Pedigree Dog Food

[Guest doggy-wuver]

I feed my yorkie on prime beef steak and bbq chicken,cottage & ricotta cheese,chicken breast fillets. and steamed fresh vegetables.

she is really fussy, so i give her what she wants, she is my only dog.

[helen]

I must be lucky, my dogs love to eat the vegetables, unfortunately it is not something I feel all the time. Try a bit of apple in there or some sardines

[bommy]

I was an avid BAREFER, loved it, until recently, has anyone here that feeds BARF heard of NEOSPORA? Did you know that it has been found out in the last 3months that freezing your beef/mutton/goat doesnot kill this spore & that your dog can still detract Neospora? SORRY Dont want to alarm anyone & I am still using the BARF principle just cooking it first before the dogs get it, the reason NEOSPORA can kill your dog.

I am using Advance as well at the moment since the professor at the Uni in Gatton recommended that we cook & supplement with a dry food. At least until I can find a organic one I like.

Jacqui

[Guest Riayn]

I was an avid BAREFER, loved it, until recently, has anyone here that feeds BARF heard of NEOSPORA? Did you know that it has been found out in the last 3months that freezing your beef/mutton/goat doesnot kill this spore & that your dog can still detract Neospora? SORRY Dont want to alarm anyone & I am still using the BARF principle just cooking it first before the dogs get it, the reason NEOSPORA can kill your dog.

Please, please, please, please don't feed your dog any cooked bones. Dog eating cooked bones is the quickest way to getting a very large vet bill. It will also kill your dog with more frequency than neospora.

I must admit I have never heard of neospora and never encountered it in my clinic either. I am happy to feed my dogs raw human grade meat and bones.

[aatainc]

edit: I need to do some research to make sure what I said was right. Will be back soon!

Edited January 16, 2005 by aatainc

[bommy]

aatanic,

thats not ver reassuring for me, Molly is facing neospora right at this moment & we are liasing with Gatton re treatment, also it seems that now they are deciding there has been alot of misdiagnosed cased of neospora, feeling that it may possibly be related to some cardiac cases, fading puppy, pnuemonia & liver failure cases.

Since Mid Nov there has been 5 incidents from NZ & Australia that I have become aware of with Neospora, 5 dogs isnt alot I know but that is 5 that I one person am aware of & believe me I dont know that many people & these people are form all over Australia, not just where I live.

Jacqui

[bommy]

Please, please, please, please don't feed your dog any cooked bones. Dog eating cooked bones is the quickest way to getting a very large vet bill. It will also kill your dog with more frequency than neospora.

I must admit I have never heard of neospora and never encountered it in my clinic either. I am happy to feed my dogs raw human grade meat and bones.

I'm not feeding my dog cooked bones, now I just cook all bovine meats they are fed... and my dogs were only ever fed Human Grade, I wouldnt give them anything to eat I wouldnt eat myself.

Jacqui

[aatainc]

I just had a look at the scientific research on this subject - albeit briefly. It seems that just because your dog has a high titre of it doesn't mean anything. This can simply mean that she has had it in the past - she has some resistance to it which is good. The research also seems to indicate that the most common symptom of it is very mild intestinal infection which passes quickly. There have also been some cases of nodules developing under the skin but these were easily treated with drugs.

The studies also seem to say that the dogs get it from eating infected fetal or placental material - muscle meat is apparently an unlikely cause of infection. If I was you and were concerned I would just stick to chicken and turkey for a while until more research is done. Beef isn't exactly the best meat choice for a dog anyway so it shouldn't really hurt to remove it.

Go to google and enter "neospora and dog' and read all of the information you can find. I'm just re-hashing what I read there - not claiming to be an expert. If my vet told me my dogs had a high titre for it I honestly wouldn't be too worried - unless the vet could point to a definitive link between a symptom my dog had and the neospora.

I don't know - I just wonder if perhaps your vet is panicking a little too much?

[bommy]

Aatanic had Pm'd you but will post here anyway.

Hi aatanic

just so you can have a point of reference at gatton, my vets are liasing with Terry King & Bruce McKie (not sure of the spelling)

Neospora is pretty high in the Greyhound breed and they also believe now that Rotti's & other large breed dogs are more prone as well. They have told us that anything with a titre of 1:125 & over they now treat for neospora, Molly's titre came back at twice that 1:2500 so she now has 3 huge scars where lesions have been cut & sent for immediate biopsy.

As you can imagine this "rare" disease now has me all in a flap & our vets & I are spending as much time as we can finding out all we can. My vets at first felt that Neospora was too rare & infact alot dont test for this unless you specifically ask for the test this is what I did, my vets arent the ones panicking it was me.

I am not saying dont feed barf I am just saying be aware of all the disease & sum up the risks for yourself, if I had known about neospora I probably would have always cooked not fed raw, now I am wishing I had.

Jacqui

Edited to correct titre - went back & checked the results.

Edited January 16, 2005 by bommy

[bommy]

Sorry I am not going to hijack this thread but Greymate has already bought up about Neospora/ neosporosis as well. Here is the link if you are interested:

http://forums.dogzonline.com.au/index.php?...topic=13120&hl=

Jacqui

[Mystiqview]

If the dog has not been used to barf before you started it.. try slowly going from his old food to your new diet.

Me personally: I mix a good quality dry dog food with the bones, sardines etc. One thing about the commercial dry dog foods, is that with the research gone into them, they contain (supposedly) the vitamins and minerals the dog needs... which may not be achieved from home cooking. The only time my dogs get a commercial tin food is about once every 6 months to clean them out, or in an emergency when I am out of food (which is not very often)

[schnauzer]

I have read that broccoli should never be fed as a dog cannot digest it correctly and it can cause gastro problems in the dog.

[Guest linnyb]

I just thought I would throw my two cents worth in...

My sheltie was very sick when we got him as a pup, now 7months old. After much trial and error he is on a diet of: rice, pasta, green vegies mix (tried him on pumpkin, carrot and sweet potato and he was sick can you believe it!) + fresh diced turkey and a little Royal Canin HypoAllergenic dry. he can't have mince as it is generally too fatty and he gets diarrohea. He also has a small amount of calcium supplement and 1/2 a Geribits tablet which is a multivitamin. He gets dentabones occasionally.

I wonder about giving him raw bones, but my vet says he has never ever seen a dog with such a sensitive tummy and believe me I don't want him getting an ulcerated bowel again, puppy pooing blood and pus is very distressing. Plus he was no good on beef or lamb mince. I only use human grade meat BTW.

It's amazing all the different diets we have, but I agree that whatever works for you and pooch...

[dieselchick007]

it's cool seeing all the different stuff we feed our dogs! I'm not a BARFer because I can't convince mum to change Diesel's diet, but I don't mind that much. For dinner Diesel gets raw mince, rice/pasta, leftover vegies [ok so they arent raw but something is better than nothing right?], and some Nutrience Derma kibble. Oh yes and he gets gravy on his dinner every night he gets better food than me! For breakfast though he gets My Dog canned food [not sure which variety] and some kibble, plus he gets raw chicken necks about 3 times a week PLUS every tuesday morning he gets raw sardines instead of canned food for breakfst.

His skin tends to react to commercial treats [[does anybody know of any commercial treats suitable for dogs alleric to wheat i think it is?]] so he gets sausage, cooked chicken breast or grapes during training.

Why does my dog get better food than i do?

[Derharv GSD'S]

Hi Inky

I have been feeding my dogs Bonnie for a few years but just recently swapped over to nutrience which I have found is great, fairly economic and my dogs have never looked better. If you go for a premeuim food you dont have to feed so much of it and you dont have to give your dog extra supplement unless they specifically need it, I still give mine bones etc. good luck

[Fitz and Amie]

We were feeding BARF for a while too, and noticed the same thing with Fitz. We switched him over to Natures gift tinned food, semi moist food, and the occasional natures gift treat, which he loves. He has put on a little weight (a huge accomplishment for us, he recently hit the 2 kilo mark, Yay!), while Frosty just looks amasing. I also feed the boys some Eukanuba small dog food, and some supercoat puppy food (to help Fitz put on weight).

The thing that I love about natures gift is, the food is made with all natural ingredients, has no dyes, colours or preservatives, and is made with human grade ingredients, so I know its safe for the dogs, and I know presisely what goes in it.

I add the Eukanuba, and supercoat for their teeth, and to help beef Fitz up.

I don't think that it really matters what brand of food you use as long as your dogs are healthy, eating, and have normal levels of energy. I prefer a commercial diet, but I like to know that the brands I use are safe, healthy, and mostly natural. If you are interested in a commercial diet try to go for the more expencive brands. I find that with such little dogs (and the fact that I don't have to feed as much Natures gift and Eukanuba) it evens the cost of the food out, and I would be spending roughly the same amount of money anyway, so I go with the brands that I trust. I have heard some truely horrific things about pal, and some of the other cheap foods, so I try to go to the all-natural foods to be on the safe side.