Hi Susan,
I’ve fed Natures Variety Instinct & lid turkey, Brothers turkey, The Honest Kitchen Embark
Pattyvaughn,
Thank you so much for letting me know the protein was based on the dry matter rather than the guaranteed analysis. I went back to the websites but not all of them show the dry matter information. I hate to ask, but can you tell me the formula to determine that result? You did such a good job on the calcium calculation! : ) Seriously, I love the detail you share! You are extremely helpful to everyone! Especially since I am new to this site this last week, I’ve had several questions. You have been very patient and helped me sort through all this information. Thank you so much! It is so much to take in, But I am trying.
Mfulton,
I think you may be talking about the list of “pea-free” food that was on another thread, “Dog Food Ingredients”, under the question, “Anyone’s dog allergic to Peas?”. I happened to be reading that one too so I’ve copied it here for you. I hope this is what you were looking for.
pugmomsandy wrote:
Grandma Lucy’s and The Honest Kitchen have some pea free foods. Also Great Life grain free/Pioneer Naturals. Here’s some pea free foods I had written down last year. I’m not sure if they’re still pea free:
Timberwolf
TOTW Pacific Stream (canola)
EVO red meats
EVO turkey & chicken
Pinnacle Peak (quinoa)
Grandma Lucy’s Pureformance
Natures Logic – millet, no potato
Great Life
Canine Caviar
I and Love and You by OnlyNaturalPet.com
Hello all,
Have any of you ever used apple cider vinegar? I started using it a couple ofmweeksnago, then stopped because I got worried. I’m not working with a vet on this, so I could use any and all advice on dosing. Basically, I am just curious if there are any negatives to adding apple cider vinegar to my dogs food, and what the dosage should be. He is an 20 month old Australian Cattle Dog who is now getting Honest Kitchen Keen (2/3 cup 3 times a day). I think he has acid reflux of some sort, but possibly due to a sphincter that doesn’t close. My vet recommended trying a Pepcid, which I tried tonight….I think it escalated the problem, which is why I’m turning back to the apple cider vinegar idea!
For the record, I strongly encourage people to work with vets on issues like this. I live in a town of 6,000 people, so I do not have a holistic vet available to me at this time. My current vet has seen Quincy, and is not concerned about his health because he shows no signs of illness other than occasional episodes of excessive swallowing (sometimes to the point of throwing up). These generally last a few days once started. I may ask my vet to do blood work anyways, but I have had success limiting the attacks by switching to a wet diet. I can usually pin his attacks to his getting something he shouldn’t (he is also a master counter surfer), though he will still have small episodes of swallowing occasionally.
For the record, he has only been completely on the Honest Kitchen for 3 days, though we slowly mixed it in for 2 weeks. I believe today’s attack may have been caused by 8 hours in the car yesterday, followed by an attempt to clip his nails (didn’t fully think through the whole stress level on the poor guy!). I know acid reflux can be caused by both dietary and stress triggers.
Anyways, long story to just ask the dosage and safety requirements of apple cider vinegar! Thanks!
Hi karink!
Unfortunately, you never know what is going to bother a dog until you try it. Does the sudden scratching coincide with the change of food or could it be something else? If you suspect it’s the food, then I would switch to something else to see if it stops. My dog did very well on Annamaet Salcha but he doesn’t have any food intolerances. What was he eating before? Did it have peas or potatoes? Grain-free foods tend to have peas and potatoes in them. It can be hard to find one without both.
Sorry I can’t help with the rosemary extract. I haven’t heard that before. It’s interesting because The Honest Kitchen is removing rosemary from all of their formulas because of customer feedback.
Hi BrittanyMom, I have a 3 yr old Brittany. Which Honest Kitchen are you feeding? We feed it too but it seems a lot of dogs lose weight on it. I have a sheltie who needs to gain a little so I use canned puppy food and/or Abady granular maint/stress, I just add a tablespoon. I’m having trouble getting by the ingredients.
How is your poodle doing? I have a 14 month old Brittany that is always hungry. She is extremely active so I’ve continued to feed her 3 times a day. She is on Bravo Beef Blend and Honest Kitchen. I have also had to add some kibble to her diet just to get her weight up. I’m not crazy about adding the kibble (Halo) but it seems to be working. She gets between 7.5 to 8 oz. of raw a day along with 1.5 cups of honest kitchen (dry measurement) twice a day. This dog runs, just for the joy of it, all day long.
The Cane Corso is considered a large breed dog because it will grow to 80lbs or larger. You should be feeding a food that is appropriate for a large breed puppy. They need to grow slow so they don’t develop bone problems. I would suggest you go to the Diet and Heath Issues forum and read through the Large and Giant Breed Puppy Nutrition thread for more info. See here: /forums/topic/large-and-giant-breed-puppy-nutrition/
A member, Hound Dog Mom, took a lot of time and effort to create a list of appropriate foods for large breed puppy growth. I would look through the list and see what is available to you. You may want to choose a food that is very different to what you are currently feeding (different protein, different carbs, etc).
Here is the list: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwApI_dhlbnFTXhUdi1KazFzSUk/edit?pli=1
It starts with grain-inclusive foods, then grain-free foods, and raw foods last.
I have a Great Dane (aka German Mastiff). He has done well on Annamaet, Earthborn Holistic, The Honest Kitchen (a dehydrated food, not kibble), Primal (raw), and Stella & Chewy’s (raw). You can’t go wrong if you pick anything from the list I provided. I would get small bags to see if he likes it first. You can also buy food online at places like chewy.com or petflow.com if you can’t find what you want locally.
I hope this is helpful Good luck!
I have used amazon in the past and been happy, but I plan on switching to the Petango store now, where you get 15% off if you do auto ship! So amazon isn’t ALWAYS the best, and I am usually a diehard amazon shopper!
From amazon, I’ve gotten Merrick Classics dry food, Chicken Soup canned food, and Honest kitchen dehydrated food, all have arrived without issue.
Sorry for all the unexplained deaths….it is horrible isn’t it? It’s bad enough to lose them when they are so young, but to NOT know what killed them is agonizing….
I remember finding that Rx on the Merck vet website, I believe….I have a brain injury so my short term memory isn’t so good, lol…..anyway, will try & look it up. Just came in from duck hunting w/ my new dog (she is great!) & pheasant starts tomorrow, so I’ll do my best to track it down.
Here is my email if anyone wants it: [email protected]
I feed Honest Kitchen Preference (premix) & Wendy Volhard’s nd2 formula, which I love…just add game meats & some coconut oil or butter…..I’ll never go back to kibble after all the recent ‘truths’ about the ingredients…
My cat has done GREAT on Natures Variety raw medallions. He had his first UTI two years ago, and has only had one since then (when we moved -I think it was triggered by the stress). I add a little water to his raw and mush it up.
Otherwise, I’d suggest a grain free canned, but still add some water to it. You want to really increase the water intake, as Patty said. I also add a scoop of the NaturVet cranberry powder onc or twice a week, not sure if it helps or not. A lot of the dog food brands that are good also make good cat foods. I keep a variety of cans on hand for days when the raw isn’t thawed enough or if I run out (I live an hour from the nearest place I can buy the commercial raw). Right now I have Wellness and Lotus in the cabinet.
If I weren’t doing the raw, I’d also consider the Honest Kitchen dehydrated diets, with lots of water added. I just bought a sample of each of them to try, but my cat isn’t too picky. I’ve found that raw is cheaper than the good canned food. I can feed my guy for about $30 a month, and could do it cheaper but I pay for the convenience of the medallions over cutting up the chubs myself.
If your cat has never had wet food, it can be difficult to transition. I had no issues with my cat, he loves food too much.
Oh, I also bought a pet fountain to encourage him to drink more, and I think it has accomplished that goal.
Good luck, it is so hard to watch them go through those episodes!
Tip #5 tells you how you can make your own jerky strips. You can also make them in a dehydrator. Petflow has jerky treats for sale also sometimes. Last week Etta Says Duck jerky was on sale. My dogs also love the fish jerky (Rawsome Pets and The Honest Kitchen). Frankly I haven’t given my dogs any kind of chicken/duck jerky for over a year or two. Now I give them Vital Essentials freeze dried nibblets.
http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/11/16/chicken-jerky-treat-casualties.aspx
Check into Missing Link and Nature’s Logic (supplements), and See Spot Live Longer Dinner Mixes and The Honest Kitchen Preference (Premixes that when combined with meat are complete and balanced). Of course adjust your fat amount.
You should calculate out based on feeding recommendations, not how much food it’ll make. A box of Honest Kitchen makes like 40lbs of food, but only lasts my dog 20 days. When he i on dry kibble, a 30lb bag lasts about 6 weeks. When I was researching foods, I made an excel file with the cost per bag, and then calculated how long a bag would last. This way you can compare daily costs.
Good luck!
I feed Honest Kitchen and Primal raw frozen grinds. I’m looking at trying Darwin’s next. I currently give my dog eggs, cottage cheese, kefir, canned sardines or pink salmon (preferably in water with no salt added), and Tripett canned tripe to help with variety.
I ended up mixing foods because I couldn’t decide what food I wanted to use since there’s a million kinds out there! So after 3 years of trying things out, my staples are Nutrisource (grain free and small/med breed puppy), Nature’s Select (local) only the grain free or Hi-Pro formulas, Brothers Complete, Merrick (local), occasionally Nutrisca (some issues with their chicken from China and possible farmed salmon) so I just get their Lamb food, Vital Essentials freeze dried nibblets and I’ve thought about Victor because they are local too (made in Texas). For cans, I use Merrick, Wellness Stews, Weruva, Nature’s Logic, Hound and Gatos and sometimes Nutrisca lamb. Dehydrated foods I use are The Honest Kitchen, Addiction (with Big Dog Natural), Sojo’s (with Big Dog Natural) and I make my own raw food with duck, goat, tripe and organs and supplements and they eat whole raw sardines and sometimes RMB (raw meaty bones) like necks, pork ribs and chicken legs. All foods have their pros and cons and not all dogs do well on certain foods. For me, these work. I am thinking of boycotting Dogswell though. Too many issues with their treats and they use chinese chicken. Actually, I think I’ll scratch them totally off my list now… and Sojo’s uses some dried veggies from China so that’s going to have to go too when my bag is gone. It is frustrating sometimes trying to find good foods with good ingredients. I’ve probably used about 20 different kibbles in the past 3 or 4 years (my dog is 6 now). He’s such an inspiration for me to make homemade!! I lub him so much!! He has his own freezer full of goodies!
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This reply was modified 12 years, 1 month ago by
pugmomsandy.
Molzy, which Honest Kitchen are you going to use? I’ve used all except for Verve and Preference. Currently have boxes of Zeal, Thrive and Embark open here.
Have you had him checked for worms or other health conditions? It seems odd that it started after adulthood and that you’re having to feed SO much, I’d do a fecal to be on the safe side.
That said, we have two Cattledog mixes around your dogs age. It is hard to keep weight on them, our vet admitted that he NEVER tells clients their dogs are too skinny, but that both of ours could gain a little. We feed LoJack (a German shorthair cattle dog mix) Merrick chicken and rice dry food, two heaping cups a day. We add a little more if we notice him thinning out too much. Quincy, who we think is a purebred Cattledog, gets 2-3 cans of chicken soup adult (for about 1000 calories). He has some stomach issues and can’t have dry food. They are both around 40lbs and both are around 21 months old. Both are neutered males. We don’t have a large yard, so their exercise is mainly walks and wrestling with each other. They’re both kenneled while we are at work – I imagine they’d need more food if they weren’t. And we haven’t been exercising them as rigorously these past few months, so it’ll have to increase if that changes as well.
I never use the bags recommendations, but instead figured out how many calories I need to get them each day and then figure out the food from there. Some brands is more, some less. Most have the calories per cup or can printed on the label, or on their website.
We’ve used Nurrisource grain free in the past as well with success, and are starting Quincy on Honest Kitchen soon. My moms dog does beautifully on Wellness (he’s not a Cattledog, but its a good food to my knowledge).
Good luck! These crazy herding dogs sure keep us on our toes!
Take a look at Natures Variety limited ingredient diets, The Honest Kitchen Zeal which is dehydrated, not dry but thought I’d mention it.
Maybe your vet is just old-school. Healthy dogs don’t have a maximum protein amount nor do they require carbohydrates. Also you can feed various foods – kibble, canned, raw, dehydrated, not just one type of food. Feeding just kibble is like a person eating a cereal bar every meal for life. For better health, incorporate fresh, unprocessed foods, and decrease toxic load. Blue Buffalo has complaints of dogs getting sick on it, but that can happen with any dog food. Not all dogs have the same reaction to a food. Rotate foods to minimize the risk of getting sick on one. The Honest Kitchen is human grade and expensive if that’s something you’re looking for. That is one brand I have in my dog’s pantry. They eat canned, kibble, dehydrated, and raw.
/choosing-dog-food/karen-becker-best-worst-dog-food/
http://www.victoriabenda.com/articles/kBecker/nutrition101.shtml
http://www.thewholedog.org/artcarnivores.html
http://www.thewholedog.org/artcookedfood.html
http://petsynergy.com/articles/nutrition-for-cats-and-dogs-overview/
Molzy, I understand what you said, LOL. We adopted a senior sheltie in January, she came to us with no teeth. No big deal, we fed The Honest Kitchen, dehydrated so no issue, right? Wrong! Turns out she constipates easily & lost weight so we had to buy a different THK product than what we have here and the canned food we already had….no can do, wrong calories/fat/fiber ratios. We just roll with it.
Quick update. In the past month he has had two episodes. One was 10 days ago, when he managed to eat our other dogs vomit before we could get to him (have I mentioned that this dog will eat ANYTHING??). That episode lasted about 5 days, but it was not helped when he also was given free range to a pile of compost (friend said that the yard was dog proof, failing to mention that her dog ignores their open compost pile).
Now this said, he also ate some turkey this past weekend without any ill effects (unless they are showing up 72 hours later). In the past, he has also gotten a granola bar and package of brat buns without any noticeable effects. This dog is extremely food motivated, and can jump onto the counter (all 4 feet) with ease. At home we don’t leave things on the counter anymore, but have run into trouble when traveling (finding stuff in the car, or surfing other people’s counters). We are learning to constantly supervise him, and all of these mishaps have been our fault for underestimating him!
Anyways, Now tonight, he has been gulping again and threw up once. I am fairly certain he hasn’t gotten into anything, but he could possibly have eaten bird seed or cat litter while I showered this morning (both are behind a baby gate which he has proven he can easily jump over).
Tomorrow I should be receiving a box of Honest Kitchen Keen and a bottle of slippery elm powder. I will update again in a few weeks with my results, just in case others with this issue are following this thread. We will also be calling the vet again tomorrow to get their opinion on what tests we should be running.
I should mention, he’s been on chicken soup canned this whole month, with NaturVet enzymes. About 3 weeks ago I started adding 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to each can of food as well. I had stuck with two meals a day, but will be in increasing to three once I start the Honest Kitchen.
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This reply was modified 12 years, 1 month ago by
Molzy.
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This reply was modified 12 years, 1 month ago by Molzy.
I second The a Honest Kitchen. They have two, one is haddock, other is catfish. Beams & Wishes are the names. My dogs love them
There’s a homemade cooked recipe at homemadedogfood.com (chicken and rice). It uses DinoVite and a fish oil supplement to make a complete diet. You might use quinoa or millet as a substitute for rice and of course decrease the fat content. There are some canned foods listed in the Low Fat Foods list. The Honest Kitchen Zeal formula is also low fat.
Google The Honest Kitchen. They have some GOOD fish treats.
Hey Caroline,
Glad the info I posted is helpful :). Another thing you could do if so inclined is to use The Honest Kitchen Preference premix and meats you purchase. Example, Bravo has a bone/calcium free venison as well as a buffalo that could be fed either raw or cooked (since they are bone free) with the premix. Might be a red meat option to the beef he doesn’t seem to do well on.
If you decide to give the eggs a try, don’t whip or blend or otherwise disturb the egg as doing so breaks down the glutathione precursor (will still be beneficial just not quite as much). Just crack the egg open and put the whole thing on top of his HK (decreasing the amount of HK to compensate for the egg calories of course). You can add the egg shell back in if you wish (calcium source). Some will say not to feed raw egg whites because they bind with the vitamin B called biotin.. It is true that they do BUT if you include the yolk you will be okay as it is HIGH in biotin and will offset what is bound up in the white.
Green tripe (either canned or raw) is a food that most dogs can’t turn away from — they LOVE it.. It is high in protein and has lots of nutrients (especially the raw) and can make a wonderful topper for the HK Thrive etc. I like the Tripett canned product and raw can be found locally in many cases or online. Most tripe is sourced from beef but dogs with issues with beef muscle meat are usually very tolerant of beef tripe. If not, Tripett also makes a lamb and a venison canned tripe.
Thank you Cyndi and Marie!!! You guys ROCK!!!!
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This reply was modified 12 years, 1 month ago by
Shawna.
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This reply was modified 12 years, 1 month ago by Shawna.
I have no horse in this race but thanks for helping, Shawna!
Caroline, what Honest Kitchen do you feed?
Thanks Cyndi! We’re going on 9 months and Dozer is still responding very well to the chemo. He is also loving his Honest Kitchen and whatever else I make him! 🙂
My mom has a 7 year old neutered male rottweiler (Dozer) with lymphoma. He has been undergoing chemo treatments and is doing well. He was diagnosed in February and here we are 8 months later. He has been eating The Honest Kitchen Embark and Thrive. I’ve been making homemade food for a topper so he doesn’t get bored on the two formulas. His last chemo treatment was a little rougher than the others and he didn’t want to eat his THK. I found the cancer diet by Dr. Dressler and made that for him. He loved it! We’ve been feeding him that for the past two weeks because he had one treatment that only lasted for a week and then needed another treatment that will least 3 weeks before he needs to go back to the vet. He’s doing much better now so I’m thinking about reintroducing THK to see if he’ll eat it again.
The vet put him on a multivitamin that they make to make sure he was getting enough iron. My question is: Is the multivitamin from the vet adequate for making the homemade food complete and balanced?
The Cancer Diet Recipe:
2.5-3 lbs lean meat, simmered with water on low heat
1-2 lbs cooked brown rice or oatmeal
0.5-0.75 lbs veggies cooked and pureed
0.5-0.67 lbs chopped, cooked liver
1-1.5 cups cottage cheese
2 skinless chicken necks, chopped and boiled (I used gizzards because I had them on hand)
0.75 tsp salt substitute
4-5 grams oyster shell calcium (I’ve been using calcium acetate at 800-1000mg Ca/lb of meat)
16,000-18,000mg EFAs (krill or fish oil)*
*Note: he hasn’t been getting any additional EFAs. My mom gets flustered having to add so many things to his food but I’ve convinced her he needs them. I ordered Carlson’s Salmon Oil Complete from Swanson’s per HDM’s recommendation. How much should he be getting per day? I’ve read differing opinions. He weighs 110lbs. I also just started giving him canned sardines in spring water with no salt added (New Brunswick brand). How many times per week do you think I should give them to him? I mixed in a 3.75oz can with his dinner last night and he loved it!
I’ve also been adding 1 tsp of flax oil per pound of meat because all Dozer will eat is chicken or turkey. He doesn’t tolerate beef well. He throws up if he eats too much of it.
He is also getting 2 capsules of Dr. Langer’s probiotics daily because he is getting 2000mg of cephalexin (2-500mg capsules 2x day). He has been on antibiotics for the last two weeks and will be on them until we see the vet again in two more weeks.
Analysis of the Multivitamin: per 1 soft chew. Dozer gets 2 per day.
iron (amino acid chelate): 3mg
copper (copper acetate): 0.1mg
manganese (manganese sulfate): 0.25mg
zin (zinc oxide): 1.4mg
vitamin D3: 150 iu
vitamin A (as acetate): 1500 iu
vitamin E (as d-alpha tocopherol): 15 iu
vitamin B1 (thiamin mononitrate): 0.24mg
vitamin B2 (riboflavin): 0.65mg
pantothenic acid (calcium d-pantothenate): 0.68mg
niacin (niacinamide): 3.4mg
vitamin B6 (pyroxidine): 0.24mg
folic acid: 50mcg
vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin): 7mcg
choline (choline chloride):40mg
biotin: 15mcg
vitamin C (ascorbic acid): 3mg
vitamin K1 (phytonadione): 4mcg
I think I should be giving him more vitamin E right? Anything else I should add supplement wise? He shouldn’t need anything else if I start feeding this with THK again, right?
Thank you in advance for the feedback. I appreciate it.
-Caroline
I fed Grandma Lucys to one dog but not for long…..I’m an Honest Kitchen gal and I usually end up feeding more of that (dry) than kibble, by a little bit
oceans11
There are some easy recipes in “Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats” by Karen Becker/Beth Taylor and there is a 4th edition which I just purchased. It makes for good reading too even if you don’t actually make the recipes. Anyhow, that is how I got started with homemade raw, but I use a commercial vit/min mix instead of the book’s recipe (CarnivoreRaw). Homemade is quite easy when you use a premix like CarnivoreRaw, Urban Wolf, The Honest Kitchen, Grandma Lucy’s, See Spot Live Longer. You just add the boneless meat/organs and oil (except for CarnivoreRaw, you have the choice of with or without calcium).
BTW, I transitioned my 14 yr old foster off of Hills W/D and he eats some kibble (mod/high protein) and mostly wet food like The Honest Kitchen, Sojo’s (with added protein) and various canned foods. I don’t know how long he was eating that before I got him.
My sister’s dog was just diagnosed with early stage kidney disease. The vet wanted her to feed a prescription diet but the ingredients in it were horrendous. I did a lot of the research for her because she is super busy. I found the best information on dogaware.com. Under the health tab at the top, click on “kidney disease” and you will find a wealth of information. My sister is homecooking for her dog now. She was using The Honest Kitchen pre-mix and adding low phosphorous meats to it but had decided that homecooking is cheaper and she has more control over what she feeds. She is on a tight budget.
Best of luck to you!
I rescued my Dane when he was 2 as well. He was only slightly underweight. He was 140 and now weighs 160 at 7 years old. Max is my first Dane and I followed the advice of The Great Dane Lady at first. I like the supplements that she recommends. I use the “Filling in the Wholes” and Nzymes granular supplements which can be purchased from firstchoicenaturals.com. You can also get probiotics and digestive enzymes from them. My mom’s rottweiler that is undergoing chemo treatment is on the 4 in 1 probiotics.
When I first got Max, I put him on a diet of high quality kibble (one of Great Dane Lady’s suggested) and used The Honest Kitchen as a topper. He loved it. It was also a great improvement over the Diamond food he was being fed. I have to agree that she suggests too many kibbles with grain that have high carbs. I would also agree that the licking and chewing at his butt and hips could be a food intolerance. Chicken is the most widely fed protein so it might be worth it to try a different protein. My Dane loves turkey and duck. Earthborn Holistic has affordable priced grain-free foods.
I wish you the very best of luck with Bauer. Great Danes are awesome, quirky dogs with so much personality. I think you will really fall in love with the breed. Keep us updated on his progress!
Is chicken quarters, chicken breasts and beef liver all you’re feeding her? How much of each? That’s really unbalanced. If you’re feeding too much of the bone-in chicken that could be causing constipation. She may also need some fiber if that’s all she’s getting.
Personally I would suggest checking out a book with balanced recipes (such as “Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet” by Steve Brown) or getting a pre-mix (such as The Honest Kitchen’s Preference or See Spot Live Longer Dinner Mix) and feeding the balanced mix as at least half of her meals, you can feed raw meaty bones and offal for the other meal or just feed raw meaty bones a few times a week supplementally. You may also want to get her on a quality multi-strain probiotic supplement. Loose and/or mucusy stools can be normal during the initial transition as your dog’s body is adapting and detoxing. My dogs didn’t have any issues at all switching to raw but I know some others’ on here have had problems so maybe they can give you a more detailed time frame of how long it should take the dog to adjust.
Nancy M
I buy my kibble online and from the local feed store/garden supply store. I buy canned foods from a wholesaler but there are alot of them that get dented on the delivery so it would be better for me to pick the order up from the loading dock but I do buy several cases at once. Basically, I just bought about a dozen cases, not for sure. There’s several still on the floor that aren’t on the shelf! There is also a non-profit store where fosters can buy food for dirt cheap like Merrick cases for $2.50 (and they are in date, not expired). I haven’t bought from them so my cases are around $16-$30. My preferred cans are Weruva, Tripett, Merrick, Wellness, Nature’s Logic, just ordered some Hound & Gatos. For freeze dried/dehydrated I’ve used The Honest Kitchen and Sojo’s with added protein, and Addiction with added protein. My other favorite freeze dried is Vital Essentials freeze dried nibbletts since I get a big bag of this for $15-$18. For kibble, I keep Nature’s Logic, Nutrisource, Brothers Complete, Instinct, and Epigen, sometimes Nature’s Select grain free. I have anywhere from 6-12 dogs at a time and when they leave my house, I send them with a gallon ziplock bag about 3/4 full and a couple cans. I like to use wet foods on their kibble, but usually make sure to feed the seniors extra wet food. My raw is from a local source or with a group bulk order from GreenTripe.com in California. Retailers also carry this brand but for twice as much as when ordering with my raw feeding group.
Unfortunately, of my three, I only have one that can get a large variety. My sheltie gets stopped up, she has no teeth so she gets one or two Honest Kitchens and a couple canned.
My boy has been having recurrent ear infections and for now, he’s just getting The Honest Kitchens Zeal, til I can figure out what’s causing them.
Sojo’s Complete is low calorie – only 333, something like that. Compare that to The Honest Kitchen Zeal which is around 500. You could increase his serving size like neezerfan suggested or find a more caloric dense food.
If you go to the DFA, I think there’s a list of low fat foods. Have you looked at The Honest Kitchen Zeal? It’s dehydrated, you add water and low fat.
Welcome, by the way. I’m a sheltie person too. I’m on my fourth, she is Gemma, a 10 yr old that we got in January.
SpringtimeInc.com makes one, I think the Honest Kitchen does, too.
If you are someone who pays attention to what your dog eats for food, you should pay the same attention to treats, especially if your dog has issues. I have one dog who can have Milk Bones but I don’t give them. Heck, mine eat The Honest Kitchen treats. Talk about spoiled!
The Honest Kitchen also has Perfect Form. It contains slippery elm which helps sooth the GI tract.
http://www.littlebigcat.com/health/slippery-elm/
Also I want to add that he said the treats were raw and then dehydrated so it still has most if not all of its natural enzymes and probiotics. The treats looks really good and the person who formulates all of biostareq’s products was super friendly and a answered any question I ha. He even asked for a picture of duke and he sent me one back of his new Australian Shepard. What I like most from their company is their customer service. But I ordered the honest kitchen beams to try them out since many people have had wonderful reviews of the fish beams.
I’m using in no particular order Sojo’s, The Honest Kitchen and Addiction. Actually all 3 products are open! I haven’t noticed frequent big chunks of Sojo’s in the dogs’ poops but they’ve been on it for a couple of bags. They get probiotics and digestive enzymes sometimes too. I had to add (as a preference) some protein to the Sojo’s and Addiction since they are not as high as I’d like. And I’m not sure that I would buy Sojo’s in the future as I believe the celery (or some of the dried veggies) is from China. But, they don’t eat it every day either. I have so many different foods around here.
Thanks for your reply, I read that Honest kitchen had a voluntary recall in February on some of their food (parsley that contain salmonella) not on Preference but I would rather not buy from a company that had a recall so recently.
About garlic, I’ve read So many things about it, some say the effect is accumulative so no matter how little you give it may still be dangerous but some others say they have been feeding it for years to their dogs with amazing results as a repellent.
Sojos sent me a sample, my pug loves it, it smells soooo yummy but I find pieces of carrot in his poop, so I thought Dr. Harvey’s Fine Ground could be better for his digestion, but I have never fed my dog anything with potatoes. I just think is a ingredient used with a filling purpose, not beneficial. So I just don’t know what to do!
What about The Honest Kitchens Preference?
The review of Tucker’s Raw Frozen was just posted yesterday. It has very few ingredients. Might give it a try. Do you use canned food currently? I’ve fed Sojo’s, The Honest Kitchen and Addiction dehydrated foods so far and no problems with those. Stuart Raw Science and Wysong Uncanny are two other foods I’d like to try. There are lots of options to use to avoid and a kibble-only diet.
I like Wellness Stews, Merrick Classic and 96%, Tripett, Weruva, Addiction, and dehydrated foods like The Honest Kitchen.
The honest Kitchen has an excellent premix to make starting out in raw feeding easier. Take a look at Preference.
I also spent a long time trying to pick the “best” dpg food. I finally realized that there are lots of good choices. We did nutrisource grain free for a long time. I’m from Minnesota. So I liked that it was a local company that tries to source ingredients from the Midwest. We’ve also done merrick for its local farmer push, though I don’t know how true it is. We are big on the local food movement, so our next step will be raw, though I think I’ll be doing honest kitchen in the meantime due to the human grade ingredients.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, there are lots of great dog foods. We have decided to try and support those which also operate under ways we respect.
Good luck!
I think the increased stool volume has to do with how the ingredients are processed not the quality of the ingredients. The Honest Kitchen and Grandma Lucy’s both use human-grade ingredients. I believe it’s the fact that the vegetables are in larger pieces and (at least with THK) raw that causes the poor digestibility. Dogs don’t produce cellulase so they are unable to breakdown the cellulose in plant-based ingredients unless they are cooked and processed. With my dogs’ raw diet I cook and puree all their vegetables.
