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Originally Posted by Darlene68  Thanks Brit, I'll check out the site. Can you tell me why you prefer higher protein, I always thought that wasn't good for yorkies? |
Well, I don't think grains are a natural part of a canines diet. All dogs, including Yorkies, pretty much are wolves. They are taxonomically the same species, and physiologically and anatomically the same and actually share 99.8% of the same DNA. Size and appearance are in the less than 2% differences. Therefore, I think they highly benefit from a higher protein, more meat filled food, like a wolf would eat in the wild. Now obviously a wolf would not be fed kibble in a bowl out in the wild, they would be hunting their own food and eating raw meat. I do like the idea of raw feeding for my dog, but the only reason I don't is cost and the
human risks (salmonella). Plus, to be honest, it just seems like more work than I want. Hey, i'm lazy, I prefer to pour kibble into a bowl. Dogs stomaches are completely different than us humans and they are built to handle food like that. So... I try to find the closest I can to a natural raw diet with kibble.
Natures Variety Instinct worked really well for us for a while, and now Acana is doing awesome for Jackson. Both are around 34% protein, which IMO is not even
super high. You can find other grainfree foods in the 40 and even 50 percentile. My understanding though is that there is absolutely nothing proven that high protein causes liver problems. Now if your dog is already a liver comprised dog... yes, you will need to stay away from high proteins, but a high protein food will not hurt your dog!
I love what grainfree has done for Jackson!
He's been eating it pretty much since 6 months old (Merrick's Before Grain, Nature's Variety Instinct and Fromm Surf and Turf). He poops 2x a day (it CAN be 3 if he ate a lot of treats or something) but usually it's morning and late afternoon. They are small, firm, easy to clean up (it doesn't leave gross ooey stuff on the grass when picked up, or on the carpet when he has an accident
) and honestly, it doesn't even SMELL that bad (I mean, I guess it smells as good as poop can smell, right?!
) I used to be able to smell his poop as a pup on Wellness when he had an accident from rooms away! He also got really really bad eye goop on Wellness Super5Mix and pooped more freuqently. BTW, I'm not in *any* way saying Wellness is a bad food. I actually really like the company (they did have a lawsuit recently but I can't remember what it was about..) and if Acana wasn't doing so great for us, I would probably feed Core.
Anyways, it's just my personal preference to feed grain free, low card, meat protein rich foods. Ultimately, though, I think it's what works best for you and your dog.
I've done alot of research and have finally settled that this works best for Jackson!