Pisces

We promised my daughter a puppy when we arrived and bought a maltese/shih tzu. The pet shop informed us that she ate Evo and we would have to stick to that as changing her dog food would upset her tummy. It cost's 40 dollars a packet and can only be purchased from them. I did not have a problem with that as we were told it is the best etc etc. But yesterday went to buy a packet and it was just about to expire as were all the other packets. I do have a problem paying 40 dollars for expired dog food.
Can anyone advise me on how I could change her dog food. Do I slowly mix her old dog food with the new one? And can you recommend a brand. She is now 6 months old.
Thanks

Gems

Yes, you can change dog food.

We had a pedigree Dalmation, parents were champs. They insisted he ate only a certain very expensive food. They lived a long way from us and it was available to them locally. Like you it was not available near us.

We stuck to it for 6months, then I decided to try another brand as he was getting bored. I just bought the smallest bag of another brand. I was shocked to find he actually prefered this brand and ate it no problem.
I later tried a couple of different brands and he ate them too without problems.

Dalmatians can have health problems if not on right food. However the same food but different brand made no difference. It was also cheaper than this particular brand the breeder insisted on.

If I was you, Id buy a small bag of something similar and try it. I bet the dog will eat it.

It might be trial and error, but if you try and get something similar you will be ok.
Dont pay for old dog food, when something else will be ok. But check what your particular breed needs.

Gems

kiwinow

Sounds like the pet shop is onto a good thing.

A mixed diet is good for most dogs. Mine gets bored with the same food after two meals, so I alternate canned food and dry and occasional leftovers. A cheaper brand will do just as well and I doubt it will upset her tummy for too long, but as you say you could mix it half and half with the old brand and gradually phase it out.

tillysmum

We use Hills dry mix food can buy it loads of places and pretty reasonable price.

UK-2-OZ

Let me guess the pet shop was Pets Paradise, they are the only stockist and importer of Evo so no wonder they advise you not to change the diet. I would recommend Eagle they have a great range. Gradually mix the old and new diet together ie:
90% old food v's 10% new then keep reducing old food until you are 100% on the new food.
I don't recommend cheap brands of pet food, but there are other brands out there not just Evo.

Pisces

Thanks very much for the advice. I will have a look at some other brands, and maybe pop into the vet to get advice on what would be best for her.

IanJakeCharlieDaddy

Hi as a vet nurse, there are loads on the market and they are all good. You need to find a food that is small breed puppy food untill they are around 12months, but different foods stop at different ages. Mixed diets are good as they contain water in the wet, but also the dry is good for their teeth.
The breed you have you really need to take care of her teeth as small dogs are prone to have teeth problems espically the breed she has. They are also well known to be fussy eaters so if you are able to change flavour of wet food, that is good also. It is very tempting to baby small dogs but please remeber that she is a dog and the bottom of the pack, so no sitting on the back of the sofa above you as it is all about her trying to get higher up the pack. Good luck and enjoy.

FluffyTheCampfireSlayer

Yup! Thats the best way to do it. SOme dogs will take to another brand no problem. Others can get a bit of an upset tummy, others just simply wont eat anything they are not used to. Just mix a bit in each day and gradually increase/ reduce the amounts. We did this with our dog a while ago. Worked a treat!

moneypenny20

And anyone else planning on buying a puppy, please don't get one from a pet shop no matter how cute they look. It only encourages them to stock more and it's beyond cruelty Flaming places should be shut down.

Pisces

Thank's very much for all the advice. I have actually just kept her on the dry Evo with a little bit of rice and cooked chicken meat on a few occasions. They did tell me that the Evo gave her a completely balanced meal and she did not really need anything else. I thought once she was a year old I would give her a bit more variety.
I worry about her diet as much as I worry about my childrens. She is so little at the moment I do worry about her. No, I have not been babying her too much. She does tend to pick on my 4 year old as she is the smallest in the house. She is not allowed on the furniture inside so she goes outside and sits on the patio furniture and has a snooze! and she sleeps in the kitchen in her basket at night.

Pisces

The good pet food like Eagle and Hills - would it be available at Franklins, Woolworths etc. or should I pop in to a vet?

marco121068

Ours are on Advance puppy food. Very impressed with it - though a bit on the pricy side at just ove $100 for 20kg.

IanJakeCharlieDaddy

lol, sorry it was not meant as a lecture, just see alot of small breed dogs with big attitudes and doesn't make my job easy. As I said before all the amjor dog food and cat food companies all look in to their diets really well, it is just a matter of choosing what suits you. You can get your food from a vet or a supermarket. But a good thing I try to point out to any of my clients is the upfront cost may seem huge, but once you work out cost per day it look better.

All the dry food on the market are called complete(unless it says mixer) and does what it says on the packet, but sometime a change in flavour is nice either by adding a bit of wet or gravy etc.

Also you are proberly getting at the teething stage, you can use bonjela on her gums (or any other teething gel) to help with the pain.

Like I said before have fun and enjoy because they are only little once and it soons goes.

IanJakeCharlieDaddy

sorry top dog foods are eukanuba, hills, pedigree(advance), Royal canin(waltham), Pro Plan(Purina) and loads more but mind has gone to mush. I know for certin that proplan do a small breed puppy and royal canin do breed food. By small breed it means smaller kibbles so easier to eat.

Cheetah7

When I worked as a vet nurse, we had several cats that had suffered blocked bladders or cystitis and they were fed on Iams - my own cat included.

Has anyone else ever fed their cat on Iams and found that their cat has suffered bladder problems? I would be interested to know to see if there is a connection.

One vet I locumed at would practically insist that the owners should fee Iams for 'a cleaner litter tray and less body waste'.

Personally I don't care how much my cat craps in his tray, I can't imagine feeding him purely dried food.

He gets fed a small amount of complete food in the morning and some meat in the evening.

I found it quite disturbing to see my old cats hanging over their water bowl and drinking +++ to try and get their fluid intake to compensate for the dried diet.

After working in a feline renal clinic for several months, I do question as to just how healthy it is to feed an animal purely dried food - many of our long living cats had been fed either a mix of wet/dry food or just wet food and several cats fed on purely a dry diet had shown some signs of early renal failure.

One vet likened it to having muesli without the milk.

My old whippet also enjoyed a mix of high quality tinned and dried food - again, she couldn't tolerate a dried complete diet.

I agree that the diets nutritionally are well put together and as one Iams representative once told me as a student nurse that tinned food is mainly water.

But in the wild, surely an animals natural diet would consist of far more water than it ever could in dry food?

Interesting subject but I think I am going to keep my cat on a mix of both - his litter tray gets changed every day and his body waste is certainly not a problem and his teeth don't seem to be either.

I am glad I don't vet nurse any more because I would strongly object to any insistence on feeding - owners should make an informed choice and certainly in some of the practices I worked at, this was not the case, they were made to feel quite guilty for having their own feeding regime.

There are many ideas of how to feed your pet and at the end of the day as long as it is meeting your pets nutritional needs and your pet enjoys it, then you do what works and not what the pet shop/breeder tells you to.