was Alexis, "Lexie" for short, and she was quite active from the time she was a puppy until she was 18 years old!

Maybe I have an odd way of thinking, but I consider my dogs to be "seniors" when I see them slow down, not active as they used to be. For them, I most definitely take extra care. Like humans, eating the right foods, eating foods in moderation, exercise, and adequate sleep are essential to dogs and other animals. If this is followed, the healthier we and our animals are, and the less we see our doctors and vets!

[mum24dog]

Maybe I have an odd way of thinking, but I consider my dogs to be "seniors" when I see them slow down, not active as they used to be.

Not odd at all. I totally agree.
More sensible than relying on a chart compiled by someone who has never seen your dog.

Pam

[Fundog]

I agree. My Annie is seven years old, and technically could be considered a "senior" dog. But she is being fed the same food three year old Dottie is getting, and over the past year Annie has never looked better than she does now, and seems to feel and act younger, with more energy and playfulness. It could be partly due to a higher quality feed, but it could also have something to do with having Dottie around, pouncing on Annie and generally acting like a six month old puppy.

[Mattie]

I wonder if the way we are feeding our pups is causing a lot of health and skeleton problems, I remember some years ago someone I knew bred her first foal, she couldn't do enough for him and fed him all the high quality food she could get. When he was a year old he had to have a year of box rest because of the way he had grown. The vet put it down to the high quality food he was being fed from an early age, said it was too much for his system to cope with and in the end his body couldn't cope.

We are seeing a lot of dogs with health and skeleton problems now, when I first got Tilly at 20 weeks old I went to get some puppy food but my gut told me not to get it, thankfully I listened. Tilly was supposed to be a Whippet cross, in fact she is a Greyhound cross, by feeding her a good normal food her body had the time and nutrition it needed to grow properly instead of being forced up like rhubarb by using food that is high in protein and other things. Tilly didn't stop growing until after she was 15 months old.

Right to the day that Gracie died, she was trying to keep up with my 2 youngsters, with her little legs she couldn't but it didn't stop her trying, she was full of life and energy right to the end.

[Nettle]

vet. Ian Billinghurst who wrote the BARF books says that a pup should only grow to 75% of its potential. Food for thought.

Slow growth is best for young stock, no doubt about that. Rapid growth causes all sorts of problems especially with bones.

[wvvdiup1]

I know exactly what you mean, Mattie! But where I differ is that I watch what I feed my dogs at every meal, trying to balance their nutritional needs along with growing needs and activity needs. This may sound like a lot of work, but it is worth it if one wants to keep their dogs fit and healthy.

How I do it is I plan my dogs meals based on what they have been fed recently. If I fed my dogs "table scraps" such as meat & vegetable scraps, let's say, last evening; then this morning they would get dry dog food (the most nutritional ones, of course), then this coming evening, it will be a "moist" meal, also of high quality. I try to rotate this, while at the same time, come up with different delicious meals for my dogs. It may seem expensive now, but it is a lot cheaper than having to take my dogs to the vets later, which is more expensive!