What Do You Feed?

[Caiti]

Just interested.

I feed Acana Regionals, currently the Ranchlands forumla. With every meal I add salmon oil and blueberries, and a rotation of different combinations of melon, low-fat plain yogurt, canned pumpkin, carrots, banana, ground flaxseed, and occasionally a bit of boiled skinless unseasoned chicken breast or a dot of crunchy peanut butter. Whenever I stop at the local feed store I usually get a smaller Natural Balance roll so I can chop it into cubes and add some to the dogs' food so they have some meaty bites and textures.

What do you feed?

 

[sara]

Wow, that's a question and a half...

Currently, in my pantry (and freezer), my dogs have:

Dry:
First Mate, Lamb and Blueberry
Horizon Pulsar, Chicken
Orijen, 6 fish
Acana, Duck and Bartlett Pear
Fromm, Pork and Applesauce

Canned:
First Mate, all flavours
Fromm, All flavours

Dehydrated:
DNA, Beef and Liver

Raw:
Chicken Necks and Backs
Pets Go Raw, Chicken and Veggie and Beef and Veggie (premade ground)
A whole rabbit
Stewing Goat Meat (bone in)
Whole, frozen Sardines

And supplements are:
Salmon oil
Primrose oil
Pet Tek Re-Gen Max (joint supplement)

And they also get a variety of fruits and veggies and table scraps

What I currently have, night not be what I have next month...

My dogs (and cat, though the cat only gets raw and canned, kibble is NOT good for them at all!) get something different every meal, I do not believe in feeding the same thing day after day, I don't think it's actually good for them.

 

[Mutt]

We feed dogloversgold. In the morning they get low-fat yoghurt with it and we are going to start with salmonoil for in the evening.

Besides that they also get:
As treats/rewards I use their own food (they love it), dried fish pieces, small dogtreats and cheese.

They also get something to chew every now and then: small rawhide sticks, big rawhide chewing bones, cow ears and long cowheadskin sticks (70-80 cm long). We almost always have the small sticks and I try to get the bigger ones every now and than (at least a whole bunch every 2 months).

Now that it is quite hot during the day and I don't walk them untill it has cooled down, they get a filled kong which takes them some time (frozen yoghurt or molted cheese with something).

I also like to try new treats and such for them.

 

[kassidybc]

We used to feed Chloe Evo, with some canned pumpkin, but they recently had a recall on Evo. We are now just trying different brands of food and seeing which we like best. We are currently trying out Origen, and next we will be trying Nature's Variety.

 

[Pawbla]

Lol I feel like a poor person! I feed only one brand of kibble. It's the best one you can find in my country according to my standards (the best kibble that's not imported - but as far as I know it's still very hard to import anything). I'm very reclutant to rotate. Every other food seems to have preservatives that are suspected of being carcinogenic.

 

[Mutt]

Lol I feel like a poor person! I feed only one brand of kibble. It's the best one you can find in my country according to my standards (the best kibble that's not imported - but as far as I know it's still very hard to import anything). I'm very reclutant to rotate. Every other food seems to have preservatives that are suspected of being carcinogenic.

To be honost Pawbla I wouldn't be very fond of rotating differnt brands (other flavours of the same brand would be okay) as I have always been told that it is better not to. Thoug everybody should be free to feed like they want.
Mazzel can be sensitive for food changes so we sty with DLG. And if the brand you are giving is the best one in your opinion I would just keep giving it

 

[Pawbla]

It's actually good for your dog to rotate. What is not good are sudden changes, as those can upset the dog's stomach .

I also forgot that my dog gets fed "cooking scraps" (not table scraps), like parts of raw vegetables that are not so yummy for humans or sometimes raw vegetables that are still apt for human consumption but have gone a bit too "mature" for my taste.

 

[sara]

Actually, sudden changes aren't a problem for dogs used to sudden changes. There are three of us (that I know of) doing what I do, with major success. Dogster's dog now eats, and isn't being picky anymore. And Charmedwolf (the other mod) has recently switched to feeding like I do with some real benefits... just look at my profile page. Feeding the same thing day after day is an artificial thing 1st world countries have started doing in the last 50-60 years or so. Before that (and in 3rd world countries), dogs ate scraps of what we ate, and what they could scrounge/hunt for themselves.

Think about this. If all you ever ate was chicken, rice, spinach salad, and a mulitvitamin every day, every meal, you would not be able to suddenly have beef, potatoes and broccoli without getting sick... besides that, even though you are getting all the vitamins you "technically" need, your doctor would have a heart attack! Yet, we are doing this to our dogs, who are technically scavengers, and need a large variety of foods to get what their bodies need. Just because huge petfood corporations say feeding a variety is bad, doesn't mean it's actually true. If they can convince a pet owner that their food is the best, and to only ever feed that food, then they stand to gain a whole lot of money!

Besides, Vet school nutrition courses are sponsored by Hills, Royal Canin or Purina (depending on the country) Would you believe vets that are trained by pet food companies that stand to make alot of money???

You guys need to read Pukka's Promise, by Ted Karasote... very enlightening.

 

[Caiti]

I wanted to rotate but Wylie began to put on weight so my mum moved him to Acanas weight management food, can't remember the name. I wasn't to fond of the idea, but we have to keep him fit. Extra weight puts stress on his joints and he has dysplasia so we have to keep him very fit. He put on a couple of pounds, not enough to do harm ad he can easily loose it, but my mum got anxious and is switching him. He is the family dog, so I don't really have any control. Matrix is now on Orijen Six Fish, because I do have control over her.

 

[sara]

I wanted to rotate but Wylie began to put on weight so my mum moved him to Acanas weight management food, can't remember the name. I wasn't to fond of the idea, but we have to keep him fit. Extra weight puts stress on his joints and he has dysplasia so we have to keep him very fit. He put on a couple of pounds, not enough to do harm ad he can easily loose it, but my mum got anxious and is switching him. He is the family dog, so I don't really have any control. Matrix is now on Orijen Six Fish, because I do have control over her.

I used to have Oliver and Mouse on Orijen 6-fish, exclusively. Ollie could not eat any protein but fish (not even peanut butter!) without getting VERY sick when he was on it... even 1/4 of a cooked egg yolk would give him explosive diarrhea... Now, I can give him everything and anything without so much as a soft poo. He had raw goat meat for the first time ever a week ago, (and he DOES. NOT. EAT. RAW! The picky moron apparently likes goats... but he won't touch raw fish, chicken, beef, pork or rabbit!)I was expecting soft poo or diarrhea, but he never had an issue!

As far as Acana's weight management formula (I believe it's called "Fit and Free") it's fairly decent food. However, if you wanted to try to convince her to rotate, A half portion of Orijen with some cooked or pureed veggies, or soft, edible boney lean meat like chicken necks or wings) are great for weight loss. Bone acts like fiber, and fiber is important for weight loss

 

[Mutt]

Ooh but I don't listen to vets when it comes to animal food (even though I'm starting with veterinary medicine myself next year) and taking advice from a brand is also useless, I talking about dog owners (who aren't brain washed ).
We don't rotate as we are happy with DLG, other brands are either garbage or really expensive. So I vary in snacks and rewards.
On a side note I have been reading into raw feeding, but the only thing holdy me back to suggest it to my mom is the price. Everywere I read it is cheaper, but with Mazzel and Boef there food would almost cost us twice as much!

@Caiti, doesn't Orijen have different kinds of flavors? You could at least suggest rotating between those.

 

[648117]

Holly and Lewis eat GO! Fit and Free which is grain free.

Last year I had Holly on Orijen, but I was never completely happy with it, Holly's poop seemed to always be softer than I thought it should be (although she was doing fine other than that). She had been on it for about 4 months by then so she should have gotten used to it.
When we got Lewis (who was free fed on supermarket rubbish when we got him) he didn't like the Orijen so we decided to just switch them both to GO! Fit and Free (I was thinking about changing Holly anyway). It is still grain free just like Orijen and seems to have very good reviews (5 star on the dog food advisor website).
Now her poop is much more solid and she doesn't have any digestive issues. I guess Orijen just didn't suit her.

However they don't only eat kibble.
I don't generally train with kibble, so most days Holly also gets some hotdog, or cheese, or some other sort of meat product. They also get some sort of "big treat" most evenings which could be a pigs ear, a deer tendon, a dried beef rib or a frozen kong (I usually fill these with a bit of kibble, baby food and some sort of biscuit treat or peanut butter stuck in the end). My sister sometimes gives Holly some banana, I sometimes give her some apple and she sometimes gets raw veg if it's dropped when being cut up or being fed to the rabbit (she loves raw carrot, cabbage, brussel sprouts, frozen peas and corn). Lewis doesn't like the fruit and veg (although he recently decided he now likes apple, frozen peas and corn).
On walks (for good recalls) I always take dried chicken treats and just got some new dried meat treats the other day (I like to take ones that are dry and don't smell too much).
Holly also eats horse poop and saw dust on Monday evenings (we have agility in a horse training place over winter, I try to limit how much she eats but she loves it and it's everywhere, it doesn't seem to upset her tummy).

So although their main meals are the same everyday, that is never all they get.
I feel like these extra's must contribute to them having good digestive health and they have never had any issues getting a different type of treat or anything (even the first time they got a pigs ear each they were fine). Althought their kibble is grain free I don't mind them having treats that arn't grain free as they should be able to handle is (they don't have allergies).


Sara, I wonder if the issue is more with dogs that only recieve kibble? Some dogs never/rarely recieve anything extra (I know some dogs who live like that, never get treats) and it is easy to see how a dog could have digestive issues if they are solely and entirely fed one type of kibble.
I'm sure if a human ate the exact same thing for breakfast and lunch everyday (something healthy) but had something different for dinner each day it would be fine. In fact I'm pretty sure a fair number of people do that (eg, the same cereal or toast for breatfast and the same packed lunch at work/school).

 

[Mutt]

Holly also eats horse poop and saw dust on Monday evenings (we have agility in a horse training place over winter, I try to limit how much she eats but she loves it and it's everywhere, it doesn't seem to upset her tummy).

Boef does this also. Mazzel never really ate horse poop and if he did it was more like taking a small bit to 'taste'.
Boef just gets as much poop in her mouth as possible she really takes huge chunks. Now it is getting better though and I'm able to let her leave the poop when I'm 10 meter away.

 

[Pawbla]

Actually, sudden changes aren't a problem for dogs used to sudden changes. There are three of us (that I know of) doing what I do, with major success. Dogster's dog now eats, and isn't being picky anymore. And Charmedwolf (the other mod) has recently switched to feeding like I do with some real benefits... just look at my profile page. Feeding the same thing day after day is an artificial thing 1st world countries have started doing in the last 50-60 years or so. Before that (and in 3rd world countries), dogs ate scraps of what we ate, and what they could scrounge/hunt for themselves.

Think about this. If all you ever ate was chicken, rice, spinach salad, and a mulitvitamin every day, every meal, you would not be able to suddenly have beef, potatoes and broccoli without getting sick... besides that, even though you are getting all the vitamins you "technically" need, your doctor would have a heart attack! Yet, we are doing this to our dogs, who are technically scavengers, and need a large variety of foods to get what their bodies need. Just because huge petfood corporations say feeding a variety is bad, doesn't mean it's actually true. If they can convince a pet owner that their food is the best, and to only ever feed that food, then they stand to gain a whole lot of money!

Besides, Vet school nutrition courses are sponsored by Hills, Royal Canin or Purina (depending on the country) Would you believe vets that are trained by pet food companies that stand to make alot of money???

You guys need to read Pukka's Promise, by Ted Karasote... very enlightening.

Yeah that makes sense. I've been off meat for a couple of years and if I try to eat/taste something with meat (usually when you buy food from somewhere and they say "it has no meat in it" and it's a dirty lie) it's very hard on my stomach and tastes horrible.

I said that sudden changes are not good (at least in my experience) because my dog is very sensitive to them. A change in quantities, brand or times per day in which I feed him usually trigger vomits. Vet says his stomach gets inflamed or something like that? I don't quite remember.

I'm interested in rotating though. How often do you rotate? How should I introduce the change?

 

[sara]

Well, my dogs and cat get something different every meal. I started by using a base food amd adding a little bit of something different. I progressed slowly to completely different meals. It's really solved Oliver's digestive issues

 

[648117]

Well, my dogs and cat get something different every meal. I started by using a base food amd adding a little bit of something different. I progressed slowly to completely different meals. It's really solved Oliver's digestive issues

That's good that it cleared up his digestive issues .

In an ideal world I guess dogs should eat something different for every meal, or eat raw (which often has more variation).
But it just isn't always practical. I'm happy with Holly having GO! Fit and Free as the base of her diet, but with a lot of extras that vary each day. I guess it's somewhere in between how many dogs are fed (ie, the same kibble each day with no extra's) and a rotational diet.

But rotatonal feeding is definitely something that I will keep in mind if I ever do have a dog with digestive issues.

 

[sara]

I don't really trust Petcurian (go and now) myself. They no longer have their own manufacturing facility... which is a must for me... contracting out to huge manufacturers is a no no for us. But then, there's so few foods I'll feed.

 

[648117]

GO! and Orijen are basically the only other grain free dog food that our petshop has. If I didn't feed one of those it would have to be Eukanuba, or Royal Canine, or Purina or something like that to stay with kibble .

I did have Holly on Orijen and really wanted it to work because it is such a good food (on paper) but it didn't seem to agree with her as she still had soft poop after 3 months on it.

 

[Dogster]

Well, I have put off canned foods (for now) because I'm starting to feed raw to Shivon. She likes it, I think, lol. This summer she doesn't really want to eat anything because of the extreme heat. Especially since I wasn't able to give her raw last week (camping) or this week (going camping today) She's getting really picky about dry food (she will now only eat Orijen Adult) but I'm going to start adding veggies and meat to her food so maybe she'll eat. (Shivon also got reeeeeally picky when it comes to veggies recently. She won't touch them, especially if they're raw.)

right now, the foods that I have in my basement and freezer are:

Dry:

• Orijen Adult
• Orijen Regional Red
• Acana Singles Lamb and Okanagan Apple
• Back To Basics High Protein Duck Formula

(Shivon doesn't really want to eat foods with grains in them, but I want her to eat at least 1 food with grains in it so grains won't disappear completely from her diet.)

I want to feed Shivon 6 fish Orijen, but all the "fishy" dry foods I have tried in the past didn't work for her, she didn't want to eat them. I was thinking about getting canned food with some fish in it maybe...

Canned:

Right now I feed 2 types of Merrick cans, but only once in a while. I'm trying to find a better canned food. I haven't been feeding a lot of canned food lately since Shivon is starting raw.

Raw:

BCR Raw (Big Country Raw) This company is great. They're local (Niagara Region, in Ontario, which is just south of where I live), and the meat is local. Right now I feed the Chicken formula.

 

[Mutt]

Back To Basics High Protein Duck Formula
(Shivon doesn't really want to eat foods with grains in them, but I want her to eat at least 1 food with grains in it so grains won't disappear completely from her diet.)

May I ask why you want her to have grains in her diet?

Are you feeding raw as in making your own menu and giving bones and meat or do you mean ready made meat (from brands)? It is import to feed different species when feeding raw to prevent shortages .
Sorry maybe you already know this, I do support raw feeding, but sadly a lot of people don't read into it (which is very important when you are messing with menu's/food).