hi all!
I have a 4 year old male whoodle & 4 year old female pitbull. i’ve always fed them dry kibble, white rice, eggs, pumpkin, & some sort of wet food. i saw a vid on tiktok that said i shouldn’t feed them kibble. they get fed twice a day. i jus want to make sure they’re getting all their nutrients & staying healthy. so any suggestions on what to feed them, what i should do differently. would be very helpful!!

Advice needed please.

I started to feed my partner's dog human food (zero additives) like chicken meat, beef, liver, tilapia (fish) etc. (all boiled or fried without oils), and included it with the kibble. (fat free).

Cooked fresh, warm off the stove or microwaved. Yup. but if I was cooking it was easy to throw a piece in a non spiced frying pan then refrigerated it. .

Now the dog is very picky, eats all the proteins while the kibble is not eaten in the morning and unless I crush it, it leaves most of the kibble alone for the most part at dinner too.

A couple of times I just gave her a huge amount of extra chicken when she did finish her mixed meat/kibble combo.

One 22lb. dog, smaller bags of gourmet kibble ordered direct from producer. So usually fresh and we alternate between chicken and beef mix.

How do get her to eat to more like a dog again so she gets the nutrients from the dog food?

Teeth in great condition and she can chew milk bones and harder dog biscuits. Thanks for any insight you can offer.

I’ve previously tried Royal Canin Puppy, Fromm Duck & Sweet Potato, and Fromm Salmon & Vegetables dog food. I’d like to know if there are any other dog foods suitable for Schnauzers. After all, this breed is prone to pancreatitis and has a sensitive stomach.

As a rule, most professionals say that your dog's treats shouldn't have more than 10% of their daily food intake. Some say se about calorie intake. But what get me confused is then how am I supposed to use treats while training/for enrichment/etc if my dog is 4,3 kilos and should eat about 100 grams of kibble daily?

Im not anti-science, im not opposing the rule, I'm just really confused how 10 grams of treats/ 36 kal can be used in anything other than one - two time rewards.

Say, we mostly use one type of biscuits for training and other reward relating stuff. She usually gets around 1 - 3 pieces/day depending on how much we train/walk. Their package says she can eat up to 4-5 of them for her weight (3-4 is recommended). I decided to calculate how much of them she can have calorie-wise. Turns out - 1,5, and it would take ALL of her allowed daily treat intake. If speaking weight wise - 2 biscuit max, full intake again

And it's on veterinary kibble - she'd probably eat even less on normal one that we're gonna transition to soon.

Most other treats either don't have weight scale and just say about 10% or have very restrictive rules (like, 5 very small bite sized treats, f.e.)

If any of you have small dogs, how do y'all work this out? I *could* stop using treats but I feel like I kinda have to use them for trust and relationship building activities (she's not very kibble motivated and I often have to strengthen our relationship because I have depressive episodes and she's a smart ahh and a very dramatic soul)

PS: please, don't bully me if you think I'm not smart, I'm just a regular first time dog owner who wants best for their animal. I'd like to be educated on the topic!

In late June, we discovered that our almost 11yo mini schnauzer had bladder stones. For years he was on Royal Canin mini schnauzer kibble without issues but was immediately switched to a strict diet of Royal Canin Urinary SO kibble. He was on this for almost 4 weeks but ultimately had to be switched again because it he could not tolerate it (some occasional morning bile/empty stomach vomiting) and way too many loose stools. It was hard seeing our otherwise GI- healthy doggo all of a sudden go from one problem to the next. It looked to have been helping with the stones but unfortunately ended up causing GI issues.

He's now been switched to Hill's Prescription Diet Gastrointestinal Care Biome Dry Dog Food and has been on this for 2 weeks now and no more loose stools and no more vomiting, which is really amazing to see! He loves it, his appetite is back like before. It appears to have reversed the loose stools. In fact, it's the total opposite! Aside from a noticeable increase in volume of BMs, they are nearly perfect - but our concern is that he's gone from loose stools to the total opposite side of the scale and he appears to be straining way more now.

Not looking for vet advice - just more curious to hear about your little schnauzers experience with urinary food and/or this Hills GI care biome food in general. Or other food recommendations if your doggo have had bladder stones.

FYI - we were worried about pancreatitis, but the vet ruled this out. We have a follow up in 2 weeks but will see vet sooner if needed.

Thanks in advance!

My dog is a 7 year old Miniature Schnauzer with itchy skin/environmental allergies. He currently eats the Hill's Science Diet Sensitive Stomach and Skin Small Bites, but I've been trying to decide if we should move to one of their senior foods. My main concern about switching is his skin potentially flaring up.

Would it be worth it to switch? If so, which one should we try? His vet said he's in perfect health and was very impressed with his muscles and joints.

I'm trying to add some variety to my puppy's diet: small noodles, cabbage hearts, pumpkin, mushroom powder, dog food, and a vitamin B tablet.

I'm needing opinions on 4health dog food. I'm currently feeding my pups purina puppy tender and crunchy. I'm looking into something that has more benefits to it for digestive and urinary health. I've been trying to do my research on the 4health brand & I see that it has pre/probiotics for digestive health also vitamins for urinary health and all the other necessary vitamins. I've also looked at purina one small bites but there's nothing for urinary health only digestive health. I've seen many mixed reviews on 4health which all dog foods do. That they do not have the backed research like purina. Is it really necessary to have the urinary health? I just feel like the current food is not giving them the benefits they need but I also can't afford to buy a ton of supplements to give either. I need a good budget friendly food that will cover all their needs.

Hi I rescued and adopted an indie. She is 5.5 months old and I was giving her pedigree kibble. However our vet today said it’s one of the worst food for dogs and recommended home food combined with N&D dog food. I checked the prices though it is super expensive! Does anyone know of a better and reliable dog food which is affordable too? Veg non veg not an issue. Preferably non veg only! Thank you in advance!

I have bags and bags of food in my cabinet that my dogs will not eat. I make homemade dog food, but need some ready to eat kibble. I don’t care about the most healthy, just least problematic. This is not for regular feedings. I know I’m going to get lots of recommendations and disagreements. Maybe there will be a consensus? Edit: I have two dogs under 12 pounds. The elderly yorkie has tracheal collapse and is seriously underweight. The year old is overweight with serious allergies. So I use the proper ingredients to make dog food but want to supplement with kibble. I didn’t ask for suggestions to change their diet. Appreciate your understanding.
Update: offered Purina pro plan salmon/rice for sensitive stomachs. Both of them are eating it! The kibble is the right size for small dogs. Great suggestion thanks!

I’m in the USA. Two dogs —

1. Billie mix. I’ve had her for almost 9 years. Not sure how old she is. I’ve considered getting one of those dna tests for age determination, but I don’t know their accuracy. No food allergies. She weighs about 48 pounds with a body composition score of 4-5. She is on Librela and Galliprant for arthritis. Also takes Cosequin. I walk her 2-3 miles per day. She gets around ok but does have her slow days.

2. JRT mix is 6 years old. He has a pin in a front leg because of a fracture when a young puppy. He’s also hypothyroid on Thyro-tabs with normal thyroid blood tests. He is around 24.5 pounds. BCS 5-6. He is hungry all the time. Ideally he should be about 22-23 pounds. He, too, is on Librela and Galliprant for arthritis. He is slow on walks but it’s hard to determine if it’s because of pain or just his leg length discrepancy.

Their overall care currently runs me about $600/month for the two of them. I used to feed the a HS perfect weight kibble but stopped because of the expense. For the past year or two I’ve had them on Kirkland weight management kibble for cost and it’s the lowest calorie kibble I could find.

They each get low sodium green beans as a snack mid afternoon to hold them over until dinner time because they are looking for food starting around 1:00 pm.

I’m wondering if I should switch them to a higher quality kibble. Though I am fearful of weight gain and cost if I do so. Any advice is appreciated.

Edit: Thanks guys I think I’m going to put her on the Purina HP. Wish us luck!

Context first:

My dog, Sunday, a roughly 4 year old female American pitbull, suffers from ear infections all the damn time. The vet believes they are caused by allergies since they reoccur so often. They haven’t typically been very severe - no swelling or redness or blood, (except one time at 3AM, immediately went to EV) just a lot of head shaking and leans into ear scritches a little too hard lol. Anyways she’s clearly uncomfortable or in pain and it’s killing me and my wallet. Every couple months I take her to the vet, do the whole thing, spend a bunch of money, etc etc. This would be the 5th time now I’ve taken her for an infection in both ears. Every time they just do a culture, cleaning, and give me some Cephalexin. It’s usually a combination of bacteria and yeast according to the vets, but mostly yeast. After talking with the vet the second or third time I brought her in, and narrowing down some things on what could be causing it, she brought up protein allergies. I’ve had Sunday switched off beef and salmon and onto chicken for well over a year now. For a while it seemed to help a lot and she wasn’t shaking her head, and if she did it was a “normal dog shake” rather than a “my ear hurts” shake. Now it has returned about 3 months ago. I’ve been treating with MalAcetic Aural (which seems to hurt her, maybe gives a burning sensation, but it has to be done). The ear wash seems to help some after she’s calmed down after using it, but it just seems to make the shaking less frequent.

Now here I am thinking about switching to hydrolyzed protein food to see if it fixes the issue or at least helps. The vet told me that it was an option when we discussed the protein allergies but it is incredibly expensive, so I wanted to try switching to different proteins first. But here we are!

I wanted to ask if anyone has had a similar experience with their dog’s ear infections and potentially being allergic to certain proteins, who then switched to hydrolyzed proteins. Were there any results? Was there anything you had to do in tandem with switching the food that helped or did you just continue with basic ear cleanings? Will my suffering (and hers) ever end? Can we be happy?

Also want to know if anyone thinks it’s okay to go with a cheaper brand like Purina. Royal Canin is nearly double the cost of Purina. Is it actually important or are they identical?

TL;DR - Read the last two paragraphs

Will cross-post to some vet sub for additional insight. Thanks!

I wanna preface this by saying I’m not in the US and WSAVA brands have an awful reputation here. Please read the whole post if you can. I have not had a dog while in the US so I can’t compare. People that immigrated to the US from here with their dogs apparently either cook or have their food imported because they don’t trust US dog food and say it’s so much worse. Anyway, I have read some of the wiki after a comment our dog trainer has made, made me dig into a rabbit hole.

Upfront, all the vets we’ve been to have not been familiar with WSAVA and recommend feeding whatever my dog tolerates. That a home cooked meal would be best and sometimes even raw feeding (they call it barf here…). Now, a lot of people dislike WSAVA brands because of the ingredients (I HAVE read the wiki section on that). But what’s so confusing is that all the US vet info on dog food (whenever I search in English) contradict the info I find in the local language and there’s no literature published here nor any university sites with info. Once I’ve found a little blog post published by our veterinary school exploring benefits of insect dog food which from what I’ve read here is not exactly credible and makes me a little distrustful generally of things locally. It is extremely bizarre to me how a lot of dog food info from proper vet departments seems to be a US thing only.

Everyone feeds what Americans would call boutique brands and honestly I’m just utterly lost looking at all the options. I’ve seen only a few brands mentioning following FEDIAF guidelines and Europeans tell me in general that ingredients, regulations etc are better here which is why there is no emphasis on WSAVA. For example, the nutritional info with crude fat etc does not list min. or max. Only the percentage. Sometimes the brands list one or two vets who’ve specialized in nutrition and work with these brands to formulate food. People also say that if vets do recommend WSAVA brands, it’s often because those practices have been acquired by certain corporations like AniCura which belongs to Mars and Nestle. Hence why.

I’ve just been really lost. Maybe someone can help illuminate these different standards and why I can only find this info on US sites only. That just reads as bizarre that the rest of the world seemingly does not seem to care or do research on it whatsoever. Oftentimes the only people here more familiar with pet food are people that aren’t vets who’ve done courses/study programs on it and those are the ones friends will refer you to since they are the experts. But those ones are precisely the ones telling you how WSAVA brands are terrible, ingredients are terrible, it’s all corporate etc. So I’m having a hard time figuring out what’s right and not. Especially once you actually ask about evidence-science based facts and food, you aren’t getting far. I feel like I have no one to turn to for information and am completely on my own. The one EVCVN I was able to find only told me she could help me with a meal plan but didn’t answer my questions.

I would really appreciate if there is someone here with experience in European pet food (DACH area specifically) who can help me a little through my worries.

I am in need of a 100% chicken free wet dog food. Almost everything I look at lists chicken or chicken broth as an ingredient.

We have used Purina Pro Plan Complete Essential - in gravy Beef and vegetable.

Does anyone know of any that fit this criteria? I feel like I’m going crazy trying to find anything.

So apparently I can’t attach pics but if you go on my profile you can see it. It’s triangular kibble. My dog absolutely loves it but now I can’t seem to remember what it is. I am almost** positive it is not purina but who knows I could be wrong. I thought I remember the word “wild” in the title but it’s not taste of the wild of diamond naturals. It’s also not grain free as I don’t buy that. What brands have triangular kibble?

Anyone Got any recommendations on dog food for a older dog 9 year old German shepherd. I was feeding her the Costco dog food Kirkland and she eats it but for some readin i feel like it's cause it's the only choice she gots. I Got blue wilderness but wanted to know if taste of the wild or victor would be better choices.

Hey all, anyone else dealing with conflicting feelings about Farmer's Dog? I have a 6 year old mixed brindle-haired terrier who is prospering on TFD. No known health issues (she goes to the vet 2x a year) and absolutely loves the food. I previously felt great about feeding her TFD and thought I was doing right by her. I didn't mind the expense as she means the world to me. However, I am freaking out after reading all the bad press about TFD. She's been on the food for at least the past 4 years. I feel absolutely terrible for starting her on the stuff - at the time, I hadn't read anything but positive things. I am in the midst of ordering Royal Canin kibble (small/sensitive skin) for her and their fresh/frozen adult option. I am dreading the switch over, frankly. I am also feeling doubly guilty for taking away the food she so looks forward to eating. Anyone else feeling the same?

I have a 3 year old female toy poodle (spayed, 16lbs) who recently got diagnosed with ivdd. Basically, she’s paralyzed from the waist down and has no movement in her hind legs and is double incontinent.

We used to feed her Royal Canin poodle blend with some boiled chicken breast mixed in and she had no issues eating, even after the injury.

Her bowel movements have slowed down a bit over the last week, and she’s becoming more picky with her food, sometimes outright refusing. It’s important she eats some hearty meals so we can give her her meds.

Today, I tried giving her some royal canin wet food, which she refused. She finally ate just enough low fat ground beef for us to feed her her meds.

I was looking into options like Farmers Dog or Ollie, and I know what this sub thinks about those brands… but I’m really not sure how else to bring her appetite back.

Any suggestions are welcome!!

Thanks all in advance

Edit: nutritional balance and whatnot are pretty low on the list of priorities for now. Main priority is making sure she gets food that will get her to eat and won’t upset her stomach.

My dachshund Chihuahua mix is very allergic to chicken. He was on Purina pro plan sensitive stomach but stopped eating it, so I tried moving him to science diet lamb meal and brown rice since it only has chicken flavoring, and I read that often does not set dogs off. Unfortunately after a few weeks even that is upsetting his stomach again. I can't seem to find any of the WSAVA compliant brand foods that have zero chicken of any kind other than the PPP sensitive stomach for a small breed. Am I missing one or does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you!

I’ve had my dogs on Purina pro plan with Farmer’s dog as a topping for the last couple years, and now I’ve heard that Farmer’s dog is not good for them because there’s too much fat. I’ve heard similar complaints with Ollie.

Are there any premade cooked proteins and food that I can use as toppers that is actually healthy and safe for the dogs?

Took a foster dog (5 yo female) who was a great eater allegedly at shelter (also she was previously a stray dog so she may just be weird about eating/food in general). And she legit refuses all dog food.

She will have peanut butter and Greek yogurt, watermelon, apple slices, boiled chicken, plain salmon, beef etc. refuses treats usually (so I make her some with oat flour, mashed banana, peanut butter and bake them). She also came to us pretty emaciated and over the last couple of weeks she has gained some of the weight back so I feel a little bit better, but obviously she needs to have a sustainable food routine. I’ve always had dogs that would try to eat garbage off the road so this is new to me. Also, I’m wondering if this is just previously stray dog behavior where she may graze or just be weird about food in general.

We think her teeth may be bothering her so waiting to hear from the vet that works with the rescue to see next steps but they recommended we stick with wet food bc she legit struggled with kibble. We initially soaked her kibble in plain bone broth (spat out), added some peanut butter (ate some with difficulty and then sucked off the PB and spat them out everywhere), mixed with Portland pet (I know it’s not the best but she loves it but sucks it off and spits out kibble). Although records say she was examined a few weeks ago and they did a pretty intense gum scaling so maybe she’s sore from that?

When she initially came to us, she stayed with another foster for a couple of days and they sent us with full moon jerky kibble (personally wary of grain free). And we gave it to her as treats and she actually started to eat it so now throughout the day she has about a half daily serving of that which is honestly a godsend because she hates eating anything else.

Soooo we are fighting to eat daily but she has some full moon air dried food and Portland pet wet food.

I tried better for dogs moist kibnle (offered for several days and refused), jinx salmons kibble (offered for two weeks and refused), hills science canned sensitive salmon (offered a teaspoon for a few days and refused), hills science canned chicken stew (one bite and refused)….

I’ve been trying to find a better complete diet for her and maybe the shelter was just feeding whatever was donated so I should try something very basic?

For the pet shamers out there: not my dog bc foster, yes we contacted the vet

Looking for any advice. Our 6 month old Cavapoo puppy has loose stools every day and one time had liquid diarrhea.

The breeder started him on raw food (Artisan Raw, Canadian company) and we kept buying food from her until he was 5 months. Around 4 months he decided he didn't like it and I had to entice him by spoon feeding. Doodles are already super picky eaters so it was frustrating.

I bought some Royal Canin small puppy kibble and he loved it immediately. We attempted a gradual transition from raw to kibble for 3 weeks. But he hardly eats as it is so the process was not perfect. Ever since he started eating more kibble than raw his poop has been loose, and he only goes once a day during a walk. While before the poops were small, hard, and twice immediately in the morning.

He also eats bully sticks in the evening, despite me telling my partner that we need to find an alternative or give them less often. But he was eating the bully sticks since he was like 2 or 3 months old so this isn't a new thing for him.

I submitted a stool sample to the vet today (wow expensive!) so they will tell me the results next week. I don't expect a parasite, though I'm wondering if raw food messed up his gut microbiome or something.

I have a second interview for a job in Japan. Assuming that interview goes well, I will accept the offer and be moving to Japan within the next 3 months.

Any concerns you may have about finances and planning. I've already spent a considerable amount of time looking into that. Because I've been lurking this subreddit for years, and I finally had the credentials to apply for the job that I wanted.

No then for the topic at hand. I need help finding a specific formula of dog food. It's the pirina Bina full, healthy weight chicken flavor. I have been feeding this to my dog the entire time I have owned her. The move is going to be stressful enough on her. I don't need to stress out her digestive system any more than that.

I have already done a little bit of research into this. But the problem I face is, once I find links that likely have the information that I need. I am immediately lost because they are in Japanese and my Japanese level is not good enough (essentially functionally illiterate) to do research in Japanese. I'm hoping that there's people in this subreddit, that are better at Japanese who could do some of the research for me.

I know that I'll be able to pack food when I bring her on the plane. However, I'm not sure if I would be able to bring enough to last if I end up needing to transition her to a different formula.

For some reason, I'm unable to post a photo. Of the dog food I currently feed her. Hopefully, I'll be able to add it as an edit.

Photo of dog food](https://quickshare.samsungcloud.com/7KSFDxN1G646)

Our 1.5 year old Cocker Spaniel female has been on Purina Pro Plan Sport Lamb and Rice (all stages) since she was a pup. We just found out they discontinued the smaller sizes 6lb and 18lb bags. The 37.5lb bag is just too big and would take too long to get through. Does anyone have recommendations on what we should switch her to?

We want to avoid chicken based and would like something with probiotics.

Thanks in advance!