Switched Our Dogs to Raw Food - Results

[david in germany]

Originally Posted by Lups

Hahaha, so true.

The really, really cheap stuff my Gs can handle has exactly two ingredients. European farmed lamb bits (so not only meat but no organs) and organic rice.

I've paid and hunted for food for my dogs for the last 20+ years and my current one only tolerates that brand. I fucking hate dogs.

There is a cat that lives with us, no we do not own a cat, he just moved in one day and now lives with us. This idiot refuses to eat good food... I have to give him a limited amount of natural dry food, he gets fresh chicken breast daily and then has to have a can of cheap food (only eats aldi canned and sometimes Edika house brand).. We have paid the money for the good 90% meat food and he just and walks away..
If I fill up his feeder outside with dry food he will eat until he can't move...
Idiot cat.. Dogs are easy..

[Germanauto]

Boy oh boy do I want a little puppy

[Lups]

Originally Posted by Germanauto

Boy oh boy do I want a little puppy

....


Kissa means cat in Finnish, and she is a German Shepard (I still think it should be shepherd but I'm hopeless).

My routine with my dogs is to give them an organic egg and some minced pork in the morning, and in the evening I give them dog food from a bag. I'm very strict with their diets, or I used to be before Kissa.

She spent the first 16 months of her life with violent diarrhea. We were at the vet so much with food experiments and all sort of allergy testing I had at one point a sleeping bag there waiting for me. Nothing stayed in her, and still doesn't. She fucking loves stealing food from the kids and she can't take it at all. If I wanted for hear coat to shine, I would be moping for days.

She does not know what's good for her, and she cant even eat the meats produced to us humans if any grains are used in raising them and no allergy test states she is allergic to any of the usual or unusual thingies like wheat.

She can only be fed once a day so she can have the needed time to process the food and every tenth day she is left without completely and then she is presented with fresh or from the freezer hay to clean her up completely.

She is not allergic to antibiotics fed to the ingredients since serving it even to a dog here is illegal. We've tried every brand on earth with more quality and we've tried making our own to her but only the 0.5 euros per day food keeps her functioning in a normal way. I once drove 200 miles to fetch that cheap as hell food for her since their delivery chain broke thanks to some stupid strike.

A dog taught me how to walk, and the things I've complained about here is just about the worst thing I've wrote about mine. I love complaining for sure but I do try to make a point here: You can and you may want to spend more money on your dog, and if you give your dog an egg in their meal every two days does make the coat shine but we owners are easy to please too often.

[Ralph335]

Originally Posted by Mr Carrots

Cost wise I think it's actually cheaper than commercial food for our guys, maybe $2 a day each in drumsticks and another dollar in eggs/offal/etc

I think I'd go with the pre-prepared stuff like the OP. At least to start. Probably non-chicken cause I think the puppy is mildly allergic to it.
Seems like the cost is similar to the 'premium' dry food. Plus I'd be able to just do 1 food for both dogs so bonus. No more puppy food.

Originally Posted by david in germany

Don't freak when they have diareah for a couple of days, they are clearing out the junk (think detox). Once they balance out the piles get little, and just consist of the calcium they didn't need. SO much easier to Pooper scoop up!

Good to know. That would be mildly concerning if I hadn't known. Thanks for the info!

[xander_g]

Originally Posted by david in germany

I started bolding the bad stuff but there is way too much to bold while on my iPad....
Ingredients
Brewers Rice, Corn Starch, Corn Gluten Meal, Whole Grain Wheat, Chicken By-Product Meal, Flaxseed, Cracked Pearled Barley, Whole Grain Oats, Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken Liver Flavor, Pork Flavor, Lactic Acid, Ginger, Soybean Oil, Dicalcium Phosphate, Potassium Citrate, Pork Fat, Potassium Chloride, Iodized Salt, Choline Chloride, . L-Lysine, vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Niacin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Biotin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Calcium Carbonate, Taurine, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Mangano

I saw the nutrient breakdown on dogfoodadvisor.com the only reason I haven't switched him over yet is he seems to be doing well with it.

[Taskmaster]

Dogs are scavengers, just like pigs and they can eat a verity of foods. One of the best thing you can do for your pet is not buy an inbred "purebreed" in the first place.

[Wolf]

Heh and i thought he cooked his dogs at first

[david in germany]

Lups, you are giving the dogs the egg shell too aren't you? Just smash the thing into the bowl and let them go.

[Lups]

Originally Posted by david in germany

Lups, you are giving the dogs the egg shell too aren't you? Just smash the thing into the bowl and let them go.

Kissa loves eggs so much she once stole three dozen of those. Hell no I'm not smashing them for her since she can very well do it all by herself if she ever finds one again from our home (eggs and wheat is banned from the house if not guarded at all times. You do not want to know how far that shit storm flew).

[david in germany]

Originally Posted by Lups

Kissa loves eggs so much she once stole three dozen of those. Hell no I'm not smashing them for her since she can very well do it all by herself if she ever finds one again from our home (eggs and wheat is banned from the house if not guarded at all times. You do not want to know how far that shit storm flew).

Lol, maybe you can tell me abut it one day!

[Captain Blood]

My dog Apollo loves his scrambled eggs on weekend mornings!

[F32Fleet]

My pets love raw (Nature's Variety) food.

[bosstones]

Haven't seriously considered a raw diet before but we stopped giving our dag, Tobi, kibble a long time ago. He's about 4.5 years old but has been completely off kibble for over 2 years. We've been cooking his food instead. Veggies usually go in last so they are not overcooked and lose their nutrients.

[P1]

Originally Posted by Hammer Werke

My pup was on Orijen and Acana dry dog food for years. Every boutique pet store said it was one of the best you could get. Well it turns out it was poison. Laced with super high heavy metals. Lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic etc. Dog (terrier mix) got thyroid cancer at like age 4. All the vets I saw said they had never seen in a young dog. Crazy $ to get tumor removed. Followed by another one on her eye-lid which is also not fun to remove.

Well, shes doing fine now (knock on wood). Been cooking her own food from ground chicken, turkey, bison etc with a lot of vegetables. Lightly cooked with turmeric and some black pepper. I then mix in a little Ziwipeak lamb dry food. The turmeric is for metal detox and a little black pepper helps absorb the turmeric into the blood stream better.

A lawsuit is underway against Champion Pet foods (Orijen / Acana) and I hope they get whats coming to them.

My dog has been eating Orijen for 14 years!!!

[Ralph335]

I went to the local pet store this weekend to discuss the Orijen problems and get a new food for my two pups. They knew about the claims but do not feel that they are justified (claiming the group making the claims is a Pay-to-Play type outfit and only rate paying products highly). This article breaks down the claims pretty well.

Still the claims against Orijen/Acana are concerning and I decided to switch my two to a different brand of kibble. For now I switched them to Open Farm Wild Salmon kibble. Gets a good rating on Dogfoodadvisor and the ingredients are sustainably caught/farmed. Wife and I decided we weren't fully ready to make the jump to raw just yet but may consider it in the future. For now we wanted both dogs on the same kibble to make things easier at feeding times.

[Hammer Werke]

I mean who knows... I thought it was odd when they moved production from Alberta Canada to Oklahoma or Kentucky or wherever they did move.

If you are in the market for a dried dog food, try Ziwipeak. Its $$ but I think its good stuff.

https://www.ziwipets.com/ziwi-peak-d...ried-lamb-dogs

Ingredients:
Lamb, Lamb Heart*, Lamb Liver*, Lamb Tripe*, Lamb Kidney*, Lamb Lung*, Lamb Bone, New Zealand Green Mussel, Inulin from Chicory, Dried Kelp, Sea Salt, Parsley, Minerals (Potassium Bicarbonate, Zinc Amino Acid Complex, Copper Amino Acid Complex, Selenium Yeast, Manganese Amino Acid Complex), Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin B1 Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid). Naturally preserved with mixed tocopherols. *Depending on seasonal availability will be temporarily substituted with sheep.

Originally Posted by Ralph335

I went to the local pet store this weekend to discuss the Orijen problems and get a new food for my two pups. They knew about the claims but do not feel that they are justified (claiming the group making the claims is a Pay-to-Play type outfit and only rate paying products highly). This article breaks down the claims pretty well.

Still the claims against Orijen/Acana are concerning and I decided to switch my two to a different brand of kibble. For now I switched them to Open Farm Wild Salmon kibble. Gets a good rating on Dogfoodadvisor and the ingredients are sustainably caught/farmed. Wife and I decided we weren't fully ready to make the jump to raw just yet but may consider it in the future. For now we wanted both dogs on the same kibble to make things easier at feeding times.

[Mr Carrots]

My wife feeds our 2 ziwipeak as a treat and they love it, it's probably their favorite thing to eat even moreso than meat.

[Captain Blood]

What are some opinions on here about blue buffalo? The lady we adopted apollo from recommended it, though she cooked for him and her other rescue dogs.

[wren57]

My pups free feed Blue Wilderness High Protein Grain Free Adult Dry Dog Food and they also get to lick my plate and tons of healthy treats. They seem to be doing quite well - much better than when they were on Purina Pro Plan.

[DETRoadster]

Originally Posted by wren57

My pups free feed Blue Wilderness High Protein Grain Free Adult Dry Dog Food and they also get to lick my plate and tons of healthy treats. They seem to be doing quite well - much better than when they were on Purina Pro Plan.

Free feed?

I can only imagine the results of free feeding Bella. I can say with 10,000% confidence she'd look like this:

[UncleWede]

I do the Blue for my almost 7yo. I mix the dry kibbles with various meat options, from ham/chicken/turkey deli, to last night she got the chicken cordon bleu that came with the ball of hair on the bottom.

Previous night she shared a cod fillet with me, no tortilla or cabbage for her though.

[damooji]

Didn’t see anyone mention the Merrick brand. Supposedly all ingredients are made in USA, no that it means there aren’t any harmful ingredients. Been feeding this to my dog for 4 years.

I also get the feeling most dog foods contain less crap than our food.