Vets All Natural

[Colliewood]

Hi,

Have recently come across Vets All Natural.

Does anyone feed it? What are your thoughts on it? The good, the bad and the ugly please.

Thanks

[sheena]

I used to feed VAN to my BC girl along with raw meat & suppliments of fish oil, joint formula & Livamol. I fed it for a long time till I discovered Black Hawk Kibble, which I now have her on with RMB's & no suppliments & she is definately doing better on that then she did on the VAN, without all the fiddling around. So, yes, I found it good, but what I have her on now is even better,

[Vicky&Vigor]

I've tried and I have still almost full pack as Vigor doesn't like it... Now he is on barf diet.

[sas]

I tried it, my boys allergies were worse on it.

[cmkelpie]

I use it for both my kelpies, they have been on it since they were pups. I am really happy with it! But I have not tried anything else so who knows ;) But they are fit and healthy with lovely coats so I will stick with it.

[Erny]

I put my previous (avatar) girl "Kal" (bhcs) on it and she did brilliantly on it. My current boy did well on the pre-made ($$xy) stuff and did well on it for about 7 months, and then rejected it. But his digestive issues are complex and I do not consider his rejection of VAN to be an indicator that the food is not good. I have known many dogs who have improved vastly on the VAN Complete Mix. When, one day, I have another dog, I'd be inclined to try the VAN along (of course) with other foods that would comprise a good natural diet.

Edited July 30, 2011 by Erny

[jakeyjangels]

VAN Complete Mix ?

I feed both my boys (4 & 18 months old) on the puppy mix following my breeders recommendation.

They have it for breakfast every morning with a dollop of natural yoghurt mixed in.

I mix in 2.5 kgs of premium beef mince & 1 kg of minced chicken frames to 1kg of the VAN.

They love it & are both doing really well on it as part of a natural diet.

[Akay]

I've been feeding it for several years and as far as I'm concerned it's the best food on the market. My dog with mitral valve disease had a cough and when he had a premium dry food (Black Hawk & Artemis) he wouldn't stop coughing because he was retaining water due to the salt content (this was causing his stomach to swell thus leaving less room for his enlarged heart and causing problems for his trachea), whereas on VAN his coughing was reduced considerably and it prolonged his life by a number of years (after 3 days on the dry we seriously thought he was going to die because he was almost continuously coughing). The fact that all of my dogs barely need to drink while on the food is very pleasing.

You might hear some people say that they don't digest some of the complete mix... this is deliberate as some of the ingredients are there for roughage to help form the faeces as well as helping express the anal glands. My dogs have never had problems with their anal glands.

I honestly can't recommend it highly enough. Have a read of Dr Syme's articles on his site about the science behind the food. He has put a considerable (10 years) amount of research into it, and is one of very few vets in Australia that have actually got off their butts and researched diets (one other being Dr Billinghurt). I personally like Dr Syme's food better as the science behind sits very well with me.

Edited August 1, 2011 by Akay

[TerraNik]

I'm giving it a go with my guys at the moment (cmkelpie's recommendation), because I don't have time to make my own BARF at the moment and Jedi is allergic to chicken so can't have any of Dr B's.

So far the dogs are doing really well on it!

[OSoSwift]

I tried it with my Whippet bitch, she has no issues with difestion or food, just heard it was good.

She ended up with the worst gas, often, and really stinky and slighty sloppy poo's.

Took her off it onto her previous diet and had no issues. Now changed the type of dry food and still no issues. I wouldn't try it again.

[grace]

I only fed it once and the dogs scratched themselves to pieces.