Your situation sounds very similar to mine. I have a 13 yr old mini Schnauzer and had heard several bad things about the food I was feeding her. Always dry food, no table scraps, etc. I finally got that smack in the face that your dog is getting old when she started collapsing if she got wound up. Sure enough, she’s got an enlarged heart and nothing we can do other than a few meds to stave it off as long as possible. My first Schnauzer suffered from the same thing.
But, the news about the other brand, her prognosis and her age made me think it was time to switch. I went with Wellness Core small breed and she ate it at first as I was mixing it up with her old food so as to ease the transition. That was fine but once I got to 100% Wellness she would sniff it and walk away. I even pulled the Nick Nolte “Doen and Out in Beverly Hills” trick where I stuck my face in the bowl. It actually works, but I can’t do that every meal.
Eventually at some point during the day, she would eat it. I suppose she was just hungry! Kind of like when you’re on a road trip and you stop at a place you’d usually speed up to get past.
Anyway, I made my decisions based on the recommendations here, I just recently tried Orijen Senior Formula. It’s not a small breed food, so the kibble is bigger. I put the Wellness in 1/2 the bowl and Orijen on the other side. She was all over the Orijen and left an almost perfect line where the Wellness was. I also bought a little 4 lb bag of Merrick Grain Free Real Buffalo & Sweet Potato if the Orijen didn’t work.
Like you, I think she likes bigger chunks and that Wellness was pretty small. Unfortunately, I don’t have any other data or info to share. The Orijen is not cheap by a long shot, but the people on this forum aren’t here because we value savings over health and well being of our dogs.
