[Hound Dog Mom]

I use Wysong Arthegix 5 days per week for my senior male. It contains boswellia, sea cucumber, turmeric, ginger, devil’s claw, yucca, red pepper and cetyl myristoleate. That’s interesting about the Solid Gold Seameal, I had no idea seaweed was good for the joints – but then again I give my dog sea cucumber and that’s supposed to be good, so I guess it makes sense?

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi Sedlypets –

There can be medical conditions responsible for weight gain. I know you got her tested for thyroid issues and that came back negative,but what about Cushing’s? Or is she on any medication that could be causing this?

If you can rule out all heath issues, this means she’s eating too many calories – plain and simple. You say you’re walking her a few miles every other day, this is great but I’d strongly urge you to try and get her exercising daily. I’d switch to a high protein, moderate fat, low carbohydrate (preferably grain-free food). Find out how many calories per cup are in the food she’s eating now, multiply that by how many cups she’s eating per day and what you get will be how many calories she’s eating per day – with whichever food you try feed less calories than this amount. Homemade could be a good option but you’ll need to do a little research – check out dogaware.com and get a book such as Dr. Karen Becker’s “Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats.” Also make sure to cut out ALL treats! If she’s burning more calories than she’s eating she will lose weight (granted she has no health issues).

[Hound Dog Mom]

mcaponigro –

I agree. I think some are led to believe a grain-free or grain-free/white potato free food is automatically superior or “species appropriate”, which isn’t the case. There are some wonderful grain-free and white potato free foods, but many more that are low protein, high carb and in no way species-appropriate. Whether the binder is grain, potato, tapioca or legumes – one must keep in mind that none are appropriate foods for a dog (carnivore) to be eating. The most important thing when feeding dry food is – in my opinion – focus more on maximizing meat content and protein content rather than picking a food based on which binder it uses. It’s also important to remember that just because a food contains an ingredient that is high glycemic doesn’t necessarily mean that the food is high glycemic – for an example, Orijen – which contains white potato – is one of the few foods certified low glycemic by the glycemic research institute. I think the only way one can truly avoid these high carb fillers is to go with an all meat or all meat and non-starchy vegetable canned food or feed a homemade diet free from grains and other starches.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Marie – No, I don’t have a facebook.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi Shinigamigirl428 –

I have three bloodhounds myself.

My first question is, is the dog underweight? If the dog is not underweight ignore this behavior. This is typical for a bloodhound and your family member shouldn’t feel bad or like the dog is being deprived. Bloodhounds are chowhounds and their number one focus in life is food – their entire day revolves around mealtime and when their next meal will be. They have no appetite regulation and will eat until they burst. They’re also noted for eating anything and everything, especially when puppies. They can be a danger to themselves when not supervised, they can get into poisonous things or items that will cause intestinal obstruction. My older female (now 2) ate an ENTIRE 5 pound bag of birdseed when she was a puppy – it was left out and she ripped into it. She was pooping out sunflower seeds all day. This is the type of thing you deal with when you own a bloodhound.

Earthborn isn’t a bad food by any means. I do feel Orijen is slightly better, but if Earthborn is what your family member can afford there’s no reason to feel bad about feeding it. It’s a quality food. I feed my three homemade raw and they do seem to be a little more satisfied on this than when they weren’t fed raw. You can try adding in some pumpkin or other veggies to the food to make her feel more satisfied but I can almost assure you that it won’t stop the behavior. This is normal behavior for a bloodhound and nothing to be alarmed about.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi Devilbrad –

Check out the topic “Post Your Recipes” under the homemade dog food section or the “Menu” topic in the raw section. Dogaware.com is a great resource for homemade diets as well, there’s tons of information there.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Happy Birthday Alexandra!

We almost hit the same day…mine is tomorrow. 🙂

[Hound Dog Mom]

dowsky –

U/D and C/D are dog therapeutic foods manufactured by Hill’s Science Diet available with a prescription only. U/D is designed to promote non-stuvite urinary tract health and c/d has reduced levels of protein, magnesium and phosphorus to help limit the formation crystals and bladder stones.

[Hound Dog Mom]

I just set the portion pacer on top then press it in a little.

It’s not necessary to fast if you feed a whole prey animal. Obviously, if you feed something large like a 4 lb. rabbit you wouldn’t really want to feed another meal for awhile because that’s a lot of food, but the quail run about 8-12 oz. and you could just feed one or two as a meal with no need to fast.

The reason I fast my dogs once per week is because approximately 80% of a dog’s immunity is found in the gut. If a dog is constantly digesting food a lot of resources of the immune system are focused on digesting and it’s more difficult for the immune system to function at its peak. Periodic fasting once a week or so give the dog’s body a change to focus on strengthening the immune system. Going without food puts a mild stress on the cells and as a result the cells become better able to cope with more severe stress if they ever need to (such as when they’re battling off sickness). This is why I choose to fast my dogs for 24 hours once per week. I’ve read others that only fast once or twice per month but don’t feed anything at all for an entire day (so it’d turn out being more like a 36 hour fast).

[Hound Dog Mom]

Alexandra –

As far as the “chunks” sold on Hare Today, my only experience is with the “Rabbit Pieces” (the larger version of the chunks). I would say they’re likely not as balanced as the grinds. With the grinds you know you’re getting an evenly mixed ground prey animal – with the chunks it’s more of a surprise (at least in my experience). As it says in the description “bone included, may include heart, liver, lung and kidney.” I’ve ordered the rabbit chunks 3 or 4 times and sometimes there were only one or two little pieces of organ in the bag, sometimes there was quite a bit. However, considering you know your dogs are getting one meal a day that’s completely balanced (the Darwin’s) you’d probably be fine with the chunks – if there was a little too much or too little organ meat or bone it wouldn’t be a huge deal.

The whole prey animals really aren’t that bad. I started out with the dressed quail and skinned rabbits and finally got the courage to move to the real deal – feathers, fur and all. If you want to try it, I’d start with the whole dressed quail – very low gross factor.

As far as slowing Dante down…not sure if the chunks would do it. Gertie was a fast eater, I started using a portion pacer and it worked like a charm – it now takes her over 5 minutes to finish her meal. Mabel on the other hand – I’ve never seen anything like it. Looking at her eat you’d honestly think she hasn’t eaten in a week. I use a portion pacer and she still somehow manages to finish her meal in about 30 seconds flat. When I give her gizzards and hearts she just swallows them whole, no chewing. So if Dante is as bad as Mabel chunks may not even help him – unless they’re huge chunks lol

[Hound Dog Mom]

Marie – Let everyone know how the Dr. Tim’s works out. I’m curious, it looks like a great food but I don’t know anyone that’s fed it.

[Hound Dog Mom]

clm86 –

Considering your dog’s issues I think Abady granular would be worth looking into. It would be a great food for putting weight on a dog – it’s high fat with around 800 calories per cup (about twice as many calories per cup as kibble). I’ve also heard dogs with sensitive stomachs do well on it.

Wet food is definitely a good addition to dry food, but it wouldn’t help much as far as adding calories. Due to its high moisture content wet food is generally much less calorie-dense than dry food.

I had issues getting my female bloodhound (now two years old) to gain weight and it wasn’t until I switched her to a high protein, high fat, low carbohydrate homemade raw diet that I got her to gain anything (she’s still skinny but looks a lot better than before she was on raw). She eats 2 lbs. of meat per day with extras – such as eggs, cottage cheese and kefir – plus supplements and veggies and I was able to get her to put on 5 (much needed!) pounds after three months on raw and now she’s maintaining nicely. I aim for her meals to be 40-50% protein and 30-40% fat. So if you’ve got the time and money a high fat homemade diet would probably be the best option. The other benefit of homemade is you can tailor it to the needs of your sensitive dog since you control all the ingredients that go into it.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi Alexandra!

Good question. Nutritionally speaking – as long as both contain appropriate amounts of muscle meat, organ meat and bone – they’re the same. However there are some pro’s and con’s to both. RMBs and chunks of meat more closely mimic the consumption of a whole prey animal and provide the dog with dental benefits that ground meat doesn’t. RMBs and chunks of meat are much less likely to be contaminated with bacteria such as salmonella (although with a healthy dog, this shouldn’t be much of a concern). RMBs and chunks generally have a cheaper price per pound (versus ground meat) as well. The downside is that cutting up your own meat is definitely more time consuming and I also find that it’s much easier to combine veggies and supplements or a pre-mix with ground meat. I personally feed ground in the a.m. with either a pre-mix or veggies and supplements and RMBs and “chunks” of meat (whole gizzards, hearts, livers, etc.) in the evening. Because you’re feeding the Darwin’s for on meal a day you could certainly add your supplements to this and feed chunks and bones for the other meal, then you’d be getting the best of both worlds.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi Blue Corgi –

No, the ingredients aren’t just made up. Knowing how to balance a homemade diet is VERY important. Feeding an unbalanced diet can result in some serious health issues if the unbalanced diet is fed long term. It’s wonderful that you’re interested in feeding your dogs a homemade diet – I STRONGLY feel that when done correctly a homemade diet is the healthiest thing for a dog.

Ingredients you use will differ slightly based on whether you’re planning on feeding raw or cooked. But with either diet the most important thing is getting the correct calcium to phosphorus ratio. The ratio of calcium to phosphorus needs to be between 1:1 and 2:1. To achieve this when feeding a raw diet with bone you will want to feed 80% boneless muscle meat, 10% organ meat and 10% bone and for cooked diets or raw diets without bone you want to feed 90% boneless muscle meat, 10% organ meat and add 800-1,000 mg. calcium per pound of meat and organ fed. Green tripe is a rare exception to this rule as green tripe naturally has a 1:1 calcium to phosphorus ratio. You should feed an even mixture of red meat and poultry – don’t feed predominately one or the other as they have different types of fats. I give my dogs red meat in the a.m. and poultry in the p.m. As far as being “exact every time” – you don’t have to be exact every time but you do need to be exact over time. This means, if you decide you want to feed a meal that’s 20% organ meat at breakfast you can just feed a meal without organ meat at dinner – this would still balance out to your dog getting 10% organ meat in its diet. Balance over time.

You should feed around 80% meat – the other 20% can be vegetables, fruits, extras and supplements. All veggies should be cooked and pureed as dogs don’t produce the enzyme cellulase to breakdown the cellulose in raw veggies – cooking and pureeing in a sense “pre-digests” the veggies so the dog can derive some nutrients from them. Extras are optional and would include things like eggs, cottage cheese, yogurt, kefir, etc.

For supplements I would recommend adding a form of animal-based omega 3’s (fish body oil or an oily fish such as sardines), vitamin e and super-foods (kelp, alfalfa, spirulina, etc.). I also give my dogs Carlson cod liver oil every other day for some extra vitamin d (cod liver oil should be limited though as it’s very high in vitamin a, I feed Carlson because it has the lowest vitamin a levels). You can add a multi-vitamin if you wish but if you’re feeding a wide variety of foods and adding the supplements I mentioned I don’t think it would be necessary. If you’re feeding a cooked diet you may want to consider supplementing with enzymes. If you don’t feed kefir, yogurt and/or green tripe on a regular basis you may also want to consider a probiotic supplement a few days of the week.

Lastly – keep this in mind because it’s critical when feeding a homemade diet – variety! Feed many different protein sources, many different types of organs, different fruits, veggies and extras and rotate different supplements into the mix every once in awhile. This will help to ensure that over time your dogs get all the nutrients they need.

Another option to make things easier – if you don’t feel comfortable making food from scratch yet – would be to use a premix. With a premix you generally just add meat and water – the mix contains all the fruits, veggies and supplements your dog needs. Some good premixes are The Honest Kitchen’s Preference, Sojo’s, Urban Wolf, Birkdale Petmix and Dr. Harvey’s.

I would recommend checking out dogaware.com – there’s a lot of good information on homemade diets there. I would also recommend reading Steve Brown’s book “Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet.” If you check out the “menu” topic on the raw thread I’ve posted my dogs’ menu so you can get an idea of what a balanced diet should look like.

I hope that helps. Feel free to post any questions! Quite a few of us here feed homemade food and can help you out. 🙂

[Hound Dog Mom]

Anyone having the issue on regular DFA where you can’t see who liked something?

[Hound Dog Mom]

Thanks Dr. Mike!

[Hound Dog Mom]

Shawna – you’re certainly welcome to scoop her up and while you’re at it take her right on home with you! 😉

That’s about the point I’m at with all her ripping and tearing – I can’t turn my back on her for a minute lol!

[Hound Dog Mom]

Growing up we always had a big tree in the living room then I’d have a small tree in my bedroom that I put homemade ornaments and popcorn strings on. We had a German Shepherd at the time. One day we left her alone in the house – BIG mistake. When we got home the big tree in the living room was tipped over, ornaments were chewed up, she went in my room and ate all the popcorn strings off my tree and she was pooping out tinsel for a couple days. She’s so lucky she didn’t get an intestinal blockage (this is the same dog that climbed on the counter to reach the shelf above the counter to get to my halloween candy another year, ate it all and lived to tell the tale lol)! Anyways, my hounds don’t bother the tree. I had more of an issue with my kitten to be honest – he was always trying to climb it and was batting at the ornaments and tearing them off the tree. I’d just put a doggie gate up – if you’re not going to be there to supervise sam just put the gate up so he can’t get into the room the tree is in.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Great pictures!

[Hound Dog Mom]

Marie – I love that your grandchildren call you Mimi – I call my grandmother on my mom’s side Mimi. 🙂

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi Alexandra –

Looks good to me! Because you’re feeding the Darwin’s for one meal every day I don’t think there’s any need for you to be overly concerned about supplements. All the hare today grinds have the appropriate ratio of muscle meat, organ meat and bone – so no need to worry about calcium to phosphorus ratios and organ meat amounts. And the fish oil and green supplement will be great for a little extra nutritional assurance.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Okay, that explains things. Thanks!

[Hound Dog Mom]

Weird I just posted on another topic (treats) and did have the edit option. I don’t on this topic or other topics I’ve posted on though.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi Marie,

My dogs generally get 1-2 grain-free biscuits or freeze-dried raw treats per day. Right now I have Nature’s Variety Instinct biscuits, I also frequently use Darford Zero-G and the grain-free Cloudstar Buddy Biscuits (I’ve ordered the Sojo’s grain-free biscuits before but they’re way too small for my dogs). For freeze-dried I have the Wysong Dream treats right now, I also use the Nature’s Variety Instinct and Stella & Chewy’s freeze-dried raw medallions.

After their evening walk every day they get a “kongsicle” – they each have a large kong that I layer with a 4 or 5 star grain-free kibble and the canned Fruitables Pumpkin or Sweet Potato supplement and freeze it. I use whatever kibbles I can get samples of or buy trial-sized bags of. Right now I’m using Orijen and Petcurean. It keeps them out of my hair while I make dinner lol

For training treats I use ZiwiPeak food (I buy the 8 oz. trial sized packages).

Every night before bed they get a dried trachea, bully stick or pig ear.

The only day they don’t get treats is Sunday (they fast on Sundays).

[Hound Dog Mom]

Anyone know how to edit a post?

[Hound Dog Mom]

I’ll get things started. I generally make a one week menu up and feed that menu for 1 – 2 months. I then make up a new menu with some new protein sources, switch up some ingredients in my supplement and make up a new menu for the next 1 – 2 months. I started this menu at the beginning of December and I’ll probably feed it through to the end of January (then the dogs are going to break into the venison stash from hunting season 😉 ).

The a.m. recipes are for 3 servings (I divide evenly among my three bloodhounds – lucky for me they all eat the same amount of food! 🙂 ). The p.m. recipes are what I would feed each dog.

SUNDAYS

a.m. -Whole Prey Rabbit

p.m. -24 hour fast

MONDAYS/WEDNESDAYS/FRIDAYS

a.m. -1 lb. 90% Lean Grass Fed Beef
-1 lb. Green Tripe
-1 lb. Beef Organ Blend (Heart, Liver, Kidneys, Lungs, Trachea, Gullet)
-2 C. Urban Wolf Pre-Mix
-1 C. Full Fat Cottage Cheese
-2 tbs. Apple Cider Vinegar with Mother
-1 tbs. Sardine/Anchovy Oil Blend
-1 tbs. Coconut Oil
-800 i.u. Vitamin E Capsule (mixed tocopherols and tocotrienols)

p.m. -2 Turkey Necks
-8 oz. Turkey Hearts

TUESDAYS/THURSDAYS/SATURDAYS

a.m. -3 lbs. Ground Lamb Supreme (from MPC – 50% Breast Meat with Ribs, 25% Heart, 15%
Green Tripe, 7% Liver, 3% Kidney)
-1 C. Whole Milk Kefir
-3-4 oz. Pouches Organic Fruit & Veggie Baby Food
-2 tbs. Apple Cider Vinegar with Mother
-2 tbs. Whole Food Multi-Vitamin/Mineral Supplement*
-1 tbs. Reduced Vitamin A Cod Liver Oil
-1 tbs. Omega 3-6-9 Oil with Flax, Borage and Evening Primrose
-800 i.u. Vitamin E Capsule

p.m. -Chicken Back
-Chicken Foot
-2 oz. Chicken Gizzards
-2 oz. Chicken Hearts
-2 oz. Chicken Livers
-Whole Egg

*Whole Food Multi-Vitamin/Mineral Supplement:
-4 oz. Kelp Powder
-4 oz. Alfalfa Powder
-4 oz. Wheatgrass Powder
-4 oz. Spirulina Powder
-4 oz. Chlorella Powder
-4 oz. Bee Pollen Powder
-4 oz. Turmeric Powder
-2 oz. Garlic Powder

[Hound Dog Mom]

Wow mike p, she looks good. Great body condition.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hmm…now that I see the body it looks like there could be some bloodhound in there (definitely not all bloodhound, too small and bloodhounds don’t have that tick pattern she has on her chest and leg). If I had to guess I’d almost want to say half bloodhound half red tick. Well, whatever she is she’s adorable!

[Hound Dog Mom]

Everything seems to be working now. I made one post on another topic and it disappeared so I re-typed it (this time copied it before posting) and submitted again, disappeared again. The third time it stayed. Labs said (on regular dfa) her posts were disappearing too.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Thanks devilbrad! 🙂

By the way – what kind of hound do you have? Kind of looks like a red tick (?) but I can’t tell for sure from the picture..

[Hound Dog Mom]

My apologies if later on some duplicate posts show up. The first three times I posted that it disappeared.

[Hound Dog Mom]

debbylcc –

Why do you want your dog to eat dry food? If your dog prefers the wet there’s nothing wrong with feeding only wet – a quality wet food is actually much healthier than dry food and wet food is better for weight loss. Wet food is generally higher in protein, lower in carbohydrates and higher in moisture than dry food making it more species-appropriate. Due to its high moisture content wet food is also, typically, much less calorically-dense than dry food making it a great option for dogs like yours that need to loose weight. To put it into perspective I’ll use Iams as my example (Pro Plan doesn’t list calorie information on their website and Iams is a comparable food to use for comparison): 1 C. Iams Proactive Health Adult Chunks with Chicken (canned) has 212 calories and is 44% protein whereas 1 C. Proactive Health Adult Chunks (dry) has 367 kcal. and is only 25% protein. Check out Dr. Mike’s article “Canned or Dry Dog Food – What’s the Better Choice”

[Hound Dog Mom]

debbylcc –

Why do you want your dog to eat dry food? If your dog prefers the wet there’s nothing wrong with feeding only wet – a quality wet food is actually much healthier than dry food and wet food is better for weight loss. Wet food is generally higher in protein, lower in carbohydrates and higher in moisture than dry food making it more species-appropriate. Due to its high moisture content wet food is also, typically, much less calorically-dense than dry food making it a great option for dogs like yours that need to loose weight. To put it into perspective I’ll use Iams as my example (Pro Plan doesn’t list calorie information on their website and Iams is a comparable food to use for comparison): 1 C. Iams Proactive Health Adult Chunks with Chicken (canned) has 212 calories and is 44% protein whereas 1 C. Proactive Health Adult Chunks (dry) has 367 kcal. and is only 25% protein. Check out Dr. Mike’s article “Canned or Dry Dog Food – What’s the Better Choice” /choosing-dog-food/canned-or-dry-dog-food/

[Hound Dog Mom]

debbylcc –

Why don’t you want her to eat only wet food? As long as you’re feeding a quality canned food, canned is actually healthier than dry – especially for weight loss. Canned food is generally higher in protein than dry food, lower in carbs than dry food and it contains much more moisture. Because canned food is so high in moisture (generally 75% – 85%) is it usually much less calorically-dense than dry food so your dog can eat a larger volume of canned food for the same amount of calories as a dry food. Most dry foods have around 400 kcal. per cup while most canned foods have about the same amount of calories for a 13.2 oz. can (that’s a little over 1 1/2 C. food). Check out Dr. Mike’s article “Canned or Dry Dog Food – What’s the Better Choice?” /choosing-dog-food/canned-or-dry-dog-food/

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi mydogisme and 1butchroy1 –

Here is a good article and video by Dr. Karen Becker on Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia. I’m sure others will pop in with some advice, but this can get you guys started. It sounds like it’s due in a big part to over-vaccination.

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/07/30/vaccine-causes-autoimmune-hemolytic-anemia.aspx

[Hound Dog Mom]

Thanks Alexandra! 🙂

[Hound Dog Mom]

Sandy – I don’t know how to do it on shutterfly (I’ve never used it) but on photobucket you use the direct link code.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Lol…I have a habit of referring to people with their full usernames. I’ll start calling you Marie though.

[Hound Dog Mom]

That’s actually what gave me the idea to get some picture sharing going on here! 🙂

[Hound Dog Mom]

This is where I saw the Emu oil pet shampoo:

http://www.jefferspet.com/kalaya-emu-oil-shampoo/p/1217/

It has really good reviews, I’ve never used it though.

And this is the emu joint supplement I remembered seeing:

http://www.kalayaemuestate.com/catalog_i848622.html?catId=36316

I would be curious if anyone here has every used these products and has feedback on them. I’d be interested in trying them.

[Hound Dog Mom]

InkedMarie – I was thinking the same thing. If a lot of chatter gets going unless someone puts the name of who they’re responding to, sometimes it may be hard to know.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Many may have already seen this, but I’ll re-post here. This is a list I put together myself of foods that I feel are good choices for growing large and giant breed puppies. This list includes only grain-free 4 and 5 star foods with 3.5 g. calcium per 1,000 kcal. or less and approved for “growth” or “all life stages”. I based the calcium per energy density levels on overall research I’ve done and figures given in the Lauten article posted above. I contacted all the companies directly via email or phone to obtain the actual (not minimum) calcium levels of their foods.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwApI_dhlbnFY183Q0NVRXlidWc/edit

[Hound Dog Mom]

These are a few of my favorite articles and studies on the topic:

1. “Nutritional Risks to Large and Giant Breed Dogs: From Weaning to the Geriatric Years” by Susan D. Lauten, PhD

http://portais.ufg.br/uploads/66/original_Racas_grandes.pdf

2. “Growth and Skeletal Development of Great Dane Pups Fed Different Levels of Protein Intake” Nap, Hazewinkel, Voorhout, Van Den Brom, Goedegebuure and Van ‘T Klooster

http://jn.nutrition.org/content/121/11_Suppl/S107.full.pdf

3. “Dietary Mineral Levels Affect Bone Development in Great Dane Pups” by Henry J. Baker DVM

http://www.bestfriendsvet.com/pdffiles/BoneDevArticleWa.pdf

4. “Feeding Large Breed Puppies” by Jennifer Larsen DVM, PhD, DACVN

http://mobile.vetlearn.com/Media/images/pdf/2010/PV/PV0510_Nutrition.pdf

5. “Why Overgowing Your Large Breed Puppy is Dangerous” Dr. Karen Becker DVM

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/04/09/slow-growth-diets-for-giant-breed-puppy.aspx

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi Sophia –

Are you talking about real bones or dental chews?

As far as real bones, most are quite high in fat due to the marrow. I’d stick with turkey necks, chicken necks or duck necks (raw) with the skin removed. You may be able to find some lean beef neck bones, my butcher carries them sometimes.

If you’re referring to chew type treats, bully sticks are pretty low fat. If your dog likes antlers, they’re very long lasting and since most dogs actually can’t “eat” them you wouldn’t have to worry about fat content. Himalayan chews are low fat and long lasting as well.

[Hound Dog Mom]

A 5 star dry food would be better than a 3 or 4 star dehydrated food, however a 5 star dehydrated food would be better than a 5 star dry food (my opinion). If a food is rated 3 or 4 stars it’s because it’s too low in protein or contains some questionable ingredients.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Thanks devilbrad. Looks like you’ve got a cute hound yourself. 🙂

[Hound Dog Mom]

As for the qustion at hand of “Are Greenies Safe?” – I think they’re just as safe as any other chew. Obviously there’s always a risk of choking or intestinal blockage, but that’s with any chew type treat. My issue with them is not their safety but their ingredients. Very low quality, like feeding your doggie a candy bar. Stick with raw bones or natural chews (bully sticks, dried trachea, pig ears, etc.).

[Hound Dog Mom]

janus69 – As long as poultry bones are raw they’re safe. Raw bones are safe, all cooked bones are dangerous (even bigger non-poultry bones).

[Hound Dog Mom]

As long as you’re feeding healthy low-glycemic treats I don’t see why your diabetic dog couldn’t have treats once in awhile. Just make sure not to overfeed – you don’t want her to gain weight. I’d imagine feeding treats between meals would actually help stabilize the blood sugar..

[Hound Dog Mom]

Scratch that last post. I can see my picture now. Just took a little while. 🙂

[Author]

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