Annoyed at Big Dog Raw

[NikkiandKane]

 

I am a bit annoyed at Big Dog Raw food..... Newest issue in quite a collection of issues with Kane (see my thread Bowel Obstruction) is some pretty nasty rock hard stools with sharp pieces of bone in them. I felt like I did my due diligence researching appropriate foods for Kane with his skin issues.

I started him on SPD rolls Salmon and Tapioca which he did well on, after a couple of weeks and his skin looking great I decided to look for something else to supplement his diet with and was pointed in the direction of Big Dog Raw, I visited their website and used their product selector which asks dog age  and issues etc, two diets were recommended based on his being a puppy with allergies, those were the Kanga Single protein or turkey single protein. Since we think his allergy is to chicken I opted to steer clear of poultry and bought the Kanga variety. We started out giving him this for one meal a day and continued with the SPD roll for the other two. Immediately I noticed pieces of bone in his stool, since they were small I didn't worry too much, figured it was fibre.

Then all of the pet shops around me ran out of SPD roll and I fed the Kanga solely for the last 2 days, he is pretty darn constipated and his stools are like rock, he even had a little bit of blood on one stool.

I went onto the Big Dog Raw website and trawled through the FAQS and found well down the page that Kanga is not recommended for puppies. It doesn't say this on the box, it has a puppy feeding guide on the box and like I said it was suggested to me on the website!

Poor guy, just cannot catch a break. I emailed the company suggesting they fix up their product selector and maybe mark the box 'for adult dogs'.

In any case I got my hands on some salmon SPD roll today and he just had that for lunch, so hopefully his tummy feels better soon.

[Rebanne]

last thing he needs straight after bowel surgery is rock hard poo's. I'd be pretty annoyed as well

[NikkiandKane]

22 minutes ago, Snook said:

I feed Justice Big Dog and have never found bone shards in it (and I mix probiotic powder in to it so am basically sifting through it with a spoon as I mix them together), although I've never tried the kangaroo one because roo gives him diarrhoea. I'd be pretty angry in your position too. That being said, from what I've seen, Big Dog as a company seem to be great to deal with and take any issues with their food quite seriously. Please let us know what response you get from them and I'm sorry you've had yet another issue to deal with. 

Oh, there are a LOT of bone shards in this Kanga recipe. I mushed up the food in his bowl and didnt notice them but they were very noticeable in his stool, so I paid closer attention with the next meal looking closely through the meat and there they were. they really were quite small but there were a LOT of them. It says in the recipe ingredients list "finely ground kangaroo bone" but this was certainly not finely ground. I would be interested to know if just this batch is like this or if the Kanga recipe has consistently small chunks of bone through it rather than ground bone. 

[Dogsfevr]

Kangaroo, finely ground kangaroo bone, kangaroo heart, kangaroo liver, kangaroo kidney, seasonal fruits, vege & herbs (kale, spinach, broccoli, bok choy, silver beet, carrots, celery, beetroot, lettuce, cucumber, capsicum, apple, orange, pear, tomato, strawberry, ginger & parsley), cold pressed ground flaxseed, whole egg, alfalfa powder, kelp powder (brown seaweed), brewers yeast, wheatgrass, live probiotics, prebiotics, garlic.

Bone is clearly listed & is a main ingredient in any complete raw meal  that is what raw is about ,so what ever pre made RAW diet you buy it will always have a bone component .
The issue is dogs that arent use to bones often dont have the stomach juices to process them  & with older geriatic dogs if not use to them another issue again
Bone will pass out when they poop,my dog gets Turkey wings
Bone can make some dogs poo harder comes out white .

My suggestion to you is stick to something with his allergies issue otherwise you going to end up all over the place deciding which protein is an issue & with the SPD rolls the all have different things .
As a side note we stopped using Prime100 due to there rice never been cooked right & very sharp in there Chicken & vege ingredient .
You would be better making up your own homemade raw patties & freezing
 

[Diva]

I noticed that is some Big Dog too - it says fine ground bone but it was nothing like finely ground. 

My dogs hated it anyway so I just threw the lot in the bin. 

[NikkiandKane]

14 hours ago, Dogsfevr said:

Kangaroo, finely ground kangaroo bone, kangaroo heart, kangaroo liver, kangaroo kidney, seasonal fruits, vege & herbs (kale, spinach, broccoli, bok choy, silver beet, carrots, celery, beetroot, lettuce, cucumber, capsicum, apple, orange, pear, tomato, strawberry, ginger & parsley), cold pressed ground flaxseed, whole egg, alfalfa powder, kelp powder (brown seaweed), brewers yeast, wheatgrass, live probiotics, prebiotics, garlic.

Bone is clearly listed & is a main ingredient in any complete raw meal  that is what raw is about ,so what ever pre made RAW diet you buy it will always have a bone component .
The issue is dogs that arent use to bones often dont have the stomach juices to process them  & with older geriatic dogs if not use to them another issue again
Bone will pass out when they poop,my dog gets Turkey wings
Bone can make some dogs poo harder comes out white .

My suggestion to you is stick to something with his allergies issue otherwise you going to end up all over the place deciding which protein is an issue & with the SPD rolls the all have different things .
As a side note we stopped using Prime100 due to there rice never been cooked right & very sharp in there Chicken & vege ingredient .
You would be better making up your own homemade raw patties & freezing
 

Yes, I did know there would be bone in it, it provides calcium etc but it says finely ground and this was certainly anything but finely ground.

Hi rash has been clear now for almost 2 weeks and since it isnt apparently advisable to keep dogs on the SPD long term, I thought it a good idea to introduce another protein. Anyway we are back to the Salmon and tapioca and his stomach is once again settled and stools normal.

My issue was much more so with the fact that the kanga diet isnt suitable for growing dogs, yet the site and box recommend it for puppies.

So I have a spare unopened box of big dog raw kanga in the freezer. Maybe my other dogs will enjoy it.

[NikkiandKane]

14 hours ago, Diva said:

I noticed that is some Big Dog too - it says fine ground bone but it was nothing like finely ground. 

My dogs hated it anyway so I just threw the lot in the bin. 

Kane loves it but Kane will eat rocks like they are lobster, so I dont go much on his preferences 

[NikkiandKane]

I had a very thoughtful response from the company. I’m actually very impressed with the action taken;

 

Hi Nikki, 

 

Thanks so much for getting in touch with us and I’m so sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I would also like to apologise for the issues your pup has faced with our Kanga recipe. 

 

I forwarded through your feedback on Friday afternoon to our team for further consideration. We are actually currently in the midst of updating our packaging and I’ve forwarded this through to be apart of the considered changes on two of our diets, to have the puppy guide removed (Kangaroo and Wellbeing). 

 

We often recommend that these diets aren’t used for puppies due to the low fat content however in our Kangaroo recipe the bones may also pose an issue as they are much harder than the bones of other animals. I’m genuinely so sorry to hear about your pups experience with this product especially after his surgery.

 

I’ve also ensured to get in touch with our Web Developer and change the recommendation of Kanga to be removed from the puppy options on our website and will see that this change can be made in a timely matter. 

 

I’m also more than happy, if you were still comfortable with using our products with your little pup, to organise a few boxes of food without chicken, at your local PETstock store to help relieve some of the constipation he is experiencing. Please let me know if your comfortable with this and I’m more than happy to set it up for you as soon as I can to help him get back on track. 

[NikkiandKane]

8 hours ago, Snook said:

This a great response and I'm really glad to see they're continuing to deliver such good customer service. 

Yes it was a thoughtful response and made my concerns feel acted upon. I am glad I emailed them 

[SarasMum]

On 29/05/2020 at 1:46 PM, Snook said:

I know that when another forum member had something wrong with some that they bought, Big Dog were going to investigate the factory that was making that particular product, because it didn't meet their standards and they also provided free product as an apology. I can't imagine that they'd be happy with bone shards, no matter how small they are. I would have been livid if anything had bone shards in it after what Justice went through in January. Definitely persue it if you don't get a response to the email next week. 

Yes that was me, I got a chicken claw in mine.  Everything seems to be ok so far but the last batch seemed extremely bloody and soggy.  She loves it so I will keep going with it but urgh what a mess it is.