Nature's Variety someone called it a "hot" food

[scpuppymom]

I've never heard of this term before, I feed our Xolo Nature's Variety Instinct so I started our Yorkie pup on this. I was talking to someone else and they said that it's not a good food for a Yorkie because its a hot food that's too high in protein,not sure what exactly that means. One thing I have noticed is the Yorkie has horrible smelling poop. It looks normal but it stinks to high heavens,more than normal. I have Artemis food samples coming today I'm wondering if the food just isn't agreeing with her.

[pstinard]

Originally Posted by scpuppymom

I've never heard of this term before, I feed our Xolo Nature's Variety Instinct so I started our Yorkie pup on this. I was talking to someone else and they said that it's not a good food for a Yorkie because its a hot food that's too high in protein,not sure what exactly that means. One thing I have noticed is the Yorkie has horrible smelling poop. It looks normal but it stinks to high heavens,more than normal. I have Artemis food samples coming today I'm wondering if the food just isn't agreeing with her.

The protein content of Nature's Variety Instinct is 35% minimum, which is higher than most dogs need. For a healthy dog, excess protein is burned as an energy source and harmlessly excreted. You may be paying for extra protein that you don't need. I've read elsewhere on Yorkietalk that excess protein in the diet results in smelly poop. Here is an article on protein requirements of dogs:

Protein Requirements for Good Dog Nutrition

Artemis is 25% protein, which might is just right as far as protein requirements go. You might want to give Artemis a try and see if your dog tolerates it better.

However, it's not good to change a dog's food too frequently--you might want to feed what your breeder fed your dog until it's an adult, or at least transition to the new food slowly.