Yorkies

Question
I have a spayed 9-month-old Yorkie. Even though she was sold to me as a teacup, she weights between 6 and 7 pounds and she's very healthy.  I'm not sure what kind of commercial food is best for her, and I would appreciate your recommendation, since I never owned a dog before. At the moment, I'm feeding her three times a day. The brand is Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diets, and I give her 2 tablespoons of pellets per meal.  Also I give her Nutrical. Do you have any suggestions?
Also, since you specialize in Terriers, I would appreciate any other recommendations you can give me.  
Thank you for your advice.

Gabriela

Answer
Hi Gabriela,
I just read the ingredients,  they seem pretty good and they are limited to certain types of foods and vitamins.   I also just read the the ingredients to Blue Buffalo which is similar but it has chicken instead of deer. There is also a duck and sweet potatoes out there that vets recommend.   If you are only feeding dog food, any of these are good.  Most of my dogs live to between 14 and 17 years old.  I feed an only good quality dog food (Proplan lamb and rice) not an excellent one, which has the vitamins and minerals added, but then I add (what I call) real food.  I go to the store and buy chicken necks, string beans, carrots, broccoli, potato  etc and add this to the dry food in the form of a soup.  I put everything in a crockpot and let it go for about 18 to 24 hours.  Then I dish this out into bowls, add crushed meds they are taking, a vitamin, then I add the dry dog food and feed it immediately before it softens.  I do this because the hard dog food is good for their teeth.  I also feed hamburger meat on other days.  Vets sometimes frown when I say I feed real meat.  My answer is "I go to the store and buy this meat for them.  Isn't that better than the processed meat in the bag of dog food?"  That usually stops them cold.  I am not feeding table scraps, I am actually giving them a special diet.  Do you know most greyhounds, that are bred for racing, are fed home cooked diets?  I also try to vary their meals since that keeps their systems open for new things.  The other thing I do is give them real bones, over-sized so they can't splinter them.  I rarely have any teeth problems.  I give a bone every week.  I get it from the butcher and cook it up.  Some of my friends feed them raw, but I worry about spoilage.  
So as far as your dog food vs Blue Buffalo,  I think the grain free Blue Buffalo has a little more to it.  I have seen great results in terriers being fed that (specially thier coats) and if I didn't have so many to feed, or if I wanted to cook less, I would buy that.   if you do switch, make it a little at a time so there is no stomach upset.
Nancy
have a great holiday with your baby. and think about clicker training, yorkies are soooo smart you will enjoy that type of training.