Soft senior food for Pekingese with dental issues

A ten-year-old Pekingese with dental trouble is a really common combination — Pekes are already prone to dental issues given their flat faces and crowded teeth, and hard kibble can go from inconvenient to genuinely painful as those problems build up. Senior dogs do have different nutritional needs — lower calories, easier-to-digest protein, and ideally some joint support — but the texture question is just as important here as the formula. To give you a solid recommendation, can you tell me: what's your dog currently eating, have they had any dental work done recently, and are there any other health conditions I should know about — weight, kidneys, anything like that?

That picture makes complete sense — inflamed gums and loose teeth make crunching through dry kibble genuinely uncomfortable, and Mochi's body is telling you that clearly by the slow chewing and leaving food. The good news is this is very fixable. You want to move her to a complete wet food formulated for seniors, which ticks all the boxes at once: soft enough to eat without pain, lower in calories than what she's been on, and easier on her digestive system. The one I'd point you toward is Hill's Science Plan Adult 7+ Active Longevity with Chicken in Loaf — it's a smooth pâté texture with no chunks to navigate, it's specifically formulated for dogs over seven, and it has good quality protein levels with controlled phosphorus, which is sensible to start watching in a Peke of her age even before there are kidney concerns. It's widely available on Amazon UK in multipacks.

Given that she's already reluctant to eat the dry food, you can transition faster than you normally would — her gut still needs a few days to adjust, but she's likely not eating huge amounts of the old food anyway. I'd mix the two over three to five days, increasing the wet and reducing the dry. Whether you drop dry completely is honestly your call, but if the vet has flagged inflamed gums and loose teeth, I'd lean toward going fully wet while her mouth is sore. Dry food doesn't actually clean teeth the way it's often marketed — especially for a Peke whose teeth are already compromised. Once any dental treatment is done, you could always offer an occasional dental chew or softer dental treat on the side, but the wet food as a base makes the most sense for Mochi right now.

At 5kg and a healthy weight, you're looking at roughly two to three of the 156g Hill's tins per day — the packaging gives a guide based on body weight and you'd sit at the lower end since she's a small senior and you want to keep her lean. I'd start at two tins, split across two meals, and see how she goes over a couple of weeks. If she's losing condition or seems hungry, add a bit more. If she starts gaining, pull back slightly. The most reliable check is running your hands along her ribs — you should feel them without pressing hard, but not see them. Weigh her monthly if you can, just to keep an eye on things.