Shih-Tzu Diet

Question
Hi. I currently feed my 8 month male Shih-Tzu Diamond brand puppy formula. Do you think that is an appropriate food or do you have better suggestions? He feeds on that because his mom fed on it while she carried him and the breeder suggested he remain on it.

Answer
Hi Stephanie,

It really depends on which of the Diamond foods you are feeding. There are certainly foods in the Diamond line that are lower quality, middle of the road and good quality.

Your normal Diamond isn't something I'd feed. A step up from that would be Chicken Soup For The Dog Lover's Soul (yes a book and a dog food). The best of the Diamond line is Taste Of The Wild. Those are the two foods I'd recommend if you want to stay in the Diamond line.

Other high quality foods include: Innova, Eagle Pack Holistics, Solid Gold and Wellness to name a few.

I do recommend commercial foods be fed on rotation, this helps prevent allergies and ensures good nutrition as formulas can fluctuate from time to time. A good rotation would be to find 3 or 4 high quality foods with different protein sources. So you want a beef, a chicken, a lamb etc. Then you can switch up the foods monthly or every two months.

Here are a couple articles on rotation feeding:
http://urbanpawsmagazine.com/archives/59
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/how-often-should-i-change-foods.html


~Jess