All of the brands you’ve been feeding are very low quality. The best diet for your dog is a raw diet. If you don’t want to go the raw route, try to find a kibble where atlesdt the first three ingredients are meat and that is grain free. Some quality brands are orijen, acana, taste of the wild, natures variety, and blue wilderness. Another great option is freeze dried food which all you do is add water and it re hydrates. A great one is the honest kitchen. When transitioning dry dog foods, gradually mix in the new food and then add more new food and less of your old brand over a one or two week period. If you are switching from a low quality to high quality, you may experience some loose stool at first, but you will be very happy because you don’t have to feed as much because there are more nutrients in higher quality foods. Hope that helps!
Hdm- yeah shadow eats around two pounds a day. Ill probably add in some eggs and kefir and yogurt for the vitamin d. Also, where do you feed your dogs? Shadow keeps taking the food out of the bowl and dragging it around the house and if I feed him outside he drags it around in the dirt. Any advice?
1/2 tsp. once it has all been mixed together.
Hi DieselJunki –
Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are important constituents of cartilage and help to maintain joint function. GAG’s and GAG precursors would include glucosamine, chondroitin and hyaluronic acid. MSM, which is an organic form of the essential mineral sulfur, can be beneficial for joints as well due to the fact that connective tissues require sulfur for maintenance. Cetyl Myristoleate is a supplement that’s recently gained popularity as a joint supplement and has been shown to lubricate joints and maintain function. Whole food supplements that are rich in GAGs are sea cucumber, green lipped mussel, shark cartilage and eggshell membrane. Raw meaty bones are rich in GAGs as well – with trachea, poultry feet and gullet probably being the richest sources. I feel that large/giant breed dogs that are not fed a diet including raw meaty bones on a daily basis should be started on a joint maintenance supplement at a year old (until the dog is a senior or starts to exhibit joint issues the supplement can be given at half the recommended dose). When it comes to joint supplements if you buy supplements made for humans they will be MUCH cheaper per dose. The ingredients used in human supplements are the same as those used in dog supplements so there’s no reason human supplements can’t be used (they’re probably higher quality as well). For a young dog with no joint issues there’s no reason to supplement with every beneficial ingredient under the sun – a capsule of green lipped mussel, shark cartilage, sea cucumber or eggshell membrane or a basic glucosamine/chondroitin supplement will give enough maintenance support to a young dog free of joint issues. For older dogs or dogs that are exhibiting symptoms of arthritis natural anti-inflammatories such as white willow, yucca, boswellia, turmeric/curcumin, tart cherry and supplemental omega 3’s can be beneficial to give in addition to a joint maintenance supplement.
Thank you Hound Dog Mom! I got all his supplements today and I get his food tomorrow, and then we are ready to go. I really appreciate you taking the time to look at the website and help me make sure it is balanced. And for your supplement blend, is that 1/2 a tsp each of everything or 1/2 a tsp of everything that has been all mixed together?
Safarisam- You must remove the crap food- I do not care what anyone says about “Dogs evolving” to omnivores. Their bodies can not digest grain and its the dog food we have fed our babies that gave them this human disease. As small as your baby is you can feed a raw or cook a rare-ish diet pretty cheap. Remove all kibble and all commercial dog food period. I have almost killed my dog experimenting with dog food.. Bottom line is ALL dog food is crap if it has fillers of any kind and ash.. There should not be things like “crude analyses” in food of any kind.
Again I can not express enough that unless the dog food is pre-packaged raw, there is NO SAFE DOG FOOD on the market for diabetic dogs – its not safe for non- diabetic dogs but thats another thread.
Feel free to contact me if you want.. I have years experience with this issue and I understand what you are feeling right now. Its so confusing and scary..
Well the vitamin d would depend on how much food he’s eating a day. The general rule is 200 IU per pound of food. I was guessing a dog his size would eat around 2 lbs. a day – you can reduce it if he eats less than that. I would add the vitamin e before feeding and not freeze it, I’ve heard freezing can decrease the potency.
Hdm- ok thanks for the reminder I thought it was 200 iu daily. I also plan on introducing organ meat in small amounts probably tomorrow, shadows tummy is upset very easily do I’m trying to do things gradual. I have been giving him some canned salmon with his dosage of vitamin e, fish oil, and kelp in a kong for a treat while I’m gone. Is it ok to freeze those ingredients?
Hi weimlove!
Glad to hear Shadow is finally on a 100% raw diet 🙂
It looks like you’re off to a great start! Just wanted to remind you that a dog Shadow’s size should be getting 400 i.u. vitamin d per day – some good sources are cod liver oil, cage free eggs, kefir, some varieties of yogurt and cottage cheese (check the label), oily fish (sardines, mackerel, salmon) and beef liver. 10% of his diet should also consist of organ meat (5% liver, 5% other organs) – this can be fed as one or two completely organ meals per week or small amounts of organ meat can be fed each day. And don’t forget variety once you make his next menu – lots of different types of meat and different fruits and vegetables.
Unfortunately, I can’t help you too much with the storage issue. Maybe invest in some tupperware containers? It would probably be cheaper in the long run rather than using ziplock bags all the time. All my dogs eat through a batch of food in one day so I don’t have to worry about freezing portions.
Hi everyone!
I have finally got Shadow eating a COMPLETELY raw diet 🙂
Since this is his first week of no kibble at all, I wanted to share my menu with you all and see what you think. Please keep in mind that this menu has extra bone in it to help keep his stool firm over the transition and next week I will add less bone.
What I did so far is pre-package a week’s worth of meals in freezer bags.
The meals include:
– 1 half of a chicken leg quarter
–1 small peice of a chicken back
– 1 chicken wing
– 3/4 of a pound of ground chicken
– 3/4 pound of sweet potatoes
– 100 iu vitamin E
– 1 tsp of a kelp/alfalfa mix powder (petkelp)
– 1 pump of fish oil that also contains a small amount of vitamin E
Shadow is given this meal twice a day. So far, his stool has been great, and extremely small! He also seems more excited to eat his meals, and I love the fact that it cleans his teeth too! Does anyone have an easier way for storing meals? The freezer bags are kinda pricey! Thanks!
My vitamin mineral supplement would be fine. I order all the ingredients from Swanson Vitamins. For a small dog I’d say 1/2 tsp per day would be adequate. I use Carlson Brand cod liver oil, it has a lower vitamin a content than other brands (most brands have excessive vitamin a) and I also feel it’s higher quality than most other brands – you could give about 1/4 tsp. a couple times a week (there would be no need to add krill oil on these days as the cod liver oil has omega 3’s) for his vitamon d.
Thanks Hound Dog Mom,
I feel so much better feeding this to Dawson now that you have checked it out! I was very surprised at the price as well!
Would you recommend I give Dawson your vitamin/mineral supplement? I know I saw a couple variations on the raw food menu thread. If you recommend that how much would I give him? One of my good friends has organic cage free eggs, so I could get him some eggs for vitamin D, he would get just under 2 pounds of food a week. (2 pounds in eight days) I already have his Krill oil picked out, so I need vitamin e and then a vitamin d source, is that correct? I saw in one of your menus, you gave vitamin A reduced cod liver oil, would that be suitable?
And thank you for explaining how to convert to % dry matter, it makes a lot more sense now!
Thank you for your time and all your help Hound Dog Mom!
Oh and you can determine dry matter protein and fat as follows:
100% – % Moisture = % dry matter
[% protein (or % fat, whichever you’re trying to determine)/% dry matter] X 100%
So for example, the food you posted states 16% protein, 12 % fat and 62% moisture.
100% – 62% = 38% dry matter
[16% protein/38% dry matter] X 100% = 42% protein
[12% fat/38% dry matter] X 100% = 32% fat
Hi Shihtzumom20 –
I just checked out Big Country Raw’s website – I’m jealous that you can get this food, the price is great! $2.50/lb. for pre-mixed food is very reasonable. I’m not too far from some of the retailers (I’m on the Canadian border) unfortunately I think a law was passed recently making it illegal to transport pet food across the border.
I can’t find a statement of nutritional adequacy on the website and it does appear there are a few things missing that you will need to supplement to make the food balanced. First of all, yes you will want to add omega 3’s as there aren’t any added to the food. Follow the dosage chart I posted previously. Second, after reading the ingredients for each of their foods I can tell you that there are inadequate levels of vitamin e and vitamin d. Vitamin e is difficult to supply in adequate quantities through food alone and therefore should be supplemented. It will be especially critical that you supplement with vitamin e once you start adding omega 3’s as consumption of omega 3’s increases the the fat soluble antioxidant requirement. As a general rule supplement about 50 I.U. vitamin e per 20 lbs. If you get capsules with a high dosage (most come in 200 IU or 400 IU) you can just give one whole capsule 2-3 times per week. For the vitamin d, there is some vitamin d in beef liver (about 50 IU per 4 oz.), but not all of the formulas contain beef liver and even for the formulas that do, I doubt that there is enough to fulfill vitamin d requirements. Vitamin d can be added in supplement form or (more preferably) in whole food form. Some foods that are rich in vitamin d: cod liver oil (~400 IU per tsp.), cage free eggs (~30-50 IU per egg), Kefir (~100 IU per cup), oily fish (amount of vitamin d present varies on the type of fish but sardines, mackerel and salmon are generally considered good sources), some varieties of plain yogurt and cottage cheese are supplemented with vitamin d (check the label). Your dog should be getting about 200 IU vitamin D per pound of food consumed. Also, rotate between all their protein sources – don’t rely on one – this will provide him with the greatest balance. You may also want to consider adding another whole food supplement, I see kelp is is added to a few of the varieties. Kelp is great and supplies a lot of trace nutrients but the more variety the better, especially when a dog is deriving all of their nutrition from whole foods and not relying on synthetically added vitamins and minerals. My dogs get kelp and they also get things like spirulina, alfalfa, wheat grass, bee pollen, chlorella, etc. I switch up their supplements frequently. It says they offer a vitamin/mineral supplement but it doesn’t list the ingredients, you could check that out.
Yes, RMB’s are a wonderful source of glucosamine and chondroitin. Because he’s young and he’s a small breed not prone to joint issues, RMB’s should provide all the joint support he needs for now. I wouldn’t worry about a joint supplement until he’s a senior.
I have Cavaliers, who by nature of the breed, can have heart problems. One of mine has a murmur, last time assessed at a grade 2. As far as I know, atm, the other one is currently fine. My oldest was heart clear until about 10 years old and then I was told she had a grade 5 murmur and probably heart disease. She actually never really had any problems of note, though, with her heart. She just recently passed to the bridge at 12 years old, but it wasn’t her heart….she had a neurological disease (SM) that Cavs also are prone to and that caused her death. Actually, having a Cavalier reach double digits in age is great! Anyway, on to your question……while I don’t feed a “heart diet” I do try to feed as top of the line food as I can (which my holistic vet is fine with). I know that prey raw or homemade is probably the best, but either is not my choice. I have fed a variety of different kinds of food over the years. I’ve fed premade raw, freeze dried raw, dehydrated raw, canned and kibble. I’m currently feeding Acana Singles (Duck & Pear or Lamb & Apple) topped with either Primal or Stella & Chewy’s freeze dried raw or The Honest Kitchen Embark. Sometimes I top with canned foods like Instinct, Wellness Stews, Weruva, etc. I was using Merrick grain free kibble until I had an issue with a bag of the Pork grain free (strange looking and colored kibble pieces caused diarrhea). I’ve also used Merrick canned but have decided to go away from them, too, as they contain carageenan, and ingredient I’m not too comfortable with. I do know about BPA in cans, as well, and that’s why I like the freeze dried or THK. With each kind of food I have often supplemented with a heart targeted supplement (again at the advice of my holistic vet, who btw carries Nature’s Variety in his clinic). Some of my favorites are: Bio Cardio, Cardio Strength, Nature’s Farmacy heartwise and Standard Process Cardio Support. I’ve also given pre/probiotics and enzymes which I think can’t hurt. The heart supplements often contain things like COQ10, hawthorn, taurine, L-Carnitine and omega 3’s. You could also supplement these things individually. Please note that I’m not a vet, but a furmom with babies that more often than not have heart issues. I hope this helps some and gives you something to think about. 🙂
Hi Hound Dog Mom,
So here is the chicken dinner ingredients:
Big Country Chicken Dinner
Ingredients
Ground chicken with bone, beef liver, fruit and vegetable puree. Garlic and kelp.
A complete and balanced meal choice. Protein-max 16%. Fat-min 12%. Moisture-62%. Fibre-2.6%
The chicken dinner has the highest fat, the rest are not over 10%. Of course I don’t really know how to convert it to dry matter basis, I did see how on here but I think my calculation was way off, lol!
Other than the fish I don’t see any fish oil added, would you say to add in the krill oil? I think they want you to feed the fish dinner every now and again, but they use cod, haddock or sole.
I guess I will hold off the joint supplement, do rmb’s help supply glucosamine and chrondroitin? He is getting his first chicken wing for his evening meal! I am so excited, I showed it to him and he wanted to take it so I think he will like the true raw diet! But he is still young with no issues so far, so since he is getting it naturally I think he will be good for now!
Thanks for all your help HDM! He is at me right now for his chicken wing!
And I like your schedule for vaccinating, I think I personally would feel better if he got his one year shots, and then I might titer him at 2 and go from there.
Ugh, I have a Newfoundland with CONSTANT ear problems and I feed a no grain, but it’s kibble.. I’ve been thinking about going raw with my dogs diets but I’m vegan and the thought of actually handling the meat makes me ill. ( AT least with a kibble I can pretend 😉 )
Hi Shihtzumim20 –
Krill oil is great because it’s low in contaminants and contains a very potent naturally occuring antioxidant called astaxanthin. If the food already has added omega 3’s (fish oil) use the krill oil sparingly because, yes, you can give your dog too much of a good thing. Here’s a dosage chart for fish/krill oil:
-250 mg. daily for toy breeds and cats (1 – 14 lbs.)
-500 mg. daily for small dogs (15 – 29 lbs.)
-1,000 mg. daily for medium dogs (30 – 49 lbs.)
-1,500 mg. daily for large dogs (50 – 79 lbs.)
-2,000 mg. daily for dogs 80+ lbs.
When your dog is on a raw diet that includes bones and cartilage there won’t be as much of a need for a joint supplement because bones/cartilage are full of naturally occurring glucosamine and chondroitin. If you have a senior dog or a dog with an orthopedic problem, however, a supplement may still be necessary. After heavy activity my senior gets a few capsules of Wysong’s Arthegic (my favorite joint supplement). It’s marketed as a human supplement but great for dogs too. Wysong even includes a dosage chart for dogs on their website. It contains boswellia, sea cucumber, turmeric, ginger, devil’s claw, yucca, red pepper and cetyl myristoleate.
I personally vaccinate my dogs as puppies (parvo/distemper at 8 weeks, 11 weeks, 14 weeks and a rabies at 16 weeks) and then I vaccinate 1 year after their last puppy booster. I don’t vaccinate again other than rabies every 3 years to comply with law. This is something you need to research yourself and decide what you are comfortable doing with your dog. Some people vaccinate every year, some every 3 years, some like I do, some only do puppy shots and others don’t vaccinate at all. Check out healthypets.mercola.com- Dr. Becker has some great information and videos on vaccinating.
Hi Hound Dog Mom,
Thanks so much for your reply! After doing some more research I decided to still go with a premade raw, it is a small company and all the ingredients are human grade, and from southern Ontario. It is called Big Country Raw. I have been looking at supplements and have been thinking of adding Krill oil to his raw. Would this be recommended? They do have a fish dinner, but it has salmon and tuna in it, so I think I would like to avoid that. Should I start supplementing him with Krill Oil? I like the benefits, then I read on another forum here that too many Omega 3’s can be bad too. So I was wondering what you guys think of that? And also do you guys use a joint supplement for your dogs? I have been trying to research on the internet but having been having much luck in whether to supplement or not. He is only a year and a bit, so I don’t know if I should wait to start a joint supplement or if it is beneficial to start him on it young. Also if someone could direct me to the vaccinating thread that would be greatly appreciated(if there is one)! He is coming up to his 1 year shots and I am not sure whether to get them or not, any advice on supplementing and vaccinating are greatly appreciated, thanks so much guys!
Hi Judy –
Gertie (the dog in my avatar) travels with me. Last time we went on a trip we went to North Carolina. I packed her homemade raw meals in tupperware containers and packed them in a cooler with ice for the first few days of the trip. Whenever the ice started to melt I stopped and changed the ice and I made sure all the hotels I stayed in had refrigerators. For when that ran out (I brought enough for the first three days) I brought a pre-mix with measuring cups and dish soap to wash all my utensils and stopped at grocery stores to buy fresh ground hamburger and turkey – I just mixed it up in my hotel room and kept it in the fridge. My other two dogs stay with my parents when I travel and I leave them with The Honest Kitchen. Freeze-dried, as Jan mentioned, would be a great option for traveling as well if you have a smaller dog. Unfortunately it’s not practical for a 70 lb. bloodhound like Gertie that eats 2,500+ calories per day – I priced it out before the trip and it would cost me over $500 a week lol
Hi Judy! I don’t feed the premade raw atm, but I used to. When I traveled and took the dogs I fed either the freeze dried version of the premade raw or a dehydrated food, like The Honest Kitchen. I’m currently using freeze dried raw and thinking about buying some of The Honest Kitchen, as well. I usually use it to top my dogs’ kibble but sometimes I will just feed a meal solely of the FD or THK.
Hi all. I’m new to this site. I was wondering, what do you do when you are doing a roadtrip/travel with your dog and you’re feeding the raw food diet? How are you able to continue with the raw feeding while on the road?
I love Simply Nourish, too, but also use Weruva and just started Tiki Dog (local petshop just started carrying it). Some other good canned foods, imo, are Instinct and Wellness Stew. TOTW’s canned food is decent and lower priced. I try to stay away from foods with carageenan. I know about the BPA in cans, too, so some days the dogs get freeze dried raw on top of their kibble to lessen the exposure.
I have an 11-year-old Lab who has battled ear problems all of her life. The vet said it’s a yeast problem. Now she has some raw spots on her skin, the skin on her belly and privates is very dark, and she’s covered in lumps. I had a Golden before that never had lumps and only an occasional ear problem. I also have a 7-year-old Beagle who’s had exactly one ear infection in her entire life.
I changed her over to Blue Buffalo Salmon about 5 months ago and it seems to have eased up, but it’s still there. And I’ve spent THOUSANDS of dollars over the years on vet bills for the same problem, over and over again. (Vet #1 always found it necessary to run the same expensive tests every time I brought her in–“We can’t be sure it’s the same issue..”, and after 10 years, I switched to Vet #2. Vet #1 also charged $18 to examine their teeth {approximately 15.5 seconds}, but I digress…)
What can I do to cure her of this? Am I doing something wrong? After reading a lot of your posts, I feel terrible that a change of diet could possibly have prevented those horrible lumps/tumors. Any advice would be most appreciated–I want her golden years to be as comfortable as possible as she has been a loyal and beautiful friend 🙂
Aw, thanks beaglemom. I’m glad you find my posts helpful! 🙂
Hi fortunatecookie –
Lucky dogs – Orijen and NV Instinct are my two favorite kibbles. I feed raw now, but when I fed kibble my dog did far better on these two foods than on any others. Both are labeled for “All Life Stages.” The AAFCO recognizes two nutrient profiles: growth and maintenance. If a food meets the more stringent “growth” requirement the company can choose to label it as “All Life Stages” rather then “Puppy” or “Growth.” So a food labeled for all life stages is the same as a puppy food. Personally, I wouldn’t switch to one brand. Feeding one brand continuously is very unhealthy – dogs, like people, need variety, there is no “perfect” food. Both are wonderful foods so I would rotate both dogs between brands and maybe even pick out a third brand to rotate in occasionally.
Hi kmarron –
Vitamin D exists in two forms – cholecalciferol (D3, occurs in animals) and ergocalciferol (D2, found predominantly in plants). Most animals are capable of fulfilling a portion of their vitamin D requirements by producing cholecalciferol in their skin when exposed to sunlight – dogs can do this but they aren’t quite as efficient at it as people so this is why it’s important that they receive supplemental vitamin D in the diet. D2 and D3 are generally considered equally potent for most species, however I believe D3 is the more natural choice. My dogs get their vitamin D in whole food form only – I believe that whole foods are better assimilated by the body and less likely to result in toxicity so I avoid all vitamin supplements. My dogs get their daily dose of vitamin D3 from cod liver oil which has 400 IU naturally occurring vitamin D3 per teaspoon, cage free eggs with have about 50 IU vitamin D3 per egg, Kefir which has 100 IU per cup and beef liver which has about 50 IU vitamin D per 4 oz. Oily fish such as sardines, salmon and mackerel are rich in vitamin D as well. If you prepare a properly balanced raw diet there should be no need to add synthetic supplements.
Chicken feet are great to feed, they’re the perfect size for smaller dogs too. Chicken feet are very rich in glucosamine and chondroitin so they help keep the joints healthy.
Are chicken feet good to feed as part of their diet? My dogs are 15 lbs each and turkey necks are too big for them.
I am following Dr. Becker’s Real Food recipe for my dog’s raw diet. She says to add dry vitamin D 400 IU as a supplement. Which type of vitamin D is best? Thanks for your input!
Thanks for the reply HDM. I’m still a bit new in the world of NON-grocery store dog food and there’s so much to learn! I’ve gotten so much from you and your experiences through your posts on this site so just wanted to say that my dogs and I appreciate it!
Yes I looked at a few of the commercial frozen raw but the prices they want for those are simply ludicrous. I don’t care how much the dog eats.
We have been warming the food, sometimes it helps and other times it doesn’t.
I appreciate the feedback.
The Stella & Chewy’s frozen raw, in Surf n Turf, is really tasty for dogs. My picky dog loves it. Kind of pricey, but Poms are small and don’t eat that much. LOL.
You also can try warming up her food, old dogs lose their sense of smell and therefore their sense of taste, so they don’t eat as well.
To clear up possible confusion about the NV recall, it’s their ORGANIC chicken raw that was recalled. There do have regular chicken ones that are fine. The issue was pieces of plastic being found in a batch of the organic chicken. DFA has more info on the recall.
Dump the Ol’ Roy. Corn is it’s main ingredient and corn is high on the glycemic index, meaning it can raise your dog’s blood sugar levels, which I’m sure you know is not good for a diabetic dog. Besides that there’s not a single ingredient in Ol Roy that makes me say “well that’s a good one”.
A popular dry food we recommend is Solid Gold Holistique Blendz, as it’s low protein/low fat food that isn’t full of corn, soy, by-product, or generically named meats/meals.
Some people believe that even a diabetic dog should have a high QUALITY protein diet, that is also low in carbs, but I’ll let our raw food feeders cover the benefits of that one since I’m not as familiar with the subject.
Hi Shihtzumom –
Being nervous about balancing your own homemade raw is understandable – I wasn’t comfortable doing it when I first started feeding raw. Once you get the hang of it, however, it’s really very simple. A pre-mix would be your best option if you’re nervous about preparing it yourself. If you start using a pre-mix you can even experiment by preparing some from scratch recipes for a few meals a week until you become comfortable enough to do it all the time. Home preparing is really the only way to get the best quality, nothing pre-made is going to be the same quality as something you make yourself with fresh, high quality ingredients (you do need to prepare it correctly though!). When going with a pre-mix any meat you can buy at the grocery store will be MUCH better quality than anything in a pet food. The best meat would be grass fed/cage free and free of hormones/antibiotics/steroids (this is usually noted on the packaging but ask the butcher if you’re not sure). Even if you go with conventionally raised meats that aren’t grass fed/cage free or free of hormones/antiobiotics/steroids – it will still be higher quality than any kibble or canned food. Most grocery stores sell liver (all that’s required for Urban Wolf). I order harder to get organs (lungs, kidneys, pancreas, etc.) from hare today and my pet carnivore but these organs aren’t necessary for a pre-mix. I generally use 90% lean (sometimes 85%) – you don’t want to use the super lean stuff because dogs need some fat but you don’t want to use super fatty meat either or your dog might not get enough protein. When using poultry I’d avoid breast meat and go with dark meat (it’s more nutritious and has a better fat to protein ratio) – gizzards and heart are great too if you can get them both count as a muscle meat (not organ meat!) and they’re generally much cheaper than ground meat. I’d also recommend adding a little fish oil to a meal prepared with a premix even if it doesn’t specifically say to do so on the package.
Just wanted to say that NV has a recall on their raw chicken diets.
He loved it! Cutting them in half is just the right size. I started him off in the bathroom as it has tile floor and put an old towel down and tried to get him to stay on it but that didn’t really work so he got it while he was in his crate on a towel to keep from getting it everywhere. I had left it frozen so it would last longer (Yay, 30 minutes of peace! lol). It really wasn’t as messy as I thought it was going to be but the fact of him dragging a raw piece of meat on the floor everywhere just erked me a little.
I was thinking of giving him a half a turkey neck once or twice a week.
Hi again guys,
I know you are probably very sick of me by now, and I completely understand, but I am hoping you can help me out one last time. (my disqus was just shihtzumom, sorry for the confusion) I have been looking at all the commercial raw diets, mostly the ones I like are Carnivora and K9 Naturals(any thoughts?). I really do like these and am hoping my local pet store can order them in, as other stores that are further away carry them. I am definitely not impressed with NV and would like to stay away from their foods.
But I have been looking at pre-mixes. I am worried that Dawson is not getting quality ingredients with NV. Where do you get meat from? I mean I could just go to the grocery store and pick up some meat, but is that good meat? Like it won’t necessarily be antibiotic or hormone free and grass fed. Do you buy lean meats? Where do you find the organs needed for the urban wolf pre-mix?
And with home-made I was looking at the transitioning to raw thread and it had some great information! But I find it confusing when trying to translate the amounts for a 13 pound shih tzu! The menu Hound Dog Mom posted sounded fairly straight forward, but I still worry I would somehow mess up the balancing. I really do want the best for Dawson, but am just so confused. I don’t want any carcinogenics in his food or other questionable ingredients, basically I am wondering what you think about the two commercially made, and then where you find good quality meats. I am very worried over what I am feeding him and want him to live the longest, healthiest life possible. Thanks for all your information!
Konamisan ~~ other things, like vaccine reactions, can cause these same skin issues that allergies can cause. Has your JRT been vaccinated recently? Also sounds like there might be an internal yeast overgrowth (which can also manifest in symptoms like you are seeing). Does your pup have a “corn chip” or yeasty smell?
Also it is very common to have “set backs” or detoxes when the immune system is compromised and the body is allowed (due to a change to a better food etc) to rid itself of nasties.
How long has she been on the probiotics. Probiotics are very important but can cause a mass die off of systemic candida and that die off causes toxins (released by the yeast as they die). That die off can cause the symptoms you are seeing.
It very well could be a reaction to another food but I think some of these other possible reasons may be worth considering..
Is raw good for a diabetic dog???????
Hi beaglemom –
IMO – frozen is preferable to freeze-dried because it has undergone less processing. Each process a food goes through is just more nutrients lost. Fresh raw would be ideal, followed by frozen, followed by frozen HPP or freeze-dried non-HPP, followed by freeze-dried HPP, followed by dehydrated raw, etc. etc. You want to feed the least processed choice you can. Freeze-dried will also cost a lot more to feed than frozen or fresh raw. Many of the freeze-dried formulas are HPP (high pressure processed) – including Nature’s Variety, Stella & Chewy’s and many of Primal’s varieties. HPP is a process in which the food is put under extreme pressure to kill bacteria – however proteins and enzymes are denatured, some nutrients are lost and the “good” bacteria is destroyed as well. I prefer non-HPP – fresh or frozen.
Would someone please explain to me the difference between frozen raw and freeze-dried raw? I understand the difference in actual preparation — but is one of these better nutritionally? Safer? Is it only a matter of storage (freeze-dried doesn’t need to be in the freezer)? Thank you!!
OK, so HDM, it sounds as though while coconut oil contains some linoleic acid, it’s not necessarily a good source of linoleic acid. Is that right? It obviously has a lot of great health benefits aside from that so, I’m definitely going to start giving it to my dogs again. I like to melt it and mix it into their food and recently, I’ve gotten lazy so I have been skipping that step altogether. So, rather than the krill for Bella, she’s going to get an egg lightly friend in coconut oil several times weekly. Sometimes a raw egg in her food seems to make it too sloppy for her preference.
When speaking of coconut oil for humans, ‘memba how it always used to get a bad rap? Would it be better to use coconut oil in cooking ~ better say than, vegetable oil? My dear old mom flipped when I told her I was giving the dogs coconut oil and I was trying to tell her (in layman’s terms) why it’s good for them. She was sure I was going to kill them.
Squid oil, huh? Sounds… interesting. : )
Didn’t notice where there was a topic area for people to post recipes, I think there should be one. I used to bake for my dogs all the time, but since I switched to homemade raw that started occupying a lot of my time and I’ve mostly been buying treats for the dogs. Since it was Valentine’s Day today, however, I decided to do something special for the dogs and made them some homemade healthy cookies. 🙂
Ingredients:
-2 C. Sprouted Wheat Flour (I used Arrowhead Mills)
-1 C. Organic Unsweetened Shredded Coconut
-1 Organic Cage-Free Egg
-1/2 C. Organic Pumpkin Seed Butter (I used Jarrow Formulas – can substitute Peanut Butter)
-1 tsp. Vanilla
-1/2 C. Water
Instructions:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients. Roll into small balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten the balls slightly. Bake 18-22 minutes or until edges start to brown.
High protein is not necessarily bad for kidneys, as there is plenty of research out there showing the opposite. So don’t ward off higher protein foods, whether that be kibble or raw or whatever. Remember… all dogs are different, just like you and I. What works for one doesn’t necessarily work for another, and vice versa.
Without seeing the exact foods you fed, not just the brand of foods, I unfortunately can’t make solid recommendations. But it sounds like you’ve gone through enough, so perhaps just going with home made would be ideal. There’s a forum here for raw diets, which gives a number of recipes. So check that out, as it’s important that you give your pup a balanced diet. I know that doing homemade incorrectly can lead to many problems.
I generally thaw them, but if I forget to pull them out of the freezer I’ll feed them frozen or half frozen. It doesn’t really matter. If they’re frozen they’ll last longer.
They are fairly long. I think I’ll try cutting them in half and see. Thanks HDM. I don’t know what this site would do without you! Haha.
Do you feed them frozen or thawed?
Hi DieselJunki –
Glad to hear you plan on experimenting with raw. 🙂
The thing with RMBs is you want them to be big enough that the dog has to chew them and can’t swallow them. If you cut the bone into small pieces your dog will likely just swallow them, this would eliminate the dental benefits and could also pose a choking hazard or potentially cause an intestinal blockage. I have mistakenly fed my dogs RMBs that were too small (chicken necks) and they just swallowed them whole – nothing happened, the chance of your dog choking or getting an intestinal blockage is minimal but it’s still there so you should try to minimize it by feeding appropriate RMBs. I’m not sure how big he is exactly, you may be able to cut the neck in half if he can’t handle the whole thing. Just watch him closely – once you get a feel for his chewing style you’ll know what size RMBs he can and can’t have and you won’t have to stress.
2 months, 1 week ago
