[Cannoli]

Hi Tim D,

I pretty much gave up on kibble with fish ingredients. Pretty much useless when it comes to omega 3 as by the time I feed it to my pup it has already degraded.

My supermarket sells flash frozen whole sardines and mackerel at deep discount as these types of fish are not big sellers to people as these fish are on the stinky side.

Check your supermarket. You can buy these fish cheaply, they are quick to cook, and easily added to kibble.

[Cannoli]

Hi Jessica K,

I understand what your vet was saying. My own doctor told me the same thing when I told him I eat my meat on the very rare side and indulge in sushi once a week.

Now poultry I don’t feed raw to my dog. Poultry scares me…

I source my red meat from reputable, organic, human grade facilities. The same place that has been shipping my steaks to me for years.Never got sick eating very rare meat from them so I feed it to my dog.

[Cannoli]

In regards to your second concern:

#2 Admittedly the bone business freaks me out. I’m sure I’ll get over it as I get more comfortable but I’ve been looking at the (chicken) grinds from Hare Today to start with. However, I wasn’t sure about the organ. From what I’ve read you should stick to muscle and bone in the beginning and work in organs preferably after you’ve transitioned through meat sources. Should I order the ground chicken feet and just supplement with some breast or thigh meat? Or maybe someone has another simple suggestion to avoid actual bones for a bit?

You don’t need to just do bones for calcium..You can use natural supplements like Natural seaweed calcium found on Amazon, or use a bone calcium supplement also found on Amazon (just make sure it is Vitamin D free if you plan to feed organs), or you can use egg shells..

[Cannoli]

Hi Spy Car,

I don’t consider raw finely ground vegetables to be unnecessary if fed 10% or less of the dog’s diet.

Veggies provide a plethora of additional vitamins that are not found in a meat base diet.

[Cannoli]

To Anonymously,

These are the recipes found on the BalanceIT website.. Crappy recipes in my mind. I switch the vegetable oi to organic coconut oil and substitute the white rice with whole oats or a veggie mix that I make.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 7 months ago by Cannoli.

[Cannoli]

I have the same issues with my dog. He is becoming a picky eater.

So what I do is I exercise him long and hard by either jogging with me or playing fetch with lots of sprints in between. He eats everything afterwards

Sometimes dogs aren’t hungry all the time and exercise helps.

The days I can’t exercise him I just feed him one meal a day usually dinner as breakfast he tends to want to skip. He gobbles that up too.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Cannoli.

[Cannoli]

Hi Jeff L,

Nice to read up that your dog is doing well.

I disagree with a poster who states that coconut oil has not benefits to a dog.

I have found that when I use extra virgin coconut oil on my dog it has helped.

In the winter time I rub it on his fur,noise, and paws and it has prevented blisters.

I feed it to my pup several times a week with protein sources that don’t have a lot of fat and he has had no issues digest it. My pup enjoys swimming a lot and the coconut oil helps keep his scalp moist.

Good extra virgoin coconut oil has some great benefits to a dog and am glad your pup can handle it.

[Cannoli]

First of all my pup had two months of loose stools and some diarrhea on Orijen. It takes a while for a pup’s buddy to handle that rich protein. Took about 6 months for him to handle all that protein. Now that his 18 months he has no issues with solely a protein diet. He stools are firm. Orijen is considered low protein for my pup nowadays.

So while his buddy got adjusted I gave him pumpkin and little steel cut oatmeal to form it up

Secondly since you are new to raw feed him kibble until he is grown. I personally don’t trust commercial raw dog food. Way too many recalls which tells me that their manafacturing and sanitizion process is lacking.

I don’t feed raw meat fom the grocery store unless it’s the grass fed hormone free meat. My store rarely carries this type of meat. I prefer to shop online for my grass fed hormone free meat sources at online meat stores that are FDA inspected and fit for human consumption. Commercial raw dog food are not federally inspected hence any joe blow can open up a shop in his garage.

Good luck it ain’t cheap

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by Cannoli.

[Cannoli]

hi Desiree,

i assume that your pup doesn’t eat this everyday as it is lacking alot of the nutrition they need.

are you adding this as a topper?

[Cannoli]

“No wonder you had problems. No one should be mixing Kibble and raw food together”

This is another myth that needs to be dispelled. You can feed raw with kibble. Obviously you probably don’t want to feed the organs and ground bones since the kibble provides the calcium and necessary vitamins. But you can definetly feed the raw muscle meat with kibble. I do it all the time.

Seriously I eat raw steak tartar and sushi with cooked rice and yet you telling people that dog’s stomachs are so weak that they can’t handle this combination but humans can?

Also the digestion studies I read about how raw digest quicker than kibble blah blah hence you should never feed together is silly science.

[Cannoli]

My pup is not a fan of fruits. He hates bananas, apples, strawberries, and barely tolerates blueberries. He loves meat only…

So I make a bluberry kefir smoothie for him once in a while. I get a cup and he gets some tablespoons.

[Cannoli]

With the salmon they come in pounds already deboned. I never feed fish bones raw or cooked…way too dangerous. They are always sharp.

With the Mackeral I have it deboned by the store.

The Sardines I just removed the main backbone as the rest of the other bones are very soft after it is cooked. There are hardly any bones left when I removed the main spine backbone.

The sardines heads are small about the size of two quarters…He loves to chump on them and he loves the taste of the eyeballs…God bless his heart he takes after me. I love fish eye balls.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by Cannoli.

[Cannoli]

I aim for fish meals twice a week normally on weekends as I have the time to cook and prepare the fish.

I normally buy the frozen fish like frozen sardines, mackeral, and salmon with skin on as these types of fish have higher concentrations of Omega 3.

Other times I buy the fresh none frozen versions of these fish if I plan to feed them on the same day.

On those days I feed fish I normally feed my pup two large sardines (with head on) or half a pound of mackeral (without the head) or half a pound of salmon with skin on top of their raw food. My pup weighs 60lbs. I always cook my fish.

The only time I feed raw fish is when I order sashimi from my favorite Japanese restaurant, as this fish is prepared for human consumption to be eaten raw and I never had an issue when I eat it. Normally I just give him the sashimi salmon, mackeral, and crispy skin pieces.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by Cannoli.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by Cannoli.

[Cannoli]

“These include beets, carrots, celery, kale, okra, spinach and collard greens, according to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Organ meats like liver and sardines are also high in oxalates,”

I feed my dog fresh baked sardines and liver.

But you blurb is not 100 percent accurate because the exact cause of of calcium oxalate bladder stones is poorly understood at this time.

this disease is not common in all breeds some breeds are more predisposed to it

[Cannoli]

I be more concerned why you are feeding your cat fish pills and not the actual fish. Studies have shown that fish pills are lacking purity and the omega 3 has degraded over time.

So your pup probably ate rotten fish oil. Take him to the vet

• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by Cannoli.

[Cannoli]

Ditch the rice dogs don’t need carbohydrates.

[Cannoli]

In regards to raw bones I am too lazy to teach my dog how to chew them so I just use a blender and do a fine ground either using small raw pork rib meat bones, raw chicken feet, and recently I added raw duck necks.

So no concern for blockage or death

• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by Cannoli.

[Cannoli]

Kelp is a type of seaweed. The bottle should tell you how much calcium is available per teaspoon of serving if not you need to google it

[Cannoli]

Animal essentials I highly recommend. Many holistic vets recommend it because:

“The Product is harvested from the seabeds off the southwest coast of Ireland, among the cleanest and purest waters in the world. The species is the small, red seaweed Lithothamnium, which contains a variety of essential nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, boron and zinc.

Each batch is tested according to FDA-approved standards for heavy metals and other contaminants.”

It’s not from China!

You can buy it on Amazon

• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by Cannoli.

[Cannoli]

Home cooked meals require calcium just like raw meals.

Besides bones and eggshells you can get calcium from seaweed. I prefer the calcium from seaweed because in addition to calcium seaweed also gives you the following minerals:

Magnesium
Sulfur
Potassium
Phosphorus
Sodium
Zinc
Iodine
Selenium

• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by Cannoli.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by Cannoli.

[Cannoli]

Wow a lot of comments and I read them all. Very informative.

You know what the safest thing for your dog’s teeth and freshens their breath?

You got it—daily tooth brushing or at least a few times a week.

This is not an opinion but a fact. 🙂

• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by Cannoli.

[Cannoli]

Hi Bcnut,

You make a good point about teaching a dog to chew. I tried teaching my boy with a bone once about 5 months ago but it did not go well and I gave up.

So I went to ground bones. Although now he is becoming a better chewer I might try teaching him again. I noticed that on raw and or home cooked meals he is chewing his food. When I feed him his kibble meal a few times a week he goes back to gulping. This is one of the points that many raw feeders make, that dogs over time on raw begin to chew their food.

In regards to plague I have read that dogs eating raw bones does help eliminate plague.
I also must confess that I love brushing my dog’s teeth. It’s a bonding experience between my pup and I. I bring out the tooth brush and he comes running up to my lap. Plus it teaches him good mouth manners. He knows that I can stick my hands in his mouth and he won’t bite me. As a result of this I am very bias towards teeth brushing and always point people to brush their dog’s teeth.

[Cannoli]

No I don’t strictly feed boneless. I am a strong proponent of a rotational diet. That means rotating meats, calcium sources, organs, and natural supplements to ensure that proper nutrition is met. But this comes with a caveat. As long as your dog can handle this.

So back to your question, I feed bones as long as they are finely ground. Safer for my dog and easier to digest for him.

In regards to plague. Only daily teeth brushing of your dog will prevent this. Dogs chewing on whole bones won’t always prevent plague. I brush my dog’s teeth as well as his gums and upper and lower inside of his lips. There are parts of the teeth and gums that a whole bone can’t clean. Like the teeth all the way in the back.

If I was you I would buy some calcium seaweed too so that you can rotate it with the egg shell. If you can afford a grinder..check out Amazon you or invest even in a Vitamix blender. You can than buy small ribs bones at the store and grind them up or blend them up in your Vitamix blender.

[Cannoli]

They can pay for routine maintenance as most Pet insurance companies have additional plans that can be added to your pet insurance. Sadly when you do the math you end up paying more for the additional plan that covers maintenance than if you actually paid out of pocket.

I pay about $26 a month but have a high 1,000 deductible on purpose and no Routine Maintenance plan. It covers about 80-85% of the vet bills that are not routine maintenance. So about every year I pay about $312. If my pup never needs to go the the emergency or never needs major vet surgery/care and he lives to about 12 years of age I would have paid about 3,800.

I recommend pet insurance for emergency purposes only. As long as you don’t carry the routine maintenance plan. It’s worth the savings as long as you have a high deductible so your monthly premiums can be very low.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 12 months ago by Cannoli. Reason: typo

[Cannoli]

Hi John,

First I am not a fan of any neck bones. Read up in hypothyroidism in dogs, which can be caused by constantly feeding neck bones.

Secondly, not a fan of feeding whole bones either. Unless I can grind them. My dog choked a few times on whole bones.

I like to rotate my calcium as I don’t believe that bones can always provide the adequate calcium levels

I recommend ground egg shells about 1/2 teaspoon per lb of food which is about 1000 milligrams of calcium or natural calcium seaweed. Natural calcium seaweed not only provides the exact amount of calcium but it also provides other minerals.

Both ground eggshells and natural calcium seaweed are easier for a dog to digest hence they can absorb the calcium better and it is a lot safer for them.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 12 months ago by Cannoli. Reason: typo
• This reply was modified 7 years, 12 months ago by Cannoli. Reason: typo

[Cannoli]

Hi Coonhound Mama,

Thanks for your kind compliments.

I like and believe in good quality Kibble. I am not an anti-kibble guy. I think feeding a good quality kibble a few times every other week will add those nutrients that maybe I could be missing from my meals. But I am not a fan of feeding kibble for every meal to my pup for their rest of his life. I believe in balance which is best achieved via a rotational diet.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Cannoli.

[Cannoli]

I feed crush ground eggs shells or calcium seaweed. I like to rotate my calcium source and not just bones. When I feed bones I groundd them up

[Cannoli]

Thanks anonymously variety is the key to life. Some people believe that dogs should only be fed kibble or raw. But both camps are wrong. Variety is the key to a healthy and happy dog

[Cannoli]

I believe in a rotational diet this is what I feed my dog below on a weekly basis I aim to balance on a weekly basis when it comes to the nutrition components:

High end kibble 3 meals a week- Origen. Usually chicken flavor since I don’t feed raw poultry.

The rest of the days for the week I feed as follows:

Since my dog is 60lbs I feed 2lbs a day with 80% meat 15-20% bone and 5 % organ of the follows:

Raw hormone free grass fed bison- from grocery store or fom Real Raw Dog food online
Raw or lightly cooked hormone free Venison- from Hare today Gone tomorrow
raw or lightly cooked hormone free elk from haretoday gone tomorrow
Raw or lightly cooked hormone free organic beef- fom grocery stor
Grass fed hormone liver, kidneys, and thymus from grocery store- every meat meal
On weekends he gets 2 meals of fish. Fresh caught whole sardines, or fresh caught salmon with skin, or whole Mackeral. Always cooked and these fish have the highest concentrations of omegas 3. I never use fish pills. Fish pills are crap
Green tripe from real raw once a week

for each meat meal I rotate on a daily basis the calcium to get 15-20%. Either ground rib or pork bones, or calcium seaweed, or egg shells. Never neck bones as I fear hypothyroidism.

Also each none kibble meal I add the following organic supplements to the meat dishes. I never feed synthetic supplements:
Tumeric
spirulina
Organic virgin coconut oil-4x week
Kefir- every other week
Apple cider vinegar with the mother-3x a week
Organic egg 4 x a week
Fresh organic blueberry smoothie with kefir
Fresh ground organic ginger

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Cannoli.
• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Cannoli.

[Cannoli]

I would stay away from necks as this might lead to hypothyroidism in dogs. If dogs eat too much necks they absorb thyroid hormone from these animals. Dogs eating too much thyroid can lead to hypothyroidism. I like to rotate between ground rib bones, egg shells, or use seaweed calcium.

If you want more calories use organic Virgin coconut oil stay away from any coconut oil that is not virgin. as none Virgin coconut oil has fillers and it’s processed.

[Cannoli]

You don’t need a certified veterinary nutritionist to feed a GSD. You just need to balance the dog’s food for the week or even for a month at the least not every meal needs to be balanced and complete. There are plenty of tools on the web that can help you.

Just look at our military dogs. Many GSD during rigorous puppy training and during deployment are fed table scraps to prepare them for the yeas ahead fighting overseas. Many turn out fine

You are correct in that many are bred for sloach back which I find to be in humane but I am hoping Julia has gotten her GSD from a breeder who cares about GSDs and gotten herself a working proper GSD with no excessive sloped roach back

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Cannoli.

[Cannoli]

Use a human extra soft toothbrush. Most of the dog toothbrushes are terrible for your dog’s gum if you brush their teeth daily like I do. The hard bristles on dog toothbrushes do damage to a dog’s gums.

[Cannoli]

i would stick to a high quality puppy kibble until dog is grown then i would play around with feeding him raw. That’s what i did.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Cannoli.

[Cannoli]

I agree with anonymously. I don’t trust supplement companies that state their supplements are miracle wonder pills that can prevent a plethora of ailments.

These are the questions I ask myself when I rarely use supplements, hence I would ask the same questions to companies who make supplements for my dog.

1) Has the product triggered any health warnings or sanctions
Searching for a product or its maker on the FDA’s website will unearth any safety advisories or sanctions issued against them. The agency also maintains a list of all recent recalls and market withdrawals. I know this is tough but if this company makes human supplements it might be good to know if they ever had any human supplements recalled.

2) Has the product been tested by independent labs?

A reputable supplement company must have DNA testing to prove that all of there ingredients actually are what they state it has.

3)Is the product too good to be true?

For example they write “Nuvet contains those ingredients and can help strengthen the immune system to help prevent the development of allergies.” There is no supplement that can help this.

or this “Nuvet plus contains those ingredients and can help strengthen the immune system to help keep the body in balance, and less likely to develop the medical conditions that can lead to seizures.” more none sense.

4) Do I really need supplements? If so, am I taking the right amount?

a supplement may have considerably higher quantities of a vitamin or mineral than it says on the bottle. Because certain vitamins degrade over time, manufacturers often provide more than the labeled quantities, to ensure there is still the labeled amount at the expiration date

You should really be careful with giving your dog supplements. There are too many snake oil salesmen in this unregulated industry

[Cannoli]

“Salmon need to be frozen at low temps for about 3 weeks before being fed to kill the parasites, then you can feed it raw.’ = this is the exact definition of the process that makes “sushi grade” fish for human consumption. Thanks BCnut I should have clarified that

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by Cannoli.

[Cannoli]

I agree with Suzanne…raw salmon is a big no-no. Unless it’s sushi grade..Those are the only rare instances I feed my dog raw salmon when I order a sashimi platter otherwise store bought or wild fish caught salmon is not sushi grade and may have pathogens in it.

[Cannoli]

If your dog is bored give her some freshpet from the single serving. It will spice up her life. Or better yet start cooking for her…You can get crazy with all the crazy protein ingredient combos that you can do. Just read up on how to prepare home cooked meals so that you are doing it correctly

[Cannoli]

I have used Freshpet Selects in the past. My issues with them is the longevity and some of their ingredients.

The Freshpet select and vital has carrageenan which I am not a big fan if you plan to feed this food for years. Here and there is not too big of a deal.

The other issue I had with this food is that never seemed to last long in my fridge. It was hard to rotate this bag with my dog with other food since as soon as I opened it, it spoiled within 7 days. Since you have a small dog I would start with the small 1lb bag to test out how long this food lasts.

But the food does taste delicious. I tasted it too. The chicken tasted and smelled like a roast Chicken dinner with a hint of salt. My pup loved it.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by Cannoli.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by Cannoli.

[Cannoli]

Rick D,

Do you provide DNA testing for your formulas that conclusively proves what is exactly in your supplements along with the exact amounts?

[Cannoli]

Sorry let me clarify. I am asking if there is any blood work that shows nutrition deficiencies. You know like when I get my blood work done my doctor says you are really low on Vitamin D etc.

[Cannoli]

Fromm, Acana, and Origen are all great foods. When my pup was under 8 months old these were part of my rotations. He did great of them. None of these companies ever had a food recall.

But then I realized that I can home feed my pup the same meats that Origen provides at the same price so I dropped the kibble part. Why pay so much for processed food when I can pay the same amount for fresh meats,fruits, and vegetables.

In regards to your second question I concur with Pitlov. Although Origen does do a freeze dried version of their foods that is for all life stages.

[Cannoli]

Or better yet have your vet do blood tests. I get blood tests done once a year and my doctor tells me what vitamins I am lacking in. So I then research the whole foods that have those vitamins and immediately add them to my diet.

We should do the same with our pets before we just start throwing supplements at them.

[Cannoli]

Human supplements are not regulated by the FDA and over 60% of human supplements ingredients are grossly mislabeled on purpose.

Imagine how much worse dog supplements are..stay far away from them…Unless the company can provide you with DNA testing to verify what indeed is in their supplements.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by Cannoli.

[Cannoli]

Totally agree but due to my fears I don’t feed exclusively Hare Today. I rotate between Hare, RealRaw, and my local grocery store. Since I have never gotten sick from eating steak tartare from my local grocer I figure my dog won’t either haha.

[Cannoli]

I don’t worry about mercury. I personally eat a lot of fish but I cook my dog a fish meal once a week. He loves Mackeral. Mackeral is such a fatty fish and contains so much Omega 3.

So when I feed my dog cooked fished once a week I try to feed him fish that is super rich in Omgeo 3 so I rotated between these:

Fresh Wild Salmon
Fresh Sardines
Fresh mackeral
Fresh Sturgeon
Fresh Lake Trout

I stay away from canned fish. Why feed them canned when fresh fish is so much better.

here is a good link:

http://www.rd.com/health/healthy-eating/omega-3-rich-fish/

Again don’t worry about Mercury, it’s not like you are feeding your dog fish everyday. They don’t need it everyday but once a week is sufficient. Since I only feed him about a pound each weekend I just cook it in a frying pan all by itself. He gets half and I eat the other half.

I use prremixes here and there. I do it more for food rotation where my pup gets a premix meal every other week or so. I normally just used preference and the Honest Kitchen. Heck you can make your own premix. Just look at the ingredients in prefence-go to the grocery store-invest in a Vitamix blender and combine the ingredients yourself.

[Cannoli]

Thanks InkedMarie. I actually started using them after reading about the good things you wrote about them here.

[Cannoli]

As much as I love feeding my dog raw or home cooked, some dogs just can’t handle raw.

I also always believe that a dog with good genetics should never be transitioned to food. It should just happen. Humans don’t need to transition from eating raw sushi one day to cooked lasagna. Neither should a pup. This transition phase is just a sign that breeders are not genetically breeding good dogs.

My pup can. I feed him all different kinds of raw and cooked proteins and switch from kibble to can to raw none stop.

Going back to your question, If I was you I would stick to the good quality kibble you were normally feeding them. Then throughout the week just top his kibble with some good raw proteins or cooked proteins.

[Cannoli]

On the other hand Hare Today believes that the Dr. Dodds’ studies are not conclusive enough. It doesn’t list the amounts that may cause this issue.

[Cannoli]

I talked to Hare today gone tomorrow vendor. The poultry meats don’t have gullet or trachea.

The none poultry meats do. Since they ground the whole animal they are not sure the exact amounts that each food gets. Since I normally order around 3-6 lbs of the more exotic meat is impossible for me to determine how much gullet and trachea I am getting. They grind the whole animal so I could basically be getting none or all of it.

This sucks just when I was trying to experiment with more exotic meat for my pup. Guess I am back to beef, pork, rabbit, lamb, chicken, and turkey from my local super market.

[Cannoli]

Since I am new to raw been only doing it for 4 months I would advise that you feed your dog a high quality kibble diet until they are 1 year old. That way there is no nutritional deficiency impact

I had concerns about the nutritional requirements for pups and hence I waited until my pup was 1 year old and while I waited for my pup to be 1 year old I did plenty of research.

If you are concerned this is what I would do.

[Author]

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