Deciding on Food for my Shih Tzu Pup

Hello All,

This is my first post here so don't be too harsh :D

Anyways, my wife and I recently got a pure bred female Shih Tzu. Well we have now have her for about four months. When we first got her I kept her on the food the breeder was feeding her which was Eukanuba for puppies. After walking into a botique and having a guy enlighten me about how bad "Premium" dog food really is I went online right away and began researching.

Alas Solid Gold seemed to be a pretty good choice at the time. There is a supplier very close by, and the price isn't too bad. She didn't seem to really enjoy eating this food as much as her old (and yes I did slowly switch her over). After about her second month on the Solid Gold and Solid Gold Beed Jerky treats, her stool seems to be a little bit wet. I'm not sure if it is from this food or something else that she gets a hold of, but it seemed better at the start.

I've been reading a lot about Orijen and Innova EVO recently and I'm looking to try one of them, but I'm still not 100% sure which, and if I really want to switch or not. So here are my questions...

Should I continue feeding the Solid Gold? When should I switch her to the Wee Bit for Small Adult Dogs if I stick with Solid Gold? She is almost six months old now, could I switch her to this now? It seems like she would like this much more anyways seeing that it'd be easier for her to chew. Along with being easier to chew, she may like the fish more then the lamb she is eating now.

Now the Orijen and Innova claim that they leave out the grains in their 70/30/0 (Meats/Fuit,Veggies,Minerals/Grain) ads. While, I have not read anything bad about the no grain or the two brands in general. I want to be cautious.

So what do you all think?

Hi!

Solid Gold, EVO and Orijen are all good foods.

If you feel like you would like to switch to a grain free formula, I would either email the companies or visit your pet store to see if you can acquire samples to see which your dog prefers.

I do believe that the grain free formulas are better for a pets long term health, however not all pets do well on them... so along with smart label reading it is also a bit of trial and error to find the healthiest food that your dog does well on.

Good luck and take care.

For our shih tzu.we had her on canadie and orijin.the kibble pieces are small.and both are a good quality food.

Some younger dogs don't do well on the higher protein, others do very well. There is a young JRT on this board who had a lot of difficulties which has done very well with the wee-bit. At six months it would be fine to switch over to an adult food or even an "all life stages" food.

Orijen and Evo are both great products. Other products to consider include regular Innova (not Evo), Canidae and Timberwolf Organics.

Good luck.

She might have been getting too much food too. My shih tzu mix, and my cat for that matter, get soft poop if they eat too much of a good thing. They eat Performatrin Ultra, its holistic and similar to what you are feeding... Full of healthy stuff with relatively no fillers.

Before switching to adult food, check with the vet. Mine ok'ed it at 6 months, because in essance the dog had stopped growing.

Try scalling the portion sizes back a few kibble at a time (my 15 lbs shih tzu mix only eats two 1/4 cup portions daily) until the poop gets less soft.