Adopting a dog advise?

[eclipse1966]

just to add a few points on the food, it is true that if you have the time and money to feed your pet a raw diet, then you cant go wrong. However, for many families that may not be an option. Anyway, years ago I used to be involved in the pet food industry so I am fairly familiar with this area. If you need to feed a kibble food to your pet, make sure you read the ingredient list and and find out where the source of protein comes from. Avoid pet foods with the main ingredients coming from grains and soybeans as these are fillers and not healthy for your pet because they have a short intestinal track and hard to digest. Also, if the label says "whole chicken" avoid it as well. Ingredients are labeled from the heaviest to the least per 1 metric tonne batches. Whole chicken comes to the pet food manufacturer in a frozen state and heavier in weight. So, by labeling laws they are allowed to put this ingredient as the primary ingredient despite a cheaper grain being the majority of the ingredient. Also try to find a pet food which sources its protein from multiple ingredients such chicken, fish, eggs and lamb. This will give them a well balance amino acid profile which is also important.

As for the vets, not sure if they still do it, but another reason they are recommending Hills Science Diet or Medical pet foods as they are getting direct kick backs from the manufacturer per each bag sold.

 

[-LadyDirt-]

Thanks for posting this as well Eclipse.. I wanted to mention exactly what you said about the kibble ingredients, but I wanted to sort out my facts first. I do feed my older dog a partial kibble/raw diet, just small meal of the kibble a day in the morning, and with him lately i've been sticking to a mix of the Acana Ranchlands (beef, bison & lamb) and mix in just a wee bit of the Acana Puppy (free run chicken, salmon and whole egg) and seems to do fine, but he only eats maybe half a handful of it a day..his raw meal at night is more than enough to suffice him. When my 3 month old pup reaches 6 months I will put him on the part kibble diet too. The ingredients in Acana seem to be okay from what I can tell. I was feeding Timberwolf and Prairie before too but I believe one of the two had grain products, and Acana is grain free.

Yeah your likely right about the Hills Science and the vet clinics getting a small percentage of sales on it, they gave me a free bag of the puppy food when I brought my puppy in for vaccines, and its still sitting unopened ..I should donate it to a shelter at the very least as I feed my puppy %100 raw for now and I likely wont be feeding him that stuff when I switch him on to the part kibble...

 

[eclipse1966]

Thanks for posting this as well Eclipse.. I wanted to mention exactly what you said about the kibble ingredients, but I wanted to sort out my facts first. I do feed my older dog a partial kibble/raw diet, just small meal of the kibble a day in the morning, and with him lately i've been sticking to a mix of the Acana Ranchlands (beef, bison & lamb) and mix in just a wee bit of the Acana Puppy (free run chicken, salmon and whole egg) and seems to do fine, but he only eats maybe half a handful of it a day..his raw meal at night is more than enough to suffice him. When my 3 month old pup reaches 6 months I will put him on the part kibble diet too. The ingredients in Acana seem to be okay from what I can tell. I was feeding Timberwolf and Prairie before too but I believe one of the two had grain products, and Acana is grain free.

Yeah your likely right about the Hills Science and the vet clinics getting a small percentage of sales on it, they gave me a free bag of the puppy food when I brought my puppy in for vaccines, and its still sitting unopened ..I should donate it to a shelter at the very least as I feed my puppy 0 raw for now and I likely wont be feeding him that stuff when I switch him on to the part kibble...

No problem. Just a word advice on the raw food, try to keep the diet stable / consistent as much as possible. Again with a short intestinal track pets have a hard time digesting their food so irregularities in their diet can be harder on them. Also, avoid dairy products such as cheese as much as possible. As a matter of fact, my grandfather ended the family dog's life shorter than necessary by feeding him too much cheese. The vet had warned him several times but it went on deaf ears until it was too late. Man could that dog fart!

 

[-LadyDirt-]

No problem. Just a word advice on the raw food, try to keep the diet stable / consistent as much as possible. Again with a short intestinal track pets have a hard time digesting their food so irregularities in their diet can be harder on them. Also, avoid dairy products such as cheese as much as possible. As a matter of fact, my grandfather ended the family dog's life shorter than necessary by feeding him too much cheese. The vet had warned him several times but it went on deaf ears until it was too late. Man could that dog fart!

yeah I keep it consistent with mine, my Shiba has been fed the same diet since he was 6 months old (fed all raw when a puppy) and is now 6 years and this is what the breeder does with all of her dogs and they always do well. My little pup will continue on all raw and once he is 6 months I will try him on the same diet. Kibble and raw combined is absolutely fine as long as there is atleast 5 hrs in between (and its good high quality kibble), as they should not be in the digestive tract at the same time.

I dont feed my dogs cow milk cheese as much anymore for treats and have switched to goat products. Goat milk, goat cheese and goat yogurt. Puppy gets it especially, the goats milk, unlike cows milk, is very easily digestable (this is why people who are lactose intolerant can drink goats milk) and goats are extremely healthy animals and the milk, like the puppys mothers milk, provides lots of nutrients/probiotics, etc to help keep the immune system up. The yogurt has the similar effect. But once puppy matures he will no longer get the milk, and they both get a spoonful of the yogurt once every other day or so. They love the goat cheese, I use it mostly for training the puppy along with fruits and vegetables, but the old guy enjoys a peice once in a while too!

 

[eclipse1966]

yeah I keep it consistent with mine, my Shiba has been fed the same diet since he was 6 months old (fed all raw when a puppy) and is now 6 years and this is what the breeder does with all of her dogs and they always do well. My little pup will continue on all raw and once he is 6 months I will try him on the same diet. Kibble and raw combined is absolutely fine as long as there is atleast 5 hrs in between (and its good high quality kibble), as they should not be in the digestive tract at the same time.

I dont feed my dogs cow milk cheese as much anymore for treats and have switched to goat products. Goat milk, goat cheese and goat yogurt. Puppy gets it especially, the goats milk, unlike cows milk, is very easily digestable (this is why people who are lactose intolerant can drink goats milk) and goats are extremely healthy animals and the milk, like the puppys mothers milk, provides lots of nutrients/probiotics, etc to help keep the immune system up. The yogurt has the similar effect. But once puppy matures he will no longer get the milk, and they both get a spoonful of the yogurt once every other day or so. They love the goat cheese, I use it mostly for training the puppy along with fruits and vegetables, but the old guy enjoys a peice once in a while too!

whow you sure take care of your pets! Good job!

 

[-LadyDirt-]

I have a funny story about the raw food though..

We hired a friend of ours to come paint our condo a couple years ago while we were on vacation in the east coast, we bought burgers and beer so he could eat and enjoy a beer while he was at our place painting. We specifically told him there is raw dog food in the freezer so DON'T eat it as it could easily be mistaken for actual burgers. But help yourself to whatever else. The Carnivora raw food sort of looks like enormous burgers, in a plain, clear plastic bag... so we get a phone call on vacation from our friend, asking, "What the he!! is up with those nasty burgers in your freezer!?!?" Well.. he barbecued up the raw food patties, which I will add are pretty much whole animal carcus grinded up.. bones, teeth, organs and all...Guess they weren't that bad with mustard, ketchup and burger buns, aside from the "crunchiness". Whats even better.. he invited a bunch of other guys over that day to help paint and enjoy the BBQ as well.. Hehehe. He came over the other day while I was feeding the dogs, and he nearly got sick looking at the stuff haha.. so funny

 

[eclipse1966]

I have a funny story about the raw food though..

We hired a friend of ours to come paint our condo a couple years ago while we were on vacation in the east coast, we bought burgers and beer so he could eat and enjoy a beer while he was at our place painting. We specifically told him there is raw dog food in the freezer so DON'T eat it as it could easily be mistaken for actual burgers. But help yourself to whatever else. The Carnivora raw food sort of looks like enormous burgers, in a plain, clear plastic bag... so we get a phone call on vacation from our friend, asking, "What the he!! is up with those nasty burgers in your freezer!?!?" Well.. he barbecued up the raw food patties, which I will add are pretty much whole animal carcus grinded up.. bones, teeth, organs and all...Guess they weren't that bad with mustard, ketchup and burger buns, aside from the "crunchiness". Whats even better.. he invited a bunch of other guys over that day to help paint and enjoy the BBQ as well.. Hehehe. He came over the other day while I was feeding the dogs, and he nearly got sick looking at the stuff haha.. so funny

that is very funny! tks for sharing. I bet he will never to that again!

 

[imdoo'n]

won't be coming over for burgrers anytime soon,

 

[-LadyDirt-]

Well I mean, they look pretty attractive in the frozen state, they look like burgers on steroids, like 4 regular burger patties rolled into one and shaped perfectly in a round, inch or so thick patty so I dont blame our friend for picking them over the little crappy ones sitting next to the raw food in the freezer lol, but still... yuck.

And I believe I had the elk patties in there and oh man, I almost have to stop feeding my dogs the elk because it smells so bad raw, I couldnt imagine what it might have smelled like when he cooked them. lol

 

[imdoo'n]

should make a few of those for the bro inlaw, he likes to mooch. hehe

 

[eclipse1966]

should make a few of those for the bro inlaw, he likes to mooch. hehe

oh that would be mean

My brother in law makes sausage and he knows I cant eat spicy food. So we were on a fishing trip once with another friend and he fried up some of his breakfast sausage. Well he and our friend lined the plate to facing me the hottest / meanest / spiciest sausage I ever ate. It took a few chews to realize how hot it was and they were laughing at me like a bunch of idiots. It was funny after the fact.

 

[john s]

Here is the bulldog I picked up yesterday.

 

[PonyboyCurtis]

Looks like the dog is fitting right in. thats awsome. I did the same thing with a chocolate lab that was stuck in a cage all day, she jumped right in my truck and never looked back. lol