Food?
 

Dry dog food or canned dog food a better choice for a yorkie? Also I've read that you can give a yorkie table food But have been told you shouldn't Because it's not good for them. Is it or isn't it?:aimeeyork

Also wanted to know what brand of dog/puppy food is best brand at Walmart is best to feed to a yorkie because that is the closes store to me and carries all kinds of brands.

We feed ours dry food. Kibbles Bites for small dogs. We also do feed them (with permission from our vet) homemade chicken breast (no spices or skin/boiled) and rice. We always make sure we feed our babies quality dog food, not any of the "cheaper" brands. Yorkies can have very sensitive tummies.

I prefer dry food because it is better for there teeth. There are some human food that are good for them but there are a lot that are very bad for them. You don't have a petco or petsmart near you even within 30 minutes? I do not believe walmart carries any high quality food but I could be wrong. I prefer grain free food which I think is only available online and at petstores. Here is a link to a sticky about toxic foods http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/yor...oods-dogs.html

I feed our yorkie and yorkie mix Wellness Super 5 Mix Adult Health For Small Breeds. I don't give ours table food, to worried about Pancreatitis. I don't believe Walmart sells any good quility dog foods either, but to his or her own. We all do what we have to do. I had to feed one of our boxers Purina Puppy Chow for years because he had horrible reactions to anyt other food, and I tried the high quility foods on him, and every time, he broke out in blood red hives. I was floored when he did ok with the Purina, cause it isn't a high quility food. But like I said, we d what we have to do.

We feed Belle Life's Abundance. They have a great line of treats and supplements as well.

I don't think you'll find a high-quality food at walmart (that said, I fed my first yorkie purina little bites all her life - she lived to be 15 - but if she got ahold of ANYTHING other than her little bites, she had horrible tummy troubles).

I would start with kibble (easier especially if you travel, and is said to be better for teeth). My girls wouldn't eat kibble when they came to live with me, so I found a good canned food; then I read here about adding coconut oil to kibble to entice them to eat it. So now, Tillie and Bella get canned in the morning and kibble mix in the evening.

I feed Whole Earth Farms canned... it's grain-free, high-quality, and not costly (comparatively). I get it at our local Petco by the case, but you can order it online and have it shipped directly to your door. WEF also makes a dry kibble but I haven't tried it yet bc it's always out of stock... Till then, feeding Castor & Pollux Natural Ultramix (kibble) which I picked up at Whole Foods.

I also give chicken (cooked, not seasoned), carrotts, and green beans as treats. If you decide to give people food as treats, I would recommend you search online (or on this forum) for a list of safe options bc some can be toxic to dogs. I wouldn't feed people food as meals unless you have a recipe that could ensure complete nutrition.

Sorry so long... just got on a roll there ;)

I don't think Walmart has any quality pet foods. I guess it depends on what you consider to be "quality." Many brands of kibble sold at Walmart have various types of glucose in them that flavor the food so the dogs will eat them. It causes tooth decay and diabetes as they get older. I'd check out the pet store foods Just get enough so you don't have to make lots of trips.

You can feed your dog a little meat and some vegetables but be careful which ones. Grapes are bad for dogs and can shut down the kidneys. Do a google search for foods dogs should not eat. Find a good food that your dog likes and don't switch as the change is bad for their stomachs.

Well, define "table food"... lol. Anything salty, high in fat, sugars, preservatives ... most aren't good for us, let alone the dogs. Most fruits and veggies are fine (stay away from grapes though! I think onions and avacado's are bad too). Plain chicken breast, a lot of just plain meat would be fine for most pups. There's a list of "okay people foods" for dogs somewhere.

As far as Walmart goes, I highly doubt you'll find anything decent in there. If you have a Costco near you, you can look for Kirkland or 4health. Alot of Tractor Supply's and stores like that carry some better foods. Most have Taste of the Wild.

I like Acana and Fromm among others but those are my top right now. :)

I would actually prefer to feed all canned food if I could afford it.... I believe canned food is better for dogs, less preservatives, more moisture, usually more meat. Dry kibble does about as much for their teeth are humans eating hard pretzels would. ;) In fact, I've heard that a lot of the carbs in dry kibbles can add to teeth problems such as tarter, but don't know if there is in truth in that.

I feed Infinia, it's a grain free holistic. Do you have a local pet or feed store?

I know that people think feeding good food is more expensive but the truth is when you go with a quality food you feed less, and in the long run your vet bills will be smaller too!

My yorkie eats 1/4c of food twice/day. A small bag lasts months, even our 80# lab only eats less than 4 cups per day.

Another advantage: less filler= less poop! :D

If your only choice is WM read the ingredients! If corn or another cheap filler is in the 3 ingredients, move on to the next bag...

Hope that helps?

Oh and you want to stay away from food that have BHA, BHT and Ethoxyquin in them. BAD, BAD, VERRRRRY BAD!!

We have plenty of people here that have fed dogs kibble but their dogs teeth still go bad. Don't use kibble just because you think it is good for their teeth because that is just not true. Brush your dogs teeth with a dog tooth paste or use one of the gels but don't depend on food to keep them clean. Have a good chew toy like a bully stick to help also.

I feed Macy and Hank Blue Wilderness. I get it at PetSmart, but they also have it at tractor/farm supply stores. You can put in your zip code on the website, and it'll tell you where they sell it. They seem to really like it, sometimes I'll mix it in a little warm water and they go nuts over it.
bluebuffalo.com

Anybody know if of the following brands good or bad?...
Iams, iams healthy naturals, iams premium protection, beneful, natural life, purina one, purina, pro plan, kibbles n' bits, purina-chef michael's, science diet? I know petsmart carries most of these brands so I don't know if any are good since some say their made exspecally for toy breeds

I would not feed any of those. Right now Callie is eating blue buffalo and seems to be doing great on it. Taste of the wild is also a good food.

My personal non professional opinion? Nope, I don't like any of them and would not feed them. Out of those choices, though, I'd probably choose Science Diet (Ideal Balance, specifically, if I had to choose).

These on your list are considered commercial dog foods. If you do a little research you will see that the foods in this class start with poor ingredients and then bake them at high heat killing what nutrients that were there. Also in this class for toy breeds means smaller pieces not tailored for toys nutritionally.

Hope that helps.

And I think this was mentioned earlier, but if WM is your only choice b/c of location I would sign up at petco or pet smart and take advantage of their free shipping. What would be more convenient than having it auto delivered? :)

You are in Iowa, so don't you have a Farm and Home or Tractor Supply near you? Don't know all the foods they carry, but I know that Farm and Home carries Wellness and Taste of the Wild. TSC carries Taste of the Wild also and they may carry some more of the "better" brands.

Here's a link where you can read up on all kinds of dog foods, this may help you out and help you decide which food you want to feed to your lil one.

Dog Food Reviews - Main Index - Powered by ReviewPost

We have Katie Scarlett on the food she was on at the breeders, which is the Royal Canin Yorkshire Terrier Puppy Formula. We have been pleased with it so far. We do not let her have any table scraps. We tried pieces of carrot as treats, she hated them. I am going to try sweet potatoes though. She also gets teeny tiny pieces of turkey weenies cut up when it is training time or for puppy class. We also have those Gerber Graduates sweet potato puffs that we give her as a treat on occasion. She loves those.

I know I asked bout purina one but has anyone ever tried purina one beyond dog food

I regard to what Gracielove said about kibble cleaning teeth, I just read an article by a holistic vet that says exactly the same.
She said most of the time your dog eats kibble when it bites down the food shatters and they crunch and swallow, so it never gets close to the gum line.
Apparently, raw meat contains enzymes that naturally clean dogs teeth (wish that was true for us, I'd have steak tartar for dinner every night).

Those commercial brands you have mentioned, in my personal opinion, are crap, avoid them, they are full of corn and filler and there was also a documentary done on the big commercial foods and they use saw dust and used car tires as filler.
Just saying.
Is your breeder local to you, did they provide you with some suggestions or a sample bag of what they were feeding your pup?

here is a very good read for anyone that wants to understand dog food better. Dog Food Reviews | Dog Food Ratings
the site has a ton of good information, it reviews just about every type of food out there. I was surprised that some of the popular brands like Science Diet and Iams did not get great reviews. At one time I fed Royal Canine, LOL I guess because it has a yorkie on the bag and they sponsor the Yorkie Club of Amercia, but that brand did not get high marks. The site teaches you how to read and understand labels. For instance did you know it is better to have chicken meal (or whatever meat/fish source) as the first ingredient over just plain Chicken. There are even a couple of good videos and I like how they explain how to read labels.

In the long run I still think dry food will be better for their teeth and is the easiest to feed, since it is more portable, less messy, longer bowl life etc. With puppies after weaning it is good to start them with dry, if you start with wet or lots of table food you might never get them off it.

When it comes to treats I always wonder why people that say they stay away from table scraps will then feed their dog all sorts of store bought treats. Dog treats are filled with all sorts of bad ingredients that we would never feed our dog on their own. For treats, I just steam some unseasoned chicken meat, or partially cook a sweet potato to the point where it is cooked but firm and cut it into strips (like a fat shoestring potato chips, slice up some carrots, or put a little peanut butter on my finger.

One of the brands I feed is Life's Abundance my dog really seems to like it, I figure I will keep all my bases covered so I mix it with Blue Buffalo fish and sweet potato. Lifes Abundance is ordered online so it does not matter where you live. Yorkies don't eat much so I figure it's not that much of a cost problem to feed high quality food

I used to think going by what the breeder does was good advice, but not any longer. A lot of them (not all) feed based on cost. The breeder I got my current one from used Diamond (not a good brand) the one before used Royal Cannine, however she now feeds Blue Buffalo. Best of course not to change a dog cold turkey from what they were eating before you got them. With that all being said, LOL I sometimes I do think we make to much out of dog food, think of all the millions of dogs that have been raised on Purina One, Wallmart's Old Roy and Kibble & Bits!

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/yor...e-samples.html

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/yor...oods-dogs.html

Check out the above links. The information in the second link could save your yorkie's life.

Can I tell ya a story, I was coming home on the subway and a woman had what appeared to me to be a little lab pup, I asked how old, she said 6 weeks, my heart sank. Then she fed it some big mac and fries, this was a grown woman.
I have friends with a beagle and a small poodle, when we go out they always bring a plastic container, every scrap on everyone's plates go in that container and get fed to their dogs. Oh do I give them royal S H .....T, but they say their dogs are fine. Who knows when their arteries will become blocked and their hearts explode. Can only imagine what we are being told is bad for us can't be good for dogs.

The pancreas is a V-shaped organ located behind the stomach and the first section of the small intestine, the duodenum. It has two main functions: it aids in metabolism of sugar in the body through the production of insulin, and is necessary for the digestion of nutrients by producing pancreatic enzymes. These enzymes help the body promote the digestion and absorption of nutrients from food. Acute pancreatitis is a sudden onset of pancreatic inflammation. Chronic pancreatitis can also occur.

What are the causes?

Multiple factors can contribute to the development of pancreatitis in dogs:

Certain medications, especially potassium bromide, as well as some anti-cancer drugs and some antibiotics

Metabolic disorders including hyperlipidemia (high amounts of lipid in the blood) and hypercalcemia (high amounts of calcium in the blood)

Hormonal diseases such as Cushings disease (hyperadrenocorticism), hypothyroidism, and diabetes mellitus

Obese and overweight dogs appear to be more at risk

Genetics may play a role, with Schnauzers and Yorkshire terriers appearing to be more prone to pancreatitis

Nutrition: Dogs with diets high in fat, dogs who have recently gotten into the trash or have been fed table scraps, or dogs who 'steal' or are fed greasy 'people food' seem to have a higher incidence of the disease

Abdominal surgery, trauma to the abdomen (e.g., hit by a car), shock, or other conditions that could affect blood flow to the pancreas

Previous pancreatitis

What are the symptoms of pancreatitis?

Symptoms of acute pancreatitis may range from mild to very severe. The symptoms are similar to those of other diseases and may include a very painful abdomen, abdominal distention, lack of appetite, depression, dehydration, a 'hunched up' posture, vomiting, and perhaps diarrhea. Fever often accompanies these symptoms.

Animals with more severe disease can develop heart arrhythmias, sepsis (body-wide infection), difficulty breathing, and a life-threatening condition called disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), which results in multiple hemorrhages. If the inflammation is severe, organs surrounding the pancreas could be 'autodigested' by pancreatic enzymes released from the damaged pancreas and become permanently damaged.

Dogs with chronic pancreatitis may show signs similar to those in acute pancreatitis, but they are often milder, and severe complications are less likely.

Pancreatitis (Inflammation) in Dogs

Happened to notice this list was from 2007..or seems to be.
Watch ut for high protein food . Could lead to kidney burn out problems.

Wellness if my food of choice..