Feature|Videos|August 15, 2025

Life Stage Products

Are products marketed for specific life stages of pets necessary?

Bill Bookout: Give me a 30 second answer to life stage products. Dr. Morgan, do you look for life stage supplements? And how do nutritional needs or health needs change with the life stages of an animal from puppy adult seniors.

Dr. Judy Morgan: I do a little bit. I don't think that we have a ton of products that are specifically labeled for seniors or puppies. We have a few and it kind of depends what we're looking for. But certainly a lot of the joint supplements are going to lean more toward a senior. Anything that has to do with cognitive function is going to lean more toward our senior animals. I mean, the supplements that we're using…they're for supplemental use. So we don't have to worry about nutritionally balanced for a puppy versus a senior like we would with a food. I'm trying to think if I have anything in our arsenal that specifically says for puppies, there's a lot of things that lean more towards senior. And that's just because in the seniors we have so many chronic disease issues that haven't been addressed.

Bill Bookout: Well, you got more health challenges with pets, just as we do for ourselves, as we age. Dr. Pachel, life, stage comments.

Dr. Chris Pachel (he/him): Yeah, I agree with everything Dr. Morgan said. As I was sort of pondering the question, I was thinking, now, how would I answer that because I'm sort of racking my brain in the same way. I'm like, I use different supplements at different life stages. But is it the supplement branded for life stages? And no, not really. So yeah, I look at more of a life stage indication of when I'm reaching for, based on the patterns that are going to be evident, more so than would the way I might think about that with a baseline nutritional product. So yeah, ditto.

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