What brand food do you feed your dog and WHY?

[Wolfsnaps]

This is ridiculously long. Its from my blog and its called "Why I feed raw"


Enjoy:


I still feed kibble, don't get me wrong. I wish more people knew the truth about dog and cat food and all the horrible things pet food companies do to keep people in the dark. Flashy marketing campaigns, bright colorful bags (and colorful foods with artificial colorings.....*shudder*)

Let me start by telling you what is in a lot of foods. Corn. CORN! Now let me ask you this. Do you think your dog or cat would ever ask you for corn if they could talk? DO they eat corn in the wild? Do wild coyotes, foxes, wolves, bob cats or cougars raid corn fields? I mean, its defenseless, they could take as much as they want? No of course you don't see this because corn is not a natural food source for them.

But we have all heard about corn so I am not going to bore you with it. Bottom line, I don't care what anyone says, corn has no business in carnivorous pet food.

Neither does soy for that matter. Soy is a cheap way to boost protein. It is not biologically appropriate for dogs or cats and has been known to cause allergic reactions.

One product I don't see many people talk about is menadione sodium bisulfate. It is a synthetic Vitamin K. Now, you need vitamin K. If you don't get enough, it can cause blood clots and intestinal problems. However, this menadione sodium bisulfate is nasty stuff. In high doses, it can be lethal. LETHAL. And you are feeding this to your animals every day. Now try saying that about raw food. You can't. High doses of chicken or beef or...mice....not lethal. A lot of well informed people are not even aware of the menadione stuff and its usually towards the bottom of the ingredient list but here are just a few things to be aware of:

It can weaken the immune system
It can build up in animal tissue (this has been proven)
can disrupt the calcium in the body

Honestly, there is so much about this stuff that is bad...check out the dogfoodproject.com site to learn more.
There are natural sources of Vitamin K. This menidione stuff is just cheaper.

How about things like the questionable word meat. When you see the word meat followed by meal....RUN. If they are using meat meal and are not even explaining what animal it came from, it could be ANYTHING. It could be diseased cattle, raccoon....ROAD KILL. Euthanized dogs and cats. It is not unheard of for these things to be put into pet food. So make sure it tells you what kind of animal they use in the food.

There really are so many reasons to stop feeding kibble. Lets say you want to do whats best. High quality, human grade foods with absolutely no red flags (bad ingredients) are a FORTUNE. I have four mouths to feed and two of them are BIG MOUTHS. To spend 50-60 bucks for one bag of food that won't last my dogs a month is a lot of money. I think a dollar a pound for pet food is a good price. Or better yet, free. I hunt. I have donated some of my kills strictly to my pets.


Think of kibble as a cereal. It is nutritionally balanced and ok to eat but would you want to eat it every day? Day in a day out, for life? Boring. The hard dry texture would drive me crazy after a while. And it is so dry. I don't think dogs/cats drink enough water to compensate. Now raw food, there is a different story. Chock full of natural vitamins and minerals. When you cook kibble, you kill these things from the high heat needed to make kibble what it is. Then they have to put man made vitamins and minerals back into the food after they cook it. Seems like an unnecessary step. They have to do this to make it balanced. With raw, its all in there. No need to add anything. Higher moisture content and fun to eat. Dogs love to gnaw. There is a reason for this, to keep their teeth healthy. And it comes from gnawing on bones. REAL raw, meaty bones. Have you ever seen how happy a dog is eating bone marrow?

One last thing about coloring used in pet foods. Dogs and cats do not care what color their food is. They go by smell. If it smells good, they will eat it. So why then, do foods like Kibbles and Bits have multicolored kibbles in the bag? To get HUMANS to buy it. We are a very visual species. Marketing spends billions of dollars to get your attention and most of the time its your visual attention. Bright colors, fancy packaging...all to get you to buy the product. So what if its not actually good for Fido or Kitty to eat Yellow 40 or Blue 12. As long as you buy it, they don't care. And as long as it doesn't kill your pet RIGHT AWAY, they can't be blamed.

So to sum up, many kibble companies are horrible. The ones that are ok are expensive. And raw is the way to go.

[ari'smom]

So true about the food coloring. One of the grain free brands I've tried over the years apparently had some because it started turning my dog's pretty champagne colored coat brown. It took forever for her to grow it out too. Natural Choice maybe? It had natural in the name but there was nothing natural about it.

And maybe it is that vitamin K that gives my dog problems? Because I was saying earlier even now if I give her some more than a couple of days she starts to itch. I'm so glad I tried raw, though as it has opened me up to all kinds of feeding choices I just didn't think were possible. And while yes it does cost more as I'm no hunter, I am lucky in that my dog is small and really doesn't eat that much. And I don't even just give her raw , and since variety seems to be key with her I'm no longer afraid to give her scraps. Like our holiday turkeys really helped stretch her food budget. Or when I buy a whole chicken I give here the giblets inside rather than toss them., and when Im making a vegetable she can eat I will put some aside for her, either raw or cooked before I hit it with any seasonings.

And for me my dog was literally so sick I couldn't imagine she would be able to live a long life. And quality of life? I can't imagine there was any because literally she had been in a cone for two years straight, and even with it had somehow learned to bend over backwards to chew the fur almost entirely off her butt. If I took off her cone for more than a minute and didn't watch her she would scratch her eyes so hard she would make them bleed, literally. So this has been literally I think a lifesaver for us. And probably in the long run SO much cheaper than taking her to the vet and all the creams, sprays, pills, shampoos, and supplements I've tried over the years with little if any success. The only downside is she is getting a little chubby, as I've had some trouble with portion sizes LOL. And she can't wait to eat and kind of drives me crazy every time I go in the kitchen around meal time. But I guess that's just normal doggie behavior.

[Wolfsnaps]

Arismom: yes its like 2 percent of their IDEAL body weight.

Example: my mastiff is a little chunky. He SHOULD be around 165 but he IS 180. I would take 2 percent of the 165 (which is about 3.3 pounds). If he is fat, cut down. I myself am investing in a kitchen scale (twenty bucks or so) because I am not good at eyeballing it just yet.

And make sure you are getting the proportions right of muscle/organ/bone


And I think if you do it right and find some good sources of meat (which I still need to do) it CAN be cheaper.

[ari'smom]

So here is the latest thing I'm trying. She needed some ne chew things, and I have been wanting to try the deer antlers, but they are so expensive. So they had some cow hooves at the pet store and thought I would try that. She loves it. I had heard the antlers were good nutritionally but haven't really researched the hooves. Honestly I am afraid to give her any bones even though it is supposed to be okay. Now that I am thinking about it maybe I should just go sheD and Google it LOL.

[Wolfsnaps]

Cow hooves are alright. My dogs dont care too much for them. Antlers were a no go in this house as well. They love raw meaty bones though.

[neelia]

My biggest issue with feeding raw is variety and organs. Organs just gross me out and I have limited choices. Then as for variety, I can't really afford anything but chicken because my pets eat like 4 lbs per day and even chicken only goes on sale for under $1 every couple of weeks where I am. Two of my dogs seem to be allergic to pork because they throw it up within an hour or so. It's unfortunate because after chicken, pork is the cheapest.

I fed them raw full time for almost 2 years, but then we moved to a place where I have only 2 grocery stores and the price of chicken seems to be about 20% higher. When you're buying over 100 lbs of meat a month, that's a big difference.

So my cats stay on raw. I tried feeding them dry for a bit, but oh god did their poop smell TERRIBLE. The whole house would smell for at least 30 minutes after each of them went and with 3 cats, let's just say the house just always smelled terrible. So they're on raw all the time except maybe 2 meals a week so that I can keep them used to it in case we go out of town.

The dogs are on about a half and half mix of raw and dry food. I'd like to get them back on raw as soon as we can afford it and as soon as we can get a freezer for the garage because stocking up on sale meat fills up our freezer like crazy.

[upinak]

I use taste of the wild. Labs either have skin or digestive issues, and this food seems to work well for our old guy. I even feed the cats this. I have 3 of them And my little girl I think is allergic to corn or glutton. But since I have been feeding them this, no one pukes anymore, unless it is the the elusive fur ball.

But the cats do not like the wet food... so that is and will probably always be friskies, as cats need more protein than dogs to for digestion.

I just wish there was a coupon for this stuff. 56.00 a 40 lbs dog food bag and 36.00 for a 15 lbs bag of cat food is bad. I usually buy two bags at a time and store them in a tubbie. Works out pretty well so far.

[madcatter]

I moved to blue buffalo to avoid corn. I chose that particular corn-less brand because the local Golden Retriever rescue uses it. I've found that Petflow has the best prices.

(By the way, Petflow has 30lb bags of taste of the wild for under $50. I didn't see 40lb bags.)

[imjustakidatheart]

I use Diamond Lamb and Rice because it has antioxidants in it, purified water, is checked over and over, keeps skin, teeth and gums healthy.....actually cleared up skin dermatitis on one of my dogs. AND the chances of it being recalled for problems is 99.9% never. THERE ARE NO FILLERS IN IT. The fillers are what causes problms in canine health and also the fillers are what initiates the recalls due to cantamination and mildew. I caannot go thru the trauma of a pet food recall ever again. My babies were not affected Thank God but I was nearly hysterical..... Diamond Lamb and Rice gives me peace (in one area of my life anyway)! Highly recommend this food especially if your babe has skin conditions.

[Smee]

My dogs eat whatever I can find grain free, corn free, soy free, and chicken free, mainly because we have one severely allergic dog (out of four). It's been hard for us to pick a brand and stick with it since pet supply stores around here come and go so much, and I won't shop a store that sells live animals. I will cook (and have cooked) for them first.

Right now, they're on Taste Of The Wild, Natural Choice, and Wellness rotation with occasional raw turkey necks and chicken necks, yogurt, and some vegetables tossed in (daily snacks of raw carrots and frozen green beans just because mine like snacks, but most are seniors and don't need too many extra calories). I'm sure the food brands will change again when the new store in town closes its doors.