What do you feed?

[Faber]

Is there anyone here that actually feeds their dogs with meat and home kitchen food instead of dry/canned dog food?

Yes,.....I admit it. We feed him left-overs, within reason. Allot of people say not to. We don't let him over do it, use common sense on what we give him. And haven't had any problems. He of course loves it. Good way to avoid wasting meat or other things you might normally scrape, that will do him alright. But that's not his staple diet.

 

[Faber]

If you get a chance post in the "Introduce Yourself" forum and post plenty of pics of your dogs if you have any. We all love pics.

Cool, will do....

 

[Huskylove]

Raw feeder here, have been for 16 years, waay before it was cool to do and used to fight with my vet tooth and nail about it , but I kept my severly epileptic dog alive for 14 years doing it, so I'll never go back. I supplement with Evo as well, a few times a week.

 

[Faber]

Raw feeder here, have been for 16 years, waay before it was cool to do and used to fight with my vet tooth and nail about it , but I kept my severly epileptic dog alive for 14 years doing it, so I'll never go back. I supplement with Evo as well, a few times a week.

What do you think about the raw frozen paddies?
We do those from Nature's Variety at times, of course he loves them, and raw makes total sense to me....just wondered your opionion on feeding paddies....as opposed to prepping the food at home. I'm sure the cost is ridiculiously higher, but in respect to quality of a marketed raw food.

 

[DobieLvr]

I just cant picture any company going out to get road kill to put in dog food or anything else really. Now sausage... i can see that... lol

See you and me are alike in our thinking - we aren't thinking disgusting. The pets that are put down at the vets, the ones that are not claimed by the owners and are left for the Vet's to get rid of - are sold to people that sell them to "rendering plants" or whatever they are called..... yep... they go around and buy any dead animal... seriously. There are people that swear this is why there is such a high incident of cancer and other illnesses in our dogs...

And I give my dogs left overs - all the time. I had a Bloodhound that passed away almost 2 years ago - he lived to be 14 years old. That is an unheard of age for a Giant breed.. He was just the coolest dog ever. He reminded me of the German Shepherd in the K9 movie with John Belushi... the dogs name was Jerry Lee - in the beginning of the movie they were feeding him chili... lol
Rufus loved chili... the only thing he didn't like was water chesnuts.

 

[DobieLvr]

Oh.. and Rufus LOVED rocks...lmao

 

[Huskylove]

What do you think about the raw frozen paddies?
We do those from Nature's Variety at times, of course he loves them, and raw makes total sense to me....just wondered your opionion on feeding paddies....as opposed to prepping the food at home. I'm sure the cost is ridiculiously higher, but in respect to quality of a marketed raw food.

They're fine for a premade raw diet and certainly 100% better than just about every processed commercial kibble, but they do lack some of the benefits of feeding prey model or BARF raw diet. Prepping a raw diet is pretty easy to do, all you need is a kitchen scale, plastic bags and a good sized freezer, and it's real easy if you feed prey model, just weigh out the portions of meat and freeze.

One benefit that's missing with premade are the whole bones, great for phosphorus, calcium and keeping the teeth immaculate and giving the jaw a workout, and the other is cost, the premade is seriously expensive, if I had to feed my four on it I'd need a second mortgage .

 

[jeepin2k]

Dini eats Innova and loves it, we get tons of compliments on his coat too!

 

[Faber]

They're fine for a premade raw diet and certainly 100% better than just about every processed commercial kibble, but they do lack some of the benefits of feeding prey model or BARF raw diet. Prepping a raw diet is pretty easy to do, all you need is a kitchen scale, plastic bags and a good sized freezer, and it's real easy if you feed prey model, just weigh out the portions of meat and freeze.

One benefit that's missing with premade are the whole bones, great for phosphorus, calcium and keeping the teeth immaculate and giving the jaw a workout, and the other is cost, the premade is seriously expensive, if I had to feed my four on it I'd need a second mortgage .

Hey, thanks! Appreciate the come-back. Kinda what I figured....
Cool.

 

[FredC]

When i first brought Mars home he was used to Iams, so i had to buy a bag so i could gradually transition him to Canidae. At first on the Iams he had nasty eye gunk, a hard coat (for a puppy) and bad dandruff. All of that went away once the transition was complete. We do not feed canidae anymore but his coat is still almost as soft as a young adult dog as it was one i first brought him home.

 

[dobiemom]

I currently am feeding Trinity raw in the a.m. and TOTW kibble in the p.m. I feed Orijen to my smaller dog and highly recommend it as a good kibble. I am moving soon and plan on finding a good inexpensive place to buy raw meat. I have noticed a big difference in Trinity since starting to feed raw and plan to switch her to a 100% raw diet soon.

 

[burlysoldier]

I currently am feeding Trinity raw in the a.m. and TOTW kibble in the p.m. I feed Orijen to my smaller dog and highly recommend it as a good kibble. I am moving soon and plan on finding a good inexpensive place to buy raw meat. I have noticed a big difference in Trinity since starting to feed raw and plan to switch her to a 100% raw diet soon.

My pup loves ORIJEN as well. After a 15 lb bag of it I switched him over to EVO for a week now and that he also devours. He is growing like a weed (23 lbs at 12 weeks and loong). Once done with the small bag of Evo I will gradually put him back on to the Large Breed Orijen Puppy

Question
Can I give him raw bones? I gave him one from Whole Foods last week (cost a buck what a deal!) He LOOOOVED it. He didnt look at me for 2 hours. I eventually took it away. Next day he had the runs for a couple of "go's". I know he is teething and I wanna do only whats best for him so any advice on frequency, type etc would be a big help. the runs may have been caused by the switch to EVO.. hmmm

Thanks again guys!

 

[JanS]

My pup loves ORIJEN as well. After a 15 lb bag of it I switched him over to EVO for a week now and that he also devours. He is growing like a weed (23 lbs at 12 weeks and loong). Once done with the small bag of Evo I will gradually put him back on to the Large Breed Orijen Puppy

Question
Can I give him raw bones? I gave him one from Whole Foods last week (cost a buck what a deal!) He LOOOOVED it. He didnt look at me for 2 hours. I eventually took it away. Next day he had the runs for a couple of "go's". I know he is teething and I wanna do only whats best for him so any advice on frequency, type etc would be a big help. the runs may have been caused by the switch to EVO.. hmmm

Thanks again guys!

I don't know if it's been mentioned (sorry if I omitted it), but Evo shouldn't be fed to pups with it's high protein level, so you're definitely doing the right thing to switch back to the Orijen formula.

As for the raw bones, that could very well have contributed to his loose stool since pups tend to have much more sensitive stomachs.

 

[burlysoldier]

JanS
Thanks for the reply, does EVO have less protein than Orijen? I think the Orijen has more. I'm not positive but I recall it at 70%. And at what age would giving him a bone be ok? Are the cooked ones available at a pet store the way to go then?

 

[JanS]

Ugh, I just typed a whole thing out with the comparisons on the 2 foods, then my internet went out, so it's gone.... Grrrr.

Anyway, I was wrong about it being the protein (they both have 42%), but here's a quote I found that's still on my clipboard...

Unless the formula has changed ,when EVO first came out, it was NOT recommended for large breed puppies. The calcium/phosphorus ratio was far too high which could promote rapid bone growth .
Evo is fine for puppies that have finished most of their major growth..or for small or medium sized puppies.

I think the general consensus on switching foods is about the 12 - 18 month range, depending on how they are growing. I started gradually switching Boris to the Evo at about 12 months.

As for the bones, we used to give Boris the large pet shop ones when he was a kid, and he did fine with them, but I'm sure every dog is different.

 

[burlysoldier]

Ugh, I just typed a whole thing out with the comparisons on the 2 foods, then my internet went out, so it's gone.... Grrrr.

Anyway, I was wrong about it being the protein (they both have 42%), but here's a quote I found that's still on my clipboard...



I think the general consensus on switching foods is about the 12 - 18 month range, depending on how they are growing. I started gradually switching Boris to the Evo at about 12 months.

As for the bones, we used to give Boris the large pet shop ones when he was a kid, and he did fine with them, but I'm sure every dog is different.

You are awesome. Thank you!

 

[Huskylove]

If you're giving your dog marrow bones, you may want to scoop out most of the marrow the first few times they get them, marrow is pretty rich and can cause the squirts if the eat a lot of it.

And I don't know if this can be made into a sticky, but The Dog Food Project is a great resource for ingredient lists on every commercially made dog food on the market.

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=main

 

[diekrazy]

Ok so I bypassed the Blue Buffalo because of the price and decided to go with the Chicken Soup. I know a lot of people like it and a lot of people won't touch it because its a Diamond product. My Husky/Malamute mix has not been wanting to eat lately and when I brought home the Chicken Soup she started eating again . I will keep an eye on it and see how they react to it. Btw Jazzy loves it..I got the large puppy for her while she is still nursing the pups. I got the 35lb bag but did not find it as cheap as another person on this thread found it for. I'm gonna try and look for a cheaper price online.

 

[DoberDon]

I was uncomfortable with "chicken soup"also because of the diamond connection but it was the only kind of good quality food without corn,wheat,or beet pulp I could find in our budget and the canadae was not working for Shiloh after the formula change.So far tho there've been no problems at all,she still farts a little,but not the "biological weapons grade" farts she had on the new canadae and no loose poop.Since we've been giving her thyriod pills 2X a day with bread that may cause them too.Fortunately in the southwest Mi./northern In. area there's a local grocery chain(Martin's) that has opened companion pet stores(Pawmart)at several of there stores.They've got the chicken soup lg.breed 35lb bags for 31.99$.It's a little out of our way so last time we stopped at a pet supplies plus and the same bag was 38.99$ there!

 

[diekrazy]

I was uncomfortable with "chicken soup"also because of the diamond connection but it was the only kind of good quality food without corn,wheat,or beet pulp I could find in our budget and the canadae was not working for Shiloh after the formula change.So far tho there've been no problems at all,she still farts a little,but not the "biological weapons grade" farts she had on the new canadae and no loose poop.Since we've been giving her thyriod pills 2X a day with bread that may cause them too.Fortunately in the southwest Mi./northern In. area there's a local grocery chain(Martin's) that has opened companion pet stores(Pawmart)at several of there stores.They've got the chicken soup lg.breed 35lb bags for 31.99$.It's a little out of our way so last time we stopped at a pet supplies plus and the same bag was 38.99$ there!

That's a good price I got mine for 41.12 w/tax.