My home made nutritional food additive

[Dobie Wan Knobie]

I had read that combining different kibble isn't advisable because you'll never really know what ratios of the nutrients your dog is getting.

Mixing different dog food brands will improve my dog's diet
This misconception seems to originate from dog owners unconsciously feeling guilty about the type of food they feed, or those following their own ideas for "improving" their dog's diet without doing any research.

Every brand of dog food follows a specific formulation and nutritional philosophy, developed by the manufacturer. All products are formulated to supply a balanced amount of nutrients in a ration of a certain size (remember kibble size and density vary from brand to brand), based on the body weight of the dog. When mixing different kibbles, instead of getting "the best of both", your dog isn't going to eat enough of either one to get the full benefit of a particular nutritional system designed and researched by a manufacturer. Last but not least, if digestive upset occurs, it's going to take so much longer to figure out what exactly caused it, compared to just eliminating either the commercial food or whatever extras were fed recently. If you want to offer more variety, stick to one line of food of the same brand at a time and rotate between brands every few months. Supplementing the dry food with fresh, unprocessed foods like vegetables, fruit, yogurt, meat or a bit of canned food is also safe and healthy.
The Dog Food Project - Myths about Dog Nutrition

While I think this may be true of lower quality dog food, and especially ones with corn and fillers, I do not agree with this assessment concerning high end foods. Manufactures want you to believe this as they want all of your money for their food. But I also think it would be no problem to rotate the food as well, and I tried that, but that is hard on their digestive system with so much change always going on, so,it really never worked.

I ended up on this path because of all the problems we had with them and their loose stools. We had some serious bouts of loose poo, if you know what I mean, and could not get it settled. We would always end up putting them on boiled chicken and white rice to get them back to normal, along with probiotics, and then slowly try another food to see if they would do good on it. Someone, somewhere, suggested mixing food and slowly changing over brands, so I mixed them and they did great on the mix, but never really good on just one. So I eventually ended up with 3 really good foods - a high end protein, a grain free 80% meat base, and a good quality all around one - all of them without corn and junk like that. They really loved it, and no more problems with loose stools. Jedi never would gain weight, but now does great on the mix. The spectrum of nutrition that is in their food, along with the additives I add from time to time, is second to none in my opinion. I base my judgements on my experience and my experience with this has been great.

 

[WiglWerm]

I did cut some up earlier and mixed it with a little organic coconut oil. He licked the bowl clean. He put on a bit of extra weight this winter as he does not like to be out in the cold AT ALL. This is his first winter with us...in the summer he is out in the yard running like a bat out of hell, stays in great shape...I did not change his food intake to compensate for the lower activity level. My bad, so now we are on a diet.

 

[Drogon]

We had some serious bouts of loose poo, if you know what I mean, and could not get it settled.

Oh I know the feeling. We went until he was 9 or 10 months old until he had solid poop. I was considering combing food and was researching it when I came across that assessment. I have no way to know if their assessment is correct and I certainly trust your judgment for your own dogs who look fantastic. I think their assessment if accurate would have more impact on a growing pup. I know the Calcium to Phosphorous ratio is important especially in large medium/large breed puppies. I was just putting it out there for people to consider.

 

[Dobie Wan Knobie]

I think their assessment if accurate would have more impact on a growing pup. I know the Calcium to Phosphorous ratio is important especially in large medium/large breed puppies. I was just putting it out there for people to consider.

I fully agree with you here. I was very carefull with supplements for Calcium in their puppyhood, as I did not want to leave this to chance.

 

[strykerdobe]

WOW Dobie Wan! Your crazy like us! LOL. Looks great
We feed totally Raw.
Anytime you heat anything you will start to kill and destroy amino acids, enzymes, good bacteria and other nutrients.
But cooking it is still better than feeding processed kibble. Especially if your pets have cancer.
Maybe try not cooking the meat as long. Leaving a little red in it.
For veggies we use a NutiBullet and blend them.

Yes dogs have a hard time digesting veggies. The plants cell walls need to be broken down which can be done by lightly steaming them or really blend them. I just don't like heating!

 

[Dobie Wan Knobie]

WOW Dobie Wan! Your crazy like us! LOL. Looks great
We feed totally Raw.
Anytime you heat anything you will start to kill and destroy amino acids, enzymes, good bacteria and other nutrients.
But cooking it is still better than feeding processed kibble. Especially if your pets have cancer.
Maybe try not cooking the meat as long. Leaving a little red in it.
For veggies we use a NutiBullet and blend them.

Yes dogs have a hard time digesting veggies. The plants cell walls need to be broken down which can be done by lightly steaming them or really blend them. I just don't like heating!

Thanks for the tip! Now please do share your raw diet wit us... ???

 

[AresMyDobie]

Thanks for the tip! Now please do share your raw diet wit us... ???

Hahahahaha that could take days @strykerdobe

 

[strykerdobe]

Thanks for the tip! Now please do share your raw diet wit us... ???

I will get back to answer later today.

 

[strykerdobe]

Sorry it took so long to get back to you.

We do a coarse ground Raw (My Pet Carnivore) with Bone and Organs. We rotate a large variety of proteins. Different meats have different amounts of amino acids, enzymes, good bacteria. Chicken, Beef, Beef Tripe Mix, Turkey, Venison, Rabbit, Muskrat (only a couple of times), Lamb, Goat, Mutton, Emu, Duck, chicken necks. Also get a coarse ground beef organ mix.

Sometimes we feed one protein at a time or 2-3 proteins together.
Some times during the week we will add some extra organs like beef heart, liver, turkey heart, chicken heart.
Since our boy has DCM. For more vitamins we feed a mix of greens like Kale, Chard, Spinich. Which we blend in a Nutribullet. He gets 4 small gravy spoonfuls a day. It's very super concentrated. Also helps the liver detox.

Daily a Raw Organic Egg/with shell. We get them from Costco or Amish ones during the summer. Since we feed the shells. We don't do regular white store bought eggs. They will be coated with a mineral oil or a wax.

We also add either Answers Raw Goats Milk or Answers Raw Cow Milk Kefir. They have lots of great probiotics, enzymes and amino acids. Which can keep the gut healthy. Or use Rx Vitamins Biotic.

We do add the Organic Turmeric, Organic Coconut Oil and Organic Peppercorn (freshly ground).

Add Organic Certified Spirulina 500mg 2x a day

We also add lots of other supplements to try and help his heart because of his DCM.

 

[Dobie Wan Knobie]

Thanks for posting @strykerdobe ...very valuable information. I hope your boy is doing well on this, as I absolutely despise this disease, and the more I read up on it and how prevalent it actually is in the breed, the more I fear for the future of the breed.

 

[strykerdobe]

We have been feeding Raw coming up on almost 4yrs. There are lots of great sites and books about feeding a Raw Diet. Also Dogs Naturally Magazine is having 3 day online seminar Raw Round Up 2016 in the beginning of March.

As you know we just lost our boy Stryker (6yr 7mo) to DCM 2 weeks ago on Feb. 13. He was diagnosed back in the beginning of July 2015. Yes this is a horrid disease. It's been a roller coaster of ups and downs since his passing.

 

[ThatDobieAnubis]

I've been trying to do this whole "Homemade" Dog Food

I use

Sweet Potato
White Rice
Chicken Breast
Shredded Carrots
Coconut Oil

Blend all that together and add with his kibble... (Diamond ALS)

I'd like to kick out the kibble all together but being he is only 9wks old.. how can I be sure he is getting all the nutrients he needs..
Calcium and what not.. HELP Ideas.. Suggestions