Hi Patricia,
AAFCO only makes 2 nutrient profiles: 1.an adult maintenance profile and 2. a growth/ reproduction profile. Every single diet formulated to meet the growth/reproduction prolife is an “all life stages diet” The manufactures may choose to market a diet that meets the growth/reproduction profile as an adult food, a puppy food, an all life stages food, a food for pregnant and nursing dogs, or even a senior food. Whereas a diet formulated to the AAFCO maintenance profile can be only be marketed as an adult diet or a senior diet
BUT and it is a big BUT if the “all life stages/puppy growth/reproduction diet” has more than 4.5 grams Ca/1000kcals it must be labeled that it is not appropriate for growth of large breed puppies because while small and medium breed puppies and adult dogs can tolerate large amounts of calcium in their foods, large breed puppies can not .
So in the case of Stella and Chewy’s kibbles, most do not say “puppy” on the front panel but since the company apparently formulates them to meet the AAFCO growth/reproduction table they are essentially all puppy/all life stages foods, BUT they apparently are puppy/all life stages foods that exceed AAFCO maximum for Ca for large breed puppies, so S and C has to disclose this by saying in their nutritional adequacy statements that large breed puppies are excluded.
My concern with their statement in the FAQ is that they are saying there is not enough Ca for large breed puppies in their diets that are not specifically marketed as puppy foods, when in fact, the only reason those diets could be ok for small and medium breed puppies, but not large breed puppies, would be if they had too much Ca in them for a large breed pup.
The maintenance profile for dogs requires a min of 1.25 grams Ca/1000kcals and the growth/reproduction profile, which is what is also called all life stages, requires a min of 3 grams of Ca/1000kcals Therefore every all life stage diet has over twice the min amount of Ca needed for an adult.
