[Cindy T]

Hello! I just adopted our 8 week old Malshi (Maltese/Shih Tzu). The breeder had him on Purina Pro Plan Focus and I knew we were going to change that. After to speaking to vet, she recommended either Royal Canin Puppy or Nature’s Balance. I decided to go with Royal Canin because I had always heard it is a good food and they do a lot of science based research when creating their foods. I also decided not to go with Nature’s Balance because she did she she usually sends allergic dogs that way and since we don’t know of any allergies yet with our little guy, I decided not to do that. After looking at the reviews on this site, I am dismayed to find that the Royal Canin food I chose (shih tzu puppy food since he seems to pull more to the shih tzu side) doesn’t have fabulous ratings here. Only 2.5 stars. Why do vets seems to like the foods that are never highly rated? With our previous dog, a different vet also recommended food that didn’t get great ratings here. I asked this new vet about Blue Buffalo and she said it is a good food but she thinks that it is too rich for lots of dogs and can cause diarrhea. SO whats a person to do? My vet says that having some grain is not bad for them and actually ok to do which seems to be opposite of what the other school of thought is. I just don’t know the right thing to do for my little guy. Please help!

[anonymously]

http://skeptvet.com/Blog/category/nutrition/
Hope this helps.
I would listen to the veterinarian that has examined your puppy.

[DogFoodie]

I don’t believe grains are horrible either, but neither of my dogs do well on them. I choose high quality ingredients over highly processed ingredients that are fillers with little nutritional value, like corn gluten meal.

I definitely do not agree with many of the statements made by Skeptvet. I don’t know that he actually states his real name anywhere on his blog. The fact that he recommends rawhides is concerning to me.

Blue Buffalo is terribly overpriced for the quality. Every formula contains chicken. Blue Buffalo is currently being sued by Purina for misrepresenting ingredients contained in their foods. The company seriously lacks transparency.

Feed what you like and what your dog does well on. I can guarantee you’ll meet plenty of folks who wouldn’t feed the foods you’ve chosen. You might never want to feed what they’ve chosen.

I guess you need to ask yourself if you’re looking for a different food or validation of the food you’ve chosen.

[anonymously]

If you go to the “Frequently Asked Questions” section at The SkeptVet site, he does in fact provide the information you asked about.

Above comment is in response to: “I definitely do not agree with many of the statements made by Skeptvet. I don’t know that he actually states his real name anywhere on his blog. The fact that he recommends rawhides is concerning to me”.

[DogFoodie]

He chooses to blog “anonymously.” Interesting. You frequently provide links to his site, but not in this case, so I visited his site and I do not see his name anywhere on the page you referenced. It actually says, “It doesn’t matter who I am.” He provides a link to his resume, which you have to download from his site.

[anonymously]

delete

I have decided not to comment to the above post. It is off topic and not helpful to the OP.

[DogFoodie]

I read your post and subsequent edits before you deleted them.

[anonymously]

Dog Food Logic: Making Smart Decisions for Your Dog in an Age of Too Many Choices by Linda Case

This book looks like it might be helpful, it has received excellent reviews. I keep meaning to get myself a copy 🙂

[C4D]

Hi Cindy T,

What I’m about to say is completely my opinion, but I’m not a big fan of Royal Canin as I find it to be overpriced with subpar ingredients that has a vitamin pack added to it to make it nutritionally balanced. It may have some science to back it’s formulas, but in truth, everyone and every living thing on this planet really was meant to eat real food as opposed to a nutritionally complete processed food. Whatever your dog is, I really don’t feel that there is enough difference between and Maltese and a Shi Tzu to need to feed a specific breed formula. I foster dogs from Kill Shelters that are of unknown origin (aka Heinz 57) as well as have several dogs small and large, some mixed and some purebred. I feed them all pretty much the same food and they all end up looking great and are very healthy. There are differences in feeding large breed puppies as opposed to small breed puppies, but overall, if you feed a quality food with some fresh food mixed in to an adult dog, there isn’t a great deal of difference. Small Breed formulas tend to be higher in protein and fat as opposed to Large Breed formulas in general. Many dog food formulas have all life stages.

I’m not opposed to grains, if they work for the dog, but I have a dog that reacts to grains so it’s easier for me to feed all the animals grain freee. I always add fresh food to all of my dogs meals. No living thing should be eating dry processed food for their entire life. I add canned food when feeding a kibble meal and make a fresh cooked or raw meal with a balanced premix for the other meal. My “senior” dogs are lively and playful and walk a mile or so daily. They have minimal health problems, and only due to torn ccls (that’s a whole other discussion).

I’m not personally a fan of skept vet either, but ultimately, the choice is yours.

[InkedMarie]

Cindy,
A couple things. First, I generally don’t discuss nutrition with my vet. They get precious little nutrition education, which is probably one reason they tend to recommend foods that alot consider sub par.
Grains are not bad but some foods are grain heavy; I think that is a problem. Not all grain inclusives are equal; same goes with grain free.
Blue has had it’s share of problems and I wouldn’t use it. If I were you, I’d choose a high quality food & go from there. Good luck!

[Author]

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