Raw Food No Good For Pups?

[Jed]

PF

My guess is that processed dog food took off here later Jed. No idea when the first Australian made dog food was produced.

No, I don't know either. I know a few of us (breeders, boarding kennel owners) did a run to the abattoir once a week for dogs meat, and I remember the dry food first being sold. Someone with a good reputation said it was faaantastic, so of course, everyone bought some. And it was easier, and up to the minute!! And just full of vitamins (and red colouring).

I also remember a friend was enchanted with a new brand of dry food - you could simply fill a large container with it, and the dogs would eat as little or as much as they needed, so in theory, you could simply fill the container once or twice a week. We were amazed at this oh so modern innovation!!

I was talking to a friend a couple of months ago, and we were discussing the very first tins of dog food - neither of us remember the name of it, but it was brown mush, with bits in it, particularly disgusting, and on reflection, pretty low quality. Pal came later. I am pretty sure I got on the processed food wagon as soon as it rolled into town

I went back to raw food because getting rid of the tins was a huge problem!! No wheelie bins then, only little tin rubbish bins and they were always 2/3 full of dog food tins. I think the penny also dropped that the dogs had never liked the food, and after a couple of years, they didn't seem to be doing as well as they did before, and raw meat was actually cheaper.

Must have been a slow learner, I think!! Still am!!

Edited November 3, 2008 by Jed

[Christina]

Dont know how my parents dog survived, in the bad old days, 70's. He got scraps, an odd can of Pal or Chum, I think, only 2 around then. Throttles from the abbatoir occasionally, butcher gave him a bone sometimes when he came into the shop with us. I got him a small bar of chocolate when we went for my dads paper, he licked our ice creams, lollies, chips & nuts were shared with him, food was sneaked off our plates to him under the table,especially sprouts & stuff we didn't want to eat.

The poor old boy died when he was 19. No dental probs, no health probs & a lovely shiny coat.

What did we do wrong ?

Just feed your pup the raw food, it will be fine.

[Crisovar]

clinics will be going through Lyppards or other suppliers for their dog foods ... check out the catalogues as well as when the reps come in from the companies. There is a lot on offer from both drug suppliers and dog food companies to keep vets 'loyal' as it were.

We get free freight if we order enough each time, sunshine and thats about it then have to lug the stuff around the clinic and out to cars, may be we just don't do it right.

Oh I forgot we get a packet of Tim tams or Mint slices in winter and chips or pods in summer.

The bonus points with the drug companies don't give us anything worth pushing dog food onto customers for.

[Jed]

When I was a kid, ours got offcuts from the butcher (before they turned it into mince, as they do now), bones, eggs, leftovers, and a WHOLE lot of mashed pumpkin and peas, under the table sneakily from my plate!!

They all lived into their teens, and I don't think any of them had any medical problems.

[Rockafella]

my stafford pup is absolutely thriving on an all raw diet.

I even tried him on the super expensive "biologically appropriate" Orijen and that disagreed with him.

I say go for it (the raw diet), and if it's not right for him - just find what he does do best on.

My vet kept telling me to put him on Hills Science - but first ingredient - cereal... I very diplomatically declined.

[Erny]

My guess is that processed dog food took off here later Jed. No idea when the first Australian made dog food was produced.

I have no stats on this but I do remember as a kid when I was informed that there was the 'concept' of comercial "pre-mixed" food coming on the market. At the time I thought "wow .... what a great idea, that'd make it easy" but of course my child-like presumption was that the content would be no different and certainly no less than what our dogs received already ... ie bones and table scraps + left overs.

I'm guessing, but I think this would have been back in the mid-to-late 60's.

I'm not saying that the commercial products weren't available until then, but to my knowledge it was only a new concept to Australia.

We got a tin of dog food once sometime after it was well publicised and many people were already using it. But we hated the stink of it so simply never fed it, except for one other occasion when we'd been out all day and there was nothing in the fridge or pantry for our dog, so a quick dash in to the local store for a can of dog food solved that immediate dilemma.

If my memory serves me correctly, "tinned" wet dog food was the "go". I don't think it was until later that kibble became the preferred diet out of the commercial range.

Also only vague memory so I could be very wrong, but I'm thinking "Pal" was the first commercial product to have made its popularity debut ???

Edited November 4, 2008 by Erny

[Jed]

I THINK kibble and tins became available around the same time. And I don't think Pal was the first, although I may be wrong. We all bought something else (Chum rings a bell?) but that may have been because someone bagged Pal - supposed to be full of whale meat!! Not 100% sure though.

there was a successful boxer breeder (forgotten who now) featured on a Pal ad - lots of lovely boxers running about, but the only time his dogs ate Pal was for the commercial!!

Edited November 4, 2008 by Jed