Our new pap puppy has been chewing at his feet and stopping mid gallop along the hallway to scratch and chew his tail - he's been wormed and deflead and hasn't been on any grass so all I can think that's causing the problems is the content of his food.  He's obviously irritated by something as he gets quite distressed when he's scratching and chewing.

The breeder fed him on Optimum (we're in Australia) which has cereal listed as it's second ingrediant so I'm keen to change him onto something else to get him off the grains - I don't want to raw feed him so I'm looking for some recommendations for a cereal free complete food that comes in small enough pieces for a small mouth to handle (obviously I'd feed him puppy to start with but some of the adult kibble over here is huge!).

I can easily get Nutro, Advance, James Welbeloved, Eukanuba, Purina Pro-Plan and Royal Canin.

Thanks,

anal glands ? James well beloved and royal canin  are good imo and small enough. Initially I fed my pom x on those until we decided to go raw. I think Royal Canin do a breed specific adult for chihuahuas which I would have thought would be fine for your pap. However I am sure some of the Papillion people will be along soon to be more specific.

I feed my Chihuahua and Yorkie pups on Royal Canin mini junior.  It's specifically for those tiny mouths!  Very small bits that even a 4 week old Chihuahua can manage. 

Worth a try for you - have to say the condition it puts on is marvellous.  The coats are lovely, and I've never had any upset little tummies with it.  They do an adult mini that is called sensible, and mine love it more than the Chi specific food.  The ordinary mini adult has small pieces too, plenty small enough for a Pap once he is old enough to go onto adult food.

Didn't think about his bum - he's got a vet check on Monday to make sure all is well before we book him in for his 2nd set of jabs (he's just 9 weeks old) so will ask them to have a look at them then.

There I new some more expereinced in little furrie people would be along soon. He sounds lovely , you will have a fun christmas ahead 

Spot on advice about the Royal Canin even my fussy eaters love it and helps keep the teeths very clean!

my pup was on royal canin for awhile then just stopped eating only 2 days after i got a 15kg bag lol ,hes a fussy eater ,i kept giving it him for a week but no he just wouldnt eat so when on to james welbeloved and is eating ,good job RC have a money back if dog dont eat it :)

Thank you so much for the replies - we took the little man to the vets today for a vet check (and had to endure all the comments in the waiting room about why did we have a mouse on a lead not a puppy!) and he had a check of his bum.  His anal glands are fine and he's flea free so the vet agreed it was probably a food issue and definitely worth changing onto a better brand.

He suggested Royal Canin (this seems to be the vets food of choice here rather than Hills) and gave us a 3kg bag free to try and see what we thought.  We fed him a mixed bowl at lunch time and he wolfed it down - was the most enthusiastic I've ever seen him with his food.

He's such a dear little man, so bouncy and cheerful (even if he sounds like a rat when he's running under the bed in the morning!) and is already taking himself to the back door when he needs the toilet.

He sounds an absolute delight, and I'm sure that he will have you running round in circles for him!  :-)

Glad he backed up the recommendation for me!  :-)

It is really good for teeth too, and an important consideration with the tiny breeds.

The vet was quite put out when I interupted his long speech on the virtues of Royal Canin to tell him that it'd already been recommended and I was happy with the information I'd been provided with and researched myself.  Most people in this area own cattle dogs or kelpies so don't feed premium complete foods - I got the impression he hadn't had a chance to give his speech in quite some time.

The little beast managed to get into the shower with me this morning!  The first I knew about it was when he licked my foot while I was rinsing my hair.  The neighbours came running to see what the screaming was all about.

I know it is not a feeding answer but have you checked his feet for red mites?

chewing of feet is usually the first sign of an allergy, could be food or HD mites - my young GSD bitch did this and we switched to a natural diet and it improved a lot, we had allergy tests done and she was allergic to HD mites.

He's stopped chewing at his feet completely now so I'm more than convinced it was something in the food that didn't agree with him.  He really loves the RC and spins circles when you rattle the food container!

Thanks again for all the advice and suggestions.

thats excellent