Switching from the ease of dog food to preparing your dogs food can be intimidating but it doesn't have to be. One of the most important factors in good nutrition both with our own and our dogs is variety. By feeding a variety of foods you have a better chance at complete nutrition. Sure there is a lot of things to learn about it; and if you really want to do it at an optimum level then get researching.
I think the best thing to think about is how you eat yourself. There are few of us that eat a completely balanced meal everyday. Sure we know what we should eat but do we all the time? Nope. In fact many people live on very poor quality food and so do many dogs who get the poor quality dog food. But when you've seen what good nutrition can do first hand there is really no going back.
I have been able to cut down Luke's seizures to almost non existent. And little Jessie grew all her hair back that she had lost over the years. My guys are 10.5, 14 next week and almost 15 and are amazingly healthy. I started out feeding real food with very little knowledge of what their diet should consist of ideally. But even the small change from dog to real made a huge impact. It is amazing what nutrition can do.
I understand that there are many people who love the convenience of dog food. I feed my guys dog food every so often, sometimes I run out of real, I might be just plain lazy one day and I want them to be able to eat dog food in case. Just make sure that you are feeding the best food that you can get. What grade would your dog food score, I'm sure many of you would be very surprised to find out. Here is a great website that rates most of the dog food brands.
Dog Food Analysis
The old saying "you are what you eat," is very true.
Sherri-
ReplyDeleteI see that you fix your dogs their food, do you have them on a raw diet or do you actually cook the food, I am curious. Just about a year ago I switched my dogs to a raw diet, I use frozen patties from Stella & Chewys and then I also stir in veggies/fruit which are dried from a company called Sojo's. The reason I did this was because my pittie had horrible allergies and we had been fighting mast cell tumors...I am always looking for good food for my dogs, I know kibble can be so bad for them but I know there are some good ones out there. I would love to hear what you are doing. Thanks Kris
Hi Kris; Stella and Chewys is great, I often used the freeze dried to get extra nutrition and food into Luke. I feed cooked, raw and dog food. My girls will eat just about anything, my problem eater is Luke, tough guy to please. I feed only Orijen dog food. I give it to them so that if I ever had to rush off or something should happen to me that they could eat it without upset.
ReplyDeleteHi Sherri Recently I took our new adoptive daughters to our vet and made comment that I had added raw meat (ground burger) to their diet when they asked me what food I have them on. I did switch all three to Blue which is a grain free food since one of them has a grain allergy, seemed easier to switch everyone to same kibble instead of the expense and time to keep them out of each others bowls. Anyhow, the vet encouraged me to stop the raw food in fear of E-coli and other diseases from raw food. She expressed the danger of them carrying it in on their feet and infecting us or our child. When I gave them their first taste of raw they were beside themselves but something inside me kept nagging at me as to whether it was safe. Could you please elaborate on this since I would really like to offer them real meet. The only other comment the vet made is the fact that beef is harder for a dog to digest rather than say, fish, lamb, chicken...etc. Would love to hear your comment and input. Thanks
ReplyDeleteThank you Sherri...I did a lot of searching on this and reading up on Kibble versus Raw and everything I found is that raw is healthier (no preservatives at all). I also couple times a week give them raw meaty bones since it is so important for them to get the bones. I did have my dogs on Blue and still have my cats on Blue since I found it to be one of the best foods out there. But like I mentioned with my pittie's allergies and mast cell tumors raw is the healthiest. My vet also discouraged me from raw, but I just told them it is the healthiest for them and with the fish oil, supplements and correct veggies (no corn) they are at thier healthiest. Thanks again! Kris
ReplyDeleteAnonymous; dogs digest raw food very easily and my boy Luke's favorite food ever is raw beef. He never has any issues with it at all.
ReplyDeleteHere is a great article on raw
http://www.canismajor.com/dog/barf.html