Everyone Who Buys Dogfood Should Read This:

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
HERE IS GREAT LINK,
for email alerts for all dog food recalls and alerts

that ppl should ALL sign up for, just to be safe:
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-recall-alerts/



which company owns or makes which dog food,
seems to change up pretty regularly.....it IS hard to keep track of that.:rolleyes:

some brands that were quite popular, when bought out by another manufacturer, change their whole ingredient list, etc. Very hard to keep total track of, imo.


This thread i am making here,
is just part of THIS here thread
http://www.dogtrickacademy.com/members/forums/threads/diamond-pet-food-recall.4734/#post-38945
but i thought no one might see this here "Recall Alert" service that we can sign up for.:)

Like, who knew Wellness is doing a recall?? :eek: that is one of The top dog foods of all dog foods!!!
 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
I can not afford to feed Buddy raw, nor pure meat only, BUT IF HE WAS SMALL TINY DOG, I BET I COULD!! well, maybe i could, who knows....



but,

i can afford to sometimes stock up on some meat on sale,
or bulk meat/large amounts
cook it up (my dog balks at raw meat:rolleyes: , and my guy STILL has heart attack about this raw thing, :rolleyes:but, i'm working on both of them!! The dog, and the guy! :ROFLMAO: )

I use chicken, pork, venison if anyone has been hunting lately,
liver, a big turkey all cooked up, beef, duck, seafood/fish,
whatever meat is on sale,
even if it is a weird meat...
or, sometimes, several types of meat all in one pot, baking or grilling or boiling up together.
i do not include much meat fats or much poultry skin at all-------- just some, just a bit, but not a lot. Dogs do need a bit of fat, but, not too much.

and to make the meat go a lil further,
i throw in some cooked up veggies, (carrots, green beans, whatever is on sale)
and some rice or oats.
Usually, the best i can do, is half meat, and half veggies & rice.:(


I beat it all up with hand-held beaters as best as i can.
Then i add in some of the broth back in again.

I cool it all off, til it is not too hot to pour into bags.

I slop this, some of the BROTH AND ALL, 1 cup -- to--- 2 cups per bag,
into FREEZER BAGS,
and drop all those "MEAL PACKS";) sized bags into larger bag. and freeze them. I take one or two lil bags out of freezer, and it's thaw by dinnertime.

I do this about once a month, MAKE ONE BIG BATCH,
just for some variety for my dog. This has to be at least as healthy as most store bought dog foods.
although, i'd like to increase the meat amount to be 2/3 or 3/4 meat, if i could.



This makes nice change up for my dog's dietary needs, lil change. He eats this homemade dogfood thawed,
heated up,
OR still frozen!!:ROFLMAO:
MUST BE GOOD!!??


so, a few times a week, Buddy is getting homemade dog food. I can't offer the homemade dog food EVERY night,
but, it makes a nice change for the dog.
 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
YES, I HAVE SIGNED UP for recall alerts to my email inbox now......it's sad, but, most of us who do buy ready-made dog food should consider doing that........when even top-shelf dog foods like Wellness get a recall,
well, it seems not many dog foods can be 100% protected from germs,
100% of the time...
 

Anneke

Honored Member
My brand isn't in there, so it's no use for us.

About the raw food... I have found a supplier of raw, who is a lot cheaper then the brands I usually buy. Or can buy, since there is not a lot of brands out here in the petstores.
My friend found a supplier who is actually affordable!
The brand I usually get costs 3,50 euro a kilo. One kilo will feed my dogs two times as they get about 200 grams each, per meal.
Now this supplier will bring a crate of 18 kilo for 25 euro!!!!
18 kilo would cost me 63 euro with my other brand.
It is still a lot more expensive than the kibble, as that lasts a lot longer than 18-20 days, but it will allow me to have at least two raw-days a week. Yay!!!
Just need to find some room in my freezer to put up 18 kilo of meat:D
 

charmedwolf

Moderator
Staff member
I signed up for these alerts because even though I don't usually feed kibble, my work does and it easy to get the word out if they don't already know. The kibble that Isis is on right now is on thankfully a 5star and not being recalled. I hoping maybe this food will start putting weight on her easier than raw.
 

MaryK

Honored Member
Cannot find a similar site for Australia:( Am changing my boys over to all raw food. Love Tiger Lily's idea of a 'stew/soup' will make up some for them. Maybe Zeus will eat his veggies if they are in a stew. Ra Kismet will eat ANYTHING!!!!
 

Gordykins

Experienced Member
I do make food for my Gordy. It definitely can get expensive as he is about 70lbs, but can definitely be done cost effectively too!!! And definitely worth not having to worry about where his food has come from, or been exposed to!
We have learned that freezer burned meat that most people won't eat is still good for dogs, and still has the same nutritional value. Some people do raw or home cooked diets, and have a ton of success taking freezer burnt meat and using it to make their dogs' food. we've never done that with Gordy, so I can't say anything from personal experience.
If you go to the forums where people talk mostly about nutrition... there are people who claim they either feed raw or home cook, and do it for multiple dogs (even including dogs Gordy's size!) and do it for less than $100/YEAR.
We shop in bulk, and snatch up whatever is on sale. We also use as many organic ingredients as we possibly can use when we feed Gordy. It is expensive though, so to cut costs, sometimes we have to use non-organic items. We have spent as much as $250/month (calked up to trying to many new things... not because they were on sale... but "oh! Gordy would like that and it has xyz nutrients, so it's really good for him!" when there were other, cheaper options available for providing the same nutrients.), and as few as $100/month so far. But still... we're pretty new at it... we've only been trying it out for about 3 months now. A lot of people tell us that they can feed a home cooked diet for less than the cost of kibble.
We started out using recipes from "The Healthy Dog Cookbook 50 Nutritious and Delicious Recipes Your Dog Will Love" (Jonna Anne with Mary Strauss) and "Dr Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats" (Richard Pitcairn). Dr Pitcairn's book goes over a lot of what goes on in the pet food industry (they should be ashamed of what they do), and also gives some recipes for simply adding a little bit of home cooked supplementation to kibble as well as full recipes, and explains how you want to go about compiling your dog food recipes.
It is extremely important to supplement home cooked diets. When a dog is on a raw diet, they are getting most of (if not all... but I haven't looked into raw feeding enough to make that claim for sure) their nutrients through the food itself. With a cooked diet, you are omitting bones so a calcium supplement needs to be added. We also supplement when we know he will need more trace minerals than his diet is providing, or we add oils to recipes that don't contain enough fat content for him, and oils must be supplemented with vitamin E.
http://www.dogaware.com/index.html <--- this is a good site to start researching any kind of diet at.
Another option, although its pretty pricey (or I think so anyway) is The Honest Kitchen. From what I've researched so far they make a food that is (and the FDA considers!) human grade food, made in a human food manufacturing plant.
Buying meat in bulk... as in literally buying a cow whole, half a cow, a quarter of a cow... saves money too. It is a big up front cost, and requires that you have space to store it, but in the long run, it saves on the cost of food for us and for Gordy.
My general rule of thumb for selecting what supplements and ingredients I use in his food is if it isn't safe for me, I don't need to risk it with him either.
Another thing that I had done in the past, was called the dog food companies that claimed that their food was made with human grade products ONLY, and they will tell you up and down all day long how great their product is, and they use just the same products you will buy in the grocery store!! Then (yes, there is probably something wrong with me!) I would say "Well, thank you SO MUCH for all of your help!! I've recently lost my job, and with times being so tough, this actually is the best way for ME to get a balanced meal. Can you believe that dog food is actually more nutritious than eating Ramen??" You'd be surprised how fast they start caving then. "OH, well, our ingredients aren't actually PROVEN to be safe for humans...." :confused:
 

jacobite

Well-Known Member
Is it safe to gie a dog raw food? I heard it would turn him icious. (sorry trouble with one letter oncomputer) Some recipes I hae read say to gie the dog things like peanut butter, but I thought that was indigestible, fruit, I thought it gae dogs the runs and whole wheat this and that. I don't use whole grain, does Charlie hae to ? I know that kibble is not great for him, but I don't want to go whole grain and hae his poo runny
 

Gordykins

Experienced Member
Is it safe to gie a dog raw food? I heard it would turn him icious. (sorry trouble with one letter oncomputer) Some recipes I hae read say to gie the dog things like peanut butter, but I thought that was indigestible, fruit, I thought it gae dogs the runs and whole wheat this and that. I don't use whole grain, does Charlie hae to ? I know that kibble is not great for him, but I don't want to go whole grain and hae his poo runny
eta: Just ignore me! I'm an idiot, and there is a whole thread about raw feeding that I saw was listed right below this one! SO rather than listen to my uneducated babble on the matter, its probably better to let those with experience answer! Sorry. :oops:

There are a lot of people who do it, and have supposedly not had any problems. I haven't done as much research on it because I am on immunosuppressant therapy, and I worry about contamination since its not really just like prepping food that is raw and being able to clean the counter off and be done with it. I have read that other people w/ compromised immune systems have no problem with it.
I've read that there are no issues with raw feeding making dogs "blood thirsty."
Switching to a richer diet supposedly usually gives dogs some diarrhea til they're used to it... a slow transition helps, I've also read that if you fast a dog for a day they won't get diarrhea, but I'd feel bad to fast him when transitioning works as well.
Sorry I can't really help... all I know about raw is what I've learned from books or mostly the internet... and, well, you know you can't always believe what you read online! You can always find 2 exact opposite things written on the same topic online!

Here are a couple of sites that discuss pros, cons, myths. They seem to sum up the majority of what I can find about RAW. Idk how reliable they are though, because like I said, I'm lacking a full knowledge of raw diets.
http://www.organicauthority.com/pets/the-pros-and-cons-of-a-raw-food-diet-for-your-dog.html#s.abqhqq37abiaa

http://rawfed.com/myths/
 

MaryK

Honored Member
Both Zeus and Ra Kismet have raw meat and neither have a vicious bone in their bodies. I think from what I've found, that's an old wives tale'. Which may originate from when
Greyhound trainers used 'live' bait. This is what I have been told anyway.

As to fruit, Ra Kismet eats masses, picks it straight of the trees and never has any problems, However, if the dog isn't used to eating fruit/veggies it may cause runny poo, just like humans.

You would need to change over gradually when changing any dog's diet.

Peanut butter, never had a problem with that either. Ra Kismet adores it but doesn't get too much as it's one of his 'special rewards' treats. I only buy organic, don't trust anything else!
 
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