Food for your Yorkie?

[NODAK]

Originally Posted by yorkiegirl83

Canidea or Innova are my two picks. You really want to stay away from anything with byproducts and fillers.

Beneful is one w/a very poor rating as well as IAMS, Purina, ect..

Alright, how expensive are these top picks, typically?

[dragongirl]

The vet that I worked with recommend Royal Canin. It's made for little dogs and comes in little dog-specific types.(Yorkie, Llasa, ShihTzu,etc.) The puppy food comes in regular and mini for the real little pups.

[NODAK]

That REALLY surprises me that Beneful, Purina One, etc are all 1 star foods. Damn. I'm guessing then, that 90 percent or more of dog owners are feeding their pets crap?

[RLC12345678]

Originally Posted by NODAK

We've already switched him once...wouldn't another switch perhaps be detrimental?? I know changes in diet can disrupt them.

In this case, Beneful is so bad (no offense...I fed Purina before I knew any better) that it would be MUCH MUCH better for his health to change to a premium-quality food than to keep him on Beneful.

[RLC12345678]

Originally Posted by NODAK

Alright, how expensive are these top picks, typically?

I feed Canidae and i get it for $6 for a 5lb bag which lasts all month long and I have TWO yorkies.

[RLC12345678]

Originally Posted by NODAK

That REALLY surprises me that Beneful, Purina One, etc are all 1 star foods. Damn. I'm guessing then, that 90 percent or more of dog owners are feeding their pets crap?

Sadly, that's correct. 90% of dog owners are feeding their pets CRAP. That's why the average lifespan of dogs is so short. In the wild, dogs live up to 30 years. Domestic dogs that are fed crap live around 10 years.

[NODAK]

Originally Posted by RLC12345678

I feed Canidae and i get it for $6 for a 5lb bag which lasts all month long and I have TWO yorkies.

Nice, that's worth looking into. Petsmart or Petco are the places, I'd assume?

[Holly_QD]

Originally Posted by NODAK

We've already switched him once...wouldn't another switch perhaps be detrimental?? I know changes in diet can disrupt them.

Actually someone posted on here the other day how beneficial switching foods is. I asked my vet and he agreed. About every 3 months or so. I feed Canidae and Premium Edge. She's eaten that for a while so I'm getting ready to switch up to something else. Probably Innova.

[RLC12345678]

Originally Posted by NODAK

Nice, that's worth looking into. Petsmart or Petco are the places, I'd assume?

I would go to the website of the food you're thinking about switching to and go to the "store locator" section and find a place in your town that sells that specific food. Canidae, for example, is not sold at PetCo or PetSmart. It's sold at Pet Supplies Plus, I know for sure.

I just searched for Nashville, TN, but I noticed your location says that, and this is what I came up with:


Mainstreet Dogs
931-261-3735
207 West Main St.
Woodbury, TN 37190

Cumberland Pet Grooming
931 528-7711
300 Buffalo Valley Rd
Cookeville, TN 38501

Copyright Pet Resort
931-528-8007
3033 Zeb Warren Rd.
Cookeville, TN 38506

Classy Clips
615 355-5642
1213 B Hazelwood
Smyrna,, TN 37167

Custom Kare Kennels
615 893-8959
220 N. Thompson Lane
Murfreesboro, TN 37129

Hair of the Dog Mobile Grooming
615-804-5647
(Mobile Pet Services)
Hendersonville, TN 37075

Orbit Health Food Store
615 847-7773
2601 Old Hickory Blvd
Old Hickory, TN 37138

Gone To The Dogs
615-851-7077
815 Meadow Lark Lane
Goodlettsville, TN 37072

Wags & Whiskers
615 228-9249
(Home Delivery Service)
Nashville, TN 37206

Nashville Pet Products
615-242-2223
2621 Cruzen St
Nashville, TN 37211

[Erin]

Some of the premium foods are expensive. Merrick canned is $2 a can and I split a can between the two of them for 1 meal. That is why they get kibble and home cooked stuff too.

Canidae is the least expensive of the premium foods. That is not to say it is the lowest quality - it is a good food. They just don't have the fancy packaging of the others. The Innova is a bit more - I'd go Canidae over plain Innova, but the Innova EVO is grain free which is why we feed it. The nice thing is that Yorkies are so small that it doesn't matter whether you spend $6 or $12 on a bag of food because they eat so little of it.

The other thing to keep in mind is that some of the grocery store brands like Purina will have a product like Purina ONE that is *slightly* better than say, Beneful but still not very good. That stuff costs more because they want you to think it's better food, but it's not.

[RLC12345678]

Some good choices you can get at PetCo or PetSmart are Nutro and Natural Balance.

[xBUTTERCUPx]

I feed mine the science diet small bites and little bites of roasted turkey every now and then. Others might have their opinions on that particular brand but I'm not changing it.

[zoeybear]

I am using science diet puppy small bites. It was what the breeded was feeding. I didnt want to switch and cause loose stools. I thought it was a good brand... now I am feeling guilty! I couldnt find it on the food rating site. Is it so bad it isn't even listed? Yikes!

[Erin]

Originally Posted by zoeybear

I am using science diet puppy small bites. It was what the breeded was feeding. I didnt want to switch and cause loose stools. I thought it was a good brand... now I am feeling guilty! I couldnt find it on the food rating site. Is it so bad it isn't even listed? Yikes!

Ground Whole Grain Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Soybean Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken Liver Flavor, Dicalcium Phosphate, Brewers Rice, Fish Oil, Flaxseed, Soybean Oil, Iodized Salt, Choline Chloride, Potassium Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, vitamins (L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.

It's all corn and by-products. Not a single whole meat source. It's junk.

[Yorkieluv]

If you can't get to a specialty store to buy Canidae or one of those, Petco sells Solid Gold which is also a 4 or 5 star food according to www.dogfoodanalysis.com Generally according to that website 4 or 5 star foods are recommended for yorkies. As long as you do a gradual switch, your furbaby should be fine. We homecook for our dogs and change the recipes every 3 weeks or so.
My mom feeds it to her maltese...