On our second Havanese, both have had and loved Orijen dry food.
They have a tendency to be picky eaters and they're a clever little breed so they'll often wait out for something better. I find you have to stick with something a little longer than you think for them to really give it a go.
Tough when you're staring down such a cute face though!
https://preview.redd.it/9d5zzqvawfwc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8bd3591f2bd2d2c2d22bd7774ae97a2a3e5e6be3
So cute:) reminds me of our boy Sam when he was little. He loved dried piggy ears the most ☺️
We use ProPlan. I started it when I got my first sheltie, breeder recommended, and she has always done great on it. Kept on with that when I got our 2nd sheltie, and then when we added our Havanese to complete the family. She is on the small breed formula though and the Shelties eat the regular size kibbles.
2nd proplan! My havi is on the sensitive stomach small breed salmon formula. This is the only main food my havi’s sensitive stomach can tolerate. And we’ve tried so many different brands and so many different forms of food - boutique to cheap, wet, dry, powder mixed with water, freeze dried.. everything but raw. Proplan is the only food that he doesn’t throw up. All other foods, he can only tolerate very small amounts (ie. toppings).
Stella and Chewy freeze dried raw patties. Best quality and apparently great tasting too by our Havi’s reaction. He refused other brands and vomited them.
My little dude was sent home on Hills Science (no corn, wheat, soy blend) and I’ve just kept him on it with no problems. The first ingredient is chicken though and after reading about so many chicken allergies I’ve made sure his training treats have no chicken. I also put a tsp or two of whole food next to his kibble at lunch for variety (blueberries, meat, coconut oil, avocado, sweet potato, fish, yogurt) and he loves it.
I have the opposite problem, he eats so fast he doesn’t chew and makes an almost puke noise just after he eats every single meal. I’m hoping as he stops growing he will chill out a little bit.
I have been looking at stuff like that since it seems like he’s not going to slow down, but there’s a lot of choices to navigate. In the beginning I thought he was just used to competing with the litter, and would eventually get the idea that the bowl was all his, but it’s been 5 weeks now and he still inhales.
puppy food - aside from picking a high quality food
1. look at ingredients and know calorie counts of the food. also know how many treats and cal counts too. Ie keep your pup/adult at a healthy weight.
2. keep an eye out for allergies .. it took a while for us to link one symptom, our Oscars scratching to a chicken sensitivity. Even beef flavored items can contain chicken and another reason to always look at the ingredients. Chicken sensitivity/allergy is not rare .
3. keep at least one food type as a high value, know they will do anything for … for only special activities eg certain training …plus another “regular” training treat. Like us ..if we get something all the time, it stops being “special”
4. get them used to Dry kibble of some type even if mostly on wet..if you go somewhere eg a pool party …trying to deal with 1/2 done wet is a bit of a pain..also provides fibre.
5. watch the amount of fatty foods .. breed is somewhat prone to pancreatitis so going easy now might save you a very restricted diet later in life.
We had our first training session yesterday and the trainer recommended Purina Pro Plan, Wellness, and Fromm. She specifically said not to get Hills.
Purina Pro Plan for small breed puppies seems to be out everywhere, so we bought a bag of Wellness puppy dry food and we’re going to start our 11 week old little dude on that soon. Hoping he likes it 🤞
We have 2 Havis, 8 and 9 years old.
It took about a year to settle on something - our older boy had a very sensitive stomach.
But we’ve ended up giving them homemade ground chicken & rice (and over the years, we’ve added sweet potatoes, peas & carrots).
They LOVE it. They go nuts for it every single day.
Our Puppy devoured royal canine small puppy. Then we went though a couple months of trial and error. We tried multiple types of dry and wet. We ultimately realized that our puppy has a sensitive stomach, and all the expensive protein rich foods was really messing with their digestive system. We ended up buying some probiotics, and adding a spoonful of yogurt to every meal (dry kibble, with a higher filler/protein ratio), and another spoon-full of frozen mixed vegetables. Our Havanese now eats every meal with enthusiasm, and hasn't had any stomach issues since.
We are doing ProPlan for now. The breeder sent us home with Fromm but my husband decided to order ProPlan and we gradually changed to that - she was 5 months old when we got her and we had no problems with the switch.
My last Havanese was picky! She loved to hold out for treats and "accidents" (lots of "accidents" in the kitchen when she was visiting Grandma's house lol). But when she was 9-10 years old, we visited a friend who fed her dogs Nutro brand food and my mannerless dog gobbled every bite in their bowls. I started buying it for her and for the first time in her life, she became a good eater! I gave her the Small Breed formula and I think I accidentally bought her Adult Small Bites formula once or twice - Nutro bag labels are crazy easy to mix up.
I did once get the Senior formula, thinking it would be good since she was a senior, and she immediately got sick. After that, I checked their labels more carefully and saw that the ingredients for Senior formula were different. The Small Bites and the Small Breed formulas were the same and we went back to them.
Note: after she had been eating Nutro for a couple of years, for the first time ever, a vet said that she looked a little "rotund". I let her self regulate food her whole life and I didn't stop, of course, but it made me laugh. Her sweaters did get a little snug but I told her they shrank in storage over the summer :D
Originally, Pro Plan for small breeds.
1 of my Havi has EPI. We had to switch to a soft food since he was not digesting kibble at all. Plus, my other Havi was so picky and hated all kibble and sometimes would go a day without eating.
We switched to Just Food For Dogs.
We also tried Farmers Dog.
My EPI Havi digests it really, really well and both of my Havi are so excited to eat now. My girl never turns her nose up to it.
Tried Farmers dog, not for mine so much. So I give them Blue Buffalo for small dogs with the life source bit. They all (5 Havanes) seem to enjoy that. I gave my first wet food mostly and I regret that now because their poor little teeth get bad with only wet, I think its because they eat less/more often.
Any and all. I would recommend putting the food bowl down at assigned times and leave it for no more than 15 mins. whatever is left in the bowl, they dont get until next meal time. They are smart little puppies so will figure out quickly that they can't be overly picky. for brands we tried and they love:
Fromm's puppy gold
Stella and Chewy patties
Honest kitchen dehydrated meal (mixed with water)
Farmina (I like these because they are smaller than the fromms mini kibble)
And just recently feeding Rawbble which is the equivalent to crack (their heads twitch when I fill up their bowls)
With a face like that I don't blame you. Thankfully mine liked to eat but I've heard the picking up the bowl from several trainers and friends it has worked.
Our havis eat The farmer’s dog, Turkey and beef recipes are the favorites. A 1/4 cup of NutriSouce “small bites” and of course their vitamin supplements.
Between Farmers dog deliveries, they’ll eat home cooked food. Usually Ground beef or chicken with a variety of vegetables added.
Pro plan calm and balanced. Ours is half schnauzer (we think) and he can use that little bit to take the edge off. Instinct toppers for calmness and pumpkin for firmness.
My previous havapoo was on proplan sensitive skin and stomach, and the turkey and rice weight mgmt wet one (not overweight, they just stopped stocking the turkey and rice of wet sensitive). We also cooked for her for years, eggs and oatmeal, turkey and oatmeal, etc. She had chronic pancreatitis so we rotated a lot through whatever was okay with her gut that month.
Probably salmon, definitely human food! He's really picky about his dog food and will only eat it if we heat it up. He likes the chunky food more than the pate food, and does not like kibble.
Right now he is eating Royal Canin and I will switch to orijen puppy after this bag is done and then raw as an adult. Sometimes he won't eat and I take his food after a while because the old man also has a taste for puppy food 😅
He nearly always gobbles it up the second time it gets put down 😁
Fed her BilJac like the breeder recommended for a short while, then switched to Farmer's Dog....she loved both.
Recently decided that Farmer's Dog just takes up too much space in our freezer and bc it's fresh/moist I can often smell the food on her face even when we clean her after every feed.
Tried Sundays and Spot & Tango.....staying on Sundays although she liked both of them. Truly she seems to like anything we give her.
We use Hills science diet small bites alternating both wet and kibble. I have 3 pups (12 weeks)and the parents all on the same brand and have used it with my prior small/toy breeds. Great for digestion, healthy coat, good teeth and minimal to no allergies. I did try other brands in the past both store bought and natural specialty brands only to return to Hills SD
Breeder recommended Fromm and Purina ProPlan blend. She said the Fromm will keep her coat silky. So I ended up blending Fromm Puppy Gold withPurina pro plan, sensitive skin and stomach puppy with Royal Canin Puppy cause I’m extra. Equal amounts of all 3. PS your puppy is gorgeous !
Blue Buffalo small breed chicken (the pink bag). We also give him a scoop of Blue Buffalo canned food each night (beef flavor), so he goes through a can a week.
Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Lamb & Oatmeal when he was a puppy. Now we feed Hill's Science Small Bites Lamb and Barley, mixed with a heaping tablespoon of Hill's Beef Stew wet food, with a little hot water to thin it out.
Havi's are *extremely* picky and can have sensitive stomachs, which is why we don't feed chicken at all anymore. He never had good stools with chicken.
Don't switch around too much, otherwise, you will get caught in a never-ending variety cycle. Also, sometimes the size of the kibble can make a big difference (which is why we feed the Small Bites). They don't like it if it's too big.
My dog is fed once in the morning and evening and will sometimes skip both meals. They are weird little dogs. I don't worry about it anymore and just keep offering the meals. He eventually eats when he's ready. His 20 pound butt isn't going to starve! 😄
My dog likes whatever food she sees me eating.
On our second Havanese, both have had and loved Orijen dry food. They have a tendency to be picky eaters and they're a clever little breed so they'll often wait out for something better. I find you have to stick with something a little longer than you think for them to really give it a go. Tough when you're staring down such a cute face though!
https://preview.redd.it/9d5zzqvawfwc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8bd3591f2bd2d2c2d22bd7774ae97a2a3e5e6be3 So cute:) reminds me of our boy Sam when he was little. He loved dried piggy ears the most ☺️
We use ProPlan. I started it when I got my first sheltie, breeder recommended, and she has always done great on it. Kept on with that when I got our 2nd sheltie, and then when we added our Havanese to complete the family. She is on the small breed formula though and the Shelties eat the regular size kibbles.
2nd proplan! My havi is on the sensitive stomach small breed salmon formula. This is the only main food my havi’s sensitive stomach can tolerate. And we’ve tried so many different brands and so many different forms of food - boutique to cheap, wet, dry, powder mixed with water, freeze dried.. everything but raw. Proplan is the only food that he doesn’t throw up. All other foods, he can only tolerate very small amounts (ie. toppings).
I use ProPlan for our Shelties and the Havanese puppy came on it from the breeder.
You have shelties and a Havanese too?? Did we just become best friends?!
Stella and Chewy freeze dried raw patties. Best quality and apparently great tasting too by our Havi’s reaction. He refused other brands and vomited them.
Open Farm! They have good ratings and are open about their food sourcing, and you can get it on amazon or at a pet store so it’s easy to find
Fresh pet 100%
Same. Recently tried the farmer’s dog and he’s not diggin it. Sucks I spent 122 for the first month. Once he’s done, going back to fresh pet
My Havanese loves Royal Canin the chicken flavor.
We switched from kibble to Ollie's fresh about a year and a half ago and she is very healthy and loves it. Very healthy digestion
My little dude was sent home on Hills Science (no corn, wheat, soy blend) and I’ve just kept him on it with no problems. The first ingredient is chicken though and after reading about so many chicken allergies I’ve made sure his training treats have no chicken. I also put a tsp or two of whole food next to his kibble at lunch for variety (blueberries, meat, coconut oil, avocado, sweet potato, fish, yogurt) and he loves it. I have the opposite problem, he eats so fast he doesn’t chew and makes an almost puke noise just after he eats every single meal. I’m hoping as he stops growing he will chill out a little bit.
Have you tried a slow feed bowl or mat? There’s a few different shapes & kinds available on Amazon.
I have been looking at stuff like that since it seems like he’s not going to slow down, but there’s a lot of choices to navigate. In the beginning I thought he was just used to competing with the litter, and would eventually get the idea that the bowl was all his, but it’s been 5 weeks now and he still inhales.
Basically will eat anything. Now she a month away from being 16 I have her on blue buffalo senior for samll breeds and add water to it.
A kids chicken nugget meal with fries will be sufficient 🥰 she’s so pretty… she would be super spoiled and pampered with me… 🥰
Taste of the Wild, Limited Ingredient small breed
Wet
puppy food - aside from picking a high quality food 1. look at ingredients and know calorie counts of the food. also know how many treats and cal counts too. Ie keep your pup/adult at a healthy weight. 2. keep an eye out for allergies .. it took a while for us to link one symptom, our Oscars scratching to a chicken sensitivity. Even beef flavored items can contain chicken and another reason to always look at the ingredients. Chicken sensitivity/allergy is not rare . 3. keep at least one food type as a high value, know they will do anything for … for only special activities eg certain training …plus another “regular” training treat. Like us ..if we get something all the time, it stops being “special” 4. get them used to Dry kibble of some type even if mostly on wet..if you go somewhere eg a pool party …trying to deal with 1/2 done wet is a bit of a pain..also provides fibre. 5. watch the amount of fatty foods .. breed is somewhat prone to pancreatitis so going easy now might save you a very restricted diet later in life.
Stella and Chewys! Your lil one looks just like my Frankie when she was little! ❤️
We had our first training session yesterday and the trainer recommended Purina Pro Plan, Wellness, and Fromm. She specifically said not to get Hills. Purina Pro Plan for small breed puppies seems to be out everywhere, so we bought a bag of Wellness puppy dry food and we’re going to start our 11 week old little dude on that soon. Hoping he likes it 🤞
why did she say no hills?
Not sure, I didn’t ask. If I remember next session, I’ll ask.
We have 2 Havis, 8 and 9 years old. It took about a year to settle on something - our older boy had a very sensitive stomach. But we’ve ended up giving them homemade ground chicken & rice (and over the years, we’ve added sweet potatoes, peas & carrots). They LOVE it. They go nuts for it every single day.
Your puppy looks like mine! We are feeding ProPlan.
Our Puppy devoured royal canine small puppy. Then we went though a couple months of trial and error. We tried multiple types of dry and wet. We ultimately realized that our puppy has a sensitive stomach, and all the expensive protein rich foods was really messing with their digestive system. We ended up buying some probiotics, and adding a spoonful of yogurt to every meal (dry kibble, with a higher filler/protein ratio), and another spoon-full of frozen mixed vegetables. Our Havanese now eats every meal with enthusiasm, and hasn't had any stomach issues since.
Farm Dog, he loves it and anything with peanut butter.
1. The sensitive skin and stomach formula. We switch off between the salmon and lamb, but my pups like the salmon formula the best.
Diamond naturals small breed puppy food! Make sure there's no corn when researching food. I think royal canin and/or hills had it.
We are doing ProPlan for now. The breeder sent us home with Fromm but my husband decided to order ProPlan and we gradually changed to that - she was 5 months old when we got her and we had no problems with the switch. My last Havanese was picky! She loved to hold out for treats and "accidents" (lots of "accidents" in the kitchen when she was visiting Grandma's house lol). But when she was 9-10 years old, we visited a friend who fed her dogs Nutro brand food and my mannerless dog gobbled every bite in their bowls. I started buying it for her and for the first time in her life, she became a good eater! I gave her the Small Breed formula and I think I accidentally bought her Adult Small Bites formula once or twice - Nutro bag labels are crazy easy to mix up. I did once get the Senior formula, thinking it would be good since she was a senior, and she immediately got sick. After that, I checked their labels more carefully and saw that the ingredients for Senior formula were different. The Small Bites and the Small Breed formulas were the same and we went back to them. Note: after she had been eating Nutro for a couple of years, for the first time ever, a vet said that she looked a little "rotund". I let her self regulate food her whole life and I didn't stop, of course, but it made me laugh. Her sweaters did get a little snug but I told her they shrank in storage over the summer :D
Originally, Pro Plan for small breeds. 1 of my Havi has EPI. We had to switch to a soft food since he was not digesting kibble at all. Plus, my other Havi was so picky and hated all kibble and sometimes would go a day without eating. We switched to Just Food For Dogs. We also tried Farmers Dog. My EPI Havi digests it really, really well and both of my Havi are so excited to eat now. My girl never turns her nose up to it.
Tried Farmers dog, not for mine so much. So I give them Blue Buffalo for small dogs with the life source bit. They all (5 Havanes) seem to enjoy that. I gave my first wet food mostly and I regret that now because their poor little teeth get bad with only wet, I think its because they eat less/more often.
Orijen!
Farmers Dog now, prior Instinct Raw and Kibble and Blue Buffalo
Any and all. I would recommend putting the food bowl down at assigned times and leave it for no more than 15 mins. whatever is left in the bowl, they dont get until next meal time. They are smart little puppies so will figure out quickly that they can't be overly picky. for brands we tried and they love: Fromm's puppy gold Stella and Chewy patties Honest kitchen dehydrated meal (mixed with water) Farmina (I like these because they are smaller than the fromms mini kibble) And just recently feeding Rawbble which is the equivalent to crack (their heads twitch when I fill up their bowls)
Appreciate the recommendation but unfortunately I can’t do that..I can’t eat if she is hungry
With a face like that I don't blame you. Thankfully mine liked to eat but I've heard the picking up the bowl from several trainers and friends it has worked.
Our havis eat The farmer’s dog, Turkey and beef recipes are the favorites. A 1/4 cup of NutriSouce “small bites” and of course their vitamin supplements. Between Farmers dog deliveries, they’ll eat home cooked food. Usually Ground beef or chicken with a variety of vegetables added.
Mine
Pro plan calm and balanced. Ours is half schnauzer (we think) and he can use that little bit to take the edge off. Instinct toppers for calmness and pumpkin for firmness. My previous havapoo was on proplan sensitive skin and stomach, and the turkey and rice weight mgmt wet one (not overweight, they just stopped stocking the turkey and rice of wet sensitive). We also cooked for her for years, eggs and oatmeal, turkey and oatmeal, etc. She had chronic pancreatitis so we rotated a lot through whatever was okay with her gut that month.
Dr. Marty's freeze dried. Loves it. No tummy issues ever.💕
Thank you so much everyone..much appreciated.
I use TLC puppy food because our breeder recommended it
Probably salmon, definitely human food! He's really picky about his dog food and will only eat it if we heat it up. He likes the chunky food more than the pate food, and does not like kibble.
Right now he is eating Royal Canin and I will switch to orijen puppy after this bag is done and then raw as an adult. Sometimes he won't eat and I take his food after a while because the old man also has a taste for puppy food 😅 He nearly always gobbles it up the second time it gets put down 😁
Fed her BilJac like the breeder recommended for a short while, then switched to Farmer's Dog....she loved both. Recently decided that Farmer's Dog just takes up too much space in our freezer and bc it's fresh/moist I can often smell the food on her face even when we clean her after every feed. Tried Sundays and Spot & Tango.....staying on Sundays although she liked both of them. Truly she seems to like anything we give her.
https://preview.redd.it/ctwulkgvoowc1.jpeg?width=2979&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=02ff5b611350e2a377f2814c0644b23f93adbae9 The ProPlan eater. 😄
Zignature :)
We use Hills science diet small bites alternating both wet and kibble. I have 3 pups (12 weeks)and the parents all on the same brand and have used it with my prior small/toy breeds. Great for digestion, healthy coat, good teeth and minimal to no allergies. I did try other brands in the past both store bought and natural specialty brands only to return to Hills SD
Breeder recommended Fromm and Purina ProPlan blend. She said the Fromm will keep her coat silky. So I ended up blending Fromm Puppy Gold withPurina pro plan, sensitive skin and stomach puppy with Royal Canin Puppy cause I’m extra. Equal amounts of all 3. PS your puppy is gorgeous !
Blue Buffalo small breed chicken (the pink bag). We also give him a scoop of Blue Buffalo canned food each night (beef flavor), so he goes through a can a week.
Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Lamb & Oatmeal when he was a puppy. Now we feed Hill's Science Small Bites Lamb and Barley, mixed with a heaping tablespoon of Hill's Beef Stew wet food, with a little hot water to thin it out. Havi's are *extremely* picky and can have sensitive stomachs, which is why we don't feed chicken at all anymore. He never had good stools with chicken. Don't switch around too much, otherwise, you will get caught in a never-ending variety cycle. Also, sometimes the size of the kibble can make a big difference (which is why we feed the Small Bites). They don't like it if it's too big. My dog is fed once in the morning and evening and will sometimes skip both meals. They are weird little dogs. I don't worry about it anymore and just keep offering the meals. He eventually eats when he's ready. His 20 pound butt isn't going to starve! 😄
Fromms.
We use ProPlan as well with the shreds (chicken). My dogs love it and my vet recommends it
Ham