Dog Food Discussion Here, doing an experiment...

[Quail_Antwerp]

Thanks for the link, SKR8PN!

You are about the 4th person to recommend Taste of the Wild. Do you know if they have Taste of the Wild for puppies, or is it formulated for all ages?

 

[freemotion]

Taste of the Wild is a good commercial alternative. I would feed it if I had to. (no put-down, scr8pn, raw saved my pooches' life.)

dipence71, you can do whatever floats your boat and is best for the individual. My dog was at death's door and several vets had no answer for me, then I "went raw" with lots of worries and fear....salmonella, e-coli, choking on a bone, and who knows what other horrible thing would happen to my puppy, just home from heart surgery at about six months old, and a walking skeleton.

I did everything raw for a couple of years, I was then scared to go to any cooked foods, lest his health reverse again. With a little taste of cooked foods, he would get diarrhea or vomit, the severity matched the amount of cooked food.

Now, he is almost eight years old, and he can tolerate some cooked food. We give him no grains, though, other than a bit of popcorn.....something like 6 grains, tops. By the third one, he is chewing it up and spitting it out, just going for the butter, I think. I will give him cooked veggies from my plate, but his veggie meals are raw and pulverized, since dogs cannot digest cellulose, they won't get much out of raw veggies otherwise. I run them through the blender with a bit of yogurt and some peanut butter for flavor.

My cats were older by the time I saw the light, and they won't eat anything raw. So I can their food myself, grain-free, and mostly meat with a bit of skin and fat and organs and a bit of veggies. See the catfood thread if this interests you....

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

free, I completely understand why you feed raw. I am not sure that I want to feed my ankle biters raw.

I do give my dogs yogurt and peanut butter. They also get cottage cheese and some veggies straight from the garden.

Our blue heeler gets raw meats on rare occassions, more as a treat and not the sole purpose of his diet. And even at that, Ernie demands that I wash and soak all the blood out first. He's really worried that our dogs could get a taste for blood if fed raw.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I cook my dogs food and we give her kibbles. I am still experimenting with different brands. Right now we are using Avoderm. She seems to like it and has not been itching. I try to sneak her raw food sometimes, but she tends to bury it in the field. SO also believes that feeding raw meat, will make her want to kill the chickens.
The homemade food consists of whatever meat I have on hand, that we don't want to eat, left over vegies chopped up real small, fresh greens also chopped up real small, and usually oatmeal. Sometimes I add other leftovers, whatever it may be. I simmer it for a little while, just so it blends and the oats soak up the liquid. Then I put it in jars and freeze it. Our dog loves tomatoes, so I often add some left over homemade tomato sauce, or fresh ones if we have them.
She eats the chicken food, whenever she can get to it, she also has access to a garden full of vegetables, fruit and weeds and happily helps herself.
Our cat will only eat dry kibbles and tuna water.
We are keeping one of the kittens we fostered and I plan on feeding him raw and home cooked food. I cannot wait to get him off the food that the Humane Society insists I feed him. I have been sneaking little bits of real food to him. I think that is why he is growing so well. he weighs 40 oz, his sister weighs barely 32 oz. Shshsh...don't tell

 

[big brown horse]

I like taste of the wild too, we just cant find it close enough to justify driving to buy it. I think it is about as close to their natural diet without going raw.

 

[freemotion]

Raw is not for everyone. It is good, though, to give them some on occasion. If it does not still have feathers or fur on it, they don't connect it with live food. But all dogs do have a hunting instinct, some more than others. My poodle looks at everything that moves as a possible snack, especially the little things.

Some raw treats that you might be able to deal with are chicken hearts, wing tips for the little guys (snip just the tips off from wings you buy for your dinner) or a raw marrow bone, which can be washed quite thoroughly. Just be sure that it won't fit over a lower jaw once the marrow is gone.

 

[BeccaOH]

I like Taste of the Wild (waterfowl), but I'm on my third small bag and haven't' seen any change in my ****-zu's skin issues. He is particularly stinky and flaky right now.

He loves canned food but I know dogs need some hard food to help clean their teeth.

Now my cats are on cheap dry food that they really hate. The do love and gorge themselves on canned fish food that I spoon over dry food once each day. Their raw food is a wild bird once a week.

But when I can't manage to get my own diet balanced, how am I to do it for my pets? :/

 

[lupinfarm]

Our Mini Poodles eat Iaams Small and Toy, and Kitty our Mini Poodle who can't keep weight on for the life of her eats Iaams Small and Toy Puppy food with oil.

Nacho eats Iaams small chunks

We're happy with Iaams, we'd prefer to feed Chicken Soup for the Dog Lovers Soul however it doesn't come small enough for the poodles to chew and its hard to come by in this area. Back when we got our first dog, our Labrador Retriever, Nutro was the biggest thing ever.. but all the fillers an especially the beet pulp in it made Samari sick and gave her bloat, she went to the vet, we took her off Nutro, and went to Iaams.

We'd prefer obviously to feed a raw food diet, but until we can do some calculations on how much chicken and other meats we'd need, they'll be on Iaams.

NOW our CAT is a totally different story. Accio cannot be on a high quality cat food, he was a feral kitten and high quality food gives him the serious runs LOL it's disgusting and you can tell he's not happy. He will eat anything and everything, he'll have dog food in the morning with the dogs, he'll get canned cat food when I feed the outdoor kitties (who prefer the canned stuff, we got a whole bunch free from the humane society when we took them in), he loves vegetables, chicken, popcorn, anything... mice... he LOVES curry for some reason.

 

[Henrietta23]

Our older dogs have been eating Wellness for a few years now. The lab/dobie mix does really well on the White Fish and Sweet Potato. The puppy we've kept on Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy which is what the breed fed and recommends. Not sure we'll stay on it though. Indy is very itchy and occasionally one ear gets really red inside. His next visit with the vet is moved up to tomorrow (had a squinty eye earlier today so I asked to get him in sooner. That's the best they could do, sigh.) That will be one question I have for him. The breeder recommended keeping the puppy "lean". I can see that would be easier on his growing joints etc. The vet thought he was a little too lean when he saw him. He's gone from 8lbs to 35 in two months!!
I will have to look into Taste of the Wild. I think our Agway carries it. Our new TSC (1.7 miles from my house!!) opens any day now. Maybe they will have it?

Oooh! This is my 1000th post!

 

[Javamama]

I'm looking for a new dog food too. My dog is odd with food. If she gets even a minute morsel of people food she will not eat her dog food for days, just hoping for another bite. She is a lean, glossy, high energy lab greyhound mix and is quite picky. When we got her we started on Nutro and in the last couple years I have had trouble with it being consistent from bag to bag, so I know something is wrong with the brand. I tried a few all meat brands months ago and she wouldn't go for any of them. I don't think I tried Taste of the Wild. I'll pick up a small bag tonight and see if she will eat it. I'm almost afraid to. I do not want to be cleaning up any doggie squirts in the morning. Every new bag of food is like playing the lottery.
I'm not up for raw yet. It has more to do with not wanting to buy factory farmed meat.