Not eating puppy food

[Holly_Wood]

Hi there ...

I have not been on here for a long long time ... My little fluff ball is getting all grown up, she has been spayed and getting close to being 10 months old .... she has been the biggest stinker in the eating department and went through kibble after kibble after kibble as well as soft food in cans ... finally found a small breed food by Nurto that she would eat but it wasn't puppy variety... she would only eat is at night though and sometimes I felt like she was starving .. I'd give her turkey necks (cut into pieces for her size) and she'd munch on them for a bit then the big dog would end up getting them. The big dog (a black lab) has been getting a butcher bone (marrow bone) every morning since she was 6 months old and Holly will always try to get it off her (the lab protects it angrily) so we would give her one and she'd just lick it a bit and then go back to trying to get the big dogs one ..... so one day I just poked all the bone marrow out of the bone and broke it up on a plate and she actually eats that and she now has that as her morning routine .... we switched the big dogs food to Royal Canin Maxi Spayed/Neutered formula and Holly just kept chasing after any piece that fell or trying to steal pieces from the big dogs bowl ... to save the blood bath that could happen (really so we did have to listen to the big dog growling and complain) we gave Holly 3 pieces and she would crunch them up as the pieces are pretty large ... fast forward a number of months and she's still on the bone marrow, big dogs food routine but now she has about 6 pieces in the morning and a hand full in the evening ... we ran out of the nutro so I bought the same brand but in puppy formula and she wont touch it ...

Every morning my wife and I have a fresh fruit and veggie smoothy/juice thing and both dogs get a bit of apple, a bit of cucumber and sometimes some other type of fruit or veggie ... they both get some boiled egg .. big dog gets 3/4 and Holly gets a 1/4 ....

So all that long long long story to ask is it ok to have her just continue with the current routine with her not having "real" puppy food .. I do leave the puppy kibble in a bowl on the couch (its on the couch because the second we turn our back the Lab eats it) and every so often she'll nibble on it .... The vets say she's in wonderful health and she's grown bigger than we expected (about 8 1/2 pounds) so it doesn't seam as though she's lacking ...

Thanks for any advise and sorry again for a long winded way to get to a questions

cheers

[Yorkiemom1]

My dogs eat Royal Canin Puppy food until they are 8-12 months old, depending on their size....but usually by 10 months old, you can switch to adult formula Royal Canin. Have you tried the adult mini.....either the Yorkie breed specific or the mini adult that has the picture of the Jack Russel on the front of the bag? Some of mine prefer the Yorkie breed specific, some like the adult with the jack russel on the front, my older ones 5-8 years old like the adult indoor with the different shaped kibble....but it is all RC mini....I am not at all familiar with the nutritional composition of the one your lab is getting. You can look on the bag and compare the formulas yourself....you can email RC and ask them if your Yorkie can eat the same thing the lab is eating....I am thinking it may be too "senior" for what your youngster needs....but you could certainly course grind some up and pour it over the mini adult formula RC you offer your young lady....RC is very palatable and most dogs like it and eat it easily....Did you ever try the RC puppy kibble, or ny of the other RC mini kibble on your young lady? But she is old enough to safely go to adult formula.....I am just not sure about the adult formula your lab is getting.

[mimimomo]

Lots of dog foods are All Life Stages (ALS), maybe you can get something that's ALS? For both your dogs to enjoy?

I would avoid Nutro if you can, it's had a lot of recalls & many complaints. Just google: 'substitute w/name of dog food'-recall

[Deb1]

First of all Holly is beautiful! I think it would be ok to switch her over to adult food at that age. I would worry about her choking on too large of kibble that your lab eats! Personally I would not be feeding Nutro as they have had recalls on their food. I feed Nutrisca which is for all life cycles and mine love it! Best of luck!

[shaddisi23]

My dogs eat Royal Can in Puppy food until they are 8-12 months old, depending on their size....but usually by 10 months old, you can switch to adult formula Royal Can in. Have you tried the adult mini.....either the Yorkie breed specific or the mini adult that has the picture of the Jack Russel on the front of the bag? Some of mine prefer the Yorkie breed specific, some like the adult with the jack Russel on the front, my older ones 5-8 years old like the adult indoor with the different shaped kibble....but it is all RC mini....I am not at all familiar with the nutritional composition of the one your lab is getting. You can look on the bag and compare the formulas yourself....you can email RC and ask them if your Yorkie can eat the same thing the lab is eating....I am thinking it may be too "senior" for what your youngster needs....but you could certainly course grind some up and pour it over the mini adult formula RC you offer your young lady....RC is very palatable and most dogs like it and eat it easily....Did you ever try the RC puppy kibble, or ny of the other RC mini kibble on your young lady? But she is old enough to safely go to adult formula.....I am just not sure about the adult formula your lab is getting.

[Yorkiemom1]

My dogs eat Royal Can in Puppy food until they are 8-12 months old, depending on their size....but usually by 10 months old, you can switch to adult formula Royal Can in. Have you tried the adult mini.....either the Yorkie breed specific or the mini adult that has the picture of the Jack Russel on the front of the bag? Some of mine prefer the Yorkie breed specific, some like the adult with the jack Russel on the front, my older ones 5-8 years old like the adult indoor with the different shaped kibble....but it is all RC mini....I am not at all familiar with the nutritional composition of the one your lab is getting. You can look on the bag and compare the formulas yourself....you can email RC and ask them if your Yorkie can eat the same thing the lab is eating....I am thinking it may be too "senior" for what your youngster needs....but you could certainly course grind some up and pour it over the mini adult formula RC you offer your young lady....RC is very palatable and most dogs like it and eat it easily....Did you ever try the RC puppy kibble, or ny of the other RC mini kibble on your young lady? But she is old enough to safely go to adult formula.....I am just not sure about the adult formula your lab is getting.[/quote]

Shaddisi123, you forgot to add your comment to my post above! Did you want to add to the conversation?

[Holly_Wood]

Hi there ... sorry for the slow response and thank you for all the replies ...

I've heard and read of the nutro recalls as well but being the only food she would eat it was that or nothing ... so with that choice it was a risk I was willing to take ...

The first food I tried with her was the RC Yorkie Puppy formula and she ate some of it the first few days then it sat there for days on end like the rest ....

So it sounds like its OK to have her eating adult food at this stage of her life so that's a plus ... as for her choking on the larger kibble .. the other beauty of the RC Maxi formula is its fairly small for a large dog kibble and its flat and round like a little doughnut and it very easy for her to chew up and real really enjoys grabbing one and sitting on the floor and eating it and then grabbing one again and repeating till they are all gone .... :-)

One question that didn't get answers is about the bone marrow (butcher bones) she pretty much gets a plate full of that every morning and from my understanding bone marrow has a lot of nutrients and good fats in it .... so between that and the food the big dog eats she should be getting the nutrients she needs (that how I see it anyway but would like opinions)

As for the small breed puppy kibble I got her .... the one bowl that I put out 2 weeks ago still has not been finished so basically another $15 - $20 wasted .... there has to come a time when I stop trying everything and anything ... I've done the sample run as well at every little pet store I can find as well :-)

thanks everyone ... again very very much appreciated ... hope everyone is staying safe and warm

cheers

[mimimomo]

I've read that marrow bones are very fatty & shouldn't be given bc it can cause pancreatitis. Maybe once in a long while is ok but everyday is a little excessive I think.

[Holly_Wood]

Originally Posted by mimimomo

I've read that marrow bones are very fatty & shouldn't be given bc it can cause pancreatitis. Maybe once in a long while is ok but everyday is a little excessive I think.

Thank you for that .. I'll do some more research on that and may have to cut back on that ... if so I need to find something she will eat ... basically where were are right now it a product of her actually eating something so we go with it :-) .. I think her seeing the big dog have a bone and get fed big dog food makes her want it as she is very very competitive with her older sister :-)

She is really active too for a little dog we all walk anywhere between 2 - 4 miles a day and have about a 20-30 minute play time fetching the ball at the park, she a vigorous ball player not a little trot off to get the ball ... we are talking full steam and wants me to throw the ball as far as I can get it so I know she needs fat content of some sort as she burns a lot of calories each day ...

again thanks all your ideas and suggestions are great :-)