A question relating to diet. - Page 1

Hi everyone i give my 11 month old bitch a home cooked meal. She just HATES kibbles. The only kibbles i get in my country are royal canin and purina products. She hates puppy chow and she hates royal canin. She starved herself for 4 days, so i had give her something else. I now give her cooked meat with carrots, potateos, rice and bread.  I also add an egg every alternate day.The thing that is bothering is that puppies on puppy chow or puppy food grow quickly because of  the high content of protein. Will my bitch's height get affected if i dont give her puppy food? What should i supplement her diet with? Her is picture of her 11 months. THis picture will help you determine her size.

Boy, she looks very nice and proper size ..looks like you are doing good...make sure she gets organ meats   some raw liver and raw chicken necks and bones would help and add some fish oil or caps or salmon oil   ....sounds like your doing good.....cottage cheese every now and then and yogurt for treats is nice...we eat ice cream     treat your dog with yogurt....gives the extra calcium...raw bones and meats give natural vitamin  C....

I think she looks very good, maybe even big for her age. Pretty girl. Your doing just fine IMO. IF possible for you and where you live the extras Yellowrose mentioned would be very good to add to her diet also.

I do home cooked dog food for my GSD and he thrives on it.  The Nutrionist at the U formulated it for me.  Your GSD is beautiful - but you should supplement with Balance It.  The only vit. supplement on the market for home cooked food.  Go to Balanceit.com and check it out. 

You might want to ask Dr.Sean Delany of Balance it .com to help formulate the PROPERLY balanced diet(meaning the salts,calcium -phos,oils etc).Actually,they will give you the first one free.Just use the same protein and other things you use anyway.They will just adjust the amounts of rice,meat etc.They have a vit-min supp as the above poster mentioned called balanceit that even has the triptophin sp?amino acid which is the one that may be lacking.Good luck and i respect that you take the time to cook  for your dog.

Please understand that dogs are carnivores - not herbivores, not omnivores - MEAT, that's what they are built for.  With the meat comes bone and offal. 

The two easiest means of proving this true can be found in one place:  Look in their mouths.  See any flat teeth?  Ever seen a dog chew side-to-side?  I'm certain the answer to both questions is No.  The teeth are sharp and the jaw moves only up and down in a scissor motion.  This motion, with the shape of the teeth, allows the dog to rip, tear, chomp flesh so it can be swallowed as big and as whole as possible.  Bones are simply crushed to a point they can be swallowed.  They're not chewed for easy digestion.

Dogs do not chew as a part of digestion; therefore, they do not process vegetables, fruits and grains the way humans do.  Physiologically their bodies have to work harder to digest these inappropriate foods.  They have short guts.  Needed foods are digested fully (MEAT/BONE/ORGAN) - unneeded foods make it through the gut unchanged.  Honestly.  Feed a dog a baby carrot.  For a medium sized or larger dog, I bet it comes out pretty much the way it went in.  That means it offers no significance to the nutritional needs.

People that offer to build any diet other than a species-approprate, prey-model diet are out for something.  Simple question:  If the diet offered everything it is supposed to, why do these diet experts want you to buy their supplements?  Easy answer:  The free diet preparation is a way to bait you into buying their supplements while providing an inferior diet.

Cooked foods.  Why?  What animal would ever have the smarts or desire to cook a meal?  Cooked foods, balanced meals and processed foods are all human inventions and dogs have no reason eating these.  Cooking removes virtually all of the nutritional value from the meat.  Balancing meals with grains, veggies and fruits is a result of the food pyramid used for humans.  It's a human desire to be balanced.  But, we can balance a dogs diet by giving it a variety of raw meats, bone and organs.

Summed up:  Feed your dogs a raw, species-appropriate, prey-model diet.  Add no supplements, other than perhaps salmon oil or fish body oil (both can be found in capsule form and drained onto food).  Your dogs will thank you.

AristianM, I've not forgotten about your original questions and concerns:

-  "She just HATES kibbles."  Smart girl!  Who would want their daily food intake to be cooked beyond belief, chemicals added, dried and manufactured into chunks?  That sounds YUMMY!  How much should I pay for that?

-  "I now give her cooked meat with carrots, potateos, rice and bread."  Sounds like a yummy sandwich, but I'd need some mustard.  Nix everything but the meat, but don't cook it.

- "I also add an egg every alternate day."  Now that's what I'm talking about.  Run some water over it to clean it and give it to her whole.  See if she eats shell and all!  If she doesn't like the shell, just break the egg over the food.  Bet she'll lap up the egg first (fastest acting nutrients) and then eat the rest.

-"...puppies on puppy chow or puppy food grow quickly because of  the high content of protein."  Again, a product of human concept.  Puppies don't need a specific puppy food - they need food that will allow them to grow normally and naturally.  Humans eat baby food.  This is a product made to simplify our lives, but is not a requirement.  Puppy food, breed specific food, or other speicalized food is not needed.

-  "Will my bitch's height get affected if i dont give her puppy food?"  See previous.  Feed her what her body ne

Thanks everyone, this was very helpful of you guys! The only reason why i do not give my bitch raw food is because my vet told me not to. He said that there is a lot of bacteria in raw meat.

Artisan

You are very right be very careful about Raw meat  here are my learning from feeding pure raw meat especially in other countries

1)Pure meat is very High in Calcium and hence leads to phosphorus imbalance. So be very careful about feeding pure raw meat

2) Secondly Raw meat in certain countries is not even consummable by animals leave alone humans. The slaughter houses in certain places are worse than dumpyards. So they are infested with all kinds of diseases

So be very careful. You have to take all the suggestions and advice on this message board with a pinch of salt and your own common sense and local conditions into conderation.

cheers

Although I'm always for "Good Quality Kibble"  my experience is that in hot and humid weather conditions the dog tends to avoid Kibble food since it soaks up the water in the guts and makes the dog dry inside.

Give your dog pro-biotic Yogurt and if you want to give meats give packaged very good quality frozen meats thawed in luke warm water. Supplement with some good home made vegetable stews and balanced with some good supplements.

You can also give raw eggs with shells if your dog likes them. also Cheese slices etc etc

Talk to a good vet who has a sound knowledge on nutrition according to your local weather  /climatic conditions

cheers

I agree mostly with GunnarGSD.  Raw meat is the way to go   This conclusion has not come easy to me a year ago I was aghast at feeding raw but over the course of a year slowly I now feed about 95% raw meat.

Again to repeat dogs are carnivors they thrive on raw meat not kibble.   One excepion to the rule is the supplement Canine Complete if you are worried that your dog isn't getting a full and balanced diet this is the way to go all human grade organic componets   www.thewholisticpet.com.    The plant is rigfht here in New Hampshire it is a true state of the art plant.  I only wish I could find a human food made like this.   Read the customer feedback section.   Raw meat and Canine Complete in my opinion the best way to go.