Let's talk about dog food

Two of the vet techs I work with have a dog with food allergies...they make their shih tzu homemade food as well! I think they make a large amount, freeze it in amounts they normally feed, and defrost as needed. I think they make it once a month since their dog weighs about 10lbs at the most.
 
I second making your own. Granted, I don't have dogs but I make my own raw diet for my cats and ferrets and their coats, muscle-tone/weight, and overall health and energy are so much better, even compared to when I had them on higher-end foods like EVO. It's actually cheaper for me too...I was spending $80+ a month on grain-free kibbles, now I'm spending $50 a month feeding raw, I use whole chickens for the base meat, and add in duck, turkey, pork, beef, basically whatever I can find on sale and making sure I use at least 3 different protein sources per batch of food plus some other stuff. You may find Zooey's chicken allergy is actually to the way the chicken is processed in the rendering plants, that's a really common allergy on the ferret forum I frequent, but when people try raw or just good chicken baked or boiled at home with no seasonings, there are no issues. Might be worth finding a natural/raw/BARF diet forum for dog owners to see what others do and if it would be cost/time effective for you. I prep twice a month and it takes me a couple hours to go shopping, then grind, bag, and freeze everything, and then I thaw whatever I need.
 
That's why you check it out! My biggest worry with the cats and ferrets is neither make their own taurine, but heart meat has a lot in it, so I make sure I use at least 10% heart for the muscle meat portion. Dogs make their own, so it's not a big worry. I don't know the specific ratio for dogs, but for my critters it's recommended to feed 75% muscle meat, 10% bone (raw bone is actually digestable and works as a fiber), 10% organ meat, and 5% fiber (it would be fur in a whole raw diet, but I use squash as a sub), and then use at least three different types of meat to make sure to get a balance of different amino acids. I also add in a couple eggs and either smelt or salmon for the omega 3s, although I know raw salmon is not good for dogs. The big thing is to use a variety or meats and organs....the more you mix up your sources, the more vitamins/minerals/amino acids they're getting, just like with our diet. Seeing the differences in my own pets, I feel horrible for keeping them malnourished on the "good" stuff as long as I did...cooking the kibble breaks down a lot of the vitamins and amino acids that would have been present in the meat before processing. Not trying to be super pushy, but I don't like to see people write off raw diets due to lack of knowledge when there's so much information out there with a google search and from my experience once you have that knowledge it's not hard to run with it, mostly it's just knowing the proper ratio of meat parts and veggies for your type of animal, and then shopping for variety within that guideline.
 
Oh I'm not just writing it off. I did do a google search after you recommended it. I still worry about it though. What about the bones? My terrier mix use to love to chew bones until she started breaking her teeth so we had to take them away. Raw also sounds more expensive. We buy dog food every few months. It sounds like this would add one to my grocery trip every 2 weeks. Plus it sounds messy lol. Not to be a total girl but yuck.

you might want to check out this site HTML Code:
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/
. i do Innova red meat for my dog .
Click to expand...

Thanks I'll check it out.
 
I really like Nature's Recipe as it is very low on fillers, beef free, soy free, wheat free, etc. and much less than similar brands such as Blue or Solid Gold. I can get mine here for less than 1$/lb.
 
taste of the wild no dog refuses it,.. they have other flavors,. and it is extremely concentrated so they eat little and get all the nutrition,..

its pricey but worth it, dogs with skin probs, get better,.. check out the whole line and ask your vet about the protien ,.. it higher but good for most dogs as long as you don't overfeed,..


http://www.tractorsupply.com/pet-ca...la-with-smoked-salmon-dog-food-30-lb--5107603
 
I used to have two German Shepherd x Australian Kelpies (lived to be 19) which were fed a variety of foods, mostly stuff we prepared ourselves.
The key to any good diet is to have a variety of ingredients to maximise the number of nutrients available.

We used to cook up some veggies (peelings, leftovers, just bought), some brown rice, 1 or 2 weet bix, some meat scraps & cut offs couple times a week. They used to get our dinner left overs nearly every night - potatoes, carrots, peas, beans, spinach, etc... Along with any cheap cuts of meat left raw.
They were given whole chicken carcasses, rabbits, prawns, shellfish, crab, & various cuts & types of fish. They also used to eat bananas, apples & grapes, along with all types of bone. Never given cooked chicken bones, though.

They also got 4 cups of dry food each day. I don't remember the old stuff we fed them, but we changed to something called 'Woof-Bix', which they enjoyed a lot. Neither of these dogs had food allergies, as they were raised to eat virtually anything & everything.

They were also exercised a lot, so there was never a weight problem.
 
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I recommend Iams. I've fed my chihuahua this food for years and have been really satisfied with this product.
 
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