# Dry Food Choice Question



## Allawish (Jul 21, 2016)

Hi all,

New to the forums but I have been reading up for months on what food to feed our little girl (Bella) when she reaches a year. Shes almost 11 months old now and we have been feeding her Orijen Puppy (dry) from about 14 weeks old.

She was on Eukanaba puppy rubbish when we first had her from the breeder and we shortly changed her to Orijen. She has always been a bit funny with her food. Some days not wanting to eat at all, wanting it soaked in warm water, then will go for a few days gobbling it all up straight away and getting excited when I put it down. When she was younger on 3 meals a day, quite often she would completely skip one.

Bella is a good weight 2.8kg (approx 6 pounds) and maintaining it well on Orijen (she eats about 50g of it over 2 meals currently). Shes not overly active although she gets 30 or so mins walk most days. She gets puffed out quite easily lol.

She does suffer with soft stools every now and then which she seems to struggle to pass. I cant see it being the food as she can go for 2 weeks without any problems and then have a couple of light soft ones in the next week. I put it down to something shes eating or nibbling when about and about. Its strange because its usually towards the end of pooping. The first part will come out a normal colour and consistency. (sorry to sound disgusting, lol)


I do see that most Maltese owners say that the protein in the Orijen is a little high, so I have been looking at the alternatives that are easily source able where we live (UK). We also would like her food to continue to be grain free.

So here are the 3 I think are suitable...

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1. Acana Heritage Adult Small Breed (Acana Small Breed Dog Food Review & Analysis)

The protein is still a little on the high side (32%) but lower than the Orijen. Also I do not think the ingredients are quite as premium as some foods or even the Orijen.
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2. Aatu 80/20 (Aatu 80/20 rated 5.0 out of 5! All About Dog Food)

This is a UK made food but there is not alot of information out there on it. Looks as though its made of good quality ingredients. The review site says its good but protein is 34.8% .
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3. Barking Heads Grain Free Tiny Paws’ Quackers
(Grain-Free Tiny Paw’s “Quackers” | Barking Heads)

This is the review for it, but it is not for the tiny paws version - (Barking Heads Grain Free rated 4.1 out of 5! All About Dog Food)

Now this food looks as though its made in the same factory in the UK as the Aatu one. Its 24% Protein . But wondering if the other ingredients and percentages look ok?
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Sorry its a long and boring post  I do hope someone can give me some feedback, thoughts or other suggestions?


Many thanks!


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## Snuggle's Mom (Jan 3, 2008)

I switched to Verus for Chrissy and Snuggles and they are both doing very well. They both were on Fromm (a good Dog food and also Solid Gold Blendz) but Snuggles is thriving better on Verus than she was on Solid Gold Blendz and the protein and fat are lower on VErus which is important since Chrissy has pancreatitis.


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## maddysmom (Mar 8, 2012)

Has she been checked for parasites, giardia? Some dogs will have the occasional soft stool that comes and goes from giardia.


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## Finn (Feb 25, 2016)

Don't have any experience using those 3 kinds of food! I'm always read some good information to this site We set the pet first | We Love Animals about the right food for my furbabies quite helpful for me.


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## Allawish (Jul 21, 2016)

Thanks for your suggestion. I have just been reading about Verus and it looks very good. Which line/version of their food do you feed? Life Vertue?

It looks as though it is only sold on amazon in the UK. Which is fine by me. I just worry sometimes that if I can only source from one seller then if they run out of stock I am in trouble. Would have to stock up on a big supply once I know she is happy with it 




Snuggle's Mom said:


> I switched to Verus for Chrissy and Snuggles and they are both doing very well. They both were on Fromm (a good Dog food and also Solid Gold Blendz) but Snuggles is thriving better on Verus than she was on Solid Gold Blendz and the protein and fat are lower on VErus which is important since Chrissy has pancreatitis.


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## Allawish (Jul 21, 2016)

Hi there!

I have not had her checked for these as I just thought it might be the occasional something she eats outside.... I just read up a little on giardia, shes not been sick apart from a couple of times but that was from munching on alot of grass which we could not stop her in time.

Perhaps if it keeps happening I will have her tested. She's going in for spaying next week (also having small hernia repaired and tear ducts flushed), so once she has recovered from that I will look into it...

Thank you for your thoughts!




maddysmom said:


> Has she been checked for parasites, giardia? Some dogs will have the occasional soft stool that comes and goes from giardia.


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## Allawish (Jul 21, 2016)

Hi Finn,

Thank you. I will have a read through that site.

Many thanks!




Finn said:


> Don't have any experience using those 3 kinds of food! I'm always read some good information to this site We set the pet first | We Love Animals about the right food for my furbabies quite helpful for me.


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## maddysmom (Mar 8, 2012)

Allawish said:


> Hi there!
> 
> I have not had her checked for these as I just thought it might be the occasional something she eats outside.... I just read up a little on giardia, shes not been sick apart from a couple of times but that was from munching on alot of grass which we could not stop her in time.
> 
> ...


Hi! They don't always show sickness from giardia. My puppy who is over a year started having the occasional loose stools at around 10 months, no other symptoms whatsoever. 
Like you, I thought it was from the food and would make the switch. She would be fine for 3-4 weeks and then for a couple days she would have loose stools. I finally rechecked her and sure enough, she came back positive. She picked it up somewhere around the 10 month mark and have been struggling with them ever since.
It wouldn't hurt to test. It's a stool sample and best to bring a few different samples in from different days of one week because they don't always show up in all the samples. An antigen test for cyst waiting to be hatched should also be done. Very inexpensive test to run.
Alot of GI issues (occasional vomiting, loose stools) go undiagnosed when in actuality its indeed giardia.


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## maddysmom (Mar 8, 2012)

What about feeding a raw diet?


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