The Shreds are soft. They can stick to teeth and cause Tarter build up if you don't give them something to chew on to get rid of it. My trainer uses it and it's noticible on the dogs eating it. I didn't like the coats on it, so I ended up brining my own food. May just be my dogs with the coats, but definitely all with the teeth.
It definitely messed up the coats at my place. That being said, maybe you could mix just a bit of it in, not feeding it all. Frankly, you'd be better off adding real food, even canned food, for a fussy eater. Why not improve the coat instead of dealing with a pseudo meat? Or for that matter, just add dried liver or Redbarn roll or cottage cheese or grated cheese, or, for a gravy, Nupro or Missing link or even dessicated liver powder from the health food store? That would add something, rather than subtracting. Granted, if a boy won't eat when the girls are in season, you have to try something until he learns that he can think about sex AND eat!
I know when they first came out everyone was unhappy with the formula change, but I didn't pay much attention to why. I have a dog who is a fussy eater, the ProPlan rep told me to try the shreds. What exactly did people not like about it? I don't want to use it if it will ruin his coat, but he sure would look better with a few more lbs. and I refuse to doctor his food with canned or anything like that.
I hate the shreds. I had one litter on it and the whole litter had diarrhea, as soon as I changed back to the regular ProPlan puppy food (Focus), all the diarrhea went away.
I do add fresh cooked chicken (I buy boneless chicken breasts and boil them with no seasoning) which I shred and add a little bit of it, and the "chicken water" to the dog's food bowl. Sometimes I add tuna packed in water or canned salmon for variety. A little dab will do ya!
When I fed more than one bag, I ended up with bad coats. Shreds are made of soy. Soy mimics estrogen in the body. Nothing I want in my boys. I will do it once in a while when its on super sale and the dogs do LOVE it, but I love my Captain Crunch cereal too...just know not to eat it. ;) I add toppers to my dogs' meals. A spoon of canned or some healthy fresh leftovers. I feed my pack in a row and no one strays from their bowl when they have a spoon of leftover pasta with sauce on their kibbles. Variety and healthy extras help them maintain good health IMHO
Becky we have fed our older dogs the shreaded since they came out with it. You have to feed more of it to maintain their weight but otherwise seems ok. The dogs we show and our stud dogs eat performance 30% protein. One of our old girls started to not want to eat and we switched her to performance. She loved it as do all the ones that are on it. Very palatable and puts great coat and weight on them.
