Dog food for active Shih Tzu

[Nannuck]

I have an active 2 1/2 year old Shih Tzu. She does agility 4 and keeps me on my toes. But we do have our "down Days". Recently I posted a thread about her having some "tummy" issues and her liver enzymes being elevated etc.

We'll she got better but we are retesting her enzymes to make sure they are normal now but I got to thinking about her food.

She is on Evo Reduced Calorie dry and Innova canned. She gets 1/2 cup of dry twice a day with a little Canned on the top as a "treat".

I heard about "Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul". Adult Dog Light Formula.

Would like to know if you would recommend switching her to the Chicken Soup from the Evo dry? I just heard that Evo and Innova has alot of protein and this could be reasoning why her liver enzymes and tummy issues are happening.

Input?01

[Gerald]

Hi
I have seven Shih Tzus and crosses. I have fed them the Kirkland for years and they do very well on it. They do not get too fat, but maintain muscle and energy.

[Zoom]

EVO does have a lot of protein. What's interesting is that some dogs don't do all that well on the regular EVO, but have amazing results with the EVO RedMeat (RM). You could also try the Innova Senior, which has all the goodness of Innova but in a lighter blend.

Chicken Soup is a good food but it's a few steps down from EVO.

[SharkyX]

Reduced calorie isn't the best way to go unless your dog is overweight.

Reduced Calorie (or mostly referred to as reduced fat) is really only something that should be fed to a dog that's morbidly obese unless there is some unique condition.
You have an active dog, and you've removed an aweful lot of energy from it's diet by going with a low fat version of food.

Dogs use fat as there primary energy source in the same way that people use carbohydrates (accept fat is alot more calorically dense but I won't get into that here).
When they don't have much fat in the diet they go to other sources like carbs and protien which are normally reserved for other functions in the body such as muscle repair or glycogen replenishment after excersize.

So by having your active dog and feeding it a food designed to promote rapid weight loss you're asking some oddities of your dogs digestive system to begin with.

That may not be the only problem but I don't very much you're doing your dog any favours.

Typically manufacturers keep Protien and Fat in a rough ratio(not all manufacturers agree with exactly what it is) with one another (and don't ask me what that is because it was almost 2 years ago I sat through that presentation and don't remember the numbers) to keep digestion and proper gut function without causing any damage to the dogs systems.

The food your feeding is 52% protien and 15% fat.
For your activity level you'd likely do better on a 40/23(Protien/Fat) or 30/20.

Try either the small bites of Evo or switch to one of the regular Innova formulas.
Remember your dog needs fat to power itself when performing the agility and so on your asking of it.
Or if you really don't want your dog to be eating something that nutrtionally dense, do like Zoom suggested and go for the regular Innova or the Senior.

[Nannuck]

Originally Posted by Gerald

Hi
I have seven Shih Tzus and crosses. I have fed them the Kirkland for years and they do very well on it. They do not get too fat, but maintain muscle and energy.

What is the Kirkland?

[Zoom]

It's Chicken Soup packaged for Costco's private label, Kirkland.

Great post, Sharky!

[SharkyX]

Originally Posted by Nannuck

What is the Kirkland?

Kirkland Pet Food is the private brand manufactured for Costco by Diamond Pet Foods.
You can't find it anywhere else.

Diamond would be what you might find other places although having never bothered to go to costco I don't know how the ingredients compare... but Diamond isn't that great for most of there formulas.

[Zoom]

It's not up to par with Innova and certainly not with EVO, but it's not a bad food. As far as "cheap" foods go, it's the best you can get. I'm currently feeding the Kirkland because of financial issues at the moment and while it's ok, I def. better liked how Innova worked on my dogs.

[Nannuck]

I don't have a costco membership. I think I'll try the small bites then and see if it works better with her tummy, etc.

Thank you!

[Hillside]

Originally Posted by SharkyX

Kirkland Pet Food is the private brand manufactured for Costco by Diamond Pet Foods.
You can't find it anywhere else.

Diamond would be what you might find other places although having never bothered to go to costco I don't know how the ingredients compare... but Diamond isn't that great for most of there formulas.

The Diamond Naturals line is actually quite decent, the regular Diamond is yucky though..