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Originally Posted by Maximo  Food is a very complicated and hotly debated topic when it comes to pets. There are many schools of thought about what is best. If you keep reading on the subject, you won't want to feed a commercially prepared food.  You will want to homecook, which I don't recommend attempting without the guidance of an expert. Or you may decide the raw food feeders have the answers.
There might be some truth to a kibble-only diet contributing to dehydration. I believe this is the case relative to cats, who tend to drink far less water than dogs. Humans obtain a lot of water through food and there is a theory that some hunger signals are really the body saying it is dehydrated. Rather than turn to canned dog food for moisture, I prefer to encourage the boys to drink water and I give them a little fresh food like yogurt, sweet peas, lettuce, and steamed chicken -- but very little so as not to un-balance their diet and cause other problems.
As I wrote to you in the other thread, protein is also hotly debated. There is no one size fits all perfect answer for what food is best for your pet. Find what works for your little girl and what she will eat consistently and then stick to it. Don't become a rapid food switcher and start offering all kinds of alternatives. You will create a very picky eater and you could create health problems. |
LOL. So true. Love this.
For the most part, dog food analysis sites are subjective opinion as is a lot of what is on YT. You get to have fun reading through the info and deciding what you want for your girl. Eh, well not really fun, but...
If you do keep switching, the pickiness will usually only become worse. And if you accidently rotate to a food with higher fat, there could be problems.
I wouldn't say that high protein is going to hurt her as long as she doesn't have underlying medical issues, esp. kidney disease. I thinka "prerequisite" to feedking a food high in protein is at the least a health check. Yorkies may do okay on high protein food. The expert in canine nutrition generally agree that such a high level is just not needed.
Unless her kidney levels are off in some way or the vet told you she seems dehydrated, I wouldn't be too concerned about that. I like canned food in a way because of the moisture it provides, but when calculating how much fat is in it when the water content is removed, most of it is questionable at best for Yorkies (because pancreatitis is fairly common in the breed).