What dog food and why?
 

HI I have a 3 month old Yorkie that has been eating NUTRO small breed puppy food. I still have 3 bags but they are discontinued his food. What is the brand you feed your Yorkie and did you have any ones I should avoid? I'm new to all this! TIA

I keep in a bag of Royal Canin Yorkshire but mine mostly eat “ people food “.
I buy bags of frozen boneless chicken breast strips from the main freezers in the supermarket & cook them up & add a few of the Yorkshire kibble at each meal or a little bit of whatever we’re having, vegetables like carrots, potatoes or rice. They eat so little, compared to my bigger girl, that it’s no problem

The problem with this is if all that human food makes up more then 10% of their diet then it’s unbalanced and they aren’t getting the nutrients they need which can effect their bones, teeth and organs.

I use Royal Canin and trust them significantly. They put a lot of science behind their food. I would make sure whatever you pick you make sure it’s not heavy on peas, lentils and potatoes and not on the list of foods causing heart disease.

My almost eight month old, approximately four pound, pup eats Science Diet Small Paws puppy. I initially bought it because the backyard breeder (long story, but you can read about it in my intro “New to Yorkies” in this forum, if you’re interested) said she was feeding him regular Purina puppy chow, the pieces of which were way too big for him to eat when he only weighed 26 ounces. I had to find something smaller immediately, and Science Diet was what I was able to find with tiny pieces. However, when I told my vet what I was feeding him, she approved.

The only food I’ve heard people recommend against is Blue Buffalo. I have no experience with it, but I’ve read that there are issues with it.

My opinion: RC=Royal Crap in a bag. Read the ingredients. Brewers rice, brown rice, chicken by-product meal, chicken fat, wheat gluten, corn gluten meal, corn, etc. It contains NO MEAT! I can’t believe they charge money for this junk.

Most if not all added nutrients are burnt off during processing of dried dog food (kibble).

I used to believe this, too, until I had a very sick dog who needed this crap in a bag. I don't feed their commercial food but I do feed an RX kibble of theirs in conjunction with Weruva low fat tuna canned. I've become a heck of a lot less judgmental on those NEED this crap in a bag for their dog to, ya know, SURVIVE and live....

I *personally* do believe fresh homecooked food to be the "best" however every dog is different in what they thrive on. And not everyone has the capability to cook a properly balanced meal or afford to do so. Or maybe the dog doesn't thrive on it.

They charge money for it because they have years and years of science and research behind them. Clinical trials. They aren't just buying fancy ingredient lists and then packaging the food as superior even though there are ZERO veterinarians on staff and nothing more than palatability trials with no idea how the food is going to affect dogs long term.

You may think it's crap in a bag but to the dog who can only eat their food to not be sick, it's certainly not. :)

I take offense at that. Just because certain ingredients don’t look good to you as a human don’t mean they are not good for dogs. Royal Canin actually uses science in their formulas. My dogs thrive on Royal Canin! There absolutely is meat in their food. Many Veterinarian nutritionists recommend Royal Canin. Also I would never refer to a food someone else is feeding as crap because that’s just not appropriate or a decent thing to do. You can disagree without doing that.

:thumbup::thumbup: My boys actually are not thrilled with human food. Ollie also will only eat Royal Canin no joke I tried several others and he refused!

I like to share my comments. Bella is 2 years old and I just followed what her breeder fed for about a year and a half was Acana. But then I learned that Acana dog food was on the list of FDA foods that was not good to feed your dog. Although I still have a bag left I decided to let her finish it. I learned from this forum that members suggested and decided to try Royal Canin. I got a free puppy size sample of Royal Canin Yorkshire Terrier from a Canadian pet expo event last year and Bella loved it. I recently bought the R.C. Y.T. Adult food because she's an adult now. I was surprised that Bella loved it more than her Acana. I'm also impressed that R.C. have these foods for specific breeds and other health reasons. Although Acana has fresh chicken meal and turkey meal listed as their first ingredients and R.C. does not. I believe the science and nutrition behind R.C. is good. Bella is a finicky eater and as long as she loves it and eats well and poohs well. I'm happy with it. In addition I also cook fresh chicken breast strips with her meals.

One last comment. I agree with LovetoDream, Taylor. Thank you for your help :)

Yup I fed Acana for years. Jackson developed a mild heart murmur - whether that is from the food or not, I do not know.

But their foods have personally affected some Yorkies on here who are dealing with diet-related heart issues.

So yeah I've learned I'd prefer to deal with companies that have Quality Control and Research vs. what I (who is NOT a doctor or nutritionist) think "looks pretty on paper".

I am not judging the people who feed this brand to their dogs, I am judging the company that produces it. Sorry if I offended anyone as that was not my intent. I like rice, my dogs, not so much. Rice flavored with bacon, definitely a yes, for all of us. I thought it was made with higher quality ingredients, it really caught me off guard that it is not. Just thought RC was producing foods using the highest quality ingredients, granted they use smart science to maintain high levels of nutrition,(the list of additives is twice that of actual food) or to appear that way. Great if some or many dogs do well on it, vet once said eating something is better for the dog than eating nothing.

Chicken by-product meal is what is left of a whole chicken after the muscle (meat) is removed, then the carcass is ground to a powder. It is common in many pet foods, cheaper to use than actual meat.

The science and vet involvement is necessary to make it legal, meeting the FDA mins and Max’s required for pet food, could be better than most foods available. Didn’t care to investigate further. Label says ‘natural flavors’, science can make anything taste good.

I recently purchased a product that I could put on cardboard to feed my dogs and it would pass or even surpass FDA requirements for dog food.

Just thought it interesting as I like to know what is in the food I feed my pups and what it’s purpose is. Seems to me they are out to make money, not that anything in their food is actually harmful.

Subject: RC Adult Yorkie food ingredients (Irrelevant as the OP asked about feeding a puppy)

Googled corn gluten meal:
What is the difference between cornmeal and corn gluten meal?
Corn meal and corn gluten meal (CGM) originate from whole kernels of corn, but they're used for very different purposes. The corn meal you use as a coating for food is ground up corn, while corn gluten meal is a byproduct of this process. ... Look for horticultural cornmeal from Home Depot, for instance.Nov 6, 2019


Feeding corn gluten meal can cause your dog or cat to develop severe allergies to corn over an extended amount of time. ... It is much lower in some of the ten essential amino acids dogs need to sustain life than is meat or egg-based protein. Corn gluten meal can raise the protein reported on a food label.

From The Dog food Advisor:

The Two Most Common Problems
with Gluten Ingredients

In any case, here are the two most important things to know about gluten ingredients…

1. Glutens are less nutritionally complete than meat based proteins. They’re low in some of the ten essential amino acids dogs need to sustain life

2. Glutens can raise the protein reported on a food label. So, manufacturers frequently add them to a recipe to make a product look better than it really is

The Bottom Line

Whenever you discover gluten on a dog food ingredients list, you should always question the true meat content of the product.

If you want to keep it science based you might not want to bring a human dentist in as a source. I disagree with you. I believe you are humanizing a dogs digestive system. Just because fresh veggies and meat might be great for us their system is different so by using science they made formulas best for dogs system. They do use high quality ingredients of the ones they use. Food allergies are rare and I personally do not believe feeding a certain thing will cause them to get them. Considering Veterinarian Nutritionist study animal nutrition I feel confident they know what they are doing by recommending Royal Canin. I have seen many of those companies that’s food is supposed to be great and healthy cause many many issues with dogs and not be what they are said to be. I’m guessing you also don’t support the veterinarian diets that save thousand of dogs lives.

The dentist has a doctorate in dental surgery, which is 7-8 years of college study. He majored in chemistry, with a minor in biology, and courses in human nutrition.

I completed 2 years of a 4 year degree program majoring in biology, minor in computer sciences at the University of Maryland. I finished all the required courses, when I complete the elective courses I will graduate.

I began working as a night tech at an 24 hr emergency animal hospital. Worked nights for 3 years. There was an ICU for more critical patients, an Isolation ward for infectious diseases, and the general population ward. I worked alone for 2 years, with a vet being on-call. Triaged incoming pets and had to keep them alive with the vet on the phone till the vet arrived. I took Xrays, drew blood, ran bloodwork in-house, set up for emergency surgeries, monitored anesthesia during surgeries, assisted the vet during surgery, started IV’s, prepared and gave vaccines when appropriate, sutured up any incisions on pets that did not survive a surgery, prepared any samples needing to be sent out to the lab, cleaned, wrapped and sterilized the day’s surgical instruments and packed surgery kits for the next day, gave meds, updated patient charts, performed dentals with vet supervision, restrained animals for whatever was necessary, assisted with neuro exams, behavioral assessments, TPR’s, assisted with Ultrasound exams, electrocardiograph tests, removed ticks and fleas, clipped nails, hair, expressed way too many anal glands, filled prescriptions, wrote up discharge instructions for clients when their pets were discharged and explained/demonstrated any special procedures necessary for their pet’s care, did laundry, cleaned cages, mopped floors, disinfected exam rooms and tables. Then I switched to day shift for the next ten years. OJT involved a VNAC (Veterinary Nutritional Advisor Course) developed by Hill’s Pet Nutrition for training vets and techs on the proper use of their line of Prescription Diets and the medical conditions that would benefit their use and why. There was a 500 question exam at the end. I did not make 100%, I missed 3 questions. So I am basically familiar with the nutritional requirements of dogs, cats, parrots, eagles, owls, seagulls, rabbits, rats, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, snakes, lizards and turtles, and horses.

Incubators, MRIs, Xrays, ultrasound machines, etc. and many medical procedures and medications have come from human medicine, adjusted and tweaked to work on our pets. Human IV fluids are still being used. Animals are currently being used to test stem cell therapies, cancer treatments, and many other things that could prove beneficial and be applicable to human medicine, and vice versa.

Just saying...