Food question
 

Maybe this is ok to post in this section. I am a new yorkie owner of 2 weeks. My girl is turning 8 weeks old tomorrow and will start getting Royal Canin Yorkshire Terrier 29. My question is where a decent place to buy food at a decent price. I live in a really small town in Alabama and the only place that I can buy food within an hr drive is Wal Mart, a local feed store, and a Co Op. If i drive an hr and a half I can be at a Pet Smart and a bigger feed store that sell more food than the ones around here. I probably already know the answer to this question, but is there a decent food that I could feed her that I could buy at Wal Mart or should I just stick to giving her Royal Canin for a while? I just dont know about Pet Smart's prices, I have heard they are higher than other places but I don't know where else I can buy her some food and it be healthy for her.

I would not buy food from Walmart. The food is really not good for them. You can buy food on line and have them ship to your house. Some companies give free shipping if you spend a certain amount.

I agree I would not buy from Walmart. Maybe order online from Petsmart/Petco?

:thumbup::thumbup: You have access to a much wider variety of foods if your purchase them online, and some companies do indeed offer free shipping for orders over a certain amount. Here is one example. The bag of Royal Canin 29 is $15.99. Free shipping on orders over $49:

Dog - royal canin puppy 29 - Free Shipping at Chewy.com

Thanks. I will be definitely sticking with Royal Canin. But I can't get her to eat it. I have tried mixing it with her moist food that she has been eating and now for the past two days she is just nibbling. Usually in the morning she can't wait to eat. But today I have her kibbles with her pouch food and she walks to it and walks away. What else can I do to get her to eat the dry food? I am still giving her shots of Nutri Cal in her bowl everyday just to help with blood sugar and all.

Jess did the same. She was on eukanuba when I got her and I didn't want her eating that. She wouldn't touch the royal canin at first. So I boiled up a chicken breast in spring water, kept the chicken for treats and poured the water in ice cube trays. I melted one over her food at every meal. She gobbled it up. Eventually I was able to stop doing that (now for special occasions ) and she eats it like its a filet..

I have been watching her eat for a few minutes now. She will sneak to the bowl and grab a lil and back away like she is scared. Could she be scared of the stainless steel bowl? But she drinks out of it just fine. Also if you hold food on your had she will eat most all of it but our of bowl she nibbles.

All of my pups sneak little bits out of their bowl & take it to a throw rug in the dining room to eat. I'm not sure why they do this. :confused: But I think that a lot of pups do it & it's sort of "normal". You could try putting her kibble on a little saucer. That might be more comfortable for her since it will be more flat & shallow. I used to do that, but I have 3 now & they make a mess. Regarding hand-feeding...I had to do that for about a year with one of mine. I was concerned that he wasn't eating enough, so I just hand-fed him. He eventually got over it. But some people hand-feed for many months, or even forever. These little babies are so spoiled!! :p Good luck!

:thumbup::thumbup: I hand-fed Max his first year. Adding a second dog turned him into a chow hound.

Max was afraid of the stainless steel water dish, so we changed to glass, and we often feed food off of saucers/salad plates.

I hand feed Izzy a lot too. She has not been eating and it makes me so nervous!

Even in the San Antonio area the only store I have found that carries Royal Canin 29 is Petsmart, though I have found quite a few that carry the adult yorkie 28 formula. I got mine off Amazon for $14.49 + free shipping on orders over $25 (so I buy two bags at a time)

Amazon.com: Royal Canin Dry Dog Food, Yorkshire...

Royal Canin
 

I quite honestly am not a huge fan of Royal Canin, if you read carefully the ingredient list in the back, these are the first 10 ingredients: Chicken meal, brown rice, rice, chicken fat, corn gluten meal, barley, wheat gluten, natural chicken flavor, powdered cellulose, dried beet pulp. Yes chicken meal may be first, but 8/10 ingredients are cheep fillers. "Natural" chicken flavor usually refers to chicken bi product that is processed with ammonia (equivalent of the infamous pink slime).

If you only have one dog, it won't break the bank to buy them a freeze dried or dehydrated food like Stella and Chewy's, or NRG. Many places sell it online, and since it is very light, it ships fairly inexpensively. They have many flavors (chicken, beef, lamb, rabbit, venison, etc) and the ingredients are (in the beef for example): Beef, beef liver, beef bone, beef kidney, organic cranberries, organic carrots, organic squash, etc.

You can view some of my dog food reviews on my academia.edu blog (not a commercial site before someone stones me, it's purely articles and academia)

:thumbup::thumbup: I would try another plate or bowl and see if it helps.

As for Royal Canin, they are a reputable company...one of the few who have a veterinary nutritionist on staff.

If you ever want to have any questions answered about dog food, I highly recommend petdiets.com which is run by a Board Certified Vet Nutritionist.
Here is a link to her quite impressive credentials. http://www.petdiets.com/userfiles/fi...bbrev%20CV.pdf

I second the use of PetDiets - VNC putting pets' health first!. She has very excellent information. She's one of the only people who can say she isn't selling any product. She just gives sound medical advice about canine nutrition based on real science. Beware the online self-styled nutrition gurus and their "opinions" -- look closely, they are almost always peddling their wares and looking to sell unnecessary products with big claims and no science. Good luck!

She has finally started eating after taking her to the vet last week bc she wouldn't eat and coating me around 60 bucks for the vet to tell me she was picky and gavel some meds for loose stools. But she still loves to be hand fed and will only eat off a place mat that is identical to our plates. But whatever it takes to get her to eat I will do.

I have her on Royal Canin kibble now, but have about 5 cans of Royal Canin canned puppy food. How can I feed her some of this every now and then without messing up her stomach?

Glad to hear she's eating :) If it makes you feel any better, I also made a vet trip with a picky eater diagnosis. The RC canned shouldn't mess up her stomach. Try giving her 1/2 of a spoonful to see how she does & increase it a little over time. Just a heads up...if she really likes the canned, she might start turning her nose up at the plain kibble. You might want to mix a tiny bit of the canned with her kibble...just enough to coat the kibble. Use your fingers to spread it around if you have to. I have one who is notoriously finicky. If I start giving him too much variety, he'll hold out until I offer him something he likes better. It's a vicious cycle. Good luck!!

I greatly dislike Royal Canin, but it works well for a lot of Yorkie (and other breed) owners, and their dogs do very well on it. Mine vomit all over the place when they eat it (fact).

Quite frankly, I think people should feed their dogs what is good for their dogs. Sometimes that is Royal Canin, sometimes it's Science Diet, sometimes it's Orijen, sometimes it's even the dreaded Iams.

I think there is a lot of emphasis placed on food when there's really no way to say what food is the best or what foods are eligible as "premium" foods. My grandfather fed his little mix Dog Chow for her entire life - she lived to 19 years and had a lifespan expectancy of 12. A lot of that may have been genes, however.

A friend of mine refuses to feed her dog anything other than Kibbles & Bits which is in my opinion one of the worst things to feed a dog. But...her dog is 15, not overweight, all enzymes always check out well within range and has zero health issues.

So...in my opinion, find the food that your dog digests the easiest, a food that nourishes your specific dog's genetic make-up, and a food that your dog likes to eat.

Just like people - every dog is different and what works for one does not necessarily work for them all.

I neglected to add though - I agree with those who suggested ordering dog food online. However - please make sure it's a reputable site - anyone can sell dog food on the internet and you don't know what's really in that bag.

I order from chewy.com - fast shipment, low price and never had a problem.

I completely agree. Choosing what to feed your dog is a very personal thing & a lot of factors go into choosing the best food for each individual dog. I also have to agree with the comment about Chewy.com. I don't know what I would do without Chewy. In fact, my latest order just arrived this morning. Their shipping is super fast!! Because of the volume they sell, they're able to offer excellent prices & I know that the items I receive haven't been sitting on a shelf collecting dust for months.