Why Do You Feed What You Do?

[Guest Tess32]

Just wondering.

What made you choose to feed the diet you are currently feeding your dog?

[New Age Outlaw]

Research after reading info topics here on DOL. The info I found here gave me a direction to do further research in.

[Ashka]

The drop in quality when Proctor & Gamble purchased Eukanuba.

Research after reading the ingredient list on the back of dog food containers.

The peanut hulls in Science diet.

The back handers to the Vets and Vet schools including the nutrition text books written by Waltham one of the biggest pet food chains.

The latest pet poisoning episode and pet food recall in the USA which implicated most of the so called 'Good' brands.

I could go on but I won't. I make up his meals myself, balanced through info on the net and nutritional data spreadsheets. What I spend on food I save on vet bills.

Have fun learning.

Edited February 23, 2008 by Ashka

[J...]

I feed raw because I tried a lot of the low-fat reduced calorie foods when my dog was young, and I don't believe half a cup plus a meaty (not fatty) bone was giving her all the nutrients she needed. Plus I was having too much trouble keeping her at a good sporting dog weight even on that diet.

With a lot of research on here plus reading the BARF books, I started adding mushed vegies to her diet with half dog food as I wasn't quite confident I could do full raw well. In the end I wasn't happy with her coat and weight, and the recall of several major varieties of premium foods clinched the deal, so went to full raw and haven't gone back.

I like the fact that I do know whats she's being fed, and anyone who's seen her comments on now healthy she looks. Even the vets, but we don't discuss diet with them

[Gayle.]

After purchasing some purebred cats and keeping them indoors, I started off feeding what the breeder fed them......supermarket kitten food. Only to find that what comes out the other end is 100 times more disgusting than what went in and when you're in close proximity to their offerings, you tend to look for less stinky alternatives. I researched cat food and switched the cats to raw and super premium kibble; problem solved.

I noticed they looked fantastic after a few months, and so did our resident moggy as they were all getting the same food, so it stood to reason to adopt a similar diet for the dogs.

Benson was being fed raw and Supercoat puppy kibble by his breeder, it was easy to make the switch to my preferred kibble (Eagle Pack Holistic) and at the same time I moved Kassy, our old Lhasa to the same diet. Dusty was weaned onto a raw diet and I've just continued that on. The dogs rarely even get kibble now, it's just there in case of emergency and I also use it as training treats.

[The Spotted Devil]

A few things to consider with Dallies due to their propensity to form a unique type of urinary stone. They require a low purine diet (i.e chicken and pork are the best protein sources; avoid red meat and all organ meat) and a relatively low protein diet (15-20%) - finally found what I was looking for in the Eagle Pack range. Dry food constitutes about 90% of his diet, with the rest being made up of the odd chicken wing and training treats (cooked chicken, Natures Gift chicken treats). I want to keep that constant for a while before taking a urine sample to see the effect on stone forming.

ETA: As to who I took advice from - I took on board input from the breeder, the vet, DOL forums, the latest science based research and combined all that with my own understanding of animal nutrition from Uni and specific advice from one of my lecturers.

Edited February 23, 2008 by The Spotted Devil

[~Anne~]

Research and results. Some of their diet is predicted by my epileptic dog as well.

[Vehs]

researching and educating myself with sources beyond people looking to make $$ (i.e. sales assistants and commercial food propaganda, vets with food in their practice) I feel this diet makes the most sense to me and the boy is doing well on it

eta: I was introduced to raw feeding by Espinay who was D's kindy teacher, our breeder used mince/supercoat/weetbix/yoghurt type mix and did recommend bones too

Edited February 23, 2008 by Vehs

[Guest Tess32]

I should have done a poll!

Oh well.

Just interested to see how many do or don't take their advice from the vet, or their breeder, or pet shops, etc etc.

[kaywoman68]

In terms of kibble, my Vet recommended Science Diet (what they sell). I eventually went to Royal Canin cos I read up on DOL and saw that it is good (I also read Eaglepack and Nutro is good but it was just a bit out of my price range and also the fact of not being able to get it in ACT on a regular basis ). Then Oi started not eating RC without atleast something in it so I decided that maybe I should try something else. I bought a bag of Eaglepack Holistic and she ate it no probs at all. She also seemed happier too so now we buy EP (different types of holistic to have variety.......).

I also feed chicken wings (raw), chicken breast, fish oil tablets, eggs (raw and cooked), canned salmon/tuna etc. I used that dogs would be happy with canned dog food and kibble. DOL definitely opened my eyes to giving my 'kids' a 'good' diet. Sure they get fed 'junk food' but they should be allow to indulge every now and then like us :cool: (they keep a good figure because we watch out for them....I wish someone could do the same for me.....without me complaining though )

The poo is definitely not as smelly since not feeding them canned food........

[cooperblue]

we feed our young man Eukanuba thats what the breeder recommended, we seem to have no problem with it.

for dinner he gets chicken mince with calcium carbonate and feramo vitamin supplement aswell as mixed vegies.

he love his food, his coat is healthy and soft.

[Dog_Horse_Girl]

I started trying to find a solution to Lilly's inability to digest processed foods, and came across raw feeding on a greyhound forum. I noticed that most of the people with dogs that had tummy upsets ended up feeding raw, so I thought I had nothing to lose by researching what was involved. I hunted on the web for a while, then bought the Barf Diet book by Billinghurst, and went from there. As I didn't want just one dog on raw and the others on processed, I switched the lot, and none of us has looked back since.

I feed occasional processed treats - but I look for those without preservatives, artificial colours and flavours. They seem to give the least amount of trouble. Dried liver is the best treat I've found - the dogs go mad for it and it's easily bought in the supermarket!

[GbDb]

....

Edited September 25, 2008 by nume

[sharitas]

Hello

All Raw feeder here

I feed this diet because:

1. My breeder strongly recommended it to me & she

produced A LOT of information to back up how much sense it makes.

2. My last girl was taken by cancer & I feel her diet (of low quality kibble) did not

do her any favours in the health department.

So I hope Raw feeding is the best I can do for Rebel

[SoL]

We've kind of evolved with what we're feeding our dogs ... at first it was what our mentor recommended then the boys decided to be fussy little barstewards so we tried nearly every food on the market. They settled on Supercoat but, ages ago, I found that they looked less healthy, their output matched their input and they'd lost their gleen. So the search began. We'd always fed raw as well as dry and we continue to do that. However, it has taken me a long time to be satisfied with the quality of dry food matched with price. I feel that the dry we give them now is a great base upon which raw is added along with the odd supplement of Livamol or Vitameal and fish. I just don't think an all raw diet satisfies absolutely every single nutritional need that they have, especialy when it comes to trace minerals, cal:phos ratios etc. On the other hand, I don't believe in just feeding them kibble. So in my view they get the best of both worlds and they look pretty good to me :D.

[Ashley]

I have still not found a dog food I am happy with. :D

Ash...

[kelpiesrule]

I feed Pro Plan performance to my dogs, ive tried many kibble brands but find that one is by far the best for my dogs (big bonus is the output :D or lack of it) I also feed chicken wings and brisket bones and fish etc, but I find with my lifestyle that a kibble diet for my dogs is easiest for me, so I get the best I can for them...

Kibble is also easy to take away for weekend shows etc...

[VintageDiva]

I've always fed Bean a raw diet, for a number of reasons.

I had watched my sister feed her two dogs a raw diet for years, and was impressed with their shiny coats, good health and fresh breath.

I did a lot of research - a year later I'm still researching and learning new things - and it made complete sense to feed a dog (a domesticated wolf) raw meat, as that's what its digestive system is set up for.

Also, why would I feed a processed, packaged diet with additives/colourings etc etc, plus a bunch of things a dog just doesn't need - when I can rely on a raw diet to provide everything my dog needs?

I always wanted to feed my dog what was best for it - not what was easiest for me, or pleasanter for me to look at and touch. As it turned out, I've found raw feeding extremely cost effective and one of the most interesting parts of having a dog in my life!

[B-Q]

W ejust sort of always fed the dogs mainly raw by the time I got Buz, that on top of the fact that he threw up any canned food he ever got made me pretty happy with the way we were going. He still gets very high quality kibble for breakfast but I'm thinking about taking that out of his diet soon. I'm just not comfortable to yet.

[Paulp]

When I first got Ebon at 3 months did not know what to get so got a small bag of IAMS. This seemed ridiculously expensive so then bought a bag of supercoat puppy. On the supercoat he started doing horrible poos (I changed the food over as recommended) and his behaviour noticeably deteriorated so I started looking into pet food and eventually settled on Advance large breed puppy partly because it is Australian owned. The behaviour settled and the poos returned to something not quite so offensive. I decided that for his health I was willing to pay the cost.

He also gets about 100g of pal puppy wet food mixed into the advance in the evenings because he would occasionally lose interest in eating (pretty odd for a lab/GR) and this would get him eating again.

On top of this he also gets a kong stuffed with platinum chicken (the rolls of food) most days as it is the perfect stiffness to last in the kong as long as possible.