[BAndersen34]

My dog is a Yorkie Terrier Mix. He is 12 years old and weighs about 12 pounds. He is very healthy and active I want to start feeding him the best dry natural dog food and I came across this site(I currently feed him Canin Royal Adult Dry dog food). It seems like all the food recommendations are for large dogs or specific breeds. Anyone have a recommendation for a dry natural dog food from the 5 star list for a small dog?

[pugmomsandy]

How long has he been eating RC? Is that the only food he had eaten?

[BAndersen34]

He has been on RC for 3 years. Before that is was a brand from the vet but he didn’t like it

[pugmomsandy]

There are several good choices to choose from but since he’s only eaten one food for 3 years, it could take some time (weeks to months) to transition him off, but don’t let that discourage you. Get a good multi-strain probiotic to help seed his gut with a more diverse population since his gut is only used to digestion RC. Since he’s eating grain right now, there are some other good grain products that are gluten free like Nutrisource small/med puppy (yes for your old guy, it’s for all life stages). If you’re confused about that statement, we can discuss it some more. Also there is Nature’s Logic, Nature’s Select Hi-Pro, Merrick Classic, Solid Gold Sundancer, Acana (might have gluten contamination in the oats). For grain free small kibble options, there is Amicus and Instinct (but I wouldn’t try this one yet, it would be too much for him, way too different from RC), Merrick grain free and Nutrisource grain free. I would suggest Amicus or Nutrisource grain free Heartland Select for grain free starters because they are “medium” range. Instinct and Merrick grain free are “high”. Start by adding just 20% of new food to his RC and don’t increase the new food until he has satisfactory output, however long that takes. At his age, I would strongly think about adding canned food to his diet (if you’re not already) or making it the majority of his diet. It is “a step up” from kibble.

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/06/20/aging-pet-food.aspx

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2011/05/05/surprising-findings-from-tufts-study-of-37-senior-dog-foods.aspx

• This reply was modified 12 years, 1 month ago by pugmomsandy.

[pugmomsandy]

BTW, I transitioned my 14 yr old foster off of Hills W/D and he eats some kibble (mod/high protein) and mostly wet food like The Honest Kitchen, Sojo’s (with added protein) and various canned foods. I don’t know how long he was eating that before I got him.

[BAndersen34]

Thank you so much for the recommendations!

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