Question about breed specific dog food...?

Question

Are these for real or are they for suckers like me? I was at Petco with my Yorkie yesterday and a Eukanuba salesperson talked me into buying breed specific dog food for Yorkies. I've heard a lot of bad stuff about this brand, but thought if it's for Yorkies it must be good...after I got home I looked up other dog foods and came across Royal Canin for Yorkies, is this one better? Are they both gimmicks? She is currently on Nutro Ultra, which I've heard is one of the better ones. When I switch her from puppy to adult food, should I just keep her on Nutro Ultra or switch over to one of these breed specific foods.Also, she is 8 months old, when can I start weaning her to adult food?

Answer 1

Eukanuba and Iams are supposed to have gone to crap. Sorry. If you have a well balanced dog food it shouldn't matter if it's breed specific or not. Breed specific dog foods just cater to the "extra nutritional needs" of some dog types.

Nutro is definitely a high quality brand - lots of vets support it as well. I'd keep her on it, and since she's a smaller dog breed you can probably switch anywhere from now to 12 months.

Answer 2

Nutro Ultra is a fine food that should work well for you as long as you don't find any issues (ie. food allergies). Royal Canin is also a very good food (my English bulldog is on Royal Canin), but if you don't find any problems with your current food, then there is no really reason to switch. As for when to switch, I would say anytime right around 1 year would be the best. When you do switch, however, make sure that you make it a very gradual process. At first, feed mostly the puppy food with just a small amount of the new adult food mixed in. Over the next couple of weeks you can slowly increase the mixture until you are feeding only the adult food. Your dog may still take several more weeks after that to fully adjust to the new food, but the gradual process will make it much easier for the dog.

Answer 3

You can start weaning her anytime now, she's almost an adult. Many vets recommend weaning to adult at 7 months.
The breed specific foods were designed because many small dogs have trouble breaking the larger kibbles into edible pieces and large dogs tend to gulp down the smaller kibbles and pass them with very little digestive activity, reducing the benefits of the food. All of the brands that you mentioned are agreeable. It's the contents of the food that is more important than the size of the kibble. The first ingredient listed should be some form of meat, NOT corn, grain, oats or meat byproducts but pure unadulterated meat, unless your dog is on a veterinary prescribed diet. Dogs are carnivores and benefit from meat proteins and are often unable to use the proteins available from other sources.
Nutrition is part of the Puppy Kindergarten training that I offer my students.

Answer 4

Ok here goes! There are breed specific foods out there. Are they better than what you are feed you pup now. NO
IAM's is one of the worst foods out there. Just read the label.
I don't know much about Royal Canin. I have feed my dogs NUTRO for many years. As young pups all the way to the day they have passed away. The only difference in the type of NUTRO was that I have large breed dogs so I feed them that.
You got sucked in by a really good salesman or woman.
You can start to switch over to the NUTRO adult any time now. I would keep her on the same kind of NUTRO just the adult version.
Throw out the IAM's and just check it up to being a bit naive!

Answer 5

Well, in any dog food, the ingredients that you really want to stay away from are BHT BHA and Ethoxyquine.

Ethoxyquin
Promoted kidney carcinogenesis.
Significantly increased incidence of stomach tumors.
Enhanced bladder carcinogenesis.

BHA
Enhanced stomach and urinary bladder carcinogenesis.
Causes squamous-cell carcinomas in stomachs.
(Cancers of this type are among the most lethal and fastest acting, the swiftest effects being seen among animals with light colored fur.)

BHT
Promoted urinary bladder carcinogenesis.
Could be a promoter of thyroid carcinogenesis.
Studies have noted that BHA and other antioxidants, particularly Propyl Gallate and ethoxyquin, showed additional effects in inducing stomach hyperplasia and cytotoxicity.

According to Dr. Wendell Belfield, DVM, practicing veterinarian for some 26 years, both BHA and BHT are known to cause liver and kidney dysfunction and are banned in some European countries. He adds that ethoxyquin is suspected of causing cancer and that propylene glycol (a pet food ingredient closely related to anti-freeze) causes destruction of red blood cells.




Ethoxyquin is listed and identified as a hazardous chemical by OSHA. It has a rating of 3 on a scale of 1 to 6, with 6 being super toxic requiring less than 7 drops to cause death. When manufactured by Monsanto, the containers are marked with the word POISON. Monsanto makes no representations and will not be responsible for damages of any nature whatsoever. The Department of Agriculture lists and controls Ethoxyquin as a pesticide.

Answer 6

LOL - I'd say this is just a money making scheme by a pet food company. Feed your dog whatever works well for her - whatever she likes to eat & thrives on.
Best Wishes!

Answer 7

i have 2 yorkies who are just 1 year old they started having adult food at 10 months although the vet said 1 year they seem fine on it as for food just for yorkies i think it's just to get more money out of you mine have ped. chum dried.-hope i've helped

Answer 8

Yes, Eukanuba is one of the worst brands of dog food - lots of fillers and junk in there. Here are some sites to help you find better food:

http://www.4pawsu.com/dogfood.htm
and
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/

Answer 9

Eukanuba products are excellent. My husband has work for the Iams Co. for 26 years. To be sure. Seek the advice of your vet.

Answer 10

i buy my yorkie pedigree dog food