for my wifes pup

[yellermelon]

My wife has a overwieght chihuahua. She has the bad knees, and all. Shes been to the vet...alot, shes been on vet food, and all sorts of other mumbo jumbo. But hey what is a GOOD dog food? My wife bought some ...nutro.. but said she didnt know if she wanted to use it..was looking for somthing better? any ideas?

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

Ive heard good things abour nutro, I think that no matter what brand you choose you need to get the weight control version to have lower fat and calorie values.

 

[goReptiles]

I like nutro. It's a good brand. It's what I use for my dogs. Natural Balance, Science Diet, and even Eukaneuba (spelling), are good brands. I'd choose Natural Balance over the other two. But definately stick with a weight control diet.

 

[John N]

You might want to see if your local pet store has Solid Gold, Wellness, or Canidea. I would recommend Wellness over the others, but it is a bit more expensive, Canidea being the next.

Pretty much all of the brands that you see on T.V; I believe Nutro included, has a lot of fillers and low grade bi products. I would never try science diet, it's pretty much one of the worst dog food. Vets sometimes recommend it because they get a monthly pay from the company to recommend it (so I have herd).

This is how I know which brand is good. Check out the ingredients of the food, the first thing listed is what the food is mostly made of. If it is corn,wheat (not to sure on this) or bi products, you might want to try a different brand.

 

[paulnj]

Add puffed rice to the food to reduce weight It's low in calories and fills them up. That's how we reduced the wieght of our pug per the vets suggestion.

 

[goReptiles]

nutro does have fillers in it, but not as much as many of the other brands out there. most of the nutro natural choice foods are specified for different things- dental, skin/coat, etc. I use it for skin/coat for my yorkie and large breed puppy for my pit. s/d is the same, but i'm really not a big fan of it, since i switched to nutro; my dog's have really improved since they've been on it (well the yorkie, as i've just put my pit on it).

i believe you can get solid gold at health food stores. i'm not 100% on that though. just what i've heard.

 

[Cheaton]

Just remember, overweightness in any animal is generally caused by the same things. Eating too much, and not getting enough excercise. If the dog isn't too old or frail then you can probably achieve results by just reducing its food intake. If you're just leaving food out all day for the dog to graze on you should change to feeding it twice a day and picking the food up after a certain amount of time. We feed our pup Innova and Merrick brands. These special "vet foods" are just a bunch of hogwash. It's usually science diet or some other similar crap. Science diet makes terrible dog food in general. Full of corn and wheat. They put the word "Science" on the package and people assume it's good. Just marketing with nothing to back it up. Also, they pay vets alot of money in kickbacks to push their food. Anyway, maybe that part is for the rants section

 

[John N]

petsuppliesplus sells solid gold and many other great brands of dog food. Maybe check on their site to see if there is a store near you?

 

[Perefalcon]

personally, we use iams...Jerry is very picky about what he eats, and has reactions to many of the more expensive brands...so we stick with that, but we've used nutro in the past as well as diamond..we also feed Jerry many people foods...his favorite is fresh veggies...one of these days I'll get a pic of him chewing a chunk of brocolli...adding things like that may help you get the dog's weight down...and carrots also help to keep their teeth cleaner...just no onions, mushrooms or grapes...bad for them...there's a site out there that shows the safe people foods to give a dog

jerry is spoiled, I'll even make him pancakes and eggs when I make them for us LOL

 

[yellermelon]

Thanks for al of the replies, we do not leave the food down all day for grazing, she is fed a little over a 1/4 cup a day in 2 feedings, Per the vet said to lol. I think we may try the solid gold. She excersises and all...just a chunk.