Best Pup selection from a Litter - Page 2

Hallo Silbersee Love to hear your opinion on my larger concluding post on Feeding - if you work your way through screwed up display of that topic! Regards.

Hallo Silbersee, I'm a total sadist! I must be, for I obviously take delight in 'rubbing salt into the wound'! I remain convinced of the following: Soaking kibble/extruded dry foods is completely unnecessary as mature Shepherd's nutritional needs are basically very modest.(Despite what your German friends may have told you!) My mother was a pretty shrewd, canny Northern European lady as well and I'm sure she'd agree with me here. Not soaking also promotes proper use of teeth, and mixing with saliva which must be important, and prevents the stuff being just 'slobbered up'. Still like to hear what manufactures' advice is. Your vet probably recommends because it possibly increases nutritional uptake - as in cattle industry with feed. On balance, for reasons stated, I believe its completely unnecessary and much prefer my opinion. Not soaking enables perhaps also reuse if not eaten. I also agree with adding home-made concoctions as your husband does. It provides a 'foil' or compensation for artificiality of extruded product. For instance, non-natural vitamin products often have limited effectiveness simply because body doesn't recognise it as 'food'. And, perhaps allows addition of ingredients missing in artificial product (garlic or rice for stomach delicacy?). I'm all the way with your husband there. The notion that soaking prevents bloat is, in my opinion, a complete 'furphy'! I vaguely surmised it may well do the opposite, and some research cited under earlier heading appears to back me up. The feedlot industry soaks despite bloat possibility - money is king! Never feed before or immediately after a dog's physical exertions. I know for a fact that all dogs can suffer from drastic adverse impact, and out of all proportion to what one might expect, from any excessive animal fat uptake - cooked or uncooked - blunder of evolution etc. Constant obsession expressed by numerous posts with searching out the very latest in kibble/extruded foods, to me, borders on the ludicrous, and shows a fundamental lack of understanding of a Shepherd's physiology or nutritional needs! It's a bit like over-feeding a plant with all the best in fertilisers - it's wasted to extent it will only pick up what it needs, and simply leaves the rest. As a kid, had succession of dogs, they never knew what artificial foods - ot a vet - looked like, and yet, were in thriving health - ah, the power of advertising! If anyone insists on soaking, use a bit of rice water - wonderful for the stomach. Want to make it tastier! Gently boil beef liver for few minutes, store in fridge, chop finely when needed and add to kibble - full of good vitamins and minerals. Canned pet food is notoriously low in 'goodness' and ghastly for bacterial growth on teeth - leave well alone! Anyhow Silbersee, just my opinion -thought I'd restate here because of noted display screw-up of previous heading. Still like your views, DH, and others. As always, Regards.

As someone whose knowledge of chat rooms or computer work is dismal - far too lazy to learn or spend the time! - a queation to those more expert: is it possible for any particular contributor to technically manipulate topics or individual posts on the Board? Wipe a certain post or topic altogether, switch their order or whatever else? I ask because - in my paranoid way - I've noticed some mighty peculiar happenings!

Patrishap, I don't know what happened to the format of our "Feeding" post, so I am starting a new one, or better said I will continue the old one. Chris

Cheers Chris, Just got back - wasn't sure whether I was too adamant on feeding business. Feed back? Regard. Cheers DH, If on Board, how are you? It just struck me that you gave me a technical tip way back, and that you probably know the answer to my computer query. Love to know answer for future reference.