food for yorkies
 

What kind (brand) of dog food do you give your special Yorkies?

My adopted little guy (6 years old) will be joining my home soon. When I had my other Yorkies I fed them Chicken Soup (Senior) dry and canned but not sure if I should use that brand.

I feed Chicken Soup hard and Lil Caesars moist.

I feed mine Natural Balance's dry kibbles and sorts of fruits and vegetables. So far she's eaten strawberry, apple, banana, orange (she didn't like this as much), baby carrots, celery, lettuce.

Lol. A lot of food for a little furbie, ehh?

We feed our girls Nutro Lamb and Rice small bites...Magic has a sensitive tummy and she does so well on it that although it is not the BEST food, it is what works great for us!!! They also get some homemade cookies throughout the day....

I'm in the process now of switching Tigger from Royal Canin Puppy 33 to their Yorkie formula. He loves it.

I feed Samson Innova Puppy and will shortly begin to switch him to the adult formula. He really likes it.

OK I hate to ask a question on someone elses thread but here it goes.... (Nobody get mad at me) - I've seen threads about what everyone feeds there dogs and it's almost always some high priced food that I've never heard of... Or something I have to go to the next town to petsmart to get. Is the brand of dog food really important? I feed Lucy and Tank Purina puppy chow soft bites. I'm just not a person to pay the money for something overpriced and just a name brand! Does it really matter? Lucy and tank love their food but I am willing to switch if there is an upside to the expensive food besides just the name brand....

Crystal

I order dogfood (both canned and dry) from petfooddirect.com

Their prices are good.

Crystal, you know that old saying "you are what you eat" well the same thing is true for dog food. Many cheaper brands are basically fill (corn, wheat etc) and don't provide enough nutrition for our dogs. If you do a google search on the internet you would be surprised by what is put in dog food. :eek: Many experts believe what we feed our dogs will help to fight future diseases just like in humans. Dog food is not an issue of "brand snobs" but what is healthy for our little ones.

Here is a little summary from Whole Dog Journal of what
to avoid:

DO NOT BUY foods that contain low-quality ingredients such as "animal
fat", "animal digest" or "meat meal" such as Purina Dog Chow, Cycle
and Gravy Train; products whose protein is derived almost completely
from "meat by-products" such as Cesar and Alpo; products lacking
understandable expiration dates; foods containing artificial colors
such as Purina's Beneful and Science Diet's Nature's Best; products
containing "meat and bone meal", a very low quality protein source,
such as Pedigree Complete Nutrition and Dad's; foods that are
sweetened to tempt a dog's appetite such as Kibbles 'n Bits and
Purina Dog Chow Senior 7+.

That is really good info. :thumbup:

I am in the process of changing my dog food to Natural Balance. I, too, have wondered if it really makes any difference, I had always used Iams. However, after reading so much information on this forum, I began to notice that my dog, Buddy, who is a cocker mix, always had itchy ears and he sneezed all the time. I began to wonder if it was allergies. Iams has alot of corn in it. So I have switched them and guess what? No more itchy ears and I haven't noticed near as much sneezing! And I'm telling you he was scratching his ears and whining so much it was painful to watch. The vet had tried different medications that never worked, but now I am convinced it has been the dog food all along. My Yorkies have always done well on Iams, but they are now on Natural Balance as well. It is more spendy, and harder to find, but I am realizing that in the long run I will probably be spending less on vet and med bills. Thanks YorkieTalk - I know Buddy appreciates you!

Livingdustmops, thanks for the info. I guess it's about time for a change of food then. I just always assumed it was just a brand name thing.... If I get a lsit of puppy foods I can find around this area, would you point me in the right direction of which to choose?

Thanks .. Crystal

We feed Innova. Not the Innova EVO because it is very high in protein and one of our dogs has had liver problems.

Innova Puppy canned in the morning for my almost 6 month old tiny and Innova Puppy dry in the evening.

Innova Health Bars for snacks.

Also, if you buy large bags of dry food, it is best to freeze it in gallon freezer bags and thaw one bag at a time for use so it does not get stale in the large bag.

Innova contains whole natural foods with a good healthy balance.
Here's their website: http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=inn-home
There's a store locator at the bottom of the right column on the home page.

I'm sure there are other excellent quality foods, this is just the one we selected. Also, if you do change foods, mix the two over a few days, and don't make a sudden change.

Let me ask you this, How many times a day does your dog go poop? gross question but yes it is very important to our topic discussion. The more premium the food, the less clean up. Read your ingrediants. The first three ingrediants are what your dogs food mainly consist of. Meat should always be the first one. Corn should be lower on the list like fourth or fifth because corn in not digestible in dogs or humans. Also make sure there aren't that many by-products which consists of heads, feet and intestines. Really gross stuff.

What we are stating about our food is yes, it does work. The kibbles are usually much smaller and better tasting. They poop less and when they do poop it's more compact and doesn't smell nearly as much. It also makes a noticeable difference in their coat and skin apperance. The coat is usually a lot silkier, and their skin is usually a lot better. It's definitly worth the extra money. AND because they are sustaining more nutrients in their system they also eat less. Which means less going to the store and in the long run more money in your pocket.

Tigger goes through a three pound bag of Royal Canin once every month and a half or so. He poops once a day, sometimes two. And his coat is really shiny and his skin isn't nearly as dry. His food costs per month $7.49. I, for sure, think its worth the money.

I used to subscribe to Whole Dog Journal and their info about dog food was helpful. Some simple rules were..the actual meat product is first on the list; then, in the first 5 ingredients that meat and acceptable meat products must be listed as 2 or 3 of the first 5 ingredients.
I noticed that the article posted by LDM said no meat meal. The article that I saved said that was an okay source of protein because it is simply meat that has been dehydrated and therefore has less moisture in it.. It can take hours in the pet store reading the labels trying to select the most wolesome food.
I have read that we are giving our Yorkies foods too high in protein-such as RC Yorkie 33. The percentage of protein recommended now is closer to 20-25%. Higher levels are being looked at as reasons for some false positive Bile Acids studies. I have switched to RC ShihTzu 24 for the lower protein content. Anybody else have any info to share??

Ok, I found in the phone book a feed store that carries dog food...... Here is my choices... any suggestions??

Eagle
Black wood
Nutro
Euknuba (Which my last puppy did not like)
Diamond (isn't that the stuff they had the recall on?)
Chickensoup

Crystal

Initially I had a hard time finding a food that Georgie liked so instead of going to Petsmart or Petco I went a little speciality store for dogs in my area. In talking with the lady(who was extremely knowledgeable) she told me about all the fillers in the Iams, Purina etc... and she gave me 3 different samples of foods to try: Candidae chicken and rice, Verus and the other was California something the full name escapes me. She also gave me this dehydrated dry food called The Honest Kitchen, which you can make a gravy out of. It's amazing he loves all of it and it's good for him. I don't mind spending more knowing he is getting the right amount of nutrition to keep him healthy:)

Purina One?
 

My puppy is 5 months old and I have been feeding him the Purina One Puppy Growth & Development dogfood. I was wondering if anyone else here feeds Purina One or knows much about it? The breeder I got him from fed Purina Puppy Chow, & after reading a lot of negative stuff about it I switched him to this Purina One, which he's been eating for several months now and seems to like pretty good.
It says it is formulated with DHA and that "Real Lamb is the #1 ingredient". I have noticed that not many YorkieTalk members feed Purina but if they do it is the Purina ProPlan.
Any info would be appreciated. . .

I'd go with the Chicken Soup. When I started changing Aggie's food, this was the other one that was suggested at the store. I eneded up going with Natural Balance.

However, if you wanted Natural Balance, I know they have it on www.Petco.com and can ship it to you. Oh, I just checked. If you order $55 or more from the website, it's free shipping! :0)

Cacleigh,

Can you list the first 4-5 or so ingredients of proplan? I found a list on the internet but i dont know if its correct:

Lamb
brewers rice
ground wheat
corn gluten meal
pearled barley
chicken meal

If this is true, and it contains corn and wheat, which is basically a filler in dog foods, and doesnt have a lot of nutritional value. Many dogs are also allergic to corn and food.

From what I can remember, Proplan isnt the absolute worst but definitely not the best.

Hi,
Its the Purina One that I use, & i think it might be a little cheaper than the ProPlan so its probably even less healthy.

It lists "Lamb, brewers rice, corn gluten meal, oat meal, fish meal (for DHA), whole grain corn, animal fat preserved with mixed tocopherols (for vitamin e it says), poultry by-product meal, non fat yogurt."

So anything with "meal" listed after it or any type of "by-product" is definitely unhealthy right?

Wow this is really helpful information. I have the same problem finding a good food around here. We have petco, and petsmart. But I really want to find Innova. I haev looked everywhere. Thanks for posting the link to the website with the store locator!

I'd be more worried about the corn, it lists it twice, and the oatmeal. Its not required in a dogs diet, its just a cheap filler with not much of a nutritional value.

Chloe like Innova and Lacey like Royal Canin, because the food is small enough for her to bite it. It is in the best interest of your pet to provide a high quality food, with a lot of protein and little, if any, filler.