Storm is 6.5 years old and at 78 lbs. There are a few charts out there that will give you a guesstimate as to how old your dog is in human years. On a few charts I've seen, at Storm's weight and age, he is considered a senior dog. With his metabolism not being normal and being borderline hypothyroid, I need to always be aware of this weight and his food portion. He currently is getting only 1.5 cups of food a day, and about 25-30% of that is reduced fat/reduced calorie food as I also calculate the amount of calories in a day he can have to maintain his weight.

I looked at a couple of Senior dog food formulas, and being a big fan of Orijen, I found they have a senior formula which is pretty much the same amount of calories as the reduced fat/reduced calorie kibble he is currently getting. I do like that the Orijen Senior formula as fish in it too, and is also grain free.

When do you start to consider giving a senior diet to your husky? Are there any benefit other than lower caloric content being lower and some having glucosamine and condroitin added to it?

The vets at my clinic tell clients to put their dogs on senior kibble at 7 years.

The amount of Glucosamine/Chondroitin added into kibbles (even in senior foods) is very very little and has little to no overall effect.

I don't plan to feed a "senior" food to my dogs. My oldest 2 are both over 6 yrs old (Dakota & Faith). My mother in law has four senior dogs aged 12, 11, 11, & 10 and she feeds the adult foods that I recommended to her. She now takes her dogs to the amazing holistic vet that I used to take mine to and the vet is happy with her dogs' diet. I just plan to watch my dogs' weight and adjust feeding portions as necessary the way I always have and I already start supplementing glucosamine & chondroitin at the age of 5 as a general rule. Don't think you'll ever find a senior formula in my house.

Orijen Senior has about the same amount of calories/fat compared to Wellness Core Reduced Calorie/Fat kibble. Both are grain free, but I believe Orijen Senior has more protein. Shouldn't I be able to use Orijen Senior as a low cal/fat kibble option?

i never thought of giving a senior diet and Sierra will be 9 in march.... i just believed that TOTW and wellness were all life stage foods. i also give glucosamine to both of them.

Claudia if your reading that Orijen Senior is almost the same as the Wellness GF RC but with a higher protein then i don't see why you can't use it. i would just wonder if the higher protein would affect anything. does protein become harder to digest when a dog gets older? and with storms upped activity this winter with the shoeing you might want to feed him more protein.

Nothing wrong with feeding the Orijen Senior. As with any diet, just watch his weight and body condition and adjust accordingly. If it were between Orijen Senior and Wellness Core Reduced Fat I'd pick Orijen Senior without hesitation.

Jenn, TOTW is all life stages but Wellness is not as far as I know. And protein does not get harder to digest as the dog ages however a dog's metabolism will slow with age and their organs may not function as well as a younger dog's which is why it's more important to have higher quality/meat based proteins for a senior than a younger dog to make things easier on their organs, like their liver.