Natural Diet Plan & What Product Works Best To Clean Teeth

[Dogsrules]

Hi, it seems 1 of my dog is a bit overweight, around 5 kg...vet said he needs to be given the dry food that has weight management etc etc, but I don't normally use dry food...so has anyone know of a diet plan that uses only natural food ( mince/vegie etc ) ?. Would appreciate any advice.

Also, I was told that he has a bit of plague on his teeth. Apparently chicken necks & bones still not enough. Recommendation was to give Aquadent.

Has anyone try this stuff ? Does it really works ? I read in Dogslife magazine about another product that is american made and sprayed on, can't remember the brand, but if anyone has tried any similar products and it works, I would really appreciate the info. I don't mind buying the products as long as it works.

Many thanks

[~Anne~]

Bones = clean teeth.

If your dog has accumulated tartar then she may need to undergo a dentistry procedure and spend the day at the Vet's. If it is inly light, just give lots of large hard raw bones for her to chew on.

With dieting, I drop the weight of my Pugs by increasing the vegetable portion of their meals and reducing the portion sizes. When they get to the desired weight I balance the meat and veges back to around 80% meat. Veges such as cabbage is very filling and is mainly water.

[Nekhbet]

Aquadent contains Xylitol and prevents the over breeding of bad bacteria in the dogs mouth and apparently prevents tartar. You do have to add 10mls to every litre of drinking water. We had it at the clinic it wasnt very popular and Xylitol is apparently toxic to dogs but the Virbac rep told me it wasnt anywhere near levels that could cause a problem - your choice

how about a little finger brush and some doggy toothpaste. Tiny dogs do not always use all their teeth and some accumulate tartar even though you are feeding bones - the trivialities of the un-wolf shaped mouth.

Yep up the vege component and mince your own meat. Even light mince will be fatty, buy whichever meat you like and either chop finely or whiz in the food processor - cant have added preservatives either!

[puggy_puggy]

Your doggy might need to go under GA to have it's teeth cleaned if the vet says that bones aren't enough.

As for food if you feed a BARF diet then you should only feed 2% to 3% of your dogs ideal weight a day. 80% being raw meaty bones and 20% being veggies, fruit, other meat, offal, and dairy.

BARF FEEDING ROUTINE

MONDAY

Chicken Necks

Slops

TUESDAY

Fish

Slops

WEDNESDAY

Chicken Necks

Yoghurt

Slops

THURSDAY

Kangaroo

Slops

FRIDAY

Chicken Necks

Offal

Slops

SATURDAY

Lamb bones

Slops

SUNDAY

Beef or Lamb or Kangaroo or Pork

Slops

BARF MENU EXPLAINATION -

* Raw Meaty Bones should make up approx 80% of your dogs diet with other meat, veggies, fruit, offal and dairy making up 20%.

*Adult dogs should be fed approx 2% of their ideal body weight. So you would work out 2% of your dogs weight and then work out 80% of that for your RMB and 20% for veggies, offal etc.

*Veggie Slops – 2 to 3 tablespoons each

*Chicken necks – 3 to 4 per dog depending on the size of the necks. I cut up the chicken necks into bite sized pieces about the size of half your index finger.

*Yoghurt (once a week) – 2 to 3 tablespoons each. Natural yoghurt

*Offal (once a week) – lambs kidney, sheep’s kidney, tongue, brain etc. The equivalent of one or two lamb’s kidney for each dog cut up into small pieces.

*Fish (once a week) – canned sardines, tuna etc (just make sure they have the bones in them) if they are lucky a piece of fresh fish each.

*Bones (once or twice a week) - (vary between Lamb (ribs/lamb flaps, backbones) Beef & Kangaroo Tail)

Some dogs can not stomach kangaroo as it is very rich. So see how they go with it and if they are unable to eat it then substitute it for another meat.

Kangaroo I get from a pet produce store. Chicken necks from either a chicken shop or the supermarket. Offal from the butcher. Bones from the butcher.

I will buy the meat, chicken necks, yoghurt and offal in large quantities and divide it up into separate meal portions and freeze. The night before that ingredient is to be eaten I will take the portion out of the freezer to defrost. Chicken necks, meat and offal I freeze in the snap lock freezer bags and the yoghurt in little tubs.

Veggie slops I make up in big batches and freeze in Chinese takeaway food containers.

BARF SLOPS INGREDIENTS & METHOD

Things I always include:

- container of alfala spouts

- bunch of spinach (roots cut off)

- 1 to 2 green capsicums (stalk cut off & seeds out)

- 1 to 2 red caspsicums (stalk cut off & seeds removed)

- bag of carrots

- bunch of celary

- 4 zuccinis

- 3 to 4 oranges (peeled)

- 1 pumpkin (seeds removed)

- 2 to 4 apples (pips taken out)

- 2 to 4 bannanas (peeled)

- 8 to 10 eggs (whole including shell)

- flaxseed oil (approx 250mL)

- kelp (approx 100g)

What else you can put in:

- bunch of silverbeet

- turnip

- squash

- sweet potato

- 2 to 4 pears

- half to 1 pinapple

- brussel sprouts

- brocoli

- cauliflower

- bag of beans

- Apple Cider Vinegar

- Vitamin C

Chop up then process up in blender/food processor so that things turn to slops. Put each blender batch into a big bucket. Usually leave the eggs & flaxseed oil for things that don't blend very well like the pumpkin and carrots. Ingredients should fill up a bucket. Mix bucket with big ladel till all mixed through then put into take away containers & freeze untill needed.

[oakway]

Hi, it seems 1 of my dog is a bit overweight, around 5 kg...vet said he needs to be given the dry food that has weight management etc etc, but I don't normally use dry food...so has anyone know of a diet plan that uses only natural food ( mince/vegie etc ) ?. Would appreciate any advice.

Also, I was told that he has a bit of plague on his teeth. Apparently chicken necks & bones still not enough. Recommendation was to give Aquadent.

Has anyone try this stuff ? Does it really works ? I read in Dogslife magazine about another product that is american made and sprayed on, can't remember the brand, but if anyone has tried any similar products and it works, I would really appreciate the info. I don't mind buying the products as long as it works.

Many thanks

Why don't you just half the amount of food you are giving now.

[Dogsrules]

Thanks for the replies, really appreciate it.

Pug rescue Syd, I thought so too, they always have raw bone in the morning, I asked the butcher to chop 1 big bone to rounds and give them 1 each/day or I substitute with chicken necks / carcass / lamb off cuts / beef soup bone because I thought it will clean their teeth, apparently doesn't work for my small ones.

Nekhbet, thanks for the info on Aquadent. I don't like using this kind of stuff anyway, so i think I'll try with brushing. Don't know how they're going to react to this, fingers cross

Puggy Puggy, thanks for your detailed reply. Haven't heard that food should be 2 % - 3 % of ideal weight, learning something new here. I also never try most of the things on the list, well...I'll try more different stuffs after this. I usually just stuck with pet mince from the butcher + carrot / peas + carbs ( basmati rice /pasta/noodle ), plus canned tuna/salmon once a week.

I can see from the BARF diet list that there is no carbs, but if I go to a rescue website, they usually have ' basmati rice' in their list for food donation. So...is carbohydrate needed in a dog's diet ?

I never give raw offal, mainly because some said that it might contains worms. I usually put it in the oven on 120 for 1 hour or so, the cut if off to small pieces. Is it really safe to give it raw ?

I don't normally give a whole fish or even fresh fish, just because of the bone. When I was 8 or 9, I had a puppy who died without any apparent reason and the autopsy concluded that a fish bone was the cause of it. Now I only use the canned fish, am I being paranoid for nothing ? Can they actually eat fish with bone, even small dogs like my chi girl in my avatar ?

Oakway, cutting in half is a quick solution, but out of the 4 dogs, 3 are in perfect weight score ( small breeds ) ( 3/5, by which 3 is the best score ), only 1 is a bit over ( large breed ). I think my portion size is not totally out of whack, so I just want to see if maybe the stuffs that I'm giving them is not the right balance. Funny thing is, the 3 has a bit of plague / tartare, but the chubby one has perfect teeth. Maybe he stole all their bones while I'm not looking Their coats are all in good condition so I'm pretty happy with that

[puggy_puggy]

Carbs (rice, pasta etc) are not needed in a dogs diet. They are a major source of skin issues in dogs and some believe they are a source of cancer. So don't bother with the grains.

Tinned sardines are probably the best to feed as they contain little bones that small doggies can cope with.

In reference to bones. Dogs need bones that they eat both the meat off the bone and the actual bone. If the bone is to hard they damage their teeth and are unable to eat any of it putting the calcium (bone) to phosphorus (meat) levels all out of whack. It is usually reccomended that you don't feed weighbearing bones, because these are generally very hard. I myself have found that lamb ribs and necks are great as the pugs can chew and eat the whole bone.

[~Anne~]

Carbs (rice, pasta etc) are not needed in a dogs diet. They are a major source of skin issues in dogs and some believe they are a source of cancer. So don't bother with the grains.

'Grains' does not equate to 'carbs'. Beans are also high in carbohydrates, as are potatoes. Fruit is also another source of high carbohydrates.

[hopenfox]

Another thing that will help clean teeth is provide chunks of food large enough that he has to bury his teeth deep into the food and work really hard. Things like chicken quarters, turkey drumettes or wings, or lamb necks or shanks.

For my dogs, I've found the best teeth cleaners are ox tongues (the tough meat and abrasive taste buds really scrub the teeth) and pork hocks or pigs feet. Raw pig skin is really tough and chewy and cleans teeth well.

I'm actually really aware of teeth cleaning stuff now that one of my dogs isn't allowed to swallow bones due to a throat condition. I did try brushing her teeth at first, but since she healed enough to move from minced food to the ox tongues and pork hocks, I don't need to brush at all.

[poodlefan]

I've fed my dogs the BARF diet for years and Lily still has tooth issues. My vet said nothing short of a lot of tearing of food will keep the tartar off her front teeth (back ones are pearly white) and I'm not putting a whole animal in the back yard for her. So it's brushing for Lil.

Getting weight off a dog is the same as getting weight off ourselves. Reduce the food intake or increase the amount of exercise, or both.

Let pumpkin be your dog's diet friend. Halve what you normally feed and replace the rest with pumpkin.. pulped, boiled or baked. It keeps them feeling full but they will lose weight.

Edited September 23, 2008 by poodlefan

[puggy_puggy]

Carbs (rice, pasta etc) are not needed in a dogs diet. They are a major source of skin issues in dogs and some believe they are a source of cancer. So don't bother with the grains.

'Grains' does not equate to 'carbs'. Beans are also high in carbohydrates, as are potatoes. Fruit is also another source of high carbohydrates.

Reccommeded veggies & fruits for BARF diets contain less then 10 grams equating to carbohydrates per 100 gram portion of the food. Many of them have less then 5 grams of carbs per 100g gram portion.

Whereas Cereals/grains such as white pasta contains 70.3 grams of carbs per a 100 gram serving and white rice 79.1 grams of carbs per 100 gram serving.

Potato is not a recommended food to be feed to dogs, because they are high in carbs, but saying that it a pale skinned peeled raw potato contains 13.8 grams of carbs per per a 100 gram serving so is much much less then most cereals and grains.

The beans that are high in carbs are the more oriental ones such as lima and kidney and lental. The common green bean, which is used in BARF feeding contains 2.4 grams of carbs per 100 gram serving.

[Dogsrules]

Thanks for the posts. Good info & ideas there, can't wait to give it all a try. Fingers cross that we will get better result on our next Vet check up. Thanks again

[~Anne~]

puggy, I don't want to argue on this, but what I was pointing out is that grains does not equate to carbs, not whether a dog should or should not be fed anything.

It is a common misconception that only white grain food types contain carbohydrates when in fact many, many vegetables and fruits are also high sources of carbs.

Your statement was: Carbs (rice, pasta etc) are not needed in a dogs diet. They are a major source of skin issues in dogs and some believe they are a source of cancer. So don't bother with the grains. which leads readers to think that a dog should not be fed carbs and that grains are carbs. Dogs still require carbs in their diet, but just like humans, they consume too much in general.

As for barf, I have never subscribed to the feeding regime of Billinghurst so I guess it is all a matter of opinion on what to feed. ;)

In my view, feeding a natural diet is preferred.

Someone said a long time ago "The best food for your dog is the food your dog does best on."