Pet Mince

[EISHUND]

the scours are diarrohea OMG, such a poor spelling ..

that's what the "scours" are KitmeKat..

I'd love to be able to mince the meat up myself Aly, but i am feeding 4 adult dogs at the moment.. It would take me forever!!

Divine Angel, about that 'sawdust' like meat you got.. When the meat starts to go off, they freeze it.. Then they mince it up frozen, that's happened to me!! That's why it smells so bad when it defrosts.. can you believe that they try and cover it up?? Just because they are animals, doesn't mean they have to eat "bad" meat!!

If only there was a consumer affairs for dogs!!

Lillysmum, there is one good food you can buy from the supermarket, Natures Gift.. Only canned food i'll feed. It's 100% all natural products, no offal..

[Dog_Horse_Girl]

I used to feed nature's gift canned and still do in a pinch. But it's cooked. That's the problem with any processed foods, they're all cooked and dogs can't adequately digest cooked foods so they crap them out. Don't like to be graphic but there you have it.

Lilly just doesn't digest cooked food. No exceptions. We've tried everything! She just gets really bad loose stools and is constantly whining so I suspect it causes her pain as well. The vet couldn't be sure about this though.

[holly]

I've always fed chicken mince (pet grade) from my butchers, but I've always cooked it thoroughly in water and then skimmed the fat off when it solidifies - have been doing this for 20 years and have never had scours in any dog during that time. After watching beef mince crawl within a day or two from various places (including butchers), I can't bring myself to feed raw mince...

Hi Aussky

that is fine, as long as the chicken mince is not the carcass/bones as well, the bone does become glass like in the gut as it passes through, but if you have had no problems in 20 years, why change

[holly]

Ive found Supercoat the best of the supermarket cheaper lines .i

ts first ingredient is meat, not cereal, and its got the omega and linoleic acid

In a recent family pet it made a huge difference switching her from the Pedigree Pal to Supercoat.as they cant do Barf in total in this home

and with sardines once weekly and all commn vegie leftovers and each night a raw chicken neck ,randomly a raw lamb shank or rib piece--she is glossy in coat and well muscled and healthy, no sign now of flaky skin and dandruff

Hi VAH

until two of mine developed food allergies, I didn't mind the Energy Supercoat and even Pal Puppy and Chicken mince and left overs, but now I am forced to use Advance Large Breed for them, as it is only one that does not make them suffer, it is pretty exy but saves on lotions and potions when the itches set in.

If your dogs are healthy, gaining and maintaining weight and condition, I can see no problem with commercial, adding some meaty bones will help to balance it out and keep teeth and gums healthy.

In our puppy booklets issued by the GSDCA, Dr Hedberg states: 1/4 meat and 3/4 biscuit is fine and that was the ratio we did use back then and the dogs have only been to the vet for a few foreign bodies in eyes (mostly grass seeds) and a pyometra.

[White Shepherd mom]

Re Petbarn Northmead, I used to shop there regularly for my dog foods. That was before I researched what dogs are eating vs what they ought to be eating...now that I know better, it's only human grade foods for my dogs, no matter what!

If my dogs ate human grade food, the people in the house would only be able to afford to eat Petbarn mince. I would have loved to feed them the good stuff but at this point it is not a financial option!

As I said before, I had no problem with the Petbarn mince but when I came to Perth, Casper had the runs for about 4 months. I had no idea what it was. The vet's only suggestion was to feed him chicken and rice...thank you very much.

I worked it out by accident. He gets the runs from chicken. Never had that problem in Sydney. Even human grade - like drumsticks, etc from the deli give him the runs...what did the vet know, huh? He also gets affected by eating bones often. In Sydney, he had a bone of some sort every day. Here, he can just handle one a week.

Bella on the other hand is as tough as always. You could feed her a rotting carcass and I reckon she'd be perfectly fine!

[Dog_Horse_Girl]

Dogs, like ppl, can develop sensitivities long after they have started on the particular food source (and without previous incident). I'm sorry that your situation might not allow you to feed human quality foods to your dogs...I guess we are all at different places financially. DH and I are vegetarian so the only meat we buy is for the dogs...the butcher LOVES US! We are very fussy and buy the better beef cuts for the dogs! As well as RMBs and offal, so we keep the butcher in business, I reckon.

As I've said, find what works best for your dogs and you, and that's what is most important. For us, it's BARF philosophy using only human grade foods. For others, it's a super premium kibble, and others still, a supermarket brand of processed.

The one thing I will say about a higher quality diet is that it reduces vet bills enormously. We only see the vet for the girls' annual checks/vaccs b/c they just don't get sick any more. Which is a far cry from when we fed processed as the dogs were often sick, usually separately rather than all at once. And if you feed RMBs daily, your dog probably won't ever need 'dentals'.

[witheverythingiam]

I have and it all depends on what the supplier puts into the 'pet mince' too. I have had butchers lie through their teeth that it is meat and offcuts mince, only, but when it has been cooked up, cheerio/frankfurt skins and the like bubble to the surface.

Have you tried Big Dog BARF? I use the Weaner mix with all bar my two with food allergies and it is great.

http://www.bigdogpetfoods.com/

holly - I enquired with Big Dog about the Weaner, and they said you have to buy it in 10 x 10KG lots. Is that right? it says on the website that it's available in 2gk bags? Now I'm confused?

-WithEverythingIAm

[holly]

Depends on where you live, I buy from my local Produce Store and I can buy in as little as 2kg bags, it has to be transported up to here so is about 50c dearer per kg, I do buy in 20kg boxes as I go through nearly a box in week. If you are buying outside the area, then of course you would need to buy in bulk, what price were you quoted?

[holly]

Whiteshepherdsmum, if it is a GSD you are talking about they can suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome, which does produce loose stools and depending on what foods you feed makes them loose or firmer. A friend has an older dog with IBS and has great response on Supercoat Special

[witheverythingiam]

Depends on where you live, I buy from my local Produce Store and I can buy in as little as 2kg bags, it has to be transported up to here so is about 50c dearer per kg, I do buy in 20kg boxes as I go through nearly a box in week. If you are buying outside the area, then of course you would need to buy in bulk, what price were you quoted?

It's OK - they made a mistake it's 10 x 2KG packs. Same as you go through I'm guessing. I'm at Sunny Coast - Was quoted at $2.30/KG + 27.50 for P&H minimum 20KG. That's direct from Warehouse - was told that's the only way you can buy the "Weaner" as it's for greyhound, and therefore not sold in pet shops?

How well does it keep? I'd only need to feed my boy 500g/day to start with - the rest of that 2kg bag would it be OK just in the fridge? Or should I devided it up and put all of it in the freezer till I need it and defrost?

-WithEverythingIAm

[holly]

It freezes well, as I said I go through a box pretty quickly, but is a good, fresh colour you should be able to keep in the top half of the fresh for 3 days no problem.

[White Shepherd mom]

Whiteshepherdsmum, if it is a GSD you are talking about they can suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome, which does produce loose stools and depending on what foods you feed makes them loose or firmer. A friend has an older dog with IBS and has great response on Supercoat Special

Hi Holly,

Thanks for the reply!

Casper's had tummy troubles on and off since day 1 so I agree with you that it's probably IBS. As a pup we had him on Pedigree Principal and he had loose stools so we swopped to Supercoat with no joy. The vet put him on SD for sensitive tums and that didn't help either. It was finally IAMS that got him right.

The IAMS is a small part of his meal, the rest is made of raw/cooked food. I had him in perfect order until we moved here and although I'm feeding the same food, his stools are no longer constantly firm (sometimes they're pure liquid).

He's probably suffering from stress or something!

What is Supercoat Special as opposed to Supercoat?

[holly]

It is all hit and miss with diets, with one of mine, I was swapping and changing the diet, as the scratching got worse, better then back to bad, I then heard about potatoe and fish diet, but that ended up giving a lesion on the anus that I thought was Anal Fruculosis, another wonderful condition our breed can suffer from, but my vet explained that the diet was giving dirrohea which in turn burn the anus and since back on the Advance there has been no more lesions, I had the tests for hyperthyoroidism, IBS, liver...... all was normal.

Supercoat Special is for dogs with sensitive stomachs and allergies, it worked for my friends dog, but mine got hotspots I just can't win.

If you are getting great results on IAMS then leave them on that, if you are having problems still then maybe look at what you are cooking up in the pot, some things that seem totally innocent and inflame the problem, with my allergy rescue pup, he couldn't, ever, eat red meat, he would sit at my feet an hour after the meal and devour himself, with allergy dogs it is K.I.S.S method.

With mine with the allergies, they still get meaty bones a few times a week, because they love them and that is the only fresh meat they are allowed these days, they do pay for it the next day, with a bit of extra itching, but everyone needs a vice, lol

Edited November 11, 2005 by holly