Best puppy food for a bichon/shih tzu?

[Pupster]

Hi everyone,

I am new to this forum and was was wondering if anyone could offer some recommendations on the best food for a 5 month old bichon/shih tzu puppy? He currently weights 14 pounds and I'm told he should be about 17 pounds full grown. The previous owner was feeding him a mix off Pedigree Puppy and Purina Beneful, however, I would like to switch him over to a more natural, holistic diet.

A few of the brands that have been suggested are Innova, Orijen, Now (by Petcurean), Solid Gold, California Natural, Wellness and Fromm. Does anyone have any experiences with these lines or are there any other ones that you would recommend?

Thanks!

[rainbow]

Welcome to pets.ca and thank you for deciding to change your puppy's food to something far more nutritious for him.

I have been feeding Orijen for a couple of years now to both my dogs and it's the best kibble out there imo. I also tried Go Natural Grain Free which is also good but more expensive than Orijen where I live. I fed Innova before that and was happy with it but decided that grain free is the way to go.

[bendyfoot]

Before we switched to raw, we fed our dogs (inluding the pups) Orijen, and were quite happy with it then. It's about as good a kibble as you can get IMO.

[flipgirl4]

Congrats! I also have a bichon/shih-tzu! I fed her Eagle Pack Holistic Selects at first and then Innova. I was happy with both but she got tired of them. I then switched to Canine Life which are puppy muffins. You can buy them premade but I chose to buy the premix and add the meat, veggies, fruit and eggs and bake them myself. That way, I could vary the meat and veggies with every batch. they have a distributor in Ontario and in BC. They also do custom recipes, Kiri loved it and her coat was so nice. Now I feed her Healthy Paws which are patties made of raw meat, bones, and veggies. I give her a salmon oil capsule every day and vitamin E twice a week.

Orijen is a good food I just don't like the high fat content. I feed it to my cats though. I would opt for raw whether it's premade or you do it yourself. I give Kiri a raw beef back rib once a week and a chicken wing and she loves it. The rib keeps her occupied for a while and the bone can be used as a recreational bone for 2 days. It's good for her teeth too. I give her an egg occasionally and a tablespoon of plain yogurt once a week too. Let me know what you go with...

[SnowDancer]

My American Eskimo has been on Fromms' Four Star Salmon A La Veg (with occasional switching to the Duck and Sweet Potato) since he was 9 months old - he is now almost 5. This food made a very big difference to him - and northern breeds do very well on a fish based diet. You can jump between all 4 of regular Four Star brands - but I would steer away from the new Pork and Apple Sauce - I think it is the Apple Sauce that reminded us he is a smooth operator. Before we started on the Fromms we were thinking that a digestive enzyme might be necessary. He is in excellent health and loves the food. He does well on the Whitefish as well, but the smell of it is rather strong. And, it is a family run business - with no ingredients sourced from China - and it was not on the recall list. Sometimes hard to find, but his groomer sells it and now has trouble keeping it in stock. We do not feed the recommended amount or he would be too fat - it is a rich food. He weighs 22 lbs. which is the ideal weight for a small standard or a big mini. He also gets bottled water - just PC - and has no yellowing of his eyes. He looks about 1 year old - and acts it.

[BusterBoo]

Hi and welcome!

I also have a tzu/bichon and I feed him a mix of Orijen and Wellness ( both fish based). He does well on both, some days he will pick out the wellness and spit it out, other days he does that with the Orijen

The only comment I have about Orijen is.....since Buster started on Orijen, he has picked up the nasty habit of "snacking" on poopsicles.....

Good luck finding a good food for your pup and sure hope we get to see lots of pictures!

[Pupster]

I was leaning towards Orijen but I had heard some conflicting opinions on whether or not it would have too much protein. I did also hear the stories about dogs tending too eat their 'poosicles'.

Thanks for all of the replies!

[browniesmom]

We feed natural balance works great for us.Learn about dog food ingredient's & see what food would work for your dog.

[douming]

i was watching on the national geographic show about a dog who ate poopsicles too.. apparently it's because they are lacking some vitamins but i'm not too quite sure