Hello. First time posting...
 

I'm a first time Yorkie Mom. My little guy is named Bear, and he was one year old on Valentine's Day. He's a great little swimmer and SO much fun! A picky eater, so I am particularly interested in learning about foods. Bear is my first dog ever.

Good morning! Welcome from the UK :) :wavey:

I love the name Bear - and what a wonderful birthday to have!! :D

A lot of our Littlies seem to be picky eaters....what are you feeding him at the moment?

We look forward to getting to know you :) Sally + Harry :aimeeyork x

Hello and welcome to YorkieTalk!

How appropriate for a Yorkie to be born on Valentine's Day, they steal your heart as I'm sure you know.

Just take your shoes off, relax and make this a second home. :) Welcome,

Mine is a very picky eater too. I'm feeding him mainly Wellness. For treats he loves Pupperoni so far. There's a lot of info on YT and you will have lots of support. OLIVER is my first dog too :) love the name Bear btw.

Hi. :welcome4: I have a 14 year old Yorkie named Bear too. Oddly enough he's also a picky eater and always has been. One thing he loves is anything with sweet potato in it. There are a bunch of people on here that are way more knowledgeable about food than I am so I'll leave the suggesting to them.:) Just wanted to say hi!

Thanks for a warm welcome! Bear was being fed Cesar when I got him, and we transitioned to Hills puppy food and a/d because he wasn't eating very well. He goes to a sitter's home - his vet's assistant - sometimes and ate the Eukanuba she fed her dog. Because her dog had allergies, she switched to Orijen and I'm offering that at home now. He is not an eager eater. I had tried Canidae, Solid Gold, and Fromm and he completely refused them. He will sometimes eat Nature's Variety raw frozen and canned, which he likes better than the others, but will sometimes refuse those. His maximum amount to eat is 1/3 cup at a time, and he will sometimes go for most of the day with almost nothing. As he was teething, I gave him a tablespoon of cottage cheese several times a week to help his teeth come in strong. I let him have a baby carrot every now and then. The vet said a vitamin was optional after 10 months so I stopped them for a month but now I give him a vitamin from the vet again each day since he started bringing in small river rocks from the flower bed. I thought he might be missing some nutrients and that might be why he liked the rocks. He has plenty of chew toys that he works on. Bear has had 3 incidents of hypoglycemia, once as a baby - I managed him at home, the next when he was 9 months and my husband was home that time and insisted we take him to the emergency vet, where he had an IV, and then last night. I keep Karo syrup and Nutrical and used those, and offered baby food meat - nothing doing, cottage cheese - he's eaten a couple of tablespoons of that. Won't touch Orijen this morning. He had a few Honey Nut Cheerios. A half dozen tiny treats. Bear is 5.5 pounds. I need advice and ideas, please.

Hi and welcome! Sorry that your pup is having trouble with his appetite. My male (1 yr.) is a picky eater, but not as much as your Bear. Keegan currently does well on and really likes Wellness Core grain-free kibble and a few tablespoons grain-free high quality canned food in the evening. He won't touch dairy products. When he has tummy trouble, we offer him canned pumpkin and/or rice. He also likes plain chicken, a bite of fresh apple, a kernel or two of plain, homemade popcorn, pieces of Rice Chex here and there as a simple treat, and looooves baked sweet potato. Loves. Really. Like a lot. lol.
I wish I could think of other things to offer him. I'm sure others will have ideas. Good luck! :)

WELCOME to YT :)!

Jax is picky too!
 

We'll it seems all of our babies are picky! Jax is 16 weeks and I struggle daily to get him to eat! When I got him he was Caesar puppy wet & puppy chow but I knew I wanted him on better food. He wouldnt even touch the puppy chow. We tried Iams but he didn't care for it either. I am now feeding him Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula for Small Breed Puppies which he did OK on at first but now I either have to hand feed him & he will eat it all if I do that or I put warm water on his kibble & feed him in his crate, I do that because sometimes at meal time he's just like human babies who think they are "gonna miss something"! He loves baby carrots, plain boiled chicken. What I am learning is Jax is a smell eater. If something smells really really good, ie; canned dog or cat food or anything that smellls good & I can spread a tiny bit on his kibble he will eat good. We are going to keep experimenting but I think just as we get bored with the same old thing our lil babies do too. The only other thing I would personally do to hopefully prevent a hypoglycemia spell is to be sure no meals are missed even if you have to feed one kibble at a time. Hope some of this helps.

My Bear likes a/d too but I had to stop giving it to him when I found out he was in kidney failure because there is so much protein in it. I will tell you one thing that he really loves. I mix a can of Blue Buffalo Turkey with a jar of sweet potato baby food and add a little water and mix it in the blender. He LOVES it and for a dog that has never eaten any kind of canned food in his life (and trust me, I've tried pretty much all of them) that's saying something. I do make sure he eats some dry food too though. Sometimes it takes a little coaxing to get him to eat it though.

Welcome to YT :)

Lisa and Pic, I'm from KY, came to FL 8 years ago. Harrysmum, my best friend here is from the UK. I have pictures from when he first came home and he truly looked like a Bear. It suits him. He's certain he's really big. crystals mom, the story of how I came to have Bear makes his turning out to be a Valentine's Day baby even more remarkable. akaryendy, Oliver is a good one. He and Bear look very similar, actually. How big is Oliver? I've been making notes (again) and Wellness is high on my list. yorkie mom and KeeganRiley, I'm on my way to Target and added sweet potatoes to my list. He ate some apple and LOVED it. What canned foods do your dogs like, ym and KR? yorkie mom, I love that name, and that you have been blessed with one of these guys for 14 years.

It's funny my sushi is 8 months old she also loves water she plays in the sprinklers. Jumps in the pool when we are there. And if I'm watering the plants she will roll in the mud. She is also a picky eater I am feeding her royal canine mixed with some rice and boiled chicken that's the only thing she will eat. Have you tried homemade food?

We've had success with Blue Buffalo Freedom grain-free puppy and have lately tried the Organix grain-free Butcher-and-Bushel, mainly chicken and turkey varieties. Keegan likes peas and carrots, so these are appealing to him. I hope your little fella enjoys the sweet potatoes. Smelling them bake for awhile stimulates Keegan's appetite so he's really ready by the time they're done. :woof:

welcome to yt, did you try the sundancer from solid gold, picky eaters like it and its grain free

Thanks Wylie's Mom, LuvmybabyJax, Micahmylove, rhondah, Yorkiesrtoocute.

Thanks chestermama. I did try that. He sort of likes their jerky treats. He started out liking them more than he does now. I tried a can of green tripe from solid gold mixed with their kibble at one time and he sort of liked it... For a short while. It's a good thing for me that Petco has a good return policy. :-)

yorkie mom and KeeganRiley, Bear LOVES LOVES LOVES sweet potatoes and chicken!!! And apples, and rice chex!!! He has eaten some of the Wellness core kibble so maybe... Thank you SO much! I'm so glad I finally joined and asked... Only wish I had done it sooner! All suggestions are appreciated!

Hi and welcome.:)

Good luck on the food thing. Gracie was the first dog I ever had that refused to eat dog food. We finally got her on a commercial raw that she really loves. I cooked food for her until I finally found a dog food company that I was comfortable with. I still prepare some meals for her but mostly she is on the commercial raw. Has done really well on it.:thumbup:

welcome to YT, you came to the right place for suggestions and advise, as you have already seen lol. I adopted a 2 y/o male yorkie 3 months ago (not my first dog or first yorkie. I've had 3 female yorkies all past now, had to put down my last one Oct.2013 she was 16 y/o,) my adopted boy is a gift to me from my vet, it's a longggg story lol, he was a surrender not an abused dog, I was NOT looking nor WANTED another dog, my vet works with a rescue team. 6 weeks after putting me beautiful girl down, my vet called me, said the night before this yorkie came to her from the rescue team, she TALKED ME INTO coming to JUST SEE THE DOG (yeah right lol) I went, I saw, I took....I am truly BLESSED to have this lil guy in my life. He is on a special vet diet because he has severe colitis that he is battling with, he was just put on this diet 2 days ago, but before he went on this, god bless this lil guy, he ate what ever I gave him, which was BLAND canned dog food that the vet gave me, then I put him on boiled chop meat (85 to 95 % fat free) and boiled rice (mixed together) several weeks ago I added raw carrots, raw celery and a cooked potato, all pureed in the blender & mixed that in with the chop meat & rice, he ate it. He is sooooo good when it comes to food, so I cannot suggest anything and by the posts I read, so far you received a WEALTH of info. I can't wait until this colitis clears up, I would LOVE to give him sweet potato, seems everyone's baby loves that. Good luck in finding what BEAR likes, and BTW I love the name lol.

gracielove, Not long ago, Bear was eating raw Nature's Variety frozen, and sometimes freeze dried and canned. He liked lamb or rabbit most of all. It agreed with his system but he just quit eating it. I might put it out again after a taking a break... Just to see if he will eat it again. His coat is shiny, but when he ate NV even more so. What raw food does Gracie like?

matese, "JUST TO SEE THE DOG"... My, in May of last year, my husband and I went to dinner and there was a pet store next door. He said let's go in, I said remember our deal - no new pets. (We'd had 2 cats for 15 years and after Buddy had to be laid to rest decided no more pets.) Went in, looked at all the adorable babies and last of all there was Bear. He was so tiny. My husband started saying, "You've just never HAD a dog (true). They give you so much love!"... and so on and so forth. Bear actually rescued me. My daughter, 41, had been dead for one year and I hadn't "gotten over it"... as if you ever do "get over it"... and we decided to bring him home. He slept through the night in his crate since the day we brought him home. He loves everyone and we have been entertained and at times amazed by the things he does. Just like everyone else I have talked to who had - or had ever had - a Yorkie.

I'm glad you're finding stuff he likes!:)

I'm going to add some green beans or peas -something green - to his diet. I just read the entire cooking for your dog thread and got some other ideas. One thing I'm thinking of doing is adding barley since it's supposed to be helpful for warding off hypoglycemic episodes.

To everyone that put up their post before me
 

As I was reading all of the postings before mine, they took me down "memory lane" lol I had a poodle, she was 3 y/o when I got my first Yorkie (1984) I sat here and remembered and laughed because all that you gals went through I went through all that with my first 2 dogs, I use to cook them calf or beef liver, and I HATE liver (whoops that's another thread "is it right to hate" lol, well I HATE liver, and had to cook it for these 2 lil munchkins, the smell would make me sick, 3 years after getting my 1st yorkie I got another yorkie, now I have a brood of 3, not gonna cook for 3 dogs, so the canned, dry food, trial and error began, back then they didn't have the GOOD QUALITY canned foods they have now, and no INTERNET for help lol. So I can sympathize with you gals, but it did give me a chuckle.

Cody (my adopted boy) rescued me also, not me him, 3 weeks after having to put down my beautiful little girl 16 y/o my son died in his sleep, 50 y/o, heart attack, he never had a prob. with his heart. just like that he was gone, not married, no life ins. and lived 2 states away from me. I have no family here where I live, and friends live far from me. I was still dazed and mourning the loss of my little girl, now another shock, as you very well know, a parent should never have to bury their child. I had to ID my son, the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life, it was beyond devastating, then there was planning funeral I am alone, never had to do a thing like this, didn't know where to start, but I did it, all in a foggy daze. Then I had to clear out his apt. since he had no will and I was not named to take care of his affairs, I had file with the court to be voluntary administrator, since my son died in his apt. the police had to be called, when the police come anything of value that is laying out in view they take, what they took was my sons keys to his apt. I could not get those keys without a document showing I was the voluntary administrator, it was a NIGHTMARE, 3 times a week I had to drive 2 states away. After 2 months I was able to get through all that. it was 3 weeks after my son past away that my vet called me about this dog. He saved my life, 3 weeks after my son passed away the aunt that raised me from the time I was 11 y/o died, she was closer then a mother, sister and my very BEST friend, had cody not been in my life when my aunt died I truly do not know what would have happened to me emotionally. I gat cody on Nov. 12, my aunt passed away Nov. 22nd, so Cody saved me. Yorkies are a great breed, little clowns, give many belly laughs, I love the breed. Have fun with your lil guy

When I first got Peko he wouldn't eat what the breeder had given me so I cooked chicken breast but I had to feed him by hand for a few days before he took to eating it on his own. A few weeks later I switched him to raw like my dachshund and he went crazy for it!..He would scarf his up pronto and then dive for Smuj's dish too. I had to stand guard for awhile, until he understood that he couldn't have both because Smuj just moves aside and lets the4 little beast take it! They both love any kind of fruit for treats, and when I juice veggies they wait for their drink of fresh juice too.

Hello and welcome to YT :)