Question
the two puppies (left)
Dear Patti;
I was nearly going blind researching the best dog food for our three Shitzus when I came upon your articulate answer to someone's question regarding raw meat. Today we received a call from our breeder who seems to have a serious contempt for vets. Why she does id not known but it is very obvious. Anything a vet sells is in her opinion no good for her dogs. Today she called to ask us if we wanted two males she says are the best of all the puppies she's ever had. After the breeder told my wife that, my wife asked her why our one year female was defecating so much (we bought the puppie from this breeder). We assumed she went to the bathroom so much because we may have given her too many "treats" (all dog treats no table food.) We feed all of dogs R/D and we've had roughly 15 dogs over the past 30 years. Those who lived the longest and were the healthiest were on R/D. Today's our breeder told my wife that we're going to shorten our Shitzus' life by five years if we continue feeding them R/D and that is also why our female is going to the bathroom so much. The food she told my wife to buy was lamb and rice (kibble). Now both my wife and I are going nuts over trying to find the right food. Our older Shitzu (8 years old) really is quite bored with R/D and she does not really take to her food like she used to. Seems dogs get tired of the same food day in and day out. is that true? Should we stay with R/D or change their diet? Your answer to the question I found was to stay with what works well for the dog, my wife and I agree but are we doing the right thing for our dogs sticking with R/D? Thank you for your time.
AnswerHi Robert,
Are you referring to the Hill's Prescription R/D diet, for management of overweight dogs? Are you feeding this diet to dogs who do not need to lose weight, that you've been using this food over a 30 year period?
If your dogs are not overweight, they may not be getting all the nutrients they need in this diet.
If I've misunderstood your question, please get back to me.
In looking at that food's ingredients, the Hill's Prescription R/D diet is not the worst of dog foods, but it's not the best either. It's also probably more expensive than buying an over the counter "lite", or reduced calorie dog food.
I disagree with your breeder that prescription diets are always wrong. There are times when they can be a literally be a lifesaver, but simply being over weight doesn't warrant a prescription diet, at least not in my opinion.
If you want your dog to lose weight, cut back on those treats, even if they are dog treats, and not human food! A good way of doing this is to break the treat in half. Your dog will immediately get half as many treats each day, and won't have a change in routine. Increasing your dogs daily exercise will help them lose weight too. An extra walk every day would really help! (Letting the dogs outside in a fenced yard doesn't count as a walk!)
You don't actually even need a reduced calorie food, if you use portion control, and feed the correct amount of food, based on your dogs activity levels.
Instead of the store bought treats, try giving out a baby carrot or two, a seedless apple wedge, or piece of banana. Dog's usually love these as treats, and don't know that they're healthy! All they know is that they taste good! Don't over-do fruits or veggies, as too much of a good thing can cause diarrhea.
It's true that a poor quality food can cause a dog to have more bowel movements. You can compare different dog foods ingredient lists here:
http://www.naturapet.com/tools/comparison.asp
A really good reduced calorie food to consider is Innova Reduced Fat Adult Dog Food.
You didn't say which food the breeder recommended.
Lamb is not automatically a higher quality diet, it's just a different source of protein. Part of your dog's problems might be that she doesn't tolerate the R/D food well, in which case a different source of protein wouldn't be a bad idea. Dogs are individuals, though most of your dog's do well on R/D food, it's not the perfect diet for every dog, and then another food should be tried.
Compare the ingredient list on the bag of the new food (you can probably do a web search to find it) and compare it to the ingredient list on the R/D food you currently have. A good food will have an identified source of meat as the very first ingredient. The best foods have as few grains as possible in the first 5 ingredients listed, and does not contain corn of any kind, added sweeteners, artificial colors or artificial preservatives.
There's no harm in trying the new food. Give it a month or two and see if your dog's condition doesn't improve. Just be sure to switch diets gradually, over a period of a 5-7 days. Dogs can develop diarrhea if their diet is changed too quickly.
Continually changing a dog's diet to keep it "interesting" to them will cause your dogs to become finicky, causing them to "hold out" for the food they've learned to prefer. With more than one dog in the house, you might end up buying several brands of food, to keep all your dogs happy. In my opinion, it's best to choose the best food you can afford, and feed them that one diet.
What helps a dog to have a good appetite, and eagerly eat the food that's served, is to give the dog enough exercise!
As far as shortening your dog's life spans with their current diet, according to the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the thing which shortens a dog's life span is being over weight.
I hope I've been a help.
Best of luck,
Patti
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