A Few Questions About Feeding My Dogs

[rose of tralee]

Associated with much-loved horses since childhood, I can handle horse being used for for pet meat when it is slaughtered locally and with good welfare and humane practices but I'm not comfortable with unwanted/ unsound/ unrideable animals left in droughted paddocks or 'dogged' to distant abattoirs. I do understand the cultural leap it takes if you allow yourself to think about the horse as companion animal. Which by no means all horses are. 'Nuff said. It's a good protein for some dogs as part of a varied diet (raw meaty/boney/slightly organy for mine). I didn't reread your post but it seems camel is available again? I am excited about that, stocking up at the outlet you mentioned has been on my list.

Sourcing grass fed beef for the more favourable omega 3 is a good thing. Breeding stock culled for age/ infertility are normally straight out of the paddock.

[catzatsea]

After years of trying to figure out who was right and who was wrong whilst figuring out what to feed my dogs I decided to let the dogs tell the story . If you need to add weight and their coats are shiny, stools are normal and non smelly etc then just add rice, pasta or throw a chicken wing or two as a treat.

If you feel that your diet isnt working at all, do your research (like you are doing) but be prepared to take a little bit of this and a little bit of that from each person as after all, all of it is merely someones opinion and what worked for them may not necessarily work for you

Puppys have small tummys so whilst they are growing they need small feeds often, I have a 16 week pup here that has just gone from 3 feeds to 2 a day and she seems to be coping with that, My 2 adult dogs get feed once a day with some sort of treat in the evening.

[FranVT]

Roo has no fat in it? (Correct me if i am wrong?) so it wouldnt help him gain weight?

True .I would also scrape the rice a waste of money if trying to budget feed.

Really? I thought it might help to bulk him up but it doesn't seem to be.

After years of trying to figure out who was right and who was wrong whilst figuring out what to feed my dogs I decided to let the dogs tell the story . If you need to add weight and their coats are shiny, stools are normal and non smelly etc then just add rice, pasta or throw a chicken wing or two as a treat.

If you feel that your diet isnt working at all, do your research (like you are doing) but be prepared to take a little bit of this and a little bit of that from each person as after all, all of it is merely someones opinion and what worked for them may not necessarily work for you

Puppys have small tummys so whilst they are growing they need small feeds often, I have a 16 week pup here that has just gone from 3 feeds to 2 a day and she seems to be coping with that, My 2 adult dogs get feed once a day with some sort of treat in the evening.

I've been giving Luuka 3 small feeds daily, the one when I get home from work is just a cup of dry food. Maybe I could give Atlas his normal feed in the morning and a couple of chicken wings at night.

So the minces that the pet shop offered were beef, beef/roo, beef/horse, roo, horse, umm I think that might have been it ... what's the best option there or are there no good options?

[juice]

i don't feed beef either as i have a dally who has had stones.

spotty, i thought fish was high in purine's too?

i feed him optinum chicken and rice, and he gets a couple of necks, and a wing for brekky.

i have just put my new bully on this too in the hope it will clear up his skin problem, if it doesn't eagle pack has been recommended, however not cheap, so hoping this will work

[spottychick]

Hi juice

Yes fish are high or moderately high in purines too but I dont feed the stone-former fish - the other dallys got raw fish like flounder or trout occassionally.

What is "optimum chicken and rice"?

Eagle pack is very good - altho probably not for stone-formers. Sometimes you can get slightly out of date packs cheaper if you keep an eye open.

[poodlefan]

Personally I think you should steer away from too much mince and feed meat on the bone. A contact at the local butchers would be awesome in that regard.

Chicken wings and drumsticks (or carcasses for Atlas), lamb shanks and flaps, beef frames and ribs.. all way better than mince which you have no way of knowing about its contents or how well its been preserved.

I don't feed any non-human grade meat to my dogs.

I'd suggest a good quality kibble and RMBs or a home made barf mix and RMB.

[FranVT]

Thanks pf that's all awesome advice, I bought some turkey necks for Atlas would that be okay for a meal or should I just leave those as treats? I'm going to go and talk to the butcher today. I feed Luuka ProPlan and she loves it, but Atlas won't touch kibble.

Home made BARF - what could go in that?

[Teebs]

argh, i cant get turkey necks

[poodlefan]

Thanks pf that's all awesome advice, I bought some turkey necks for Atlas would that be okay for a meal or should I just leave those as treats? I'm going to go and talk to the butcher today. I feed Luuka ProPlan and she loves it, but Atlas won't touch kibble.

Home made BARF - what could go in that?

Feed em as a meal.. they ain't small! I tend to rummage in the supermarket and buy mark downs or specials. My guys also get Turkey wing pieces.

Edited January 20, 2010 by poodlefan

[FranVT]

Teebs I was really surprised to find turkey necks in my town too!

So pf with BARF, I could chuck in a few different things like fruit, veges, flaxseed, olive oil, sardines, offal couldn't I?

[Teebs]

One of the butchers here has Turkey wings and legs (are they both ok to feed dogs?) but they cost a heap, he is going to ask his supplier if he can get me some necks, but said not to hold my breath!

ETA there is one guy i used to get bulk meat off, but my freezer is now dead and i have no where to store it, so no point getting a heap off them off him if i have no where to put them!

Edited January 20, 2010 by Teebs

[juice]

spotty, optimum (sp), is just kibble from petshop, i used to feed him supercoat sensitive after his stones, i was recommended by someone from dally club , but last year they stopped making it.

so i looked at kibble which had no red meat in, and wasn't too expensive, and came up with this. so far so good.

[poodlefan]

Teebs I was really surprised to find turkey necks in my town too!

So pf with BARF, I could chuck in a few different things like fruit, veges, flaxseed, olive oil, sardines, offal couldn't I?

Here's the recipe I used to make my BARF mix

Ingredients

4 eggs (or can be added prior to serving)

1 small container of low fat natural yogurt

2 tablespoons of flax seed oil (I'm using a blend of oils these days called Megaderm)

4 tablespoons of Missing Link/Greenpet or other diet supplement as per dosage (optional)

2 kg of mixed fruit and veggies (I use some root veggies, some fruit and some green veggies in every mix)

1 kg full fat beef mince

1 large piece of liver or a few kidneys

Method

1. Add eggs, yogurt, flax seed oil and Missing Link to huge bowl (I use a big laundry bucket) and blend well

2. Add the mince and mix well . Remove cat from kitchen bench.

3. Juice a little of the fruit and veggies. Add some of the juice to a blender and blend the offal until smooth. Resist urge to smell mix – you will regret it. Try not to vomit at result’s appearance and add to main ingredients.

4. Run the rest of the fruit and veggies through the juicer or blender. Add all the pulp to the mix and enough juice to obtain a firm but not sloppy consistency. You should end up with about 30% mince mix and the rest is veggies.

6. Remove cat from bench again.

7. Cave in and give a little of fresh mince and mix to cat

8. Put into storage containers and freeze.

My mix is evolved over time. I’ve used other additives like Power Blend, Barley Grass Power, Brewers Yeast, Vitamin C – I just change them from time to time. Currently I'm adding the an egg, Vitamin C, E and oil to each mix just before feeding. I'm using quite a bit of pumpking in the mix these days to keep my dog Lily's anal glands moving.

My large dog owning friends do all the stages from 1 to 3 and then freeze the mix, juicing fresh veggies separately to add to it. This cuts down on freezer space and the time taken to make the mix.

If you find your dog is not accepting the mix, add a little more fresh mince to their feed and slowly reduce the amount of mince they receive.

[FranVT]

That is fantastic! I especially love the part about the cat on the bench For me it'd be "trip over the dog who is lying behind your feet"!

So can I freeze the whole lot if I want to and if I have the freezer space? Is the raw egg and yogurt right to be frozen? I usually freeze the bags of food then take one out of the freezer each time I feed if that makes sense. Small container of yogurt - just the single serve 250mL sizes?

[poodlefan]

That is fantastic! I especially love the part about the cat on the bench For me it'd be "trip over the dog who is lying behind your feet"!

So can I freeze the whole lot if I want to and if I have the freezer space? Is the raw egg and yogurt right to be frozen? I usually freeze the bags of food then take one out of the freezer each time I feed if that makes sense. Small container of yogurt - just the single serve 250mL sizes?

Sadly Haile the cat passed on aged 18. I keep that in to remember him.

You can freeze the lot but I'd recommend leaving the egg out and adding it prior to feeding. Vitamin E doesn't survive freezing.

And heed my warning about smelling blended offal - you WILL regret it.

Edited January 20, 2010 by poodlefan

[FranVT]

What a fantastic age for a cat, he must have been well looked after and fed some good tucker

[poodlefan]

What a fantastic age for a cat, he must have been well looked after and fed some good tucker

It was a particularly good age for an Abyssinian. Haile was a tough cookie who trained many a puppy to respect cats. He would never run.. just dish out a little feline discipline to bouncy youngsters.

[Jetty]

beef gives my boy the runs not good for the sensitive stomach

[Teebs]

I just got 2 turkey wings - OMG they are HUGE!

took the dogs a good 10 mins to eat them!

ETA Ok, took longer than that, and Kaos gave up! I thought she had fnished, but half is still out there

Edited January 20, 2010 by Teebs

[FranVT]

poodlefan - I looked for flaxseed oil yesterday in Coles but none to be found, is it sold at health food shops? I went and talked to the butcher that OH works at, and he said he doesn't often get offal in but I have seen bags of liver and kidneys at Woolies so I'll just do that. He has 10kg boxes of chicken necks for $20 and 10kg boxes of frames for $8 - that seems pretty cheap!