Hi Dchassett,
I took both my pugs off several supplements right now (not just Springtime)… I have food & allergy tests run about every 6 months and this time around something I’m giving them triggered for NutraSweet in it as well as some of the normal food allergies I usually see. I’m not sure what it is so I’ve completely scaled back to rotating in a few of these things:
organic coconut oil, mercola krill oil, mercola enzymes and probiotics, braggs apple cider vinegar, and a hypoallergenic phycox joint supplement. I’ve used these over the year… and these have not triggered anything for the pugs. Not sure where the NutraSweet came from but I don’t want it in their diet.
Just when I think I’m wining the battle with their allergies or food choices, something changes…. and Spring is here in CA! My pugs are so different and it is hit and miss with products I try… what works for one, makes the other super itchy…
I have been looking at the Bug Off garlic though… even ordered the granules but they have not arrived yet. I was just at the vets yesterday and they were trying to suggest accuguard which is an oral pill.
Not sure if this helps but I find sometimes you just need to test it out, cross your fingers and see how it goes…
Dawn aka Pugsonraw…
GoldenMom ~ I don’t know what you finally decided on for feeding your new Golden but hold off on antlers. One – you don’t want to add more calcium to his diet and two – you don’t want to damage his teeth. Mystery just turned one and I’ve only recently gotten him his first antler. I feed him raw so he’s got the whole bone crushing thing down, though I watch him like a hawk when he’s gnawing on the antler.
MastiffLove ~
No, no, no – do not feed Royal Canin Giant Puppy just because it has a low calcium. I agree that the calcium should be lower than 1% to start but the food needs to be at least of decent quality. Royal Canin Giant Puppy has virtually no protein whatsoever and only junk fillers in the first five ingredients:
Brewers rice, chicken by-product meal, wheat gluten, corn, corn gluten meal
You need to look over the list of foods that HDM put together at the beginning of this thread. If you’re going to continue feeding kibble, after six months of age you can move your pup to Orijen. In the meantime, find the lowest calcium, grain-free (or limited) giant/large breed puppy food you can. If a company doesn’t list their maximum calcium percentage, call them and ask.
Better yet, go raw!
Yesss I know I know! He has good intentions, and does put the ointment on until the spot goes away, but like I say – it’s like putting perfume on body odor. It masks it, but ain’t gonna take it away.
What just irks me THE most is that danged Beneful!!! You can buy 4 star foods for the same price, if not less! I somewhat understand someone needing to feed a cheap food due to tight budget, but this guy does not have a tight budget… He thinks he spoils them by buying Puperoni, rawhide chews, and Beggin Strips *long depressed sigh*
I’m glad you guys totally understand me though. I’ll admit, there was a time when I thought that the fancier packaging, various colors/shapes, and “wholesome soy” in Beneful was healthy; but I was a seven year old girl. Ya can’t blame me. By the time I was 11-12 (when I got my first personal puppy), I was aware of the fact that dogs need quality of some sort. I’ll admit, I was content when my folks bought a bag of food with bone meal or by-product as the first ingredient, but hey! For being uneducated, at least I had enough common sense to know animal products are needed in a dog’s diet.
If the cat has no raw skin in the ear, it’s great. But it burns like the dickens if there are any raw areas.
I’ve also read about people who use apple cider vinegar as an ear treatment. Mix some raw organic acv with an equal amount of water and wipe her ear out with the solution daily. I don’t know for sure if it’s safe for cats…it’s great for people and dogs, so I’d guess cats can handle it too.
It does sound like you need to take a slow approach to food, Patty and Sue gave good suggestions – starting with only a couple ingredients at a time, since he probably has many allergies.
There’s the slight possibility that he’s reacting to environment as well. Maybe try an anti fungal shampoo to see if it helps, and if it’s environmental allergies, possibly trying to give him coconut oil and raw LOCAL honey daily? That seems to have helped my sensitive lab a whole lot when diet alone wasn’t quite cutting it. Plus, the coconut oil helps oral health and makes super soft fur 🙂
Have you tried the elimination diet where he just eat 1 food for 1 month like kangaroo or chicken or fish Etc then if that meat seems ok then after 1 month add something new here’s a diet for yeasty itchy skin
1cup ground beef human
1/4 cup beef liver or kidney
2 eggs scrambled or boiled
1/2 cup steamed or boiled broccoli
1/2 cup cooked yellow crookneck squash
1/2 cup yogurt
serve meat cooked or raw combined with the cooked vegetables eggs & yogurt, If serving the meat cooked wait for it to cool before stirring in the yogurt..
intstead of the beef mince u can use chicken mince, pork mince or a tin of salmon or mackerel drained..
This was from this book called ‘Raw & Natural Nutrition for dogs’ The Definitive Guide to Homemade Meals by Lew Olson PhD… an excellent read explaining all health problems & what to feed dogs, there was more meals for skin problems, I just borrowed it from my Library…its raw & cooked Healthy meals, also a good shampoo is needed like Oatmeal shampoos..
I have tried many types of dry food for my Shepherd, we have even had him on two different types of prescription food. He still has itching. The vet suggested allergy testing, not sure I want to go that route. My boyfriend wants to try the raw diet, but I am not sure about that either, because he itches so much I am not sure where we would eve begin. Any suggestions?
Hey Patti. Another quick question. Do you think a chiropractor or acupuncturist would help with Hannah’s condition or am I just reaching for straws?
Hi Pugsonraw. How did the Advanced Hip and Joint Springtime supplement work out? Have you seen any improvement? I’m thinking of using this on Hannah. She’ll be 15 years old on 9/9/14. I rotate her supplements as well as her foods so I’m always on the look out for supplements that some may be having some luck with. She’s got arthritis, a couple of degenerated discs center spine, but lately I’ve noticed that the swing in her gait seems to be coming more from her hips than her legs. She’s also developing a tremor in both back legs. She had it a while back but it would only be one back leg or the other. Now it’s both back legs trembling when she’s standing still. Thanks, Dori
You need asystematic approach to discovering his allergies. He is likely allergic to more than one thing, and it isn’t just meats that you have to figure out. Plant matter has protein in it too and can cause these reactions. I understand that you don’t want to do a raw diet, but you need to do an elimination diet at least temporarily. You need to give him one protein and one starch for a few weeks, nothing else, and see if that takes care of the itching. If not, you need to try a different protein and a different starch for a few weeks and see if that stops the itching. Once you find something that he doesn’t react to, you can start adding back one ingredient at a time to his diet every couple weeks to see if he starts reacting. Then you will be able to figure out what specifically to avoid.
Some people get lucky and can find a Limited Ingredient Diet that works to start this process with, and if you want to try that route, your best bet is to try different varieties of Natural Balance or maybe Nature’s Variety Instinct LID Rabbit. You need to keep ingredient lists of foods you have tried that didn’t work and try to figure out what they have in common. If you find a food that works, you need to compare its ingredient list to figure out what it doesn’t have in it.
It’s quite a bit of detective work, but once you know what to avoid it is easier.
I’ve been feeding THK Preference with ground meat. I rotate the proteins between bison, beef and chicken. Gizmo also gets raw chicken neck for teeth cleaning about 3 times a week. I add ground flax seed and coconut oil to his food. He’s been on this diet since January, and this seems to be working best for him.
Before this I’ve tried just about anything. High end kibbles, freeze dried, canned, premade raw, PMR. He’s a picky dog and sometimes would refuse to eat. THK is the only food that he hasn’t turned his nose up.
Well, not proud to say that lately I’ve been feeding about 95% kibble and the remaining 5% is dehydrated or raw. I still have a load of Darwin’s in the freezer, so they still get a weekly meal of raw. I continue to feed an occasional bit of Dr. Harvey’s Oracle mixed in with the kibble and water.
I’ve been trying so hard to find kibbles that work for Sam with his intolerance issues, that I’ve been feeding straight kibble to see how he responds without adding anything to it. For various reasons, I cannot do raw full-time, and I choose to continue to use kibble as a base. So, there are frequently meals that he eats just kibble to which I’ve added water. Right now, I am basically down to two kibbles that Sam can eat… big sigh… He can eat Canine Caviar (either lamb or chicken with pearl millet) and Mulligan Stew (lamb only). Even things that he used to do well on aren’t working for him anymore so I’ve had to scratch Horizon Legacy and Nature’s Logic from his rotation.
I feed Bailey 100% raw. Mostly stuff from Hare Today and my butcher and also sardines, cage free eggs, veggies & other add-ins.
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This reply was modified 11 years, 9 months ago by
Cyndi.
I have a 4 year old golden retriever/maremma/chow and the poor guy will not stop itching. He has been like this for the past few years and we have tried all different kinds of dog foods. He is currently on a vegan formula and he doesn’t itch as bad but he still itches, he was previously on natural balance, canine caviar, a kangaroo based food and a bison based food to name a few. The vets have told me they do not know what to do which is leaving me confused, does anyone have any suggestions or natural remedies to try? I would like to stay away from raw food as the cost is too much as he is a large dog.
Thanks for your help!
Our puggle loves to eat and chew on bones. I am afraid to get bones that splinter. She gulps everything down! She is over weight,so I have to watch what I give her. What is a good bone that will last,but not slinter? Should they be raw or cooked?
you need to feed your dog a moisture rich food, even if your dog drinks a lot of water, feeding kibble is counter productive to preventing UTI’s and crystals. Either raw, dehydrated foods like honest kitchen or grain free canned are your best options. I would also add probiotics and cranberry extract to the food daily. D-mannose works well if the uti is caused by e-coli bacteria.
It would depend on where my dog was boarding. If they could handle feeding raw, I would package up exactly the right amount using a premix or 2, so all they would have to do is thaw and put it in a dish. If they couldn’t handle the raw, I would make sure my dogs could handle full meals of freeze dried before I left and then have them use that.
Yes you can use freeze dried food when boarding your pet. It’s a little more pricey though. Even though my dogs eat raw, they still also get kibble and canned food so they wouldn’t have a problem eating either of those for a period of time if needed. That’s one good reason to feed a variety. I would probably use freeze dried or canned food if boarding my dogs.
You guys are all hilarious!!!!!! Toooooo funny, Marie! Sounds like being interested in dog nutrition just happens to bring the other hobbies around, LOL! Seems like everyone here loves some sort of music or art as well!
Thanks for the compliments. I’ve thought about trying a business out of it, but really it’s nothing more than a hobby. I’ve sold custom portraits to a few people, but I can never just find inspiration with someone saying “here’s a pic of my dog. Draw it and I’ll pay you.” Last one I did, I waited about a month before starting on it (if I’m not “inspired,” my drawings are lousy LOL!)… Then almost every drawing I do, it starts out looking /this/ way in my mind, and ends up WAY different when I’m finished. I’ve never had any lessons/classes, and I like it that way. I’m not really looking into doing anything more than draw on a rainy night or something.
I’m glad y’all like my steer! 😀 his name is Inigo Montoya (or Iggy), he just turned 1y.o. in January. He is a clever little claud he is! I’m actually not in the country – well, sort of yes, but not really. We’re on a 5acre plot. It’s 1.5mi to the nearest town (a very small one), and then the beach is only 7-8mi away. Ironically, we go there maybe twice in a year LOL!
There’s really no need to add vitamins if you feed commercial food since it’s already fortified. You can add whole foods like raw eggs or fish oil, but giving synthetic ones like the tablets you see sold at big box stores can lead to vitamin overdose.
there are some holistic premixes that also incorporate whole foods like flaxseed and kelp, I would use those instead.
with a dog that size, you can easily feed raw like primal nuggets at low cost. Yorkies are notorious for having bad teeth, and raw is the best way to prevent this.
As others said, puppy food isn’t necessary, a lot of it is just marketing gimmick. Puppy food has little more protein and calories, but not by much, usually just 1-2%.
I haven’t used those in particular, but I wouldn’t hesitate to use alligator, shrimp, crab, or crawfish for my dogs. A friend of mine uses bay scallops as a high value training treat for her dog. The dog gets one, she gets one, the dog gets one, she gets one…
The only raw I know of that isn’t expensive is homemade.
Have you looked at Darwin’s?
Thanks for sharing your recipes. I picked up a dog treat book about a year ago and have experimented with a couple of different recipes.
One that really surprised me was one with sardines. I happened to have a few cans in the pantry – trying them is something on my bucket list, but I can’t ever seem to bring myself to try them 😉
3 raw eggs
1 can of sardines packed in olive oil
Package (sleeve) of graham crackers
Mix in blender until liquified. Pour onto a cookie sheet and spread out. Bake at 350 F for approximately 20 minutes until it looks rubbery and light brown on top.
Let cool then cut. (I used a pizza cutter to slice up into little squares).
My dogs went absolutely nuts for them.
Recipe didn’t give any tips for storage, but they lasted about a week in a plastic bag before they started to get fuzzy, so I’m thinking they need to be refrigerated or frozen. ???
I had really good luck with these liver treats – they are nice and small, about the size of those soup & oyster crackers.
http://www.petco.com/product/107245/Charlee-Bear-Dog-Treats-with-Liver.aspx
I’ve also used these – found both at Big Lots for under $3 a bag. Both are small sized treats – probably about the size of :
http://www.wag.com/dog/p/nutro-natural-choice-crunchy-treats-with-berries-10-oz-116742
and these, although the ones I used were peanut butter flavored, and not the new alligator or crawfish:
http://www.biglots.com/p/c/dogs/bayou-bites-natural-dog-cookies
Just wondering if anybody has tried these treats.
http://www.biglots.com/p/c/dogs/bayou-bites-natural-dog-cookies
They are made by Delca Corporation. They also sell under the think! dog brand:
http://www.petco.com/product/123697/Think-Dog-Natural-Louisiana-Jerky-Dog-Treats.aspx?CoreCat=OnSiteSearch
Are there any potential issues with dog treats made from alligator, crawfish, shrimp or crab?
I used to give my dogs the Grandpaw’s P’Nut Butter cookies (found during a random stop at Big Lots) and they loved them. The smaller size is perfect for use during training. I stopped by again to pick up some more and they didn’t have them, only these new Bayou Bites – same size and design, just different ingredients.
I’ve used several top rated raw foods but they are very costly even for a small 15 lb dog. Can someone give me a 5 star recommended brand that is not so expensive? I’ve used Stella and Chewys patties and now using Primal Pronto (Chicken).
Thank you!
I have 2 tanks that I’ve used before, they each can fit 6 small plants (last year strawberries and cucumber) this year I’m adding a 6 box vertical vertigro planter, but don’t know what I’ll put in it yet. My mini greenhouse does all my herbs, and my outdoor garden does tomatoes, artichokes, 3 squashes, a few peppers. This year I’m going to toy with some more root vegetables too
The kiddos got their first chicken back and neck today. I gave them frozen and was amazed how quickly they were devoured. No ill digestive effects so far.
Hi Shasta, Ur drawing is mad so is ur cow what’s his name & how old is he, I love cows eyes they are so beautiful, have you ever drawn ur animals… My hobbies were gardening & doing Staffy rescue but since Ive rescued Patch he takes up all my time trying to find out how to fix his health problems & make him better, thats how I found this site, I love our walks everyday, trying to find a new place to go.. it looks like u live in the country, I love the country but I live on the East coast of Australia & there’s not much bush near the water, where I live, so we sometimes drive 20mins to the country, Patch loves bush walking probably cause he was from the country.. When I first got him I took him to the dog beach down the road he spun out watching all these dogs jumping in the ocean chasing a stick, he had never seen the ocean before, now he loves it, I have to keep him on a lead as I cant catch when we have to go home..
Lmao!! You guys crack me up!
Patty, you forgot your new hobby of mad scientist creating your essential oils. Is that not going well?
For me, mine are dogs, finding new places to walk with my dog, researching about dog stuff, tattoos, thinking of ways to make the 90 year old woman I work for smile every time I go there, playing that damn hand-held yahtzee game that I’m addicted to, movies, and watching tv. I live a very boring life, lol!
Shasta, that drawing it friggin’ awesome!! I love dragons! You really should do something professional with your talent.
I’m thinking its 60/40 kibble & raw. With limited options for kibble the add ins have added up- sardines, raw grinds, tripe, necks/feet, beef chunks, etc.
Hi Shasta:
I love your artwork, my brother was a wonderful artist; he drew with charcoal. I always admire people who can draw because I wish I had that talent! I agree with melissaandcrew, I think you should take your talent on the road and draw some pet portraits for people too. I would love to see a pic of your cow tacked up when you get to that point in your training!
I like to read, I have two horses and a barn I tend to, and of course caring for my family, cats and dog. I garden in the summer. Each season I grow sunflowers, cat nip, pumpkins, corn, green beans, tomatoes, sweet potatoes and various vegetables and herbs. Right now I am growing pumpkins, tomatoes, pansies, johnny jump ups, and marigolds under growing lights in my basement for spring planting.
Omg! You can draw wonderfully! You should consider a small business drawing pet portraits for people.
Love the steer! What is his name?
I don’t have many hobbies, I pretty much work. But I enjoy volunteering for animal rescue , grooming bw havior modification etc. Gardening in the warm weather, and hanging out with our pet livestock-horses and goats.
Okay, I’m just posting this for fun. What do y’all like to do, well, for fun? (Other than obsess over pet-nutrition, of course!)
I love dog training, I adore piano playing – I’ve studied classical piano for 12 years, and have been playing as the church accompanist for 5 years. I’ve also accompanied choirs and done all sorts of fun music events.
My favorite indoor hobby, by far, is drawing. I’m only good with pencil, and I can only draw animals (canines, equines, and….DRAGONS!!!) here’s one of my dragon sketches:
I enjoy riding horses once a week, and am working on training my pet cow for riding as well (he’s not quite old enough for me to sit on, but he’s good with ground work)
I like virtually anything outdoors such as hiking, shooting, and jogging.
What are some of your favorite things or amazing talents? 😀
Bobby, that’s great! We are honestly the opposite, LOL! All three of my dogs (even my super slow picky eater) didn’t mind it at all when I added it. I, on the other hand, can’t stand it. I added about a tablespoon into some water, as well as a tablespoon of raw sugar water. Ahhhhh I couldn’t even finish it! I suppose it’ll be an acquired taste for me.
Hey, guys!
So, I have a question. Is there a difference (besides appearance and texture) between pate style canned food and stew style canned food? I have given Bruno both kinds (although different brands and meats), and he did great on the Wellness Core canned fish-based one, and when I gave him a Merrick Kiss-Me-I’m-Irish (beef, carrots, and potato) Stew canned on St. Patrick’s Day he immediately got really really soft stool.
Both times he got canned it was mixed in with his regular kibble at the time.
Do you think it’s because of the brand, the meat, or the type of canned, or all of these combined? Bruno has no problems with fish or beef in kibble, canned (like real sardines), raw, or as bully sticks/cow ears.
You’d have to ask the manufacturer if they test the bone meal for heavy metals. I make my own raw and use Solger brand which is tested and human grade.
That’s good when the vet doesn’t get too picky about the topic of food. My vet said the only food he recommends is Hills and one other (maybe RC? I don’t remember). At that time, our dogs were on Dog Lover’s Gold (4 stars) and Nutra Nuggets (3 stars), he said he didn’t recommend anything that didn’t have an AAFCO statement, including those foods. I went home and looked at the bag….pretty sure I saw a statement on there lol! But the vet doesn’t scold you or anything, he sees how healthy the dogs are and can’t complain.
It’s annoying how much they ask about eeeevery food though. They ask how many treats, what type, any people food, cooked or raw, etc etc. Then I said that Loki gets a few raw scraps occasionally, and he just said “scraps lead to an overweight dog…” (He probably noticed that Loki went from 41lb at the shelter to a whopping 43lb after we had him. He still has a thin waste line and could gain 2-5 more lb without a problem…) yeeeeah, I’m reeeeally worried now that giving Loki a chicken leg once a week will make him fat! LOL!
I’m curious if anyone has questioned manufacturers about heavy metal content in their dog foods? I’m noticing a trend in refrigerated and supposedly high end dog foods putting bone in the top 10 ingredients in their food and marketing it as a “natural” calcium source.
Looking back at the history of calcium supplementation for humans….bones used to be the norm until it was banned after discovering heavy metal accumulation that occurs in bones from livestock drinking less than ideal water sources.
If it was banned for humans…is it really a safe source for our pets? Maybe pets should be getting their calcium supplements from a purer calcium source such as calcium citrate like humans do?
What are your thoughts?
I’m not sure how big your water bowl is, Aleksandra, to know how much ACV should go in there. I love using it as a supplement for it’s anti fungal/bacterial properties, but I’ve never tried to put it in water. I honestly wouldn’t blame him for not wanting to drink much, that stuff stinks lol! I’m lucky my dogs don’t care… I accidentally poured about 2tbsp instead of just 1 over my lab’s food, and she didn’t care at all! She gobbled all of it up just the same. I could probably put a handful of dirt over her food and she’d still eat it, though.
(Sorry if it’s a dumb question: what does RMB stand for?) Edit: never mind…. Figured it out, LOL! Raw meaty bone. *does a face-desk*
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This reply was modified 11 years, 9 months ago by
Shasta220.
I’m doing 50/50 kibble/raw for meals. All treats are freeze dried or dehydrated meat products.
We have two male JRTs (5 & 7 yrs) and a female Labrottie (9 yrs). After seeing ads and getting some samples from a local rep, we tried the Blue Buffalo–dogs rejected it outright. We tried the Wild stuff, various flavors, and inevitably at least one of the three turned up their noses at each flavor of the food. Talked to vets, who sell canned Canin and Hills, about allergies, food ingredient quality, flavor variety. Went back to Fromms, tried three different flavors (chicken, beef and pork), and all three dogs are happy with the dry pork & applesauce formula. They’re energetic, different vets are all REALLY happy with all 3 of their overall health, especially weight maintenance vs activities levels, and their coats, teeth and skin are all great. None smells, they all sleep and BM on schedule w/o problems. We looked at MANY of the so-called ‘holistic’ and ‘organic’ foods. Local pet store guy recommended some ‘natural’ and raw foods, but it made no sense to change from what’s working now. Fromm’s is US made, only US ingredients, and no recalls we know of. We don’t feed them ANY human food, and they almost never get snacks or treats–so no threat of allergic reactions. Labrottie came to us from a poor-quality non-US food diet, and she’s a much happier, healthier, energetic dog now.
I’ve posted a thread or two with some canned questions… My Maddy is a spoiled littl girl, and I just started her on canned food a couple months ago.
I’m curious as to what favorite brands are, and is it safe to switch brands regularly without a transition? She has free choice of dry, and then gets about 1/4-1/2 of a 6oz can daily. I wanted to keep her on just one or two brands, then switch the flavors out since rotating meat sources is good. But Ms. Picky Pants /only/ likes foods with poultry as the first ingredient. So I thought that changing the brands would be good since some have liver as the 2-3rd, some have fish, etc.
So far I’ve tried Natural Balance, Chicken Soup, and Felidae. So far her favorites are Felidae and CS, she likes NB, but not as much as the other two. I’d like to try a few others as well, since I’m using DFA’s canned ratings as a guideline – I’d definitely assume the same brand would produce the same quality for both cat and dog foods.
Also, I am getting a bit concerned as far as oral health goes. She eats little-to-no dry anymore, and doesn’t bat an eye at our other cat’s raw bones. Brushing is obviously out (that’d be a miracle to see – a cat who’d allow you to brush its teeth!), so the only thing I can think of (other than regular dentals by a vet) is water additives? Does anyone have a favorite brand? So far, about the only one that I have tried is TropiClean… (I had an organic one, I looooved it. But it was in a specialty store far away, so I doubt I’ll be able to get it again) I’m not too impressed with it, honestly.
I figured out that I feed about 80% kibble, 12% toppers such as canned, raw medallions, dehydrated (THK), sardines and recently eggs. And the remaining 8% is various treats, such as bully sticks, pig’s ears, raw marrow bones, or treat filled kongs.
I’ll have to admit – my dogs are almost all dry, with occasional additions (apple cider vinegar, coconut oil, eggs, fish oils, other supplements). When I move out though, I will probably get into about 75% raw with them, because I love love LOVE the results I’ve seen. But for now, I don’t have the money, resources, or space to start three med-big dogs on raw.
It’s been a while since anything was posted on this thread, but I couldn’t find anyway to post on a more recent one that referenced this link.
I’m currently talking with Steve Iea about the quality of his pet food. Information on this site does raise some issues to be sure. Mr. Iea emailed me today that there is no 3D/4D meat in their products and all the beef is on the hoof as it comes in to the plant. He did not address my question about whether the meat and poultry as it comes into their plant is USDA inspected & approved for human consumption. Remember that once meat is processed in a non-human facility, it can no longer be called “human grade”. That distinction can be made however prior to the manufacturing process. I have asked for clarification on that and am waiting for a reply.
I would also like to correct something about charcoal as a denaturing products. Some years ago when I was purchasing goat direct from a packing house in Georgia, the USDA inspector found out that it was for dogs and ask the plant to denature it with the purple ink they use to stamp grades on the meat or coat it in charcoal. I had to go to the head USDA guy for the region in Atlanta to get that request withdrawn. The charcoal has nothing to do with covering up smells, it is simply there to make the meat unpalatable for human consumption as far as the USDA is concerned. If packing houses are using it for other purposes, that is not the USDA’s doing.
Cheers,
‘B’
Greenies around here aren’t liked too much, I’ll admit. And I will agree with everyone else – they stink, have gross ingredients, and really don’t clean as well as they say.
Try getting on a routine of brushing daily (or at least weekly if you have a difficult pooch), and you can use raw bones as well as other natural chews. I also went to the extremes of a water additive for my oldest girl, but I don’t think that’s nessicary.
I do, however, love Zuke’s Z-ridge bones. The textur is similar to greenies, but they are made of better ingredients like potatoes, fruits, and natural breath help from plants. Plus they seemed to actually work. I broke a big one in half and gave a piece to two of my dogs – by the time they were done, they have /really/ good breath. Greenies? Not so much. I’m not sure how good they are ever since Purina bought them though :/ all I know is the packaging has already changed (I miss the old packages) and prices have skyrocketed… Ugh!
