Fussy Shih Tzu Puppy

[Nanners]

I need some help with our 5-mth old Shih Tzu puppy. He's a super fussy/finicky eater and I'm not sure what to do.

When we first got him at 7 weeks old, the breeder was feeding him Puppy Chow. I wasn't impressed with this so I tried switching him to Science Diet. I let him have the Puppy Chow for 2 weeks to get him settled with us before switching his diet. It was great. He ate and even got excited when it was feeding time. I gradually switched him over a 1-wk period with Science Diet. This is where our problems began. He slowly started not eating. When it was time to fully switch him over, he only ate when he felt like it. His feeding schedule was morning, noon and evening. Then we only started feeding him morning and evening since the dog walker said he never ate his lunch. After that, we tried once a day. I put his required food in his area and he can eat whenever he wanted and then I would take it away by 8pm. This sort of went ok but he still won't eat at least half his daily requirement of food. The vet says he's fine, he's just picky and that when he's hungry, he will eat. He does but not a whole heck of a lot.

I refuse to mix canned food with this dry. I would really prefer not going down that route.

I went and bought puppy chow (very reluctantly) and he gobbles it up! He even ate from my cousin's dog's bowls and that was "Beneful". I don't know much about food but I know if you buy it from a grocery store, it's probably not the greatest for them. I went to a few pet stores but they don’t have sample packages and buying 2, 3, 4 different kinds of food to waste is just not in my budget.

Does anyone else have a fussy Shih Tzu or dog? What are your tips? Any brand food I should look into without wasting too much money?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[showpug]

Okay, first of all, loose the puppy chow and the science diet, both are pretty bad quality foods. Second, try Innova EVO! It's not puppy food, but can be fed to puppies and is ideal for toy breed puppies. I use it on my pugs of all different ages and they are crazy for it! I would bet money that he gobbles it up immediatley given it's higher fat and protein content. You may think it costs more, but they truly eat less of this type of food, so give it a try!!! You won't be sorry!

 

[Zoom]

It's probably just the Science Diet. I had the same problem with my dog and the bag of Nutro I bought for when he had first come home. I switchd to Iams just to get him to eat something, which he did gladly and is also inhaling the Royal Canin I have him on now. It's not as good as Innova/Innova EVO, but still a heck of a lot better than Iams or Science Diet.

 

[Mordy]

posting again - my take on science diet products:
http://www.ourdogsonline.com/index.php?section=27

puppy chow, beneful and everything else available at grocery stores is something to best stay away from. if you want to learn about what makes a good dog food, look here:
http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood

last but least, on the canned food:
canned food is healthier than dry food, provided it's of good quality. there is absolutely nothing wrong with either adding some canned food or feeding wet food exclusively. the claim that it is bad for dog's teeth is absolutely bogus, if it isn't full of poor quality ingredients, it keeps teeth cleaner than dry food.

 

[showpug]

posting again - my take on science diet products:
http://www.ourdogsonline.com/index.php?section=27

puppy chow, beneful and everything else available at grocery stores is something to best stay away from. if you want to learn about what makes a good dog food, look here:
http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood

last but least, on the canned food:
canned food is healthier than dry food, provided it's of good quality. there is absolutely nothing wrong with either adding some canned food or feeding wet food exclusively. the claim that it is bad for dog's teeth is absolutely bogus, if it isn't full of poor quality ingredients, it keeps teeth cleaner than dry food.

Mordy...I have a question regarding the canned food issue. I was told by a dog evaluator that toy breeds, especially toy breed puppies should never be fed wet food exclusively because of it's high water content. She said that it just doesn't have enough fat and protein due to the fact that it is indeed mostly water. Toy breeds seem to burn energy faster and therefor benefit more from a higher fat and protein content in their food. What is your opinion on this??

 

[Athebeau]

I have a question regarding the canned food issue. I was told by a dog evaluator that toy breeds, especially toy breed puppies should never be fed wet food exclusively because of it's high water content. She said that it just doesn't have enough fat and protein due to the fact that it is indeed mostly water. Toy breeds seem to burn energy faster and therefor benefit more from a higher fat and protein content in their food. What is your opinion on this??

I'm not Mordy...but...I LOVE giving my opinion...even when it's not asked for haha
I have seen first hand many small dogs and medium size dogs do wonderful on a complete canned and homemade diet with kibble fed only once in awhile. These dogs get more fluids to flush their kidneys. In my mind it's much more dangerous to feed a complete dry kibble diet and risk kidney problems (which I have seen often in small breeds).
This is also a guide to go by to see how much protein is in a canned food look at the label at the percentage of protein…if it says 6% protein that equals 24.0% protein dry weight basis. To compare percentages of any nutrient in pet foods find out what percentage of the food is actually solid dry weight. Do this by subtracting the listed moisture content of the food from 100 percent. The difference is the dry weight. Let's say the moisture is 75 percent for the canned food and 10 percent for the kibble. That means our canned food is 2.5 percent solid and our kibble is 90 percent solid. This is where the nutrients are (the water part simply passes from the body as urine). Once you know what percentage of the food is dry weight, then you can simply divide the percentage of protein (or any other listed nutrient you wish to determine) by the dry weight.
The above calculation adviser is taken from Dr. Pitcairns book Natural Health for Pets

 

[Mordy]

showpug, athebeau posted a great explanation, which is 100% correct.

yes, canned food is "mostly water", but so is any diet that a dog would eat naturally, while dry food does not only contain great amounts of corn (= carbs, not a big part of a carnivore diet) but it also has an unnatural moisture content that the body has to deal with, which puts stress on the kidneys.

it is true that the smaller the dog, the more nutrients it needs per pound of body weight - a good thing, or we wouldn't be able to afford feeding large breed dogs! however, that evaluator you talked to doesn't seem to know much about nutrition at all, so i wouldn't put too much stock in her opinions on the topic.

last but not least, here's a visual example of the dry matter basis calculation athebeau mentioned above:

let's say
* the dry food we want to compare contains 24% protein, 14% fat, 3% fiber and 10% moisture.
* the canned food we want to compare to the dry food contains 9% protein, 8% fat, 1% fiber and 78% moisture.

since we know our dry food has 10% moisture, the 90% "dry matter" we are left with contains
* 26.67% protein
* 15.55% fat
* 3.33% fiber

since we know our canned food has 78% moisture, the 22% "dry matter" we are left with contains
* 40.9% protein
* 36.36% fat
* 4.54% fiber

so you see that by direct comparison the canned food comes out ahead in regards to protein and fat, but of course you can't compare the nutrition contained in one cup of kibble to what one cup of canned food provides: you have to feed a larger amount of the canned food due to the high moisture content - however, the dog does not have to compensate by drinking as much additional water and there is less stress on the digestive tract and kidneys.

 

[showpug]

showpug, athebeau posted a great explanation, which is 100% correct.

yes, canned food is "mostly water", but so is any diet that a dog would eat naturally, while dry food does not only contain great amounts of corn (= carbs, not a big part of a carnivore diet) but it also has an unnatural moisture content that the body has to deal with, which puts stress on the kidneys.

it is true that the smaller the dog, the more nutrients it needs per pound of body weight - a good thing, or we wouldn't be able to afford feeding large breed dogs! however, that evaluator you talked to doesn't seem to know much about nutrition at all, so i wouldn't put too much stock in her opinions on the topic.

last but not least, here's a visual example of the dry matter basis calculation athebeau mentioned above:

let's say
* the dry food we want to compare contains 24% protein, 14% fat, 3% fiber and 10% moisture.
* the canned food we want to compare to the dry food contains 9% protein, 8% fat, 1% fiber and 78% moisture.

since we know our dry food has 10% moisture, the 90% "dry matter" we are left with contains
* 26.67% protein
* 15.55% fat
* 3.33% fiber

since we know our canned food has 78% moisture, the 22% "dry matter" we are left with contains
* 40.9% protein
* 36.36% fat
* 4.54% fiber

so you see that by direct comparison the canned food comes out ahead in regards to protein and fat, but of course you can't compare the nutrition contained in one cup of kibble to what one cup of canned food provides: you have to feed a larger amount of the canned food due to the high moisture content - however, the dog does not have to compensate by drinking as much additional water and there is less stress on the digestive tract and kidneys.

Did I ever mention that I am horrible at math! Especially this early in the morning LOL!!! But, what you both said makes total sense. Thanks for the great explanation! You know, when I was listening to the evaluator talk about diet I kind of sat there with a dead stare on my face like HUH? She said some other stuff that I thought was bogus...needless to say she used to work for a major dog food company but wouldn't say which one. I will stick to her structural analysis and ignore the diet comments! Thanks again!