[Dori]

Aimee.
Sorry, I must learn to thoroughly read original posts. I sometimes skim read and I just focused on the part of the dog having stones. I thought he was asking for help with a diet for a dog that has or had stones.

Tom. I agree with you completely on the ingredients in the foods that vets prescribe. I understand that there may be some animals out there that will benefit from them but I’ve had many dogs in my life and have never come across one of them needing one of those diets. Not to say that I haven’t been asked by vets to feed one or another of them through the years. I just politely let them know that I appreciate their advice and I’ll think about it. This vet that I’ve had for 13 years knows that I feed commercial raw diets so none of the vets in the practice or the techs ask me anymore what I feed my dogs. Dr. Susan Wynn is a nutritionist that has seen my 15 1/2 year old Maltese when she was diagnosed with very high liver levels, then a tumor in her bladder and then a mass on the lobe of one of her lungs. All those were discovered early last Spring. At that point Dr. Wynn suggested that I put Hannah on Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw Diet because it is HPP and if Hannah’s immune system was working hard with all that was going on with her she didn’t want her to be exposed to any unnecessary bacteria. I feed a rotational diet with all three of my dogs and Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw Food was already in their diets. I continued to keep with my rotational feeding of commercial raw foods as I have for the last three years. Some are HPP and some are not. Actually most are not. Typically poultry is what is put under HPP and I don’t feed any poultry because one of my girls is highly intolerant of all fowl. I also don’t feed white potatoes or any night shade plants because they are pro inflammatory. April will be a year that she was diagnosed. To the delight of all, she remains asymptomatic to bladder or lung cancer. Her liver levels are back down in the normal range. (The elevated liver levels were discovered in last Spring’s blood work during her annual physical which is what started the initial visit to Georgia Veterinary Specialists where Dr. Wynn practices and was one of her doctors). I did add a few supplements to Hannah’s diet manufactured by Standard Process. She is regularly monitored and her blood work comes back normal. Her titers are all really good also. Her vet and I decided last year that due to the cancer only titers will be done for her for the rest of her life which I pray is for many many more years. Hannah is the picture in my avatar that was taken last year.

[aimee]

Hi Tom,

My perspective is a bit different so I’ll share it with you. On one hand I think that veterinarians have a duty to inform. If you are feeding your dog a raw diet they have to inform you of risk of pathogens. If they don’t they can be open for a malpractice suit if someone gets ill and it is traced back to the dog’s raw diet.
Your dog has formed stones in the past. I see it as a duty to inform you that the diet you are feeding has not been shown to reduce uric acid stone formation whereas U/D has.
As Dals age the risk of stone formation decreases, you can find common ground by monitoring urine to hit the target parameters to prevent uric acid stone recurrence.

Why do vets recommend Hills? Is it lack of nutrition knowledge? I don’t see that as the reason because I have found that it is those with the most education that also recommend Hills. Stepping away from dogs and vets for a minute, I found that PhD nutritionists selecting commercial diets to feed to valuable zoo animals often choose Hills. At the major zoo near me I saw that Hills was being fed. I asked why and was told it was because of the consistency of formulation and high bioavailability of nutrients.

Veterinary nutritionists also recommend Hills and the general practiioner will look to the specialists in their respective fields when seeking guidance with their cases. Dr. Wynn, a holistic practiioner who is so passionate about proper nutrition that she went on to be board certified in nutrition, recommends Hills.

It really isn’t about lack of knowledge, it is about using a different value system by which foods are evaluated. As for myself, I use Hills products, my choice, based on the things that are important to me when deciding what to use to nourish my dog.

I agree that vets do not get a lot of nutritional training. Just as they don’t get a lot of trading in cardiology or dentistry or radiology etc etc etc.. Yet I’ve yet to hear someone say “I don’t have my vet listen to my dog’s heart because he only had a few lectures on cardiology in vet school”. Certainly how much education any one vet will have will vary with the school form which he/she graduated and also with their own interests. Six of the seven vets where I take my pets did not have any nutritional education from
Hills etc. They had a PhD for general nutrition and then DVM faculty for clinical nutrition. Thry did get a free copy of Small Animal Clinicl Nutriton but no direct contact. The seventh said that they were “lunch and learns” put on by Hills and after the presentation faculty together with the students critiqued the information given to them. These were not a formal part of her nutritional training. Of the seven vets, five different schools were represented and years of graduation varied from 1972 to 2011. Different schools will have different programs, but this idea that students are taught by and brainwashed by company reps I’ve found not to be true.

Do Vets get kickbacks? No but as when selling any product they charge you more then what they paid for it.

[Bobby dog]

BC:
Just curious, are these the fat %’s that you try to meet for the raw diet you feed your dogs?

[Akari_32]

Thank you! It sucks loosing goldfish, doesn’t it? They are such funny little guys, each with their own personalities. The tanks I have set up right now are a 50 gallon oscar tank with the nastiest little momma’s boy ever (LOL), a 29 gallon planted community, the 40 gallon goldfish tank (once it warms back up, some of them will be back out into the pond) and a 6 gallon betta tank. I’ll have to post pics of them all! After my 29 and 50 gallons get some attention lol I’ve been fighting terrible algae in the oscar tank, and the plecos have torn up some plants in the 29 gallon, the naughty brats!

I woke up to Ginger barking like she was going to eat someone when mom was taking her out, and now I can’t go back to sleep, and I’ve decided to plan out a coupon trip, and I’ve got coupons sprawled out all over my bed. Well, the cat thinks he needs to get up here and mess them all up! Little turd…. at least he messed up the pile of ones I don’t plan on using… LOL

[Akari_32]

So I emailed Purina asking about how many cups were in a 32 pound of food, and they sent me back this crap:

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx294/Akari53/23D1FB01-EF17-422D-9861-AD88E5B14EC9_zpsqh3ok8t9.png

“Specific formula” my butt! I’ll figure it out myself, thanks. I was just being lazy… Lol

Mountainhound, when you have a dog with a list of health problems as long as Ginger has, including extremely poor dental health, let me know how raw works out. I’m 100% for raw feeding, two of my pets are raw fed, in fact, but it’s not the only answer to every situation. The best of the best, when it comes down to diet, is simply what works best for each dog. Ginger can’t handle the fat content in raw, and the bacterial content would wreak havoc on her already infected mouth and poorly adapted digestive system. I’ve spent enough nights washing dog beds, thank you very much.

[Sam D]

We have our 4 month old Aussie on a good kibble/raw rotation. For his kibble dinners we sometimes put wet food toppers on it. I tried Cocolicious turkey & beef by Party Animal tonight and our dog went haywire. Like jumping up and down nuts before and after I fed him and while I was dishing it out. I’ve never seen him eat food up so quickly and he eats Instinct raw bites and Aunt Jenni’s up pretty fast. He polished it off and then looked at us with his best “More please.” look followed by a huge burp. It was a movie moment if I’ve ever seen one.

It doesn’t look like it’s been reviewed on here before. Just other Party Animal products. Maybe it’s the coconut oil that’s got him all nutty. Anyone ever tried???

[theBCnut]

I don’t do much for fleas. I think what I feed helps me to not have a very big flea issue. I do use some essential oils in a water spray to repel fleas when the dogs go out off our property, and for a couple months over summer, I have to bathe them more frequently. If I have a year where the weather has made the fleas really bad, I’ll use just about anything to knock them down then frequent baths to keep them down. As far as what I feed, raw meat, garlic, apple cider vinegar.

I’ve used Sentinel, which has something that makes flea eggs not hatch out in it. I’ve used Interceptor and Comfortis, but not at the same time. I used Trifexis, before I knew better. My dog really had problems with it, in fact I eventually lost him because of it, but he had epilepsy and a few other issues that also affected his life expectancy.

Currently, I use Heartgard or sheep ivomec.

[theBCnut]

Depending on the raw food, it may be 66% protein and 34% fat and still be ok, or 50%protein and 25% fat and 25% carbs and still be ok. You want fat to be about half of the protein level. Some dogs do better with higher fat though. My dogs do just fine with the fat level being 2/3 the protein level, but I don’t normally feed that high.

[brit]

my dog does not seem to have a problem with the sweet potato but if he did, I agree that pumpkin would be a good option. He weighs 55lbs and gets maybe 1/2 a medium size sweet potato, a TBL goat yogurt and probably just 1/4cup of the canned salmon and a drizzle of olive oil. Tonight for dinner he got about 5ozs raw beef heart and a cup of the crushed veggies and a tsp of his cod liver oil (just twice a week). I also add a TBL each of sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds (raw) to his veggies as I crush them and I think he gets his Vit E and zinc from that. He has environmental allergies that seem to come every winter, first I thought it was food but after spending a fortune on rabbit etc turns out its not. brit 🙂

[Naturella]

@Oleanderz, we have the same dog puzzle at home! Bruno loves it! 😀 And she is just adorable. She’s not huge, but probably still can be classified as a “large breed”? Idk… Sorry. We got just a small guy, and the roommate’s dog is about 55-60 lbs, but she doesn’t look too big either. I think the medium bags of each food should be lasting her about a month, no? How long does each of the large EB bags last her? Also, on sportdogfood.com all of the GF Victor bags come only in 30-lb bags, just FYI. But it’s still a great food, and even if all the other bags you feed are mediums, it’s fine if the Victor are the large ones.

Anyway, as for the tripling the toppers – I highly recommend buying this e-book: http://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DN330EBK – it is just under $3.00 but very informative about adding fresh toppers (such as eggs, canned sardines, raw or cooked meat) and in what proportions based on the dog’s weight. You won’t necessarily have to triple the toppers just because she weighs 3 times more than Bruno – maybe double them, the book will tell you, particularly about the eggs and sardines. But, for example, Bruno used to eat 1/2 of what Casey (our roommate’s dog) eats, and she ate 2 cups of food/day, at 55-60 lbs. He ate 1 cup ever since we got him at under 10 lbs or so,
and a little pup. When I began introducing toppers, I put him on 3/4 cups of dry/day, and then added toppers and treats, and that was when we were exercising very vigorously in the summer. I think then he was getting a bit more than 1 cup dry calorie-wise, but he was burning it off and his body needed the extra boost. Now he’s at 1/2 cup dry with toppers (we’re not getting as much exercise :/ ), so calorie-wise he’s still at around 3/4-1 cup per day, and then the occasional treat. I watch more his body condition than weight, and speaking of, here is a good link for that too: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CDMQFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fresearch.unc.edu%2Ffiles%2F2012%2F11%2FCCM3_032387.pdf&ei=M5jjVJCwLYOuggSfnoSwAw&usg=AFQjCNHtVxv9oSG6wDJy-eYgbHFmyKag_Q&sig2=T1KHIfunn_GiCqOKGXYcfg&bvm=bv.85970519,d.eXY 4-5 is ideal, so that’s what we strive to keep Bruno at. That’s what I should strive for myself, lol!

And lol! Well, whatever works for you, your fam, and Luci! LoL. And good, glad we’ll be having you around! 🙂

[Naturella]

@Oleanderz, I would probably be the odd man out here, because I don’t see most of what I do for Bruno as “spoiling” although others have told me that he is spoiled, lol. If I feed him good food with good toppers, take him to the dog park, play with him, do his nails, brush and bathe him, get him healthy treats and keep track of what treats he likes (it is pretty easy – he likes everything, lol), get him a new antler when the old one is almost chewed up, get him novel chews/toys, I don’t see any of it as spoiling. Now… we’re not really into dressing him up and probably wouldn’t buy him doggie shoes unless we lived somewhere real hot or real cold most of the year, so he only has one raincoat that he doesn’t like so he never wears, lol. Only clothes we would get him are probably NY Jets gear, lol! 🙂

And we don’t really know his Birthday, but it is probably something like early March… March 1st maybe, IDK. So I can just pick a date, but I am so finicky, I can’t decide when I want to think he was born, lol. But I do know the day we adopted him, July 27th, 2013, so that’s his “gotcha” day and I didn’t celebrate it last year, but I want to from now on. I would probably feed him a balanced all-raw meal or something, go to the park/lake, let him run, play, swim, then wash him up and snuggle him up!

I guess one way we “spoil” him is that during the night he’s not allowed on our bed – he sleeps at the foot of the bed in his favorite bean bag, which used to be my husband’s desk chair, lol. Well, Bruno claimed it and we let him, especially because Brian has an office chair now. So Bruno has the bean bag, and a bed in the bathroom (Costco bed, really nice, washable covers), and a bed on the deck that used to be his bathroom bed till he started eating his RMBs on it, so now it’s an outside bed for that purpose, just to eat RMBs on. Nowadays he has dried chicken or duck feet inside instead of an RMB on Sunday, cause it’s been so cold, but when it warms back up, he will have his RMBs again!
But, back to the spoiling – in the morning, when we start waking up, Bruno wakes up too and sleepily staggers onto the bed and comes over to shower us with puppy kisses, and we snatch him up, put him under the covers with us, and snuggle him for some snooze time. He loves snoozing in our arms in the morning. He is so peaceful and cute when asleep/sleepy! So I guess that’s his daily spoiling. 🙂

[Naturella]

@Oleanderz, Lucille looks so cute in your pic! 🙂 But the link you posted says I don’t have permission to view it or something…

Yes, I would probably have her stay overnight. She won’t hate you, I promise. And yeah, I would say she is about medium… I think large breeds are the ones 50+ lbs when adults.

And awwh, you’re welcome! I hope it helps! I really tried to make it as diverse and balanced at possible. I would say that for a start, 4 brands are fine to rotate between. By the time you finish the suggested schedule, you can decide whether to repeat it or add more to the mix. I personally always add more, cause there are so many foods I want to try on Bruno, but many of the pros here stick to just a few brands and rotate between them and the flavors. I think 4 brands is a good start.

If Luci doesn’t have a grain allergy, it won’t hurt her to have grains again. It is only 2 formulas with grains anyway, and if you notice her reacting to them, just keep alternating between the Kinesis and RPM GFs.

Eggs: dogs’ digestive tracts are much shorter than ours, so the probability of them getting salmonella is much lower. They were meant to eat raw food. If it bugs you though, you can totally lightly or fully cook the whole egg and give it to her. You can use coconut or olive oil to cook it in, or no oil if you’re poaching it. It is, in fact, recommended that you lightly cook the egg white, and not cook the yolk at all, because there is an enzyme (I believe) in the egg white that could mess with the dog’s body properly absorbing the biotin in the yolk. If you cook the yolk, some of the biotin goes away too, is my understanding. So cook the egg white lightly. BTW, for Luci, I would probably give her 2 eggs together when I do give eggs, and a whole 3.5-oz can of sardines if I were to give her any. She is 3 times Bruno’s size after all. 🙂

Now, for food storage and rotation. As long as you keep it in a dark, cool, dry place, as long as you use it up by the BEST BY date, you should be fine. I personally have a bit of a stocking-up (NOT hoarding… Not yet, hopefully not ever!) problem with dog food because of amazing deals, so I basically stocked up enough food to last Bru till the end of this year. Luckily, I will be able to use it by or close to the BEST BY dates. But for the future, I would probably still get 3-4 months’ worth at a time, depending on deals, because in case a food doesn’t work out for him and I have to scrap it, I don’t want him to be foodless till I order or buy the next bag. So, what you can do, is stock up with say, the first line of medium-sized bags of EB, Dr Tim’s, Nulo, and Victor (medium-sized should be good, just so you see how she’s taking it) and start going through them and when you get to the Nulo, order the next line. This way you will always have about 4-5 bags at a time in case something goes wrong. Plus, at all times there will be an EB there if she can’t or won’t eat any of the other foods. But I hope she likes them!

As for the keeping track – make sure your family doesn’t feel like Big Brother is watching, lol. It is mostly important for feeding to keep track of times, amounts, and toppers, etc., as well as making sure no treats are given till she learns to eat her food quickly when put down. It shouldn’t take her too long. After that, still make sure she’s not getting too many treats to make her skip her next meal. And that’s about it. Exercising with a dog can be fun, so I’m sure someone will do something with daily, it doesn’t have to be super tracked, but you can do it if you want. I probably will track everything one day when we have kids and another dog though, lol! But that’s still far in the future.

One last thing that I’m sure you probably know, but I will just throw out there – all the foods in Luci’s future rotation, including EB, are pretty calorie-dense (Especially Dr. Tim’s Momentum). So keep track of how much she is being fed also, because she may just be one of those dogs that can self-regulate and between possibly too much food and too many treats, she is skipping meals. Use the bag feeding guidelines as a guideline only, not as a rule, and just adjust accordingly. She should have a waist when looked at from above, and her ribs should be easily-felt.

I am happy if I have been able to help with anything. Please do stay around in the forums, keep us posted, and let us know if you have any more questions! 🙂

[lovemypuppy]

The raw food that my pup eats is 31.25% fat, after converting to dry matter basis.

The catfish beams are around 4%, so not high in fat by any stretch of the imagination. Honestly, I don’t think either of the techs were familiar with Beams and just assumed fish skin = high fat.

I read that raw food needs to be no more than 60 calories per ounce, otherwise the fat content is too high. Our nuggets are 48 calories per ounce, but 31.25% fat seems kind of high. Hmmm. Always something more to learn or understand!

• This reply was modified 11 years, 1 month ago by lovemypuppy.

[lovemypuppy]

Thanks everyone for all the good information!

First let me say, I’m in my late 30’s and this is the first dog I’ve owned, lived with, or cared for. Not trying to use that as an excuse, it is what it is, but I’m definitely having a steep learning curve, and unfortunately it’s at the expense of my pup 🙁

I don’t know she has a food allergy or any type of allergy, but given her breed (Boston Terrier), finickiness, weight loss, red eyes, tear stains, brittle and dry fur, dry itchy skin, missing fur on her hind legs and behind her ears, and a few small scabs from scratching, I felt like it made sense to try to switch to raw with minimal ingredients in hopes of improving her overall health and identifying any potential allergens.

Unfortunately, I didn’t come to this conclusion until after giving her WAY TOO MANY different types of animal proteins (kibble, wet, freeze dried, toppers, etc.) while trying to find a food (and training treat) she’d settle on. I’m sure it didn’t help that she also went through quite a few different foods with the breeder when she was having a hard time weaning.

At this point, I’m not sure it would be possible for me to pinpoint a specific food that might be causing her skin and fur issues. The animal proteins she’s had the most of are chicken, beef, and turkey. Also, most of her symptoms were present before I started switching her food around and giving her novel animal proteins. So, if I had to take a guess, I would say she is having a hard time with turkey, chicken, and maybe lentils (they gave her horrid gas, anyway).

At this point, she’s been on the commercial raw for about a week and I’m seeing dramatic improvement. She still has tear stains, but I imagine that will take time (to grow out) and diligence on my end (wiping her face). She has gained weight and filled out, her coat is not nearly as dry (even shiny towards her back/spine) and her skin flaking and itchiness has lessened.

Given her overall improvement, I’m not inclined to switch her food yet again, especially if I can just stick with this for 10 weeks and see where she is at then (and if need be do more of a true elimination diet). I will stop the catfish skins (bummer) and try to find some type of low fat duck chew. I have sweet potato chews but she doesn’t really like them … they seem to crumble up and are more crunchy than chewy. Maybe if that’s her only choice though, she’ll learn to enjoy them 🙂

@DogFoodie, have you looked at Nordic Naturals Pet Collection? They use pharmaceutical grade, molecularly distilled fish oil, using sardine and anchovy oil or cod liver oil. Their pet line is pretty much the same as their human line with the exception of tocopherols as the preservative rather than rosemary extract. Just a thought.

If you read all of this, you rock! Sorry it’s so long and again thanks to all for offering your valuable insight!

[Oleanderz]

Naturella- Ok thank you, you just solved all my confusion with pumpkins in one strong swoop, much appreciated! (^_^ )
Yeah, it may be a good idea to have her stay overnight, I don’t want her tearing anything, just as long as I can pick her up first thing in the morning it won’t be such a bad option! She’s really not all that big, but I want to play it safe.
She is a Beagle/German Shepherd mix, I think it’s safe to say she’s she’s medium? She’s a 47 lb amalgamation of soft and sweet itself.
https://gm1.ggpht.com/fGVl0ACllCaI8E_fMSxsFCZ6m9dkCETYbrjeGi2WvfXB7UmvL5lSPo5CvFDLy6WOc6Ymbi-x-aoO9mbAWeeb9Bnd6NxTbf2ovM6JREChoSoUxCNPsuprZR28p94RPy14bRpotBDEOd2TBSjG4b8CNLcdvLEBXe9_3r4gCRh_YIfqA0hq0PuMRrbSIQ5tCwD3SQYenXHESFIjz1-cM8lZi4y7_-XGmriKFAjTddrO0d8MloZOuEA7rtZr__89K519ktBlZKqHsfXSscNpzj0guDviJdSKr7EYuYyU4TLocmDbd2VPUM1Ym0BC-gLfjUuKAsfuS7a8mXiwXwsEkeOd3O808oGSCPZkBx0L8GJLK0RdQC1PUMrf1ZOI3LURvQ-u5l14L-Hw13iwL0T-fiCvbmydda73dp1gJjikOD68_4ZfKZm3oUNh4h_J6WjnylgZLRKJE4cMAGsStwYKxDdb_tXEaXNn4Mp7W13Cb4WfI9boGueuYx8PVdgeMWNykxtyV3lAOIN1xpj_f93a3Z2o8bkuR9syPoXB1KxR02wKqDIVIuzGJLafAwZNFn2g04O1FA8yALE=w1342-h547-l75-ft
THANK YOU, YOU ARE HEAVEN SENT FOR THIS SCHEDULE!! I’ve been so worried at how I’d incorporate each flavor, I couldn’t decide on whether I’d want to continue using the brands over the course of the month switching the flavor or to switch the flavor everytime a different brand of food is introduced. Thank you!! Now do you think this is a pretty balanced schedule or should I add another brand into it? Or should I just stick with the four I have on that list?
No, I don’t think she does, but she did get itchy all the time before I started feeding her EB. One day I just looked it up online and it said that some grains can be associated with skin issues. So I decided to go with EB:GF…. Come to think of it, it might’ve been the brand we bought back then. I’ll look into it with her vet, but would it hurt her at all if I DID included a grain included brand since she’s been of it for so long?
Cool! Thanks! With eggs. I see a lot of people on this site giving their dog raw eggs?? Can’t dogs get salmonella like that? Can I cook her egg and add it as a topping? Now one last question. Do you buy all the food at the same time? Or do you wait until the rotation is just about up and then order it? I don’t want anything to be rotting by the time we go to eat it. If Lucille’s EB remains gets unsealed I put all of her food inside of a air tight food vault, I usually never buy more than two 28 lb bags at a time.
Thank you for all of the helpful charts and tips I’m going to get a marker board for Luci’s feeding schedules and food times. I start with the old food to new food ratio plan as well. I’ll also provide some incentive for my brothers to be more proactively engaged with her walks, training and play time too. Hmm, now that you’ve mentioned Excel signatures though, it does seem like a good method, this way I can keep track of who’s goofing off.
I’ll certainly keep everyone updated on when I start and how it’s progressing! I apprecciate all the help!!! (^w^ )<3
(Yay for little bags of Dr. Tim’s woohoo!!)

[Dog_Obsessed]

Hi mountainhound,
While I am not usually in favor of feeding prescription foods, I completely support Akari’s decision to do so. Since Ginger was on low-quality food for most of her life, tolerating a high-quality food was extremely hard for her, and gave her frequent bouts of loose stools. The prescription food, while better than many prescription foods, she is able to tolerate. It has also helped her joints tremendously, though I know this is not the case for all dogs. While raw food can be a great thing for some dogs, it is not the right thing for all dogs in all situations.

[lovemypuppy]

Thanks, that make sense to avoid the animal protein sources across the board, from food to chews and everything in between. I guess I was secretly hoping that wasn’t the case.

Right now, I’m feeding a commercial raw diet that contains salmon oil and duck as the only animal protein sources.

For chews, I’m giving catfish skins (Beams) but not sure if that is OK since catfish is a different type of fish than salmon.

[lovemypuppy]

I switched my 11 week puppy about a week ago to a raw commercial diet. I wanted to avoid giving kibble and raw in the same meal since they digest at considerably different rates. Instead, I planned on making 1 out of 4 daily meals raw, and then slowly working up to 4 out of 4 meals being raw when the transition was complete. This didn’t end up working for us because as soon as she got her first taste of raw, she refused to eat even a single kibble. Despite a fast transition, or lack there of, she did very well with no GI upset. I did give canned pureed pumpkin for a few days to help prevent any potential GI upset.

[lovemypuppy]

I switched my puppy at 10 weeks to a commercial raw diet. She’s been on it for only a week but already appears healthier. I chose Primal Formulas because there are 8 different formula options, it’s convenient (pre-portioned into 1 ounce nuggets), it is rated for all life stages with a calcium to phosphorus ratio of 1.2:1, and the ingredient list is commendable, IMO, with all veggies being organic and the addition of fish oil, apple cider vinegar, and coconut oil. The only supplements that are added are zinc, copper, and selenium – the rest is all food derived.

[brit]

I use eggshells for calcium if I am cooking the meat or using raw meat without bones. We use organic eggs for ourselves and our pets so I collect at least 6 eggshells, rinse the shells with cool water and leave to dry overnight. I put them in my little Braun coffee grinder (also handy for grinding dry herbs etc) and grind them to a powdery consistency. Use approx 1/2tsp per lb of meat. If I give chicken necks that morning (usually give them at least twice a week)I don’t worry about calcium that evening I buy Wholistic Pet Canine Complete and use on the food (I use half the dose that they suggest) as a supplement plus some herbs that I grind and add. During the winter I give a tsp of Carlsons Cod Liver Oil (unflavored) a couple times a week (its low in A and D which is good as some is way to high). I make all my own dog food but often cook and also often feed raw (usually Primal raw). So if I am buying something like Primal I don’t need to add calcium because it has bone ground in. Usually breakfast is cooked sweet potato/plain goat yogurt/raw egg yolk although often I buy canned Alaskan salmon, rinse it and use a small amount. Then evening meal is either the Primal with crushed raw veggies (I put them through my Greenstar Juicer which has a gadget that allows them to come through whole but crushed) or cooked meat with the veggies. If I have a dog that needs to gain weight I throw in some organic oat flakes while meat is cooking.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 1 month ago by brit.
• This reply was modified 11 years, 1 month ago by brit.

[mountainhound]

Rice is not a part of a raw diet, a lot of people do the prey model style because its easier, no grinding or blending veggies (most dogs dont need veggies)
Look info facebook groups and also this website which is a good starting guide to feeding raw, or you can always get some premade from a petstore like bravo, primal or vital essentials. http://puppybutt.weebly.com/uploads/7/6/9/2/7692088/beginners_guide_to_prey_model_raw_rv.4.1.pdf

[mountainhound]

Interesting results. Have you beef feeding whole prey including bones? ground raw won’t clean teeth or improve breath since they are not crunching on bone. I’ve never heard of a dog becoming aggressive on a raw diet either. Sometimes they go through a detox period of about 2-3 months which can create mood variations, so thats always a possibility.

[mountainhound]

I would never feed any prescription food to a dog with joint issues, the bulk of those ingredients are highly inflammatory and will cause more harm than good. Feed a good quality raw diet (even premade raw will probably be cheaper than Hills), raw food contains natural sources of glucosamine/chondroitin from ground up cartilage. Lack of carbs will help with inflammation and pain reduction. You can also give her treats like tracheas and duck feet since those are good sources of glucosamine. I’ve had good results with a supplement called Liquid Health, its tasteless and easy to mix with ground raw food.

[lovemypuppy]

I’ve tried warm water, I’ve tried hot water, I’ve tried cold water, lol.

Thankfully, the raw food diet is continuing to go great! She is gaining weight and her coat already looks much better. Her stools are healthy, consistent, and they stink less. Her gas is less than it was on quality kibble and the stink isn’t there. My guess is it’s the apple cider vinegar and the natural enzymes in the food that are taking the smell away.

I need to figure out how to load a picture on here. I have pictures on my phone but don’t know how to get them onto my computer. I need to figure it out soon 🙂

[Kate F]

Thanks for all the great questions and it’s wonderful to hear about all the dogs doing well on our food! Here are some initial responses to some of the questions but I also encourage you to give us a call so we can get more in-depth answers for you: 866-437-9729

@Dog_Obsessed:
For a more active dog, we recommend increasing the ratio of meat to the dry mix. This provides more calories from the protein and fat, and less of the fruits and veggies, which offer less calories per gram. The guidelines are offered as a place to start and we strongly believe that each and every dog is an individual. So, we recommend that you start with these amounts and then adjust in time to suit your dog’s individual dog’s needs.

You may increase the ratio of meat to base mix by as much as 2:1, two parts meat to 1 part dry mix. You may also increase the total amount of both meat and base mix as needed, as long as you feed within our recommended ratios, which will keep the nutrients in balance. The minimum is 1:1, maximum 2:1 (meat:base mix). If fed within our recommended ratios, you may create a meal that meets AAFCO guidelines.

If Lily needs more than what is recommended, please feel free to increase her daily portion to suit her calorie needs.

@cheryl-pepper-millie-belle:
It may be helpful to know that the stool created from a diet of colorful whole foods will naturally be more colorful, too! It will not look the same as a the stool created by a homogenous dry kibble or a mostly meat raw diet. A whole food diet allows the GI system to efficiently absorb the nutrients the body needs and move the rest on out, including the insoluble fiber in fresh fruits and veggies. Your dog’s overall body condition and health will determine if he/she is getting the nutrients they need.

While most dogs with a healthy and balanced digestive tract are easily able to digest and assimilate the nutrients from our dehydrated whole foods, some may need a little help. If the GI tract has been compromised in any way due to a variety of chronic ailments, courses of antibiotics, medications, stress, etc., the addition of digestive enzymes and probiotics can help a dog regain balance and the overall strength of the GI system.

For Pepper, it may help to blend the mix using a food processor or blender prior to feeding to break the larger pieces down a bit. I’ve heard a few customer doing this for their very sensitive pups and it works great! We’re happy to hear that Pepper is doing well with the food!

Hope this helps! -Kate, THK

[pmsuperstar84]

Honest Kitchen is now being carried at Pet Supermarket. I prefer Stella & Chewy’s to THK though. They just make a very good product. As for Vital Essentials Raw, they are my favorite because the ingredient panel is so simple. My IBD cat is actually on the raw frozen cat version but they will be discontinuing it so the dog version is nearly identical to it except for the taurine that I will add.

[Dori]

Hi Kimberly. The Honest Kitchen you can order on line. You can also order a lot of the freeze dried foods on line also. I mostly feed the frozen raw foods but if you don’t have as much access to smaller dog food stores that typically carry a variety of commercial raw foods then you can feed the freeze dried foods and when you do get to Petsmart you can stock up on the Nature’s Variety Instinct raw foods so long as you have the freezer space (I think both Petco and Petsmart only carry Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw as a commercial raw food. With all brands that I feed I rotate between the different proteins as long as they don’t contain any chicken or turkey and that includes chicken fat and turkey fat in the list of ingredients in the foods but that’s only because Katie, my Maltipoo is highly intolerant of all poultry so I feed all three dogs the same exact food. I’m not sure which online stores you order from but I think chewy.com is a very popular on line site that a lot of posters on DFA order from and $49.00 and over they offer free shipping. I’m fortunate that I live in Atlanta, Ga. with an over abundance of local pet food stores so I can pretty much buy any dog food I want to try with my dogs. Another thing you can also try is calling and/or emailing companies that you would like to try their freeze dried and dehydrated foods and ask for samples. Most companies will charge you a nominal fee for shipping and others will charge you a nominal fee for samples and shipping. It’s a good way to see how your dog does on different foods.

As far as Stella and Chewy’s. I have tried it in the past and I know a lot of posters feed it. I don’t. I’m not really sure I remember the reasons for it. I’m sure my girls liked it but none of my dogs are picky eaters. They know that with me as their mom if they see food down for them they need to eat because in 20 minutes it will be gone and I won’t feed them until the next scheduled meal. I’ve always trained all my dogs meal times that way. So it’s a non issue here but as soon as their bowls are down they just inhale their food. For three teeny weenie dogs that are on the lean side they just love to eat. All three girls recently had their yearly physicals and all blood work came back great and the vet is very happy with all of their weights.

Edit: I meant to mention that Vital Essentials makes really good freeze dried foods. My dogs favorites (though they love all foods) is the tripe. But all the freeze dried foods from the companies I mentioned in a different post to you are great. I’ve used them all.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 1 month ago by Dori.

[Kimberly C]

Wow Dori! Thanks for sharing……I’m definitely starting to feel more comfortable about feeding raw. However, I live in a small town and sometimes order his food online. We have a Petsmart not too far off, but we don’t get out that way much. Which flavor of the raw instinct do you use, and do you buy the freeze dried or the frozen? And I saw you mentioned The Honest Kitchen “Zeal”…did your dogs take to this flavor pretty well? My Pepe is a very finicky eater, but I’ve got to get him on a better diet. Also, what do you think of Stella freeze dried?

[Kimberly C]

Hi Dori….looks like you have a dog similar to mine…is yours a Maltese? I have a Maltipoo. I’ve had other dogs in the past, both big and small, but have never had a dog with seizures until I got my maltipoo. He is almost 4 years old and most of his problems started about 2 years ago…..it has been one heck of a rollercoaster ride and many trips to the vet, however, I wouldn’t trade him for anything…..he is such a joy to have even with all the challenges. I was glad to hear you mention not giving him grains because that seems to be such a controversial subject. I’ve been wanting to try him on raw food, but like you, I don’t want to prepare it myself. The Raw Instinct sounds like a good start as well as using a rotational diet…..just makes sense.

[Dori]

Hi Kimberly C. It sounds as though your dog is having food intolerances/sensitivities. First off he should be on grain free foods. Avoid corn, soy, white potatoes, rice and all poultry. That’s for starters. You also mention that your dog has seizures. Very important is to avoid any foods that contain rosemary in any form.

I have three small dogs all of which are on commercial raw dog foods. One of my girls has a multitude of food intolerances which is what led me on the road to raw feeding about three years ago. I started by eliminating all the ingredients I mentioned above. I feed commercial raw foods. I’m not inclined to make my own because, well…. truth be told I just don’t feel like doing it. Here is the list of commercial raw food companies that I have researched to death over the years and that I trust. Primal Raw Pronto, Primal Raw Formulas (these are Primal’s complete and balanced foods…you don’t have to add anything to them in the way of supplements). Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw Dog Foods, Vital Essential Raw Foods, OC Raw Dog Food, Answer’s Detailed Raw Frozen. I also from time to time have on hand their freeze dried foods (they’re raw and you can feed as is without hydrating). As for dehydrated foods, the only one I use is The Honest Kitchen’s Zeal formula. The others contain some type of poultry or white potatoes that I choose not to feed. I feed what is called a rotational diet. I rotate different brands and different proteins within the brands with the exception of any and all poultry. I also do not feed any commercial treats. For the most part they all contain some sort of grain and there have been way too many recalls of dog treats for me to take a chance with my dogs. For treats I feed them little pieces of fruits and vegetables. Sometimes I puree them. Sometimes they’re cooked from our dinner. For the most part since I use them as treats for them I’m not particularly concerned about how much nutritional value they get from the fruits and veggies. The enjoy them, as they would a commercial treat, and that is my intent in giving them to them. If they get some nutritional value from them, even a little, that’s great; if not, that’s not the purpose I give them the treats. Of course you know you can go on google and just google what fruits and vegetables you can feed your dogs or go in reverse and type in what fruits and veggies you should not be feeding your dogs. Always, of course avoid onions, grapes, raisins. As for fruits, never feed anything that still has it’s pit or seeds. They tend to be toxic. As for apples I always don’t feed the peel. Apples are sprayed continuously to detract worms. They are also highly waxed to appear pretty for the consumer. I think I read somewhere, but don’t now remember where, that the skin of an apple has more bacteria than any other fruit on the market. That would probably hold true for cucumbers on the market due to the same reasons. I feed both but I peel them. Hope any of this has helped you. If you have any other questions, please ask.

Please remember to check any and all foods you feed your seizure dog so that you avoid rosemary in any form. Studies have shown (in people so far as no study has been done in animals as of yet) that if one has a predisposition to seizures, rosemary can trigger a seizure.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 1 month ago by Dori.

[Melissaandcrew]

I don’t think so. My crew eats different brands on a daily basis alternating with various cans dehydrated etc. Sometimes it’s just raw.

[Kimberly C]

I want to try raw for my seizure dog, but am highly concerned about the quality of the commercial ones. However, I don’t want to prepare it myself. I have researched and researched soooo much and spent a small fortune on dog food, homemade diets, etc. My dog loves the homemade cooked recipes I cook for him, but hates the supplements I have to add to balance it out. He doesn’t seem to thrive on anything…..he scratches, has ear problems, chews his feet, you name it. So, the only option I seem to have left is raw, although it does scare me……guess I’m looking for support and reassurance.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 1 month ago by Kimberly C.

[Sam D]

Hi all,
We have a 15 week old Aussie and he’s been doing well on his rotating diet. I want to get him used to different foods but I also don’t want to upset his stomach. So far he’s been tolerating the following pretty well.

Mon-Fri – Kibble Taste of the Wild Puppy. Sometimes his kibble dinner is topped with TOTW canned food or Merrick canned food.

Sat & Sun – RAW – Either instinct raw frozen bites (turkey or beef) with Honest Kitchen Topper OR Aunt Jenni’s raw (turkey or beef)

1-2 days a week I’ll give him a lunch of canned Tripett

His 30lb bag of Taste of the Wild Kibble is almost up and I wanted to get Orijen large breed puppy. Does this seem like overkill on variety? We watch his stools. When he’s on raw his stools are dark, hard and once or twice a day. Kibble he poops up to 4 times a day. More gassy on the kibble too.
THANKS!!!!

[Lyndel M]

Hi Gloria,

Yes, there is certainly a lot of confusion amongst the raw and the cooked dog food camps. I have been reading heaps about it. Those in the raw food camp put forward for the raw food diet. I shall do my best to summarise a few of the key points that are important to me. First, they say that the dog’s metabolism has changed very little from the wolves, the original wild dogs. They suggest that when we provide our dogs with the right proportions of meats, organ meats, vegetables, fruit matter and bones, they’re digestive systems have the best chance of exacting the nutrients they need for shiny coats, healthier skin and teeth, stronger bones, and decreased chances of modern-day ailments and diseases that dogs in the wild rarely if ever have. Some of these ailments include itching, skin irritations, including dryness, fleas, hip dysplasia and arthritis.

In the other camp, there is some criticism of the raw diet saying that giving a dog only food i.e., meats risks feeding contaminated food, that people don’t take enough care in raw food preparation, that dogs today have evolved to adjust to modern (cooked, commercial) food and that dogs are at moderate – high risk of injuries from bone which become lodged in the throat or gut.

I am definitely against using any commercial dog foods. There are some great you-tube documentaries disclosing the shocking truth about the poor quality of nutrition of kibble and canned dog foods and the associated illnesses. In addition, that most Vets receive very little real knowledge of nutrition in their veterinarian studies and are just as influenced by the unregulated marketing and commercial dog food producers as GPs are by drug companies.

Regardless, Jean Hofve & Celeste Yarnall “Paleo Dog” is one book that has been recommended provide excellent information for providing your dog with all of the information needed to provide our dogs with all of the nutrients required and how to do so, if we want to go down the raw food pathway. Also there is the BARF raw foods that you can purchase and other online info about this pathway. And there are heaps of recipes for cooking our dogs food as well. Andi Brown “The Whole Pet Diet: 8 wks to great health for dogs and cats”, which is also excellent for going down the cooked food pathway. They both recommend certain supplements and they both provide enough evidence to suggest that just like for humans, if we give our pets fresh wholesome, organic foods (either raw or cooked) we will be doing our beloved pets a great service.

Given I have been a passionate advocate of healthy, unprocessed foods for more 40years, I certainly want to extend this to my pet. People on this post have just been concerned that I was being cruel to our new puppy for placing his food into chewtoys. However, I made the mistake of saying that we would be putting all of his daily foods into chewtoys, whereas that won’t be the case. But I will definitely using chewtoys together with crate training, self-soothing, stimulation and entertainment as I mentioned in my previous post. I am definitely not an expert, but a concerned pet owner who has done lots and lots of reading in order to do the best by our new puppy in terms of nutrition and training. All the best!! :0)

[Kristin C]

Addition to my previous post-I also add add raw eggs to the poultry I make, and add cottage cheese once a week as well as yogurt and green tripe once a week as a frozen treat. On the days I don’t feed sardines I will add a small amount of fish oil and vitamin e to supplement. It’s hard to include every single thing on these posts. Just remember balance over time.

[Kristin C]

BulldogMom-I make most of my dogs food and if you are looking for a chicken recipe here is one.

30% breasts
30% thighs
5% liver
15% gizzards
5% pureed vegs and/or fruit
15% pumpkin
If you are not adding a supplement with calcium then add 1/2 tsp ground eggshell per lb of meat.

Please note that this is not all you can feed in the long term. I feed beef with many organs, plus a variety of other proteins/organs and raw meaty bones, plus sardines. Hope that helps.

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

Kate, Maybe you can help me and others that are concerned about the grain free- base mixes having too many of the veggies not being digested by the pups. In my particular case when feeding either the Kindly or Preference what went in came out EXACTLY the same way, I did a test and it happened each and every time. Big pieces of undigested veggies were very visible in Pepper’s stool.
It is not AS BAD with the protein inclusive line,but I do see tiny pieces of undigested veggies in Pepper’s stool.
I have e-mailed the company about doing a digestibility study on various breeds ages etc. and post the findings on your website. I still have not gotten an answer to this.
I cannot feed my older schnauzer kibble any longer and so far she is tolerating the grain free protein inclusive line. I just do not like the fact that i still see bits of undigested material in her stool.
I want to insure she is getting a nutritious meal so I always use a topper of boiled poultry or beef or commercial raw.
I will continue to feed my angels this food ,because all that matters is that the like it and especially with Pepper who suffers with bad gastric problems she is doing well on it.
I just feel it is important as a consumer and a pet guardian that your company who prides themselves on using human grade ingredients be made aware of this important issue.
Their is another Honest Kitchen thread that many of us have voiced are concerns about this.
Please read these so you see i am not the only one concerned about this digestibility problem.
Thank you Katie

[Dori]

I agree with you DogFoodie and have posted often after Losul’s experience with Turbo. I will forever give all three girls and any and all dogs forever after HW meds monthly all year round. I’m not willing to take a chance and gamble with heart worms and my girls. Raw is never, nor has it ever been considered a deterant (sp?) against heart worms or any other worms or parasites. If only that were so! I’ve been feeding my girls raw for the past three years but will not expose them to the possibility of getting heart worms or any other type of worms and parasites if I can help it. Raw is a good alternative, in my opinion, to feeding kibble but it is not a preventative for worms nor do I believe it is the be all and end all of nutrition.

[DogFoodie]

After Losul shared his personal experience with heartworms with us, I’ll never NOT give my dogs heartworm preventative. Since he first told us about Turbo months ago, I have been vigilant with dosing my dogs. And, I believe, that raw is not a guarantee that your dogs won’t get adult heartworms. Just my .02.

[Rebekah W]

I have a 5 year old Chihuahua and his health was not very good so I decided to look into getting him a better brand of food. I stumbled across a raw food diet for dogs in which you bass the weight of your animal to how much raw meat they eat. I’ve heard many miracle stories about this diet where animals who have cancerous tumors which are expanding. Once they started the diet, their tumors stopped expanding. So I decided to give the diet a try and I created a website to show my progress!
http://pudders-chow-time.weebly.com
Check out my website if you want to hear my story with the raw food diet and get a schedule for the food plan.

[Nancy C]

I have worked with one homeopath who recommends NO heart worm meds. ??? Correct. He says he has had his great danes for 30 yrs, and he’s always had 5 or 6 of them, NEVER given them heartworm meds and they have never had heart worms. NONE of them. He feeds raw and he says THAT is the key. Total raw. He also told me that in the last 7 years he has never lost a dog patient to heart worms.
There are several other Homeopathic websites I frequent. One is VitalAnimal.com in Texas with Dr. Will Falconer who is nationally known (his website is wonderful) and Dr. Patricial Jordan in Asheville NC. (Her bio is beyond belief)… They DO NOT RECOMMEND ANY heartworm meds! So My two dogs are not on it now and I am trying to decide what to do in the spring. Also the homeopath, Dr. Dobias in California does not recommend either. So tell me: Anyone reading this doing some REthinking about it. The heartworm meds are VERY toxic themselves and there is good reason to be very suspicious of them. The Pharmaceuticals have penetrated the vets and they have scared us to death. Fear is a big piece of the problem. And I find myself being fearful too. Will be interested in what anyone has to say about this.

[Nancy C]

Here’s what I did. I was very nervous because my GSD had had terrible digestion problems and the vet was pouring down HILLS WD formula (which is sawdust) in him which made me cringe.

I ordered an air dehydrated dogfood called BIG DOG NATURAL. You can Google it. My homeopathic vet recommended it and Darwin’s to me and HE suggested that I start out with Big Dog because it has fermented vegetables in it and that is outstanding for the digestive track. One morning I started cold turkey on it. They LOVED IT. I have an 11 yr old Golden and a 2 yr old GSD. They licked the bowl for almost a minute! I was amazed. So that fast they were on RAW FOOD. I took it carefully for two or three weeks – they had NO PROBLEM with that food, and it is air dehydrated RAW! Then one day I just gave them chicken. Raw. I followed the guidelines and gave the golden 17 oz and the GSD I had to end up giving him 2 1/4 pounds per day. I got the butcher to quarter the chickens (Whole Foods $7.99 and I would pick through the chickens and get a 5 pound one). He would quarter it for me. NOW I do all that myself. I get chickens at Costco that are non chemical/ no hormones. $1.09 a POUND! You have to have a set of scales to weigh out the proportions. And I cut the nub off the chicken drum sticks. Put the piece(s) in a bowl and voila. You need to give 10% organs and 1/2 of that must be liver. I also give them Mercola’s probiotics, a fish oil cap and garlic caps. Happy Dogs.
Good Luck.

[Nancy C]

Okay — I’ve been gone for a while…. trying to get this Raw Food under my belt…
My first golden lived 15 yrs, never had commercial flea control, I gave her garlic as the breeder said. Never a flea problem. Second golden, same. she is 11 yrs old now and I have NEVER seen a flea on her. Garlic. I give her 2 a day (She’s 58 lbs) – I use the little round ones from Whole Foods, 500 mg. That is ALL I have ever used with her. No Fleas!

My chair when I got my Phd, Dr. Norman Shealy, former Harvard Neurosurgery prof and founding president of the American Holistic Medical Assoc, uses BEST YET by CEDARCIDE on his dogs. He lives on a farm way down a mile or two gravel road in Missouri on the Mo River where it is damp and fleas love it there. He swears by it. Recommended to me. I spray that on my dogs now too for safe measure, now that I have the GSD too. He is 73 lbs and I give him 3 of those garlic caps and spray him once a week. Best Yet is Organic. There is a competing similar brand, but Best Yet was apparently there first. I think the other brand is WonderCide. They put a fragrance in theirs. Best Yet smells like cedar. Fleas HATE CEDAR!! Hope this helps.
NOW the Q is: WHAT TO DO FOR TICKS??? Season will be here soon.

[Gloria K]

Lyndel M., you wrote an excellent post. I agree that dogs cannot sit all day and do nothing. Fortunately I’m home all day so I have time to play with him and take him for walks and his favorite past time- going ANYWHERE in the car. Unfortunately the car trips will and in the next month or so when the weather here starts to heat up. Temperatures are well above 100° from late April through October.
When I fed him this morning I only gave him the homemade food plus a tablespoon of his cottage cheese. Then supplemented with kibble in his Kong about 20 minutes later. He loved it and has the system down pat so I may be doing this a lot more often.
I do have a question though.. why the raw food versus cooked food? I know there has been a lot written on this site about it but not sure why. What is the advantage of raw over cooked. It’s difficult for me to get my mind wrapped around giving Mickey raw food. Enlighten me. 😉

[Lyndel M]

Hi again,

Thank you for all of your comments. However, can I say that I was responding to another member’s query as to how to stuff chew toys when she is using a raw food diet and I provided with options from my own my own research and provided a link.
However, given some of the confusion that, i) it is cruel to make a puppy work so hard for its food by giving all of its food in a chewtoy, ii) that they can’t get all of their nutritional needs met from a chewtoy due to the difficulty of getting all of food out, especially the raw meat out; iv) the raw food may go off or the chew toy become contaminated with raw food left in there and cleaning difficulties etc. Yes! I agree to most of those responses.
A puppy has very specific needs indeed. He/she needs a balance of 70% protein, 20% carbs !0% veg/fibre. Their protein should also include 10% organ meat, with only 5% of that being organic liver.
I am going on my own research and as most of your know there are many benefits to using stuffable chew toys and food puzzles. Dr Ian Dunbar (a UK vet and one of the first positive dog trainers) recommends that for the first few days to a week only feeding you puppy either by hand or in chew toys to teach them i) bite inhibition;ii) to teach the a chewtoy habit so they only chew on appropriate chew toys. However, in his day in the 80’s kibble was viewed as the best food for all dogs and he did feel his puppy’s chewtoys with kibble.

We do not intend to feed all of my puppy’s meals in a kong and we will not be leaving our puppy unsupervised…ever! We have used chew toys with previous pets and of course know the importance of cleaning. While our puppy is getting positively conditioned to his portable crate, his chew toys will be in there for him to chew on for entertainment and teaching him to self-sooth for those times in the future when he will need to be on his own. Outside of his crate (which by the way, will only be used in this way for the first few weeks), his food will be hand fed and given as treats in his training sessions.

I have found and spoken to a holistic vet in my area and will of course be guided by her expertise. We will also be supplying certain omega -3 & 6 rich oils for a shiny coat and skin health and other vitamin supplements. We love and have always loved dogs, however, this will be the first time that we will be introducing raw food into the diet after our growing awareness of how poor the quality (even premium) commercial dog foods are. Given the controversy around raw vs cooked food, my partner and I have decided to offer a mixture of both home cooked and raw food.

As most of you know that daily physical exercise is essential for a healthy pet, I am a big advocate of not allowing our pet just sit all day with nothing to do except sleep and wait anxiously for us to come home for his walk. So chewtoys are great for reducing anxiety and boredom and providing mental stimulation.

As our pup grows, we will of course be providing some of his meals in bowls and some in puzzles, kongs etc and some still by hand.

It is great to see though that some of you who are concerned about the issue of animal cruelty are being outspoken about this, we are all definitely on the same page there. I am passionate about preventing cruelty to all animals and humans. Have a good day!

[Kate F]

Hi everyone! Kate from The Honest Kitchen here. I just wanted to help try and clear up any confusion. All of our diets (excluding base mixes) are complete meals that are balanced to AAFCO standards. This means you can feed them as stand alone diets and know that they have the appropriate amounts of nutrients – including protein – that dogs need. If you want to look at the specific nutrient breakdown, you can find the nutrient profiles here: http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/help-center/nutrient-profiles/

The reason that you can’t actually see pieces of meat or fish is because we ground our protein down to almost a powder so that it is evenly distributed throughout the recipe. This ensures that every scoop of food will have protein in – whereas if it was chunks, they could all settle at the bottom of the box and you wouldn’t always have the right amt of protein in every meal.

Our base mixes are different in that those DO require a protein to be added. The base mixes have a balanced amount of nutrients and vitamins except protein – so that all you need to add is meat or fish (cooked or raw) and know that you are feeding your dog a complete diet. This takes the guess work out of trying to feed a raw diet and wondering if your dog is getting all the nutrients it needs. These recipes are great for raw feeders, people who like to make homemade diets or dogs that have severe allergies & can only eat specific proteins like rabbit.

Please feel free to give us a call at any time and we can discuss this in more detail with you. Our customer service team is amazing and happy to answer any questions. 866-437-9729

Hope this helps!

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

I would add 25% of the commercial raw to his diet for say 1-2 weeks, transitioning is a personal thing, some can do it rt away, some not.
But in my opinion with raw I would do it slowly, say after 1 week cut back on the blue buffalo by say another 25%,add more raw, see how his tummy takes to the new food. Also monitor his stool for any change, if you see a change cut back on raw & wait until his stomach settles down.
You might want to add a probiotic or digestive enzyme during the transition -the honest kitchen makes a so called transition enabler called “Perfect Form” which worked for me. TheHonestKitchen.com
I will check back later to see if you have more questions, 1 of my angels needs her walk ,so i must go.
Good luck

[Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie]

I ,too agree one wonders where’s the meat.
That’s why like Melissa I ALWAYS top it off with either meat ,poultry or commercial raw.
My older gal can’t eat kibble, and she is doing well on THK ,there is ALOT i do not like about this food, but, it is working so far for Pepper and that’s what counts.
I wouldn’t feed this alone.

I have emailed the company about my concerns esp. their base mixes which i will not feed any longer!! I am still waiting to hear back from them.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 1 month ago by Cheryl Pepper Millie Sophie.

[Naturella]

Welcome to DFA! It can be overwhelming, yes, but sometimes the best way to learn is just by trying some of the different ideas people post that appeal to you, see how it works with your dogs, and tweak the thing or choose something else.

I just posted the below info for someone else, lol, but it is altered to fit your questions. I am not a professional or anything, I can just tell you what I think and do:

I think that no single dog food is perfect, and different foods have varying amounts of protein, carbs, and fat, but Victor is a high-quality food and all the flavors within it seem pretty good to me. If you want, you can also rotate both within a brand (basically switch up the Victor flavors), or rotate the Victor brand with other good foods, like Dr. Tim’s, Earthborn Holistic, and Annamaet, among others – this will offer your dogs a variety in the formulas, tastes, vitamins, etc. The kibble sizes in most of these foods are pretty viable for a Chihuahua to handle, but I am not sure about Dr. Tim’s – the kibbles may be a bit big for a 4-lb dog.

If you choose to rotate brands, give it at least 10-14 days, adding a little bit of new food to the old at a time, and watching the stool – if stool is good for 2 days or so, add more new food, take more old food out, and so on. If stool is not good, back down the amount of new food, up the old food. When they get used to rotating, you can switch brands with every big bag (what I do, but with small bags, lol). For now, you can switch to a brand, then exhaust most of the flavors within the brand just so they don’t have too many changes at once, then go to another brand. Also, you can add canned plain pumpkin to aid their digestion in the process, or a supplement called Perfect Form by The Honest Kitchen (THK). I swear up and down by it – anytime my Bruno has an upset tummy, it tightens him back up in a snap! But don’t overuse the Perfect Form – use it only as needed, and the amounts to feed are on the package, as well as on THK’s website. Which leads me to…

… if feeding Perfect Form with kibble, you will need to add some water to it. It will look like a greenish soup of kibble, lol. But, with that said, extra moisture added to dry kibble is always good for the dog. You can add plain lukewarm water, yoghurt/kefir, coconut oil and water, or canned food (and water). Any mix of kibble and canned is fine as long as the dog’s tummy is ok with it and as long as you adjust the amount you add and remove the appropriate amount of kibble so that the caloric intake stays about the same. So introduce the canned slowly, and not while transitioning between brands. You can also add dehydrated/freeze-dried/air-dried foods and water to kibble as toppers too, canned sardines (no salt added, in water only), fresh vegetables and meats, some fruits, and the above suggestions. Make sure you add NO onions or any grape products (grapes, raisins), some mushrooms.

For my 15-lb terrier mix I feed 1/4 cup of dry kibble twice/day, each time with some different topper from the ones mentioned above. I use coconut oil (twice/week), raw egg (once/week), The Honest Kitchen dehydrated foods (4 recipes, each one once/week), Big Dog Natural air-dried food (once/week), yoghurt/kefir (twice/week), 1/2 of a 3.5-oz can of sardines (once/week), 1/2 of a small can of dog food (right now either Weruva or Wellness, twice/week, no kibble at said meal), and a raw meaty bone once/week. All toppers minus the egg, sardines, can of dog food and the RMB I give a teaspoon of. And I add warm water to the mix in all meals. The dehydrated/air-dried foods kind of require it, lol. Bruno loves his “soups” (that’s what kibble and water and toppers look like) and he is slim, but muscular – his body condition is great, his coat is great, and he loves meal time.

So you can implement some, all, or none of the suggestions, or tweak them to fit your dogs’ needs. Good luck, keep us posted, and let us know if you have any more questions. 🙂

[FunsIzE]

I recently adopted a dog (not my profile pic!) and he’s 4 yrs old and 50 ibs. He’s been fed grocery store kibble in the shelter and I switched him to a high quality dog food, in my opinion, blue buffalo. I think feeding him raw food would be best, not for health reasons, but maybe just because. 🙂 How do I switch him from kibble to raw?? I’d really like to know!!