What can anyone recommend as a dental bone without bone LOL…My DH will not allow the dogs to eat any part of an animal that has big bones that they might can choke on. I really want to stick with Raw things but it looks as though I am limited since we are on just turkey Raw. Also don’t they need Omega 3 and 6? What should I get for that? I just got my order from Mercola and I am adding the Spiralina tablets in with the Raw.
Wow I thought I was the only one with a dog with such horrible symptoms as this. My chihuahua is like a walking epi pen I have to keep injectable steroids and injectable Benadryl on hand in case she gets stung by or bit by an insect. Shes highly allergic to them. I could loose her in. Matter of 2 seconds if I don’t inject her. We were using Acana and she had bad gas and bloat ( she has intestinal food allergies too) I don’t know what ingredient she is allergic to but I know for certain chicken does not agree with her. She also got bad acid reflux on it and so did my other 3 dogs. From what I gather they could not handle the high protein. We switched to Brothers Allergy kibble and the Allergy symptoms eased up but did not totally go away but improved a lot but the acid reflux stayed. ( For a kibble I would still recommend this food) I am still feeding it until I run out and we are now feeding Darwin’s Raw which in only 2 weeks doing a half Darwin’s half kibble a day plus probiotics and enzymes the results for all 4 dogs is amazing. Acid reflux is gone and no gas and stools are always firm. No licking feet and they all seem to have more energy. My oldest just got her teeth cleaned yesterday and my vet made the comment about her fur and asked what I was bathing her in because she had the softest fur. I told him its not the shampoo it is what I am feeding her “Raw”
Seriously, I am not one to push food on anyone with they’re pets but I swear by Raw now and only wish I would have started mine out when they were puppies on it. But if you just cannot feed Raw then I recommend Brothers Allergy or at least a limited ingredient kibble and possibly grain free. Good luck to you. This is one of the best sites and the people on here are very knowledgable and wise.
Are turkey wings safe to give?
we feed our dogs raw and merrick’s grain free, have had no problems. if your worried about blue buf then I suggest you switch to keep your peace of mind. there are lots of good foods to choose from, I suggest you look right here at 4 and 5 star foods. a few suggestion are merrick’s, fromm’s canidae all grain free would be my suggestion. sometimes the grains can cause loose stools. good luck
My dogs like the Mercola gentle chews, but then they like everything. The chews don’t last more than 5 mins for my small shelties. I don’t think they are as nutritious as raw necks or wings.
Have you ever tried canned, dehydrated, or raw?
Thanks Patty , That gives me an idea of how much to feed. darwin’s wasn’t sure because like you said each dog i different. The good news is we have decided after our next batch arrives we are going all Raw with all 4 of our girls. JRT are a bit more active than chihuahuas and shihtzu’s so I think 1/4 twice a day will be fine. My husband sees the difference in our two problem girls and he agrees lets go all Raw but he says no way are we feeding chicken bones or any Raw whole bones because one of our chihuahuas inhales her food and she has almost choked before on pig ears (we fed those a long long time ago and read up how bad they are and stopped. He does not want any of the dogs choking and dying from eating a chicken neck or wing (rolls eyes) but at least he has agreed to all Raw. My freezer will be here tomorrow and just in time for me to fill it with my new 20 lbs of Darwin’s .
Question, has anyone tried mercolas gentle chews? Are they safe for dogs with allergies?
pugmomsandy,
I placed my order for Xkaliber and tripe/trachea/gullet mix after reading that’s what HDM feeds her dogs, I figured the more variety the better. One of my shelties had dental work done so I have to be careful not to feed hard chews. They don’t care for the dried trachea chews from pet stores, so I’m interested to hear how your dogs like the raw tracheas, maybe I’ll get some next time. It will be a while before I place another order so no hurry.
Sheltiesmom,
I haven’t given them yet. This is my first time ordering them (trachea and cow hooves). I already have a tube of tripe and a tub of homemade raw thawing out so I will try the new stuff out later. But I have used the GT.com tripe (regular and xcaliber). I now have a local source for tripe so I probably won’t be ordering that particular item from GT.com. I’ll post some pictures next week of the trachea and cow hooves. I saw the calf ribs while I was picking up my order and your dog could definitely eat those. They were about the width of lamb ribs which mine have eaten before.
Hi Sheltie’s Mom –
If you’re feeding a balanced commercial food you don’t need to add any organ meat and I’d keep the tripe to 20% or less of the meal. If you’re making your own food organ meat should account for 10% of the diet (5% liver and 5% other organs) and tripe can account for as much of the other 90% of the diet as you want. Tripe has a 1:1 calcium to phosphorus ratio so calcium doesn’t have to be supplemented to account for the tripe. Organ meat is very rich in phosphorus and contains almost no calcium so you’ll want to add around 1,200 mg. calcium per pound of organ meat fed. Gullet and trachea contain mostly cartilage and a small amount of muscle meat – they have close to a 1:1 calcium to phosphorus ratio. If you’re just feeding trachea or gullet once in awhile as a chew, I wouldn’t worry about balancing the calcium to phosphorus ratio.
Thanks HDM, I’m learning so much from you and from everyone’s experience. Couple more questions, what is the percentage of the tripe/organ mix should I add to their food? And do I need to worry about adding calcium with tripe/organ mix? I understand tripe alone have the perfect ratio of calcium.
Trachea and gullet are great. Yes you’d feed them like chews. I’ve ordered tracheas from My Pet Carnivore – the dogs love them and they last a lot longer than the dried trachea chews. Trachea and gullet and both almost pure cartilage so they are high in glucosamine and chondroitin – great for the joints. The great thing about raw trachea is they’re very easy to slice into smaller segments for smaller dogs, you can just use scissors.
I want to order from greentripe.com and noticed the beef trachea and cow gullets, do you feed those like chews? Have you tried their tripe combinations?
The pugs can consume pork ribs and sometimes you can find small turkey necks at Sprouts. Greentripe.com has calf ribs I will try when my group puts in another bulk order. I just recieved from them a dozen beef trachea and a case of tripe stuffed hooves. I’ve also noticed that Sprouts cuts their turkey backs into 2.5-3 inches wide pieces.
Ox tail and wings are good for small dogs too. I have a 13 lbs and 2 40 lbs dogs. When I get turkey necks, I have the butcher cut off about 3 inches from one end and then cut the rest in half. I do the same with the ox tail.
Chicken backs are pretty big – usually about 8-12 oz. each.
My shelties are too small for the turkey necks, I tried it once and they couldn’t even crunch it down. I am afraid if I cut them up in smaller pieces, they would choke on them. They get chicken necks and feet, duck necks, which they can handle just fine. I will try chicken backs next.
Hi taylorjesset –
The only K9 Natural’s formula I would consider feeding is the chicken. The beef and lamb formulas are way too high in fat (and this is coming from someone who feeds their dogs a high fat diet). For the average dog fat should be 50% of protein, for more active dogs or dogs prone to weight loss it’s fine to feed fat levels up to around 90% of protein, but unless a dog is a serious working dog (as in a sled dog in training or something similar) fat should never exceed protein. My dogs are extremely active hounds, I generally keep their fat levels between 60% and 80% of protein. The K9 Naturals Beef formula is 27.8% protein and 57% fat (on a dry matter basis) and the lamb formula is 28.9% protein and 53.8% fat on a dry matter basis! These foods have almost twice as much fat as they do protein. Eating a food this dense in fat could cause your dog to eat it’s daily amount of calories without fulfilling protein requirements. When foods are this high in fat it’s also a good indication that the meat used is very low quality (fatty cuts unwanted in the human food industry).
Hello,
I was wondering if anyone knew anything about K9 Natural Frozen Raw Dog Food (Not the Freeze Dry food)? I was at Pet Food express and I was told this dog food is the way to go. My pup is my baby and I want the best for her!
Back when I used to show dogs, I knew this lady that made the fanciest tooled leather collar that you ever saw. My saluki had this Egyptian themed winged collar that I got from her. But the hound people went gaga over her rope collars and I never understood until I finally saw one on a foxhound. It was a simple twist of rope all the way around except where you normally fasten it. There it had this amazing knot that was incredibly totally adjustable and the ends were finished in monkeys fists. It had places to attach a leash and tags and just appeared to be a simple rope, but was so much more. I wish I could find a collar like it now.
Thanks Patty 🙂 That was actually my exact thought when I saw the collar – it was so hound dog I had to buy it.
Wow HDM
Your girl eats a turkey neck like mine eat chicken necks!
BTW I LOVE her collar, perfect for a hound dog.
I can tell you that I was feeding my JRT 1/2 cup of Brothers and when I started feeding raw I substituted 1/4 cup of Brothers for 1/4 cup of raw which is 1/4 of a pouch. That maintained her weight for months, but recently with the cold weather I’ve had to up her feed some.
The amount is going to vary dog to dog so the only way to know for sure is to see how much each dog needs by feeding it and seeing how they do.
My suggestion would be to just feed a quality food and brush your dog’s teeth. Feeding raw meaty bones will help or specially designed dental chews (in addition to brushing, not instead of) will help too. Other than prescription foods specifically designed for dental health (which contain low quality ingredients), there are no dry foods that are proven to improve dental health.
Sheltiesmom , couldn’t you cut the turkey necks to the appropriate size for your dogs? I plan to use PVC cutters when I feed bones to my girls but I just need to get brave like when I switched to Darwin’s , which was a HUGE step for me. I think we are headed in the right direction though 🙂
Well I am super impressed with the way they put that away so quickly. Gosh I so want to do this with my girls. I don’t have a clue where to begin though and where to get organic turkey anything around here. We have a fresh market but I doubt they would have turkey necks. My girls are so much smaller that your big beautiful hounds so I am just a bit intimidated by the bones. My smallest chihuahua was eating some of the Darwin’s and I heard her crunching on a bone so I called Darwin’s to ask them if that would hurt my girl and of course they said no. I know I will look back at this in a few months and maybe a year and laugh at myself.
I wish I old say I showed that to Steve but tht old gross him out!
Love the background vocals, too 🙂
Generally for raw you want to feed 2% – 3% of your dog’s weight. I’d start there. To be more accurate, however, you could just figure out how many calories your dogs were eating before and figure out how much Darwin’s they’d need in order to be eating the same amount of calories – Darwin’s provides calorie content on their website.
I was trying to use the link on Photobucket before and it didn’t work. So I tried uploaded to vimeo and just posted the URL and it worked.
WOO HOO! I figured out how to post videos! 🙂
(Going to try a different method)
Gertie eating a turkey neck:
Gertie eating a chicken back (Mabel and Gus providing the background music):
Patty how do I know if I am feeding my dogs enough Darwin’s at each meal? I don’t want the ones that I have worked so hard to get the weight off of gain it back. I have 3 chihuahuas and a Imperial Shihtzu, none weighing over 11lbs. Right now in the morning I am feeding 1/4 of one of the squares of Darwins in the morning with enzymes on it. Then I divide up they’re evening dinner of kibble and can topper. They get 1/2 at 2pm and the other half at 6pm with probiotics mixed in. They are never excited with the kibble and can topper but they eat it. I think they are wanting all Raw but I want to make sure they are getting the amount they require to maintain weight and not loose or gain. I am confused on the eating amount. I just called Darwin’s today and went ahead and told them to send my next order because these foo foo dogs of mine are loving this food so much. I cannot get over the acid reflux is very minimal right now and my girls seem much more active than they have in a very long time. WOW
I wish I could figure out how to make the videos show up. I’ve got pictures figured out but not videos..
Get the video and info to dr mike, it should probably be a stickie.
p.s. Raw pork should be frozen for at least 3 weeks before feeding.
I feed my dogs pork necks. They’re soft enough that they can be consumed entirely by large dogs and would be considered a “raw meaty bone” rather than a recreational bone. I’ve been feeding them quite a bit lately because I can get them for only $0.65 per lb.
I found some pork neck bones for a great price at the store, are they safe for teeth?
AnonymousInactive
Hello Marcella. I recommend because I have started using with great success Nature’s Logic. You must order on line most likely but it is so worth it. You can contact the owner very easy too, he always answers my emails immediately with any info. Nature’s Logic has even signed the Susan Thixton’s pet food pledge. I use the cat food and I have a pitiful old cat who has always had a brown discharge from eyes and I have used many brands hoping to clear this up. Nothing worked until I tried Nature’s Logic. They have dry kibble, canned and raw. Just wanted to let you know. Beth
I’m hoping someone can give me a recommendation for a good dog food for my Rhedyn. Rhedyn has several health problems, EPI being one. First she was diagnosed with Perianal Fistulas (PF) (last fistula was over 2 years ago), next she was diagnosed with SIBO and then EPI Oct. 2011, and bloated Jan. 2012.
The problem has been with her rubbing/scratching her face after she eats, until she has sores all over her muzzle and the hair falls out on her face. So I did the blood allergy test. Here are the results for food allergies: Duck=2 (2=low level), Yeast=1 (1=very low level), oat=2, Rice=2, lamb=1, potato=4 (4=very high level), pea=3 (3=high level). She also has some allergies to weeds, trees and grasses – but I don’t believe these are causing the problem because she gets weepy eyes and rubs her face every time she eats. I did think it was the enzymes (for the EPI – pork based), but according to the test, pork had a “0” score – absent or undetectable levels.
Because she had PF, we switched her to a single protein source (fish), one that would maybe not cause any problems. We have not had any PF’s for a really long time (I think it has been more than 2 years). My biggest concern is the allergy stuff.
Today I bought some cod (raw), mixed it with some sardines (raw) I had, mixed in some veggies and gave it to her. She loved it, but it is expensive buying the cod ($4/lb.). And it was a lot of work – I made a HUGE pot of it. Rhedyn is 90 lbs. and so eats a lot!
Does anyone know of a good kibble that doesn’t have peas, potatoes, yeast, or eggs? Or is there new/more current information out there on the food these guys (with PF) can/can’t have?
Thank you for any help or ideas!
Marcella
HDM, I am seriously leaning that direction. In a million Years I would have never said I would feed my dogs Raw! Now it is all I want to feed them. The thought of filling up my garage with freezers and hearing my husband tell me ” What are you up to now??” Makes me chuckle. I am just so glad they are lovin the Darwin’s. After I am completely comfortable with the amount of Darwin’s I am feeding then I plan to introduce other Raw things on my own. I am now looking at Urban Wolf’s website….LOL!!! I may need rehab when it is all said and done.
Hi NectarMom –
I’m so glad to hear the raw is working! Personally, I’d go all Darwin’s if you can – you’ll probably get results a lot quicker than with a kibble. I started with a 5 cft freezer too and now I’ve added three more full-size upright freezers – I’m a frozen meat hoarder lol. I truly believe once your dogs get going on a quality raw food like Darwin’s you’ll see such great results you’ll never want to go back to kibble. I know I’d never even consider feeding kibble again unless I got into a situation where financially I had no other options.
Well Marie you were right and when I am wrong and someone is right I say so and Marie we tried just giving Raw in the morning feeding and then In the evening I give them the kibble and no one threw up any frothy stuff. We did the same yesterday and the same today and no vomiting froth. Actually symptoms of acid reflux have been less too. I am debating going all Darwin’s. My dogs love Darwin’s. I may try to add the Darwin’s duck slow with the turkey and see how it goes. Darwin’s called today to check in with me and I let them know that everything has calmed down and I believe the issue was mixing the kibble with the Raw. Thank you to Marie, HDM and Patty for your support and advice 🙂
The Honest Kitchen has a couple of grain free foods and the ingredient lists are quite short compared to alot of foods and both your pugs can eat it. My pugs eat the Zeal formula on occasion. The pugs at my house also eat Brothers Complete, Nutrisca and Nutrisource Grain Free for kibbles. You might want to give (if you’re not currently doing so) daily probiotics/digestive enzymes to both your pugs to help with gut health and immune system. For canned food, Merrick 96% grain free is very simplistic as well and has vits/minerals so can be fed daily as a meal not just as a topper. Also you might want to give tripe a try – raw green tripe. You can find this in the frozen section at the pet store. It is very easily digested and has natural probiotics in it already. I’ll attach an article about it when I get home if someone else doesn’t do it first! Go to greentripe.com and use their store locator. Some better pet boutiques and feedstores will have it. If you join a yahoo group such as a BARF group, the members can probably help you locate a local source for tripe. There’s also canned tripe although not as good as raw tripe. Merrick and Solid Gold and Tripett have canned tripe. The pugs absolutely love tripe. They even get tripe spring chews instead of bully sticks. For raw tripe my boys eat 6 oz a day. For canned food they will eat one can a day.
How much BB were you feeding and which formula? When I used BB Wilderness the pugs only ate 2/3 cup a day total. One of my fosters lost 10 lbs on a diet consisting of canned food and raw food only. He started at 38 lbs.
I have a couple Great Danes. I am always researching food and comparing dry kibble labels. They were on Blue Buffalo but my local store went up on the price to 65 bucks a bag I had to re evaluate my budget for dog food. I went to a crap food and they are eating twice as much so the search is on for a good food again. I loved Blue Buffalo but is there a better dry food out there????
I’d love a high calorie food so they don’t have to eat as much (less poo)
I’d love glucosamine and Chondroitin and Omega’s
What is a great dog food for Danes? I’d love to eventually do a raw natural diet….. but that is for another research day 🙂
Oh and sorry if this is already answered … I tried to search but only found large breed puppy info.
Thanks !
Thanks Sandy and Patty!
This class was mostly a joke, I’m so thankful it was only 2hrs long. I couldn’t even leave because Steve had dropped me off. When she started talking about alpha dogs, I wanted to be out of there. She never talked about raw foods but instead talked about cooked foods. Had Pitcairns (sp) books there so that was a good thing.
Someone brought up constipation in dogs and she mentioned chia seeds. She also mentioned psyllium but said some dogs don’t like the taste. I don’t know if you gals remember a couple weeks after we adopted Gemma, she was “stopped up”. I still don’t know if it was from eating a stone, from too much or too big bone in the Darwins she ate at the time or what. She has not had that problem again but it does take her awhile to poop. No straining but she does stand in the poop pose, for usually a couple minutes, before she goes. Stool is not hard, not soft, nicely formed. No idea what causes this but I wondered if the chia seed might be worth trying. She eats The Honest Kitchen’s Embark in the morning and Bravo Balance pre made raw in the afternoon. Gets various supplements and a dollop of pumpkin on top of her meals.
It is not just one dog, it is all 4 but at different times. It happens mainly after they have digested the Raw. My vet would not know about Raw because he does not recommend it. My dogs were not throwing up food. They were all fine except for the acid reflux until we started the Raw. I am pretty sure I have to find a grain free , potato free , low protein turkey kibble.
If this is just one dog throwing up, I’m thinking its not the raw. I don’t know if Darwin’s can answer about a dog vomiting. Have you called your vet?
Mary Lou, I am thinking you might be right so we are stopping the Raw until we speak to Darwin’s and see if they have any suggestions. We may have to stop Raw and try another lower protein grain free , potato free kibble. Sigh. I just really hate seeing my girls uncomfortable in any way.
2 months, 1 week ago
