I personally don’t feel HPP is as good as non-HPP raw but it’s definitely better than kibble. Any low fat HPP raw would be worth a try if your brother is unwilling to feed non-HPP raw. Primal does have several varieties that are low in fat – I agree that S&C is probably too high in fat for a dog recovering from pancreatitis. The Honest Kitchen also has a formula called “Zeal” which is low in fat and would make a good “raw alternative” – it’s a dehydrated, human-grade food food and when you add water it re-hydrates to a stew-like consistency.
I have convinced my brother to change his dogs diet and I am looking for suggestions.
He has a 5 yo Eskie that has been on RC his whole life. He started having sezuires and is on meds for that and he has also had one bout of pancreatitis. They don’t have time to do homemade and have a one year old daughter. I do homemade and commercial raw with mine but I have the time and have no children. I know there is some controversies about HPP but would that be best for his situation? I was going to send him some Primal to try. I figured Stella and Chewys would be too high in fat for him due to the pancreatitis. Thanks.
Balanced raw is always best. Store bought meats are still better than any kibble. With that said, you are feeding better than 99.9% of the population, so don’t feel bad if you decide to stay where you are or do partial raw, partial ziwipeak, partial Orijen freeze dried.
*my fellow Canadian’s have a long weekend,lol. Hope everyone else is enjoying the rest of there weekend, lol*
Hello again, I have been on the site many times since my last post and was hoping to get some more help again. Since my last post I took Dawson off Big Country Raw, I wasnt impressed with there customer service, most of the time my questions were brushed off and when I would place my order they seemed annoyed. Plus I found some things in the dinners I was not impressed with. So shortly after Dawson had a “sickness” episode (he was no longer on BCR) he vomited like 20 times before noon, and it was just bile. He was extremely lethargic and wouldnt eat or drink anything, but his bloodwork was relatively normal and in 2 days he was starting to be back to himself. He started drinking water on the 3rd day then the next day his appetite was back.Im fairly certain it was the freshpet he was eating that made him sick. After that episode I was afraid to start him back on raw, so I ordered in some ziwipeak air dried which he absolutely LOVES! Then once he was feeling better, i fed him ziwipeak in them am and then canned in the pm, I wanted to give him a meal with moisture in it like his raw meals. I switched his canned out for Grandma Lucy’s Artisan which he likes, and I like some things about it but its not ideal.
he has been doing well on that, but there is an Irish Wolfhound breeder at school who feeds her (very large,lol) gang raw. When we went to visit her and her wolfhound she had at school (who Dawson loved, I guess he likes the Big Girls, lol) she gave Dawson a tripe and veggie mixture to take home and try. Well He loves that and his tummy has seemed to be ok on it, which is what I had been worried about, so I was thinking about starting him back on raw, but im still nervous. I was also thinking of continuing his ziwipeak in the am, and trying the orijen freeze dried for his pm meal, but I was wondering if that would be too much fat for him to handle? He walks 2x a day, but I worry about inducing pancreatitis in him. Plus I like that the meats are free-range, antibiotic, hormone free. For raw the best I could probably do for a while would be grocery store as I cant seem to find organic free-range around here. At least until I can find a good source of meat… I really want free-range, antibiotic free meats for his tiny body, unless its ok for him to have typical “store bought” meats? If you think raw is still the best option I would like to prepare it myself this time around.
Sorry for the extremely long post, you guys are such a wealth of knowledge and the vets at school are very pro-Hills, Iams types. I really do like ziwipeak and so does Dawson, but I also want to feed him a meal with moisture in it as I think thats important too. Any input would be greatly appreciated! If you think is current diet is really decent, or if the ziwipeak, orijen freeze dried would be excellent for him, or if raw still would be the best (perhaps for his pm meal) even with store bought meats. And if you think of anything else that might help him after hissickness`supplements, tips etc. Thanks in advance, and hope you are all enjoying the long weekend!
How much phosphorus does it have? How many calories? And there is no such thing as raw ash, ash is what is left over after you burn off all the protein, carbs, fat, etc. It is made up of minerals and such.
I recently changed my Great Dane’s diet from Pro Pac performance puppy to Dr.Clauder’s junior Large/Giant.
The reason i changed is because i found that the ingredients in Dr.Clauder is better, since it contains raw protein(26%), raw fat(15%), raw fibers(2.5%), raw ash(6%), calcium(0.95%)… and the vitamins are vitamin A,D3,E,B1,B2,B6,B12,C as well as biotin,zinc,selenium and couple of other things.
Does anyone have any idea about this brand? Its German made.
I need to know if it is good for my 4month old great dane.
Thanks alot
Jeff
On a rotational diet, if your dog is used to rotating, you often don’t has to transition, you can switch cold turkey. But start by transitioning, until the foods you feed don’t give diarrhea, then if a food gives diarrhea or even loose stools for more than a couple days, you know it is not for your dog. When you are just starting, canned pure pumpkin, digestive enzymes, and probiotics help make transitioning easier. When I first started, I took a month to transition because I had a dog with a sensitive stomach. But after about 3 transitions, I started switching faster and faster. Now I don’t have any problems just switching up her food every day.
Try to stay with foods that are at least close in quality like 4 and 5 star foods, or 3 and 4 star foods. It’s big jumps in protein and fat levels that cause a lot of intestinal upsets, so get used to looking at the guaranteed analysis and knowing about what fat and protein level your dog is used to.
BTW, I feed kibble, canned, fresh, dehydrated, and raw, so no you don’t need to stick to one type, but you may have to pay more attention to how much water your dog is drinking if you switch between dry foods and water inclusive foods, so I usually mix the 2 together or feed them both in the same day but at different meals.
OzParticipant
I was taught that if you introduce your dog with new kibble food you’d have to slowly introduce it to them and all that. That saying a have a few questions
1. Do you still have to introduce it steadily even if you have a young pup?
2. Would you guy recommend sticking to just hollistic, natural, and raw food when looking for variety? Because sometimes people often cant afford the 45-75 dollars for the 30 lb bags.
3. How long would you wait for their stool to be solid before realizing its not for them?
3.
Just adding — Fromm has never had a recall, 100 yrs family owned. Prices as low as about $1/lb for their classic adult formula.
Plain high quality natural yogurt should help w/gas (or any diarrhea ever); mine has several live active cultures. My organic raw greens supplement contains digestive enzymes & pro/prebiotcs and so does the food I feed, which I’d think most superpremiums *should* (but check to be sure). Does the Halo not?
Any idea what’s causing the issue in the Halo??
I feed and recommend Timberwolf — you could try either the moderate protein Classics line or the higher protein Platinum line. I recommend rotating among their formulas, which are all excellent. All are very highly digestible, more than most foods, which should also help avoid gas. I order directly from their website.
For going all raw a lot of places suggest fasting and switching cold turkey. I still feed some kibble due to the rest of the family being squeamish, so I started by using raw as a topper for kibble, then increasing the amount.
As far as supplements go, if you are feeding whole prey, head and all, everything your dog needs should be in there. Any part that is missing takes away some necessary nutrients. Even then, due to pollution and environmental factors, I still want my dog to get extra antioxidants.
Thanks for the advice! It is just that some raw feeders feed raw with a whole lot of supplements, some feed with less supplements and then others say no to supplements. I guess I just want to make sure I don’t over do it or under do it. I know I am probably over analyzing this, but I know that raw fed incorrectly can be detrimental to a dogs health. But since my dogs are still eating mostly kibble, should I just switch one meal per day with raw and then after a week or so switch all to raw? Or just fast one night and then start raw cold turkey?
I add in a superfood of some kind, usually 3 to 5 different ones actually, like seaweed/algaes, berries, sprouted grasses, etc. for the micronutrients and antioxidants. I also keep a premix on hand for those times that I am in a hurry or I don’t feel like fiddling with all of it. I started with one recipe that was easy and then got a couple books, Steve Brown and Dr. Karen Becker. That gave me something to feed until I had done enough research to fell comfortable and something to research. At first I just modified the recipe I had with different meats, then I tried a few more recipes, then I started out making my own. I probably have some or 6 or 7 different recipes in my freezer right now.
You can make large batches and portion it out and freeze it. You can get grinds that have all the meat, bones, and organs, so all you have to do is figure out what extras you want added. There are endless ways to do raw. The thing to remember is that like with a human diet, every meal does not have to be balanced as long as they balance over time.
I live in Steinbeck country so I’m pretty sure I can find some Mexican markets lol 10and I’ve been to a local Asian market that has fish but I can’t remember what kinds. Alrighty, yay, new leads to check out 🙂
gmcbogger38,
Check out the Raw Dog Food Menus section for some ideas. Also some good reading is “Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet” by Steve Brown and some books by Tom Lonsdale “Work wonders, Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones”, Dr Pitcairn, nutritionist Lew Olsen. There’s a recipe book by Becker/Taylor “Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats” that I used when I first started making my own raw. You can also buy quality items from Hare-Today Gone Tomorrow and My Pet Carnivore.
It wasn’t horrible so I’ll try again with it as a topper for her food. I can’t remember how close to her meal she had the sardine. Maybe just half a sardine for the next try 🙂
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This reply was modified 12 years, 5 months ago by
somebodysme.
When I try something new, I add a little to their meal.
Oily fish do have a bit of oil in them, it might be best if she had them with food.
So I gave my dog one little ol’ sardine (in spring water and no added salt) and three hours later she had loose stool! Weird because she doesn’t have a sensitive stomach. Scratch that off the dog treat list…. UGH!
My childhoold memories are chicken heart soup and some sort of dish with duck blood (solid like tofu). Can’t actually remember if I ate the second one but was at a relatives house when they were making all this weird food for a party and actually had dispatched a real live goat.
Yum, Menudo, fond childhood memories…
Yeah I figured that, I’ve fed Tripett and have seen and smelled it before. Just thought I’d ask.
**Any tripe from the grocery store is not the raw tripe for dogs but is cleaned and bleached for human….
Any tripe from a grocery store is not raw but is cleaned and bleached for human consumption. This is not the kind of tripe for dogs but my coworker makes soup with it! Raw dog tripe is red to greenish-gray and dirty looking. You can see the picture of greentripe.com products on their website.
I saw beef honeycomb tripe at Walmart, does anyone feed this? I also saw the Crown Prince sardines in a pouch that was mentioned, so yay!
I have a 12 year old shep/husk mix who has who has arthritis in her elbows. I believe the word the vet used is “horrendous” <spelling>. Anyway, I switched to Orijen Senior about 4 months ago, mainly based on the amount of glucosamine and chondroitin it has. I wish it had more protein, but I also mix in some Primal Freeze Dried or frozen raw with her kibble. She also gets a gluc/chon suppliment called Prudence Hip and Joint (High Potency) and Salmon Oil.
We also had great success with accupuncture, but unfortunately my current income no longer supports that. Exercise is key. We may not be able to do the 10-15 mile hikes we used to, but I don’t let a day go by without a meander through the park.
I recently started using Dog Rocks. Not something I would normally buy, but I work in a pet store and had heard a lot of positive feedback. They are literally rocks that you put in their water dish.
This spring the area of lawn she (my dog, Echo) was going on was pretty much dead. I started with raking off the dead grass and planting new, and not allowing her to go there while it was growing. I’ve been using the dog rocks for about three weeks now. She has gone on the new lawn just a few times, but so far so good. Here is their website http://dogrocks.org/. They do say that a raw diet or diet high in protein will hinder the productivity of the dog rocks, so it may not work for you. I feed Echo Orijen Senior with a little Primal Freeze Dried mixed in, so she is on a higher protein diet (compared to most kibble). Hope this helps.
Well…so far my dogs stools on various foods are pretty consistent and range from medium to extra small. I have dogs from 30 lbs to 13 lbs. When they eat reconstituted foods, they’re medium, when they eat kibble/canned, their poops are small, when they eat raw food, they poop out little bird eggs! For my dogs, the frequency is not increased as they are used to the changes and they are use to their p/p times. My foster who is regularly getting dehydrated/freeze dried foods mixed with some kibble has medium sized stools but not more frequent. He’s an unusually large pug at 30 lbs. Just poops 2 x/day. I always give digestive enzymes with these foods due to the veggie content.
Ok. I want to get my feet wet with raw, so I want to rotate with premixes and add my own meat. Thing is the more I read about premixes the more it seems everybody’s dogs have more frequent stools from eating premixes. Will this not happen if I rotate?
You’re welcome. Same goes with dog foods…variety! Kibble, canned, raw, freeze dried, dehydrated, RMB. You can even just feed them some sardines from a can or whole raw for their dose of omega 3. I have 15 lbs of sardines in my freezer.
Hello, my name is Bo, I’m from IL. I am looking for advice because my 8 year old mixed breed Rockie hasn’t been eating regularly and has occasional diarrhea and even vomited twice in the last 2 weeks and once or twice in he prior 2 week period. Right when we think she is getting better, she has a couple bad days. She used to devour her food in 30 seconds flat, but now she just looks at it, eats a kibble, spits it out, and if she does decide to eat, it will take her 5 mintues to finish 3/4 cup. Lately she will wake me up at 5am (normal eating time) whining, so I will put food in her bowl and she will just look at the food, then look at me with a sad face.
She has been on blue buffalo for a few years, currently chicken and brown rice. The sickness started shortly after a family picnic where she consumed plenty of table food and possibly some raw chicken juices momentarily before I ran over and stopped her. Yes I was a very bad doggie dad that day! Right around that time is when we opened a fresh bag of Blue Buffalo as well. That was a month ago and she hasn’t been right since. Since then we have been extremely careful to keep her away from any table food and garbage but she still has loose stool, vomits occasionally and has lathargic days. Occasionally her stomach will growl so loud we can hear it across the room. Yeserday she had bad gas, which is rare for her. According to some reading I’ve done on this website and consumeraffairs.com it seems there might be some bad Blue buffalo food going around recently, and I am not sure if the food is to blame for Rockie’s problems. Certainly I wasn’t doing my job a month ago, so bad parenting may be to blame. My wife and I are contemplating switching her food to see if that makes a difference. We had a vet appt last week, then for 2 days before the appt, her stool was normal and she was eating somewhat normal. So we canceled the appt. Might be time to make another appt.
There are a lot of variables here, I know. Any input is appreciated. I really want to get my girl back to the happy and healthy dog she used to be!
Thanks, Bo
Do you have any Mexican supermarkets? That’s where I got mine. They had chicken necks, duck gizzards, pork heart, gnawing bones and other weird things…and wild caught sardines!! And 5 different kinds of ceveche! This store even has a cafeteria center and bakery.
I don’t know, there’s a very…I mean very small Asian shop/store but I don’t know if they’d have frozen sardines but I should check. I did manage to find a can for about $1.25 that was in spring water and didn’t have any salt added. That’s really a lot though for what it is…I think! I’ll check at Marc’s in a pouch.
I wonder if I can get raw whole sardines at Costco?
Lol! I thought so! I was looking for that picture, because I knew I had seen it before, and I was pretty sure the fish was whole. Thanks for the visual clarification, lol!
When you guys buy them whole, do you feed them whole? The ones I buy are just the body. The tail and head are cut off…
Mine were wild caught. Can’t remember from where.
I agree whole raw sardines is definitely cheaper! I have not found any safe raw sardines locally. Not sure if I will buy from the ethnic grocery stores where they may come from China.
The most I’ve paid for a pound of raw was $3.19 plus another buck for shipping, and there is no extra water or anything the skew the weight. So that is $1.05 for 4 oz of pure sardine.
So you paid $5.08 per lb. That answers my question! (5 posts up)
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This reply was modified 12 years, 6 months ago by
pugmomsandy.
sheltiesmom,
How many ounces was that?
I found canned sardines at Trader Joes for $1.19 a can, they are packed in water with no salt added.
I think the whole raw sardine is cheaper than the tinned per pound, don’t you think? I bought mine for 1.19/lb. Those packages are only a few ounces.
I never could find sardines for the cheap prices that everyone else was reporting, which was one of the reasons I went ahead to buying raw by the pound.
I use the Crown Prince ones too, in the pouch, I get those at Marcs. I was also getting some at Walmart in a tin, but I just had a brain fart while I’m typing and the brand escapes me now.
& Holy Crap Sandy, the Amazon link you posted shows the sardines I get and they’re expensive!! I pay 50¢ a pouch when I get them.
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This reply was modified 12 years, 6 months ago by
Cyndi.
There’s several. Crown Prince is everywhere where I live. Be sure to check the ethnic supermarkets too. They’ll probably have whole frozen sardines and they do have a variety of canned fish.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=sardines+no+salt
I can’t even tell you, it has been so long. I order raw sardines and herring from Hare Today now. It has been almost a full year since I last used a can of sardines, much less bought one.
Yes I didn’t even look at the nutrition list, only the ingredient list. What brands have you found without added salt?
Sardines are a naturally salty fish so make sure you are checking the ingredient list rather than the sodium content.
