Confused about age and feeding I have a couple of questions about feeding.....Teeka is 20 weeks, weighs 2.14 and is on Royal Canin Yorkshire puppy food. How long do I keep her on puppy food? Some say 1 yr, some 10 mths. When are yorkies considered full grown? I have heard some stop growing @ 6-8 months. Do they need puppy food after that age? Do I keep her on this food or is there something better for yorkies? She is really scratching lately and I don't know if it is the food or weather. Her skin is flakey. No fleas! I switched her to am Oatmeal w/camille shampoo. Really confused with so many different views on growth and feeding & foods:confused: |
I usually do one year on puppy food, then change over to adult. Uni didn't really "fill out" until she was about 2. It was a really big challenge finding a food she liked too. And changing up her food all the time made for an even pickier eater. =/ Thank goodness she's not like that anymore. When you do change to adult formula, I personally would switch from RC. It's very expensive for what it is (still has corn in it I believe). There's a lot of good foods out there and for cheaper too. I used to feed RC yorkie formula. As for her scratching, it could be dry skin bc of central heating, food allergies, environmental allergies (usually more the case in summer) but my Uni itches all the time too, and we haven't been able to pinpoint what it is. She is on grain free food, has rx shampoo, conditioners, etc. We did a few rounds of steroids. She's better but still not 100%. It's really hard to figure out what it is that triggers the itch. |
So what brand of dog food do you have your baby on? Does Petsmart have grain-free dog foods? |
I think Petco has a lot more as far as premium brands and oraganic, etc, but Petsmart may have them as well. I shop more at Petco and my local feed store, so I'm not totally sure about Petsmart. The brand I feed is called Hollistic Select. I feed the salmon/fish formula for the omegas. |
Ihad a little dog that itched and it was a food allergy. I changed her food and she got so much better. Check out what you are feeding. Watch your shampoo and conditioner. I use Hy-lyte from my vet. Do not give any treats or table food until you determine what your dog is allergic to. I had to use a venison base food and my little dog got better. Choose a hypo-allergenic food and stick with it. I hope you see a change soon. |
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She still grew after that. |
I still have her on RC. She doesn't get any table scraps and the only treats she gets are liver treats by Pet Botanics. There is no corn soybean, lecithin, BHA, BHT, or artificial flavor in the treats. She doesn't get the treat very often...only after a grooming. I will for sure keep her on her puppy food until she is almost a year. She is kind of long and slim right now. She just had a big growth spurt last month. In the last 2 weeks she has only gained 1 oz. So I think her growth is slowed and hopefully she will fill out a little. Teeka doesn't scratch as much, since I switched shampoo. Do you think if I shampooed her once a week, it would be too much? She gets stinky hair on her back legs from pee. |
If she is this itchy, and you've already had a freeze where you are...then I'd consider possibly switching. Many here do great on RC, but sometimes RC may not work bc of the corn or whatnot, or protein source. Pup food duration is usually anywhere from 6mths-1yr. |
She had been on this food since we brought her home. If she has allergies, would she have not reacted to it before now? The groomer noticed that she has flakey skin and thought that it might be the dry air and suggested the shampoo. It did seem to calm her itches some and it made her hair very soft and silky. But after a week, she is starting to scratch a lot, again....even during the night when she is sleeping. Not sure what to do or think. Maybe it is the food. I hate to try something else as I just bought a new bag of RC. I will if it helps. I just don't know what to try without know the cause of the itch! Anyone have ideas, please let me know. Thank you in advance! :thumbs up |
They can develop good allergies out of the blue Switch.g.to a.food with no corn or grains will definitely help ut it can take a few weeks for itching to subside. Look for.a.food that says its for all.life.stages then you won't have to switch when she hits adulthood |
Sorry for all the typos its my phone lol |
Thanks for the info, I am going to the pet stores, tonight, to see what I can find that is grain-free! |
Well, I talked to the breeder and my vet.....They both say to try flax seed, (ground up), put 1 tsp. daily in her food. This is to help with her itchy skin. They said it might take a while but it will help. Has any one heard of doing this for itchy skin? I think I want to try this, before I try switching her to a grain-free food. :questione |
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Anyway, so far nothing has really helped Uni, except for the steroids, which of course you cannot have them on steroids long term. But we had to give her a round bc she had a bad reaction to a flea allergy and was ripping out her hair and tearing up her skin. Is it that bad for you baby? Or just red skin, but not broken? Uni still itches, but doesn't break skin, just hair. We bathe once a week with rx shampoo (I don't think once a week is too much. My vet said 2x a week with the rx shampoo when we first got it, now once a week) So now her flea allergy reaction is over with, she still itches, so I think it's either environmental allergies or food allergy. Still have not been able to pinpoint what it is. Also my vet said you can do tests which take for ever and are expensive, sometimes you can find out what is the trigger, sometimes still after testing you can not. Or you find that they are allergic to dust, which you can't do anything about. So best to just manage the problem best you can. If the dog is tearing up the skin, you can't have him/her living like that either, so in a case like that the dog may have to stay on a steroid for life. That's last resort. ETA duh I didn't even answer your question. If it is grains she's allergic to, putting flax on top of food with grains isn't going to help. It's pretty much just trial and error to find what works. |
At this stage, I don't know if it is the grains or the dry air. She hasn't broken the skin. Just scratches a lot. I just read up on the benefits of Flax seed oil for dogs. It sounds like something worth giving a try, since she doesn't have a rash, broken skin or redness, yet. I have had many furbabies over the years and no one has ever recommended this. I am going to give it a try! :) :yorkietal |
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