You don't have to stick with the same brand to rotate. Many people rotate between a handful of brands. It's really kind of trial and error.

That's true. I've done that myself. It's just so hard with 3 dogs. And one of them is crazy finicky :(

FROMM all they way for my furrbutts!

So I decided that I'm going to start my new puppy on RC YT 29. The company has a stellar reputation & excellent quality control. I also like the fact the kibble size is perfect for a little mouth. I'm also hoping that RC will live up to it's claim that it includes everything my little Yorkie puppy needs & I won't need to supplement with any Omega oils. I also emailed my breeder to ask her what she would recommend. She's a fan of RC & I highly respect her opinion.

I was considering a wet food to change things up. I might go with Blue Buffalo Small Breed Puppy. Or I could home cook since I have BalanceIt. I'll think more about that later. I'm just glad that I've finally made a decision about the major component of her diet. Lol. I also think that after a few months, I'll rotate some Fromm into her diet...either the Gold Puppy or something from the 4-Star line. I'm hoping that my other 2 will eat RC & Fromm as well.

Thanks so much for all of the feedback. I've been trying to figure out what to do for months! I just hope that the food I've chosen works well for her. Fingers crossed!!!!

Crossing my fingers for you too, Teresa!

I could cry this morning. I posted yesterday morning that Sam snarfed down almost 1/4 cup of the RC 29. When I got home, the last few pieces were gone. I gave him another 1/4 cup in his bowl. This morning there were maybe 15 kibble left, so I gave him a fresh 1/4 cup. When I left at 8:00, he still hadn't touched it. :(

I'm hoping he will have eaten by the time I get home at 1:00 today. I was so excited that he seemed to love it yesterday, and really praying that I had found something he would readily eat. I gave him a bath last night, and he is just so skinny!

You know, I went through ALL of that with my Yoshi. I really do think that sometimes, they're just not hungry. You know? I mean, WE don't eat on schedule every single day. Sometimes, we're just not hungry at 7am. I really do think that you've made a lot of progress with the RC though. He DID eat it. Not only did he eat it, but he practically inhaled it! I think that means that he LIKES it. So I'm sure he'll eat it again when he's hungry.

I totally feel your pain. I experienced the same thing. In fact, I STILL go through it. Some days are great! Some days are really difficult. It's a constant battle & unfortunately, most of my life revolves around feeding Yoshi. I hate it. I'm feeding PMR (Prey Model Raw) now. Not because I'm a big supporter of a raw diet, but because it's what my pup will eat. It's VERY time consuming & I'm not 100% confident that he's getting the nutrients he needs. Plus, I really want to be like every other dog owner & be able to just put some kibble in a bowl :( It's been really frustrating. But I can't have my dog tell me what to do anymore! I really need to step up & set things straight. It's gotten waaay out of control.

Sorry for the rambling vent. But I actually feel a little better since I put that in print & let it out. It's hard to explain these things to my friends because they're not small breed owners & until you've lived it, you just don't get it.

You can sign up for recall alerts through the FDA. This will give you alerts on all kinds of dog treats and foods. We had a Lhasa Apso that was involved in the dog food poisoning in 2007. She survived but had many problems. I cooked for her until she passed very recently, she was 13 1/2. Our yorkie is allergic to chicken and corn. She actually breaks out in a rash. We now feed her Blue Buffalo and she does well with it. I constantly check the recalls and occassionally email the company as well. They have been very good about responding. Just want to stay on top of any food problems. Good luck with choosing the best food for your furbaby!

I understand what you are going through (with Sam and Yoshi)
I went through the same thing with Nena..there were days that she didn't want to eat at all..and finally when she ate something, she threw everything up :(
She was so small and skinny..
But lately she's been eating normal, and the last time I went to the vet she actually told me that I have to watch her weight..I was so relieved and happy when I heard that..because all the other times the vet told me that she was skinny and had to eat more..

I'm really thankful that Rufus has a good appetite :)
And I really wanna believe that he helped Nena with her eating problems..

That happened to me too. After a vet visit, I realized that Yoshi had gained weight & was healthy. I figured that I could stop beating myself up about forcing him to eat. And yes, I believe that a second dog really does help with these "eating disorders". I feel better that I'm not alone ;)

Luma eats canine caviar. We had a horrible time with all sorts of dog foods until this one, but I'm now educating myself on PMR and want to make the switch soon. Rosie is little and like you, I worry about her getting the proper nutrients from a raw diet, so for now I'm feeding what the breeder had her on.

My pups LOVE the PMR diet. But it is a commitment. I also haven't found the perfect butcher yet, so it is expensive. They've never eaten anything with such gusto as they have with raw. Brezofleur helped me tremendously when I transitioned to PMR. You should PM her. She's awesome. She's transitioning Thalia to PMR now & she's doing great!

Yeah, I'm totally going to pm Heather! Thalia and Rosie are 2 days apart in age! Everyone keeps raving thatiraw is less expensive than pre-made raw. I don't feed Primal but a 12 lb. bag of Canine Caviar is $40 and lasts a good while. I guess it does have to do a lot with the butcher you use. Where do you even find a butcher? Where do people get their meat? Lol. I'm guessing a big grocery store like Walmart won't work. I also am wondering if you have to have a variety of proteins when you do pmr or I can just use chicken, since it's easy to get?

I've worked my way up to a variety of proteins at this point...chicken, cornish game hen, pork, beef, lamb. But I did chicken only for the first few weeks...slowly adding bone, liver & other organs. I'm also really picky about where my meat comes from, expecially chicken. So I end up paying premium prices for chicken that is not necessarily organic, but definiately humanely raised with no antibiotics or hormones. I actually get my chicken from a farm. Same with beef. You have to be really careful with liver too. Since the liver basically detoxifies the body, I'd rather be certain that the liver my pups are eating are coming from a healthy source. So I suppose you could go to Walmart or Costco to get your meat if you're not concerned with things like that. But I'm the type of person who needs to know where my meat is coming from & I want to be safe. I'd feel horrible if I made my pups sick in the process of trying to feed them something healthier than kibble.

So let's just say that your pups are eating only chicken, 5% of their body weight & your chicken is $4.99/lb. If you have 2 pups (at 5 lbs each to make the math easy), that's 4 ounces of chicken per day per pup...8 ounces for both per day. That's $2.50 per day for both pups. That's $75 a month for food. That's not a lot of money in the scheme of things, but it's more than kibble. That's also assuming that your chicken is $4.99/lb. I'm sure there are cheaper places to get chicken. I'm in NYC. Everything's expensive here.

The butcher part comes in with the organs. They don't sell kidney, heart, pancreas, lung, spleen & brains at your average Safeway. So you need to find a source for that part of the diet. I'm sure if you found a good butcher, they'd probably give those parts away to a good customer. But like I said, I haven't found a great butcher. And the farm I go to is FAR.

Sorry for the long post. Perhaps I'm making it sound more complicated that it really is. Heather has it down! She's way more confident & knowledgeable about it than I am. I'll probably do some more research on raw feeding puppies - just to try to figure out if they really do get what they need. But until I'm 100% confident that I can give my puppy what she needs from a raw diet, I'd rather trust the people at Royal Canin.

No, I appreciate the long post! Sorry for hijacking your thread! :embarasse I don't think that price sounds too crazy knowing how much better it is for my dogs, and like you, I would be concerned as to where their meat is coming from. I don't think I'd have trouble finding a good farmer or butcher since I live in Texas and it's not too far of a drive to the more rural areas around me. I'd probably be able to find cheaper than chicken @ 4.99/lb in my area. Am I supposed to calculate 5% of Rosie's projected adult weight or 5% of her current weight? Big difference lol. I can't imagine her eating a chicken leg...she has trouble eating the puppy sized Wellness kibble. Tiny mouth, big personality :rolleyes:

You know, I'm not positive how much to feed when it comes to a puppy. Most dogs eat 2-3% of their body weight. But small breed dogs need more than that. I feed Yoshi 6% and Momo eats 5%. You just have to take a few weeks to judge how much they need & see if they're getting thin or gaining weight. I think that puppies are typically pretty good judges of their food intake. So I would probably start with 5-6% of their projected body weight & go from there. I'm also not sure about the puppy meat/bone/organ ratio. Typically, it's 80% muscle meat, 10% bone, 5% liver, 5% other organs. But I'm assuming that puppies would need more bone for their calcium needs. Heather would def know. She REALLY helped me out when I transitioned. I'm also going to do more research on this myself. I'll PM you & keep in touch and let you know if I have any good info for you.

Just a heads up...I used to give Yoshi a quarter of a chicken & let him work on it...then take it away, rinse it off & save it for the next meal. But he choked on the cartilage part of the leg - the part at the end of the drumstick where I guess the ankle would be. I had to do the Heimlich to dislodge it & it scared me to death. Since then, I've only given him necks to work on. And I use kitchen shears to cut his bone into bite sized pieces. He still chews the bone, I can hear the crunch. But I never give him anything that could possibly get stuck in his throat. You really have to monitor these little ones when they eat.

I don't want to deter you from feeeding raw. I just wanted to let you know about my unfortunate experience. It may have been my inexperience at raw feeding that allowed something like that to happen. But you hear so many different things from so many different sources & sometimes it's really difficult to figure out what the best thing for your pup is. There's no "board" governing the whole PMR thing, unlike Federal standards that are set for commercial dog food. So you just kind of have to pick apart the good & the bad that you read online & hear from other people and figure out what works best for YOU.

Anyway...I've written a novel! I'll shoot you a PM. It'd be great to stay in touch about this & share experiences :)