Need Help with New Rescue I just picked up my new guys from the vet last night (Yorkie and Chi.) They were dumped at our local shelter and were neglected and miserable with little chance of adoption. I recently lost my senior Malinois and was looking for a small dog to keep my little Yorkie/Tzu company as she's never lived alone. I found these two who are bonded and together they aren't as big as Widget, so why not take both? :D I'm an old hand at rescue, but all my dogs have been big. At 14 pounds Widget is the smallest dog I've ever had. So now I have a 5 pound Yorkie and a 6 pound Chi. They are so tiny!!! Of course all my gear is for 50 - 100 pound dogs, so there was a flying leap to pet supply stores only to find that they have heavy harnesses, or totally stupid ones. I will NOT put a vest on my dog that has freaking pink wings! So Amazon proved more fruitful for sensible harnesses and leashes, which should arrive soon. It's raining so taking them out is a moot point anyway. I have pee pads which they ignore. Sigh. At least they make tiny puddles. My shelter blessedly totally vets before adoption and did a full dental for me and would have done spay/neuter if they'd needed it. (New Haven CT Animal Shelter) Annie, the Chi had a lot of teeth removed. Toto the Yorkie, had only a few taken and had an immense amount of plaque removed. Poor babies. So I have two tiny dogs who are a little afraid of me (I think they were grabbed and held a lot) that have to have meds squirted into their mouths for the next week. Fortunately they are both crazy for bacon, so bribes help convince them I'm not totally evil. I have to figure out what is the best thing to feed them. Widget (my Yorkie/Tzu) doesn't like anything and appears to be an air plant as she maintains her weight by eating only a few times a week. What would folks recommend for senior dogs who need the best possible nutrition and what amount should I feed? I purchased Wellness Toy Breed Complete, chicken and brown rice kibble. I've fed Wellness for years and always added homecooked to it, but my other dogs were on special diets and I have no idea what type of homecooked, or good quality canned would be best for my bitsies. At the moment Annie (the Chi) can't have anything mushy as the vet had to pull a couple of canines. I fed soaked Wellness with minced fried beef liver last night. It's funny. I've had so many dogs (some who stayed and some who were adopted out) and yet I feel unsure how best to care for such tiny dogs. 100 pound shepherd -- no problem. 5 pounds of adorable Yorkie and I'm looking at him going...yikes, what do I do? LOL :aimeeyork |
Bless you for adopting them. They maybe scared of you at first but with time and patience they will come around. Sissy is my rescue. When I got her she was scared to death, thin and seemed withdrawn. I kept her where she could see me and Bubba, talked softly to her and spent a lot of time on the floor at their level. Eventually she came looking for me. Wellness is good food. I generally feed mine twice a day. Kibble in the am and kibble with wet or chicken or fish for dinner. Any food with grain as the first ingredient isn't good. I can't tell you how much wellness to feed but it's usually on the package or their website but if they are thin you might want to check with your vet about giving them adult food rather than senior food (which is usually lower in fat) until you get them to a healthy weight. There are a lot on this site who have better nuturition knowledge than me and hopefully they will chime in. |
dog I feed mine wellness and I put a tiny bit of the chicken stew made by wellness in their food. They love it. Try it because it is very soft in gravy. Seem to be tasty to the dogs. |
Wellness is a nice brand/food - so if it agrees with them and you like it, go for it. They make another nice food called Wellness CORE if you want to rotate flavors/diets. As far as how much to feed, you might find this calculator helpful: Dogs feeding chart - Nature's Logic |
Are Yorkies air plants? My half Yorkie is the most picky either I ever saw until bringing home Toto. That little bugger has decided that he doesn't like any food. He's turned down chicken, bacon, liver and hot dogs and Wellness Toy Breed Core kibble. What he has done is come over and eat the dry Wilderness food I put down for Widget who's much larger at 16 pounds. He crunched right through it. He begs terribly at the table but won't eat any of that either. He's not going hungry, but I'm getting a little frustrated because he won't take any treats and he's peeing all over. I can't reward him much for when he does hit the pad. So I'm just putting down dry, offering the good stuff and picking it up when he won't eat it. Thankfully his partner, Annie, eats like a champ. :) |
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My problem was that he had meds that he had to take with food. Tomorrow is the last day of his antibiotics and I can stop trying to bribe him. They both had horrible teeth and had a lot of dental work done, so they had to take liquid antibiotics twice a day. For him that became a real problem. After tomorrow they go on Wellness Core kibble and Wellness canned. Hopefully that will suit him, but I doubt it. There is an excellent chance he was eating McDonalds before I got him and real food just confuses him. |
Maggie was a rescue with horrible teeth as well - I give her Blue Buffalo small breed canned food and she LOVES it. I have been slowly adding Blue Buffalo kibble to it - now her bowl is 50/50 and I am happy with that, she seems to be too. |
Well, he doesn't seem to be eating anything other than a nibble of canned (I've tried everything from Wellness to Blue Buffalo to Mighty Dog) but he is eating Blue Buffalo Wilderness dry kibble. Go figure. He's getting enough to eat so I'm not worried. He had to eat to take some medication, but that's done with. He's gained about a half a pound since he's been here, though he still feels incredibly light when I pick him up. However, he now has kennel cough. Oh joy. My vet examined him and found he has bad kneecaps. They aren't bothering him and hopefully never will. He is NOT enjoying his new medication and snarled viciously at me when I squirted into his mouth. I was terrified. I'll get some of the Blue small breed canned food and try him on that. Thanks for the tip. :) |
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