what is the best dog food for a chihuahua?

Question

some dog food are cheap but its bad. Any healthy food for a puppy?

Answer 1

Science Diet is terrible! Yes, it is true that most vets recommend it, but truth is, most vets don't know about nutrition. They get a few classes on it by the dog food COMPANY. And guess what the company is going to say??? That their food is best. Also, these popular dog food companies actually pay some students through vet school to get them to promote their food. Moreover, breeders and vets get "parties" and "prizes" for selling enough of their dog food brand, even though the food is of poor quality. If there are commercials about the dog food brand, don't buy it. Eukanuba, Purina, Science Diet, Iams, Ol' Roy, are examples of BAD foods!

Diet means A LOT for a dog, especially one as little as a chi. When you feed properly, their fur will be SO much better, their health good, and even the umm..."stools" will be less stinky and less mushy. So easier clean up for you. If you change a dog's food, their personalities can too. better food = happier, healthy dog.

What food is healthy? Well...first off, what's NOT healthy? Avoid byproducts in the food (byproducts are the nasty parts of the animal), corn should not be in the top 4 ingrediants (dogs cannot digest corn and it causes some nasty stool), no chemical preservative such as Ethoxyquin, BHA, BHT or Propyl Gallate. These are some of the things to look out for. If you don't see ________ (blank) Meal as the first ingrediant, they're cheating you.

It can be complicating. Diet is a huge debate among responsible dog owners who want the best for their pets.
Here are some links that will help you out:
http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/dogfoods.html
http://www.thepetcenter.com/imtop/bestfood.html
http://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html

Some good foods:
Canidae
Eagle pack holistic
Wellness
Flint River
Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul (my personal favorite)
Innova
Solid Gold
Nutro natural choice
Nutro Ultra (better than natural choice)
Natural balance

These were the top choices according to the Dog Journal:
ACANA ~ Premium Canadian pet food, uses human grade and hormone free ingredients.

Blue Buffalo ~ Human grade, hormone and antibiotic free ingredients

Canidae ~ Human grade, hormone and antibiotic free ingredients

Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul ~ High quality ingredients

Doctors Foster & Smith ~ High-quality ingredients

Dog Lover's Gold ~ Also available in Europe. Human grade, hormone and antibiotic free, free range ingredients.

Eagle Pack Holistic Select ~ Human grade, hormone and antibiotic free ingredients. "Eagle Pack Super Premium formulas are nutritionally balanced so pet owners can mix up to 25% raw food with the Eagle Pack formulas."

Flint River Ranch (multiple distributors) ~ Human grade, hormone-free ingredients.

Fromm Four Star Nutritionals ~ USDA inspected meats, high quality ingredients (note the Classic line is much lower quality and not recommended). They also offer a raw frozen diet.

Go! Natural from Petcurean ~ Human grade ingredients

Innovative Veterinary Diets ~ Special diets for specific conditions, including allergies, IBD, kidney disease, etc. as well as a standard line of pet foods. See Prescription Diets above for more info.

Merrick Pet Foods ~ Human grade ingredients

Nature's Variety Prairie ~ Human grade ingredients

Oh, and even though the very best brands may seem more expensive, they will actually save you money. Because of the number of good nutrients, your chi will actually eat less of it, but still get more nutrients than if he ate science diet. So you will be feeding less, and so you buy less food, and actually save money! And to top it off, your chi will be so much healthier!

There is also the BARF (Bones and Raw Feeding) Diet. But no long-term effects have been seen to truly judge yet. Look it up if you're interested!

Oh and of course, since chis are so small, make sure you feel the kibble to make sure its small enough to chew for him before buying. Some dogs just like other foods better than others. You'll have to try things out. The popular foods like Iams, Purina, Science Diet, etc usually put so much "flavoring" and nasty **** in their to make it smell appealing to the dog cause otherwise, the food is so bad that dogs wouldnt eat it. There was a commercial dog food whose ingrediants were actually found to be leather boots and water. Now techinally, leather is protein so they got away with saying it had so much about of "protein." But it was terrible.

The ones that I listed are good. You should research and try them out.
natura pet food has got a dog food comparison tool so you can see all the ingrediants. The ones listed first are the ones that make up the most of the food. Check it out:
http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=tools-tab

Answer 2

Raw food. Perferably Organic/ Naturaly raise antibiotic free. If you want to feed a NATURAL food what gets more natural than a hunk of raw chicken, some carrots, a bit of yogurt, green beans, eggs, blue berries, & apples (tehehe that was my pup's menu for today) Feeding Raw can be just as easy as commercial (With a little planning - praise the (wo)man who invented ziplocs!) Costs about the same as feeding high quality kibble and is a heck of a lot healthier. And come on what dog doesn't want real meat?

Answer 3

we feed ours science diet weight control. you have to get it from a vet. since chihuahuas are so small and often not the most active because they are inside and carried around, it's easy for them to gain weight. i have one that is very active--she's one and a half. she has no problem w/ lbs. the other one is 6yo and is chubby. 2or 3 pounds is a lot of extra weight for such small dogs. the food is small, dry. been eating it since they were puppies.

Answer 4

Science Diet - Small Bites.

All my little Chihuahua PJ eats! (She turns 16 this Christmas!)

Answer 5

My vet said that Science Diet is good and Eukanuba

Answer 6

I feed mine Purina Little bits, and table food like rice and chicken.

Answer 7

try science diet the are the best.or ask your vet she will now the best for your budget and your dog

Answer 8

purina1 is good for chiuaua

Answer 9

dwarves