[Alecka S]

I’ve got a papillion/chihuahua mix named Coco Bean that is 18 years old (yes, 18 years old), &I was wondering if there is a good food out there for extremely senior pets like mine? It’s got to be something soft, her teeth are bad now and she can’t crunch up hard kibble anymore.

Right now I have her on FreshPet rolls and cans of Solid Gold (I normally feed her FreshPet but have been transitioning her to Solid Gold to see if she likes it). She’s eating fine any is somewhat active, I don’t have any issues with the food I’ve been giving her but I still wanted to ask and see if there were any brands of dog food that would be better for her since she is as old as she is..

*NOTE:* Please don’t start to tell me about how hard food is much better for her because it helps clean her teeth etc, etc. I know that, but her teeth are really bad and it wouldn’t be safe to put her under at this point in life to attempt to clean her teeth.

[InkedMarie]

At her age, feed her anything she can, and wants, to eat!
Hard food does NOT clean teeth any more than granola cleans ours so you’re fine there!
18? How long have you had her?

[Jenn H]

18!!!! I hope I’m that lucky.
Solid Gold isn’t a bad food. Just make sure to choose cans that don’t contain carrageenan. I noticed their tripe does.

You’re dog must have very good genes. That and whatever you’re doing is obviously good enough.

[jakes mom]

I agree with Marie, give her anything she wants. Make sure whatever you give her has a good amount of protein. Some people say older dogs need less but unless she has kidney problems you don’t need to decrease the protein as they age. You may want to look into some raw foods. They come frozen but are nice and soft once thawed. Some brands are Stella and Chewy, Primal, Natural Instinct. Another thought would be Honest Kitchen foods, they’re dried into a powder and you mix with water. They would be nice and “mushy” for Coco Bean to eat. Same for Primal dried foods. Comes in a bag of chunks and you crumble up as many chunks as you want, add some water and serve. You can vary the chunkiness to her liking by the way you crumble it up. I used that for my 20yo cat who also had bad teeth and too frail to put under for a dental. Good luck!
PS, kibble doesn’t clean teeth, that’s a myth. You wouldn’t skip brushing your teeth because you ate some crackers, would you? Same idea.

[Alecka S]

Thanks guys!

I’ve had her for 17 years. I got her for my 7th birthday, I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself when she is gone since I’ve had her my whole life it seems.. My dad is a police officer and he helped animal control catch her, she was running around town dodging traffic. When they finally got her they found her owner and the owner didn’t want her anymore and said “just put her down”. My dad agreed to adopt her since my birthday was coming up. I would love to find the owner now and show them that this little dog that they wanted to just put down was still alive 17 years later.

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