benefits of feeding small dogs 'small dog food'?

I'll just give you a few of my observations, but I'm sure papillon806 with have some better insight. I've noticed that the small breed formulas usually have smaller size and a little bit higher protein content. The only kibble in my rotation that is not specifically "small breed" is canidae right now (that's what Otto is eating at the moment). I'm not sure about any of the other supplementation, if there are differences I mean. The puppy formulas tend to have a little bit higher calcium then the large breed. I've never tried the blue buffalo line, but it looks fine to me :) I've tried innova puppy, EVO regular and red meat, artemis puppy, wellness core, canidae. All have worked out except the core, Otto liked it ok, but the pieces are big and he seemed to get annoyed eating it after half the dish and just lick the canned EVO off.

Casey does really well on Blue, he's been eating it pretty much ever since I have had him - 8 months now? Something like that. I stick with that brand because of his itchy skin - does well on it, and it's easy to get - Petsmart is right down the street...he's about a year and a 1/2, so he wont be needing any puppy food!

Is the higher protein a good thing? he weighed 13 lbs at his last vet vistit, but I think he has put on more muscle since then, and probably weighs right around 15 lbs now. He is a very high energy dog - when he is outside. Large couch potato, for the most part, indoors. We go to the dog park and he spends a ton of time outside lizard hunting, etc, so he's active.

I think the higher protein is good! I wouldn't worry too much about it because he is maintaining his weight. For weight loss a lower fat formula would be better then a lower protein formula. Small breed's usually have a proportionally higher caloric requirements anyway so again I wouldn't worry. I'd defer of course to our resident nutrition expert I mentioned above ;)

Errrr edited because I mis-read Ottoluv's first post about kibble sizes!

The main benefit of small breed foods is to have a higher protein/fat amount to facilitate a small breed's high metabolism. 

Yup, I think the higher protein/fat and also smaller kibble size are very good things!!

ok, thank you!

Maybe I will mix a small bag of that in with his organic stuff =]

 

thanks again!