What do you feed your fussy 'Yorkie' ?

libra10

Barney, our cross Yorkie/Pomeranian loves his chicken dinners.

I buy chicken legs and thighs at Tesco each week, costs around £1.80. Boil till tender and place in a bowl, some goes in the freezer.

I chop all the meat and give him some at lunchtime every day. He loves it and wolfs it down!

He always has dried food available for when he's feeling peckish.

Treats he enjoys are gravy bones and bacon flavoured sticks and chews.

Barney will be 2 in November.

Hope you find a suitable food.

faded_flowers

I don't swap and change their food or give them something else if they don't eat it.

Just from what you've said above you've already tried them on FIVE different foods (four flavours of JWB and Royal Canin) as well as adding chicken. And I'm assuming they were weaned on to a different food again, so that's 6 changes in 10 months.

Do you accurately weigh out the food? (A lot of small breeds are actually being offered far too much food and not under-eating at all) Do they have anything like Dentastix? (A small dog can fill up on one of these) Have you tried feeding straight after a long walk? (Supposedly the instinct to eat is stronger after a 'hunt' - walk.)

faded_flowers

krlyr wrote: »

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I wouldn't say that there's any particular need to take the dogs in to speak to a nutrition advisor - neither would I hold much stock in the job title. I, myself, got a certificate for nutrition advisor when I worked in a petshop. I'd done a 2 page questionnaire supplied by one of the food manufacturers we used and got issued the certificate within days of doing it, it certainly wasn't rocket science and the learning material was very bias to their own brand.

Pets at Home advisors go on a 2 day course at Reaseheath College, actually. It's not brand sponsored.

antw23uk

vicx wrote: »

Having owned Yorkies for the past 18 year I know they can be fussy eaters but I have never known them be as fussy as my two 10 month old Yorkie's.

My Yorkie which passed away last year was fed on wet food, mainly because he had most of his teeth extracted and because I did not know what I know now about tinned food being processed food and full of crap - however, he was a very healthy dog and lived to the age of 15.

So after a lot of research I decided to feed my two on dry, they are the only dogs I have ever fed on dry food. I do give them wet food maybe every 3 days but they do not seem to enjoy either wet or dry. I don't know if it there is something in James Wellbeloved that is unpleasant to them. I have been feeding them on James Wellbeloved dry and wet since I got them as puppies so it not just a new food I have introduced. I have tried all the flavours in the food (turkey, fish, lamb and duck) I even add boiled water to give off the flavour and soften it but they do not seem keen at all. They go a few days without eating their meals then only pick at it.

They aren't keen on any treats either apart from the Royal Canin training rewards. They just bury biscuits or turn their nose up to any biscuits/treats so I just give them rawhide chews which they love.

I was feeding them on Royal Canin too which they seemed to enjoy alot more but I haven't fed them that for a few months as the ingredients are not great for the premium price tag and I know there is better.

I have now ordered Skinners ruff & ready as like Royal Canin 'Yorkshire Terrier' is it supposed to be great for fussy eaters. I can only hope. I am now looking for a good wet food which I can feed them a few meals per week. Any suggestions?

So the question is what do you feed your fussy Yorkie?

I havent read anyone elses reply but you started so well, you said you knew how rubbish commercial dog food was ... and then you ..... You put them on dry food ... thats commercial food as well and just, if not worse than rubbish.

What kind of stuff do you do with them? How much daily exercise do they get? What stimulation work do you have them do?
My first agility dog was a yorkie x bichon (I know way too fluffy right :rotfl:) and he was out on hacks with the horse(ocassionally in the sadle if we went more than ten miles), mousing and ratting in his spare time down the stables, doing agility, flyball, obedience and anything else you asked of him. He also had a small apetite when he was bored and 'out of work'!

antw23uk

libra10 wrote: »

Barney, our cross Yorkie/Pomeranian loves his chicken dinners.

I buy chicken legs and thighs at Tesco each week, costs around £1.80. Boil till tender and place in a bowl, some goes in the freezer.

I chop all the meat and give him some at lunchtime every day. He loves it and wolfs it down!

He always has dried food available for when he's feeling peckish.

Treats he enjoys are gravy bones and bacon flavoured sticks and chews.

Barney will be 2 in November.

Hope you find a suitable food.

Cooked chicken bones are VERY dangerous as they splinter. I bet he would love you more if you gave them to him raw :T:D

faerie~spangles

My view is, if a dog is hungry it will eat what ever is offered.

Yorkies are tiny wee dogs with tiny wee tummies.

OP do you give your dogs treats?

Chakani

Are they actually underweight? I had a fusspot some years ago, and sometimes I used to worry about her, but while she would go through periods of being quite skinny, she was never thin enough for the vet to worry. She just chose not to eat every day.

Her appetite was also much better when she did lots of exercise. A few miles out with the horses on a regular basis certainly made a difference to how much she ate.

She was switched to raw in her later years, and did much better on that, as she got more nutrition for less food intake, and she did enjoy the work of ripping it all up.

vicx

faded_flowers wrote: »

Just from what you've said above you've already tried them on FIVE different foods (four flavours of JWB and Royal Canin) as well as adding chicken. And I'm assuming they were weaned on to a different food again, so that's 6 changes in 10 months.

Do you accurately weigh out the food? (A lot of small breeds are actually being offered far too much food and not under-eating at all) Do they have anything like Dentastix? (A small dog can fill up on one of these) Have you tried feeding straight after a long walk? (Supposedly the instinct to eat is stronger after a 'hunt' - walk.)

They have been on Turkey & Rice JWB since I got them at 11 weeks old. They will be one year in July. Yes I have tried different flavours, but not different brands. I have fed them Royal Canin too. I wouldn't like to be fed the same food every day of the week so it is okay to give them something different from time to time. They have been fussy from day one even when they were only fed JWB Turkey & Rice. I have tried chicken to kick start their appetite, adding it to their food, not as a main meal.

Yes I weigh out their food. No they don't get Dentastix

antw23uk wrote: »

I havent read anyone elses reply but you started so well, you said you knew how rubbish commercial dog food was ... and then you ..... You put them on dry food ... thats commercial food as well and just, if not worse than rubbish.

What kind of stuff do you do with them? How much daily exercise do they get? What stimulation work do you have them do?

What exactly is so bad about JWB and Royal Canin? I am talking about rubbish food like cesar, butchers, bakers (the food you can purchase in supermarkets) etc.

They get walked for 30 minutes twice a day and have a huge garden where they run wild playing chase so get a lot of exercise. I give them Kongs filled with their kibble or wet food and they do seem to eat it straight away out of there rather than from the bowl.

faerie~spangles wrote: »

My view is, if a dog is hungry it will eat what ever is offered.

Yorkies are tiny wee dogs with tiny wee tummies.

OP do you give your dogs treats?

I agree, a dog will eat when hungry. Yorkies are known to be very fussy eaters and turn their nose up to a lot of food and treats. They do have small tummys and can go a day or two without food.

They get treats only after they have ate their dinner.


Just to add, Marley weighs 12lb and Charlie weighs 14lb so they are not underweight, have no health problems and the vet is not concerned. Charlie has always weighed more than Marley from the day I got them. They are both different Yorkies as you can see from the recent photo here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=53736011&postcount=32

krlyr

I think the concept of only having treats after dinner will be lost on dogs - just the fact that they're eating something like treats may fill them up without meating the necessary nutritional requirements, so perhaps try a week or two of ditching any treats altogether (use some of their biscuits as treats for training etc if needed)

If they will eat more enthusiastically out of a Kong then I would perhaps try this more often. Have you used the same type of bowl all the time? Might be worth trying to feed them from another kind of bowl, so if it's metal, switch to plastic, if it's plastic, try ceramic, etc. It can be simple things like the sound of their ID tag tapping on the metal that can freak a dog out, or the artificial smell of some plastics that puts them off.
They don't look underweight from the photos so I wouldn't be too concerned. If they're not losing weight on their picky rations then they must be consuming enough calories. Maybe they're just never destined to be 'foody' dogs, I certainly would rather have a dog that wasn't that fussed about food but ate enough of a good quality diet, than to feed it a poorer quality food for the sake of seeing it slightly more enthusiastic for 5 minutes a day.
Remember that feeding guidelines are just guidelines too. Some humans can eat 1400 and maintain their weight, others can eat 2400 and be the same size, metabolisms vary and there's nothing wrong or right (unless there's a medical condition causing it of course)

OnAndUp

I'm feeding my dogs Applaws dried at the moment.

Its 75% meat and smells very strong and meaty, my dogs (not yorkies though!) are much keener to come for their meals than when I had them on Burns and other dried. Why don't you ring and ask them to send you a couple of samples see if they might like it and try it out as treats first iykwim?

Although it is quite expensive to buy, the feeding guide is low and it works out less than £3 a week for a 10kg dog so would be cheaper still for yours?

http://applaws.co.uk/