The Best Dog Food of All - Page 8

Also, there's the problem of parasites:

I have recently seen a rise in the recommendation to feed both puppies and adult dogs on human grade lean raw mince. The thinking is that if it is good enough for human consumption then it is good enough for dogs. Neosporosis Caninum, a parasite that affects the brain and then works its way through the spinal cord, muscles and major organs, is a fairly recent discovery, up until 1988 it was misdiagnosed as Toxoplasma gondii.

It is almost always fatal and if your pet survives it will leave it blind, brain damaged, and paralysed. A recent case resulted from feeding some fresh raw mince bought from a leading UK Supermarket. The owner an experienced dog breeder watched Cilla a 16 months old pedigree Boxer deteriorate from a happy and healthy family pet to a disoriented, blind and paralysed wreck in just one week.

Dogs Trust Vet Director said: "It’s a pretty horrible parasite. The simple way to avoid it is to cook the meat – never feed it to your animals raw. Most people do not realise that it is extremely dangerous, you must always cook the meat you or your animals eat."

Link: http://www.doglistener.co.uk/important/important.shtml

Toxoplasmosis is another killer, and is quite common. It can cause abortion and brain damage in ANY mammalian species, including humans. The main sources are raw meat, feces of infected animals or, in the case of cats, live prey.

I know of two recent cases where dogs died from this parasite after eating raw meat. Dr. Michael Harrington, a Veterinary Neurologist reported that he treated a dog with thousands of parasites from a raw meat diet, which turned to worms in his brain. An MRI showed the dog's brain looked like Swiss cheese. The parasites are usually much more dangerous than the bacteria. Cats and people are also susceptible to this parasite. Pregnant women are told not to change kitty litter when pregnant because toxoplasmosis can effect the baby. Cats who carry toxoplasmosis from eating birds and rodents, while pregnant, often birth deformed kittens.

Link: http://www.secondchanceranch.com/training/raw_meat/myths.html

Dawgs, well, I'll let you know how the chimp diet works, the next time I feel the urge to eat some termites or some soil!!

If you carefully review the links I'm posting, you will see they mostly DO NOT recommend commercial kibble. I am NOT saying commercial kibble is without its faults. Many of the people being quoted above recommend and feed a home-made diet with COOKED meat for dogs.

My best friend has a boxer mix. She was feeding President's Choice dog kibble to him, from Loblaws, the local grocery store chain. His coat was terrible. She is now feeding him a home made diet, consisting of the food they eat, with extra meat and supplements, including Dr. Magee's, an oil-based supplement especially for dog's coats. The change is like night and day.

I feed Performatrin because I can't be bothered experimenting with a home cooked diet, and I would constantly be worry about whether it was nutritionally balanced. Our local pet store franchisee has been raising and showing Golden Retrievers for over 30 years, and they feed Performatrin to thieir dogs, and their coats are GORGEOUS! (they always have at least one puppy in the store, being socialized.) So, if it's good enough for their show dogs, it's good enough for mine!

Egsd:  No need to feel sorry for my dogs.  My dogs eat rather well, as do I.  Thanks very much though.

People, I think that it is safe to say that there are many on this site, and around the world, that love and do well for their dogs.  Yet, almost everyone has a different "take" on feeding their dogs.  I personally, more or less, go with what I was told when I was a kid.  "Dogs will not eat what is not good for them and not eat what is not good for them".  Now, of course, a hungry dog will eat many things that may not be optimum for them, and some dogs might eat shit, or nasty dead things, but realistically, they are dogs.  You can sterilize their water bowls and they will drink from a mud hole.  You can purchase 65 dollar a bag dog food, and they will eat a dead mouse they scrounged up somewhere.  You can keep their pens clean, brush their coats daily, bath them in toxic free soap, etc, etc, and they will roll in goat shit, or on a dead mole, and get it all over their body, and be as happy as, well, as a pig in shit.

They are dogs people.  They eat shit, howl at the moon and chase rabbits.

I feed my dogs a good kibble, with many different treats, and with appropriate table snacks (no cooked bones, etc), and they are heathy, wealthy and wise.  I recently took my male Rotty to a different vet, because my regular vet was on vacation (my dog had run head on into a trailer hitch and cut his forehead), and this new vet asked me what I gave him that made his coat so nice, shiny and healthy.  I replied, "just Purina and whatever, and a raw egg every other day".  She told me to keep doing whatever I was doing because he was beautiful and healthy.  I didn't even ask her about feeding or his general health.

I should state that originally, when I got my expensive dogs from Germany, I started feeding them very expensive dog food.  Wanting to do the very best I could for them.  One of them continously had soft stolls and I had the vet do several different tests to ascertain what the problem was.  He finally told me to just feed that dog Purina Dog Chow and nothing else.  I did and it solved the problem immediately.  I then moved all of my dogs over to regular old Purina, and no problems.  No fat dogs.  No skinny dogs.  No soft stools.  No nothing.  Just nice and healthy, and happy dogs.

There are many on this site that know dogs.  Know how to take care of dogs.  Know how to make a dog live a long healthy life, yet so many disagreements and so many viewpoints about what is right.  If their was a correct way, better than any other way, most of us would be doing it that way.  There is more than one way to skin a cat, err, uh, bad example.  But, you get the idea.

If you want to drive a Cadillac, go ahead.  It's your money.  I drive a Ford Focus and it gets me to the same places you get to in your Cady, but much less costly.  So, go ahead and buy super premium dog food and upteen sullplements for your dogs.  It's your money.  I will keep feeding as I do, and if my dog only lives to be 12 1/2, and your dog lives to be 13, then you win.  But, if my dog lives to be 13 and yours lives to be 12 1/2, then I win.  Is that what it is all about?  Personally, I have other things to do with my money than to turn it into dog shit needlessly, no more than what is required for my dogs to be happy and healthy.  They are much more happy when I walk them through the woods, than when I give them super premium dog food.  Maybe, just maybe, that is because they are just not that hungry.

The reason you get no contamination from a bag of commercial kibble dog food is because theres nothing in it but saw dust, celllose) grains and dried up meals not meats or anything worth talking about.. Every person that feeds a premium dog food dry, will tell you , they havae supplemented it all their born days...with treats ,cooked meats, and everything off the table because the dog begs of likes it....smart dog......all but the gravy...so a lot of dogs are fed extras that help , due to the kibble outrage, and also    the bloat issue can be sure helped out by raw meats and veggies...in the diet..

Im 64 and been handling raw meats and buying meat all my life,,never sick and infact have gotten sick from eating out ,many more times than from my home cooking....

I can only reccommend adding raw meats and the extras , like Dean Calderon suggests in his www.schutzhundsportdogsinc.com ....I believe he knows also what works....

just be careful what or where you buy your raw meat.......it can be contaminated where raised......like vitamins...most are synthetic and no good....not made of anything your body can digest......AmWay has been known for years to raise their veggies,and fruits to produce on their property, unmolested by insecticides and not contaminated in box cars...but done on their property.....so they are safer....but some people wont buy that or listen   also Shaklee is a natural vitamin....so same with dog food.....u have to use the brain ola ....and do some hard common sense decision making...if your dog never goes to the vet and is super dog and healthier than his sire or dam...then keep on feeding whatever you are feeding........

Awe heck, and all I did was give my dog  a cooked rib bone when I thought he looked skinny! How the heck did you know I dirve a Caddy?    It's on the older side, but still!

Actually, my neighbor and I have regular dog food debates all the time. She sticks with Purina and I keep wasting my money looking for the "Best Dog Food of All" !

But in the end Do Right, you are right, give 'em half a chance and they'll be going for the deer poop and whatever it was you threw in the trash.

There's a lot of truth in what you say, Do Right, but my late female damn near killed herself eating whatever rotten stuff she could get her paws on. Neighbour's garbage, dead things in the lawn, compost, you name it. We took her off to the vet's once with a fever of 105, and so weak my husband had to lift her into the car. Her liver was damaged by whatever it was, and I thought I was going to lose her. I bought a muzzle after that, and made her wear it in the early spring when things were thawing out, and she was finding lots of rotten, fermented stuff to get into. She made it to 14 years of age, so I guess in the long run it didn't do her that much harm, though I did get tired of having to clean up dog sick and diarrhea after her bouts of 'garbage gut'!

No, they DON'T always know what's good for them, unfortunately. 

10-4 on the poop and the trash and drink from the nastiest water hole on the property and I just cleaned 21 pails and filled with nice filtered clean water.......

and I havae to hide the trash in the pic up bed to take to the dumpster when no one is looking......

and this time of the year     roll on a dead frog......frogs everywhere here in Texas , because of the 16 days of rain , and I run over three or four every time I move the truck or mow.....

One thing's for sure, we may passionately disagree over what is the best food, but we all sincerely want what's best for our pooches!

Do right and fear no one... you sound so ignorant Its sad...

By the way folks!  WHAT ARE WE FEEDING OURSELVES?

Your pooch is a reflection of you, that is if you let him share any of your people food.................