Senior dog food

[wagirl]

I am presently living at my parents' house to take care of their dog while they are on vacation for a couple of weeks. Sparky is a mini-toy poodle x who has no major health problems (he's mostly deaf, kind of blind, not really able to jump anymore, and doesn't have all of his teeth), is normal weight, and is 17 years old. He's eaten Iams kibble all of his life, supplemented by things such as yogurt and sweet potato (and canteloupe, which he loves) but now my mom sort of softens it with water. Anyway, I'm obsessed with "good" pet food ever since getting my cat, and I'd like to supplement (or replace some of) Sparky's dry food with some sort of yummy canned food that would be easy for him to eat. I don't see much point in stopping the Iams entirely since he's used to it and eats it, and I doubt it will do him much harm at this point. Anyway, does anybody have any good canned food ideas? At the moment I'm giving him little bits of Performatrin Ultra with his meals, and he loves it. Is there something better that I should try?

[Beaglemom]

My older dog is on Performatrin Ultra dry kibble and she loves it. It is very good quality and reasonably priced. I also like the Merrik line and my dogs love it! It is a bit on the pricey side, but well worth every penny! I use both the Performatrin Ultra canned food and the Merrik canned food to mix in with the dry and my dogs just wolf it down. There are other brands that I've tried that are also very good, such as Solid Gold.

I'm sure there will be others along shortly that will be able to offer you more advice on this subject.

[Prin]

I'd just mix in a small amount of Merrick canned to start. Some oldies can flip a switch and just stop eating if you mess too much... (some, not many) But then others might be thrilled to not have to eat iams anymore...