Dog Food!

Andrielle · September 2011

This is a wide range subject. Many people have different opinions on what to feed their dogs and why. Well I've struggled for this for the last few months after moving out of state and having to switch dogfoods. I came from a place where real meat dogfoods were readily available and very cheap as many people used dogs for their livelihood. Therefore, for the past 15 years, we stuck to the same dogfood with great success. After moving, my dog that had been on this dogfood for the past 15 years has quickly started to deteriorate after changing to commercial dogfoods. I also have a Lab Puppy who has a nutrition defficiency where he does not retrain nutrients very well, especially on dry dogfood. It's weird, I know but this is what I was told by the vet. SO I am trying to figure out what is the best commercial dogfood to mix in with my "raw diet". As for my raw diet, I get chicken legs, then boil them. After the chicken legs are finished, I take all the meat off the bones then set them aside in a container. I then boil spaghetti noodles and elbow macaroni in the chicken broth. I strain out the noodles and seperate it from the broth, then put the broth in a container and fridgerate it as-well. After a night of sitting in the fridge, it turns to a thick gravy-like substance. I also add green beans, carrots, yams, oatmeal, peanut butter, fish oil and eggs. I mix Wellness Core solid food as-well as Wellness Core canned food too. All this is stored seperately and kept for no longer than 3 days in the fridge before being discarded. Ive got a horrible phobia of my animals contracting illness through old food, so its not kept very long. I prepare 4 meals a day for the puppies, 2 meals a day for my adult dogs with a cup of green beans and carrots for their snack in the afternoon. I havent had much luck with Wellness Core being added though, before, I was using Purina Puppy Chow and it seemed to work better. But I dont want to use Purina Puppy Chow, and well,Wellness Core just isnt working out. My boss gave me Blue Buffalo sample packs for the dogs to see if they like it and they gobble it up, but they will really eat anything! Blue Buffalo is more expensive than Purina Puppy Chow and Wellness Core. But I was told that because of the ingredients, the dogs will eat less of it. However, I feed my dogs the same amount of food everytime they eat and every meal, how would I be able to see if giving them less dry dogfood actuallly works? The dry dogfoods I've been looking at are; *Blue Buffalo *Eagle Pack *Eukanuba Naturally Wild *Instinct *Solid Gold I've got 5 dogs, 3 Labs, a Doberman Pinscher and a Lhasa Apso. Im looking for something that would be good for all 3 breeds.

Mileysmybaby · September 2011

I use Old Yeller, they recently upped the prices a few bucks for the 50 lb. bag unfortunately though. (We still buy it though, haha.) But I have used all different kinds, but this is my favorite dry dog food, alot of other ones make my Lab throw up as shes getting older. But another one I like is Gravy Train. It works wet or dry, all you do is put the amount of water it says for whatever size of dog and its perfect. It is not the cheapest money wise but its worth it! My guard dog I had (Great Pyrenees/Lab mix) LOVED it and so did all of the other dogs! Hope you find something you like!

Kazuko · September 2011

We used to feed Kira Eukenuba, but after a while she just refused to eat it and would choke down half a cup every three days and refuse to eat any more. Then we switched her to Blue Buffalo about eight or nine months ago- best decision ever. She loves the stuff, and it's damn healthy for her. I mean, have you READ those ingredients? xD Deboned duck, salmon, chicken, turkey, lamb, blueberries, carrots, sweet potatoes... Better than some of the stuff -I- eat. xD It doesn't have any of the cheap fillers and that kind of crap too, which is another reason we selected it. Yeah, it's kinda expensive, but it's worth it.

Frostbight8 · September 2011

My Shih-Tzu eats Evo (by Innova) dry food mixed with Evo Ancestrial Diet canned food. She's doing very good on it, and gobbles it all up (and she's a picky eater). It's kind of expensive.. 16 dollars for a small bag, but I've seen worse. Great ingredients, no grain, and my vet speaks highly of it. We used to give her Blue Buffalo, but she decided that she didn't like it anymore. XD

DiamondPuppy0809 · September 2011

If we had Blue Buffalo here, I would totally buy it. We don't, though, and to be honest, I forget the name of the puppy chow I'm feeding my Chihuahua, Czar, but I read the ingredients and they sounded really healthy. Not only are your dogs getting more nutrients and are going to be healthier when you feed them a more expensive brand (always read ingredients, sometimes expensive doesn't mean good), but you won't be picking up nearly as much dog poop. Due to useless crap in cheap dog food, it goes right through dogs because they don't absorb much of it. Ever since we stopped buying cheaper foods, we have barely have anything to pick up after four dogs.

EmmeZoec · September 2011

Personally I fed my dog 100% RAW food. It is completely what they would get if they lived in the wild, although as much as people want to pretend it probably isn't as good. It is the best we can get BUT when a wolf eats a deer he is eating 100% deer and when us or our dogs eat things like chicken or beef that animal was probably injected with hormones or other chemicals. Even if the animals wasn't directly given shots or such the food they eat probably was. Cows cant survive winter on eating just grass, there is no grass. But I fed them the best we can without going out and hunting animals for ourselves. Our dogs (only the adults though) eat 6 oz. of chicken necks 4 days a week during winter when they get less exercise they only get 5 oz. Once a week they get 3 oz of chicken liver 3-2 (depending on time of year) oz of chicken, a different day of the week they will get 3 oz or beef and 2-3 oz of chicken, and on a different day of the week from those they get 3 oz of fish and 2-3 oz of chicken. Every day they get a raw egg, shell and all. It is all 100% raw, no cooking other then thawing (if that counts). They never get things like noodles, veggies, fruits, "kibble", or other things. They eat the bone and all, the bone only splinters once its been cooked. As far as loving the food goes, they chow right down and we have to watch for thieves. We buy 40 pounds at a time, package it in one night and freeze it until we need it. I have only tried Blue Buffalo with my puppy once and he ate a little but started to not eat the little round black specks then not really eating at all. After wards he got sick but we aren't sure if it had to do with the food. Right now we feed our pups wellness but i want to switch it to our adults raw diet. One scafes anything but the other is more picky and it vary how much he eats each day..

Trianna · September 2011

Andrielle wrote:

I then boil spaghetti noodles and elbow macaroni in the chicken broth. I strain out the noodles and seperate it from the broth, then put the broth in a container and fridgerate it as-well. After a night of sitting in the fridge, it turns to a thick gravy-like substance

You know you don't have to boil noodles in the broth for it to do that, right? When you boil bones then refrigerate the broth the gelatin from the bones thickens the broth, it's the same thing that makes jello, well, jello. XD

MuckyDuckBrendon · September 2011

Trianna wrote:

Andrielle wrote:

I then boil spaghetti noodles and elbow macaroni in the chicken broth. I strain out the noodles and seperate it from the broth, then put the broth in a container and fridgerate it as-well. After a night of sitting in the fridge, it turns to a thick gravy-like substance

 You know you don't have to boil noodles in the broth for it to do that, right? When you boil bones then refrigerate the broth the gelatin from the bones thickens the broth, it's the same thing that makes jello, well, jello. XD

I think it was to make the noodles taste meaty

Alabama · September 2011

Cooking the chicken removes a lot of the nutrients that are good for dogs. Humans cook chicken because of the bacteria that can kill us. The same bacteria doesn't affect dogs. Raw means uncooked, by the way. My dogs eat a mix of raw, cooked and Canidae dry food, just depending on what's available. Raw is preferable and I usually wait for 2 for 1 sales on meat at the grocery store and the dogs get the "free" portions. If I had a freezer, I'd probably do like Emmezoe and buy in bulk for a cheaper price. I don't hestitate to give them meat that hasn't been cooked for us in a timely manner. They actually love slightly "high" meat better than fresh. If I have leftovers from cooking, assuming there's nothing in there dogs shouldn't have, such as onions, they get leftovers. Cooked, unprocessed foods are preferable to any bought dry dog food, which has to be cooked, dried and chemicals added to prolong shelf life. The dry dog food is a gap filler, if I don't have leftovers or raw meat for them. I try to stay away from common, popular dry foods, like Purina, Eukanuba, etc. The dogs eat so much more of that stuff because of the fillers. Because of the fillers, they also poop so much because there is so much in the food that their bodies can't process.

Zagari Wolf · September 2011

My dogs are on Taste of the Wild now. It's one of the best all-life stages, grain free foods that I've found. It is pricey though and the biggest bag it comes in is 33 lbs. Before that, they were on NutriSource Lamb and Rice. They did well on that too. It is an all-life stages diet but it is grain inclusive and my APBT has allergies. As already stated, it's best to feed a RAW diet actually raw. I guess what food you want really depends on how much you can afford. Most of the better quality food is pricey.

Andrielle · September 2011

MuckyDuckBrendon wrote:

Trianna wrote:

Andrielle wrote:

I then boil spaghetti noodles and elbow macaroni in the chicken broth. I strain out the noodles and seperate it from the broth, then put the broth in a container and fridgerate it as-well. After a night of sitting in the fridge, it turns to a thick gravy-like substance

 You know you don't have to boil noodles in the broth for it to do that, right? When you boil bones then refrigerate the broth the gelatin from the bones thickens the broth, it's the same thing that makes jello, well, jello. XD

 I think it was to make the noodles taste meaty

It is to make the noodles taste meaty lol

EmmeZoec · September 2011

Alabama wrote:

Raw is preferable and I usually wait for 2 for 1 sales on meat at the grocery store

We go to a special food market Guidos ans i think they have other stores all across the USA. There is a special butcher there and chicken necks are only $0.99.

Alabama wrote:

If I had a freezer

We use a regular refrigerator with a freezer top and it fits the 40 pounds plus some people food.

Alabama · September 2011

My freezer is full already with people food, veggies, exceptional leftovers too good for the dogs, etc. I'm hoping to get a deep freeze sometime in the future where we can buy a side of beef at a time from a local meat processor and store it, but that's several tomorrows away LOL

Trianna · September 2011

Andrielle wrote:

Trianna wrote:

Andrielle wrote:

I then boil spaghetti noodles and elbow macaroni in the chicken broth. I strain out the noodles and seperate it from the broth, then put the broth in a container and fridgerate it as-well. After a night of sitting in the fridge, it turns to a thick gravy-like substance

 You know you don't have to boil noodles in the broth for it to do that, right? When you boil bones then refrigerate the broth the gelatin from the bones thickens the broth, it's the same thing that makes jello, well, jello. XD

 It is to make the noodles taste meaty lol

Ah. I didn't think you were feeding the dogs the pasta, since it really isn't that good for them... It really isn't good for people either, to be honest, it's pretty much empty calories. My suggestion there would be to switch out the pasta with brown rice, it'd probably be a bit better for them. <a href="http://www.wdcusick.com/"; target="_blank" class="bb-url">here</a> is a link to a page with information about feeding dogs a natural diet with a lot of helpful information. The first link on the page has information about the best food sources for individual breeds. and, as for which commercial food to give them, my advice would be none at all... did you know some brands use euthanized companion animals in their food? As in, dogs and cats from shelters. <a href="http://www.homevet.com/petcare/foodbook.html"; target="_blank" class="bb-url">link here</a>

Andrielle · October 2011

I ended up switching to Holistic Selects Large & Giant Breed with 1/3 can of the canned Holistic Selects with each meal. My Lab pup has gained 4lbs. in about 2 weeks! The other dogs seem to be doing very well on it too! Very excited lol The advantages of working as a dog groomer -- you get sale priced dogfood instead of the markup at petstores!

wetnose101 · October 2011

lol when i go to get chicken feed for my chickens,i see these little packs of Chiken soup for the puppy lovers soul so i get 3 or 4 and my samoyed eats it. we usually get the costco kind lol. well i seruiosly forgot the name its lamb chop forumula or whatever. XD well my uncle gives his dog a spoonful of beniful canned dog food,and some dry dog food. the mutt is 15 years old FYI. so that might be not the best choice with mid aged dogs.

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Dog Food!

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