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Post by ohclueless1 on Feb 28, 2004 12:25:49 GMT -5
I have been getting a lot of mixed info about the actual benefits of veggies and dogs.
Firstly... I joined that email list for rawfeeding. WOW talk about high traffic. I have spent at least three or four hours a day reading and I can't get through half of their daily messages.
There seems to be a debate about whether to feed veggies at all.. I am hoping someone can help me clarify. The general idea on the email list is no veggies. Dog don't need them and can't digest them. I have no idea personally... the statement makes sense to me in some ways.
I really want to do this. Myah has a really bad gas problem. I had been feeding her Pedigree which is what had been recommended to me by ummm a person I know (case they come here.. I have been sending everyone I know here hehehe) I was going to switch to a brand the vet offers but now I am thinking I will just go raw.
brb.....
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Post by Willow on Feb 28, 2004 12:57:07 GMT -5
I know what you mean about that list, but after awhile you will be able to *sift* through the posts that interest you and just delete the ones that don't. Don't give up!! If I can make sense out of it, believe me, you younger ones surely can!! ;D There is a wealth of info. on that site, and like everything else the *truth* probably lies somewhere in between what everyone says. You have to experiment and see what is best for you and your dog. As long as you feed a variety of RMB's (raw meaty bones) and organ meats, your dog will get all the nutrition she needs.
As far as veggie's go, it's true that dogs don't need them. Their digestive tracts are not equipped to digest the cellulose in veg's, so they really don't benefit the dog nutritionally in anyway, but if it makes YOU feel better to feed some veg's and they do not cause an allergic reaction in your dog or give her diarrhea, gas etc., then go ahead and feed some, but just *some*, like in a couple of Tlbs. or so a day. I only feed leftover cooked veg's that I have mashed well, and not everyday, and sometimes I offer raw veg's that I am eating, but most of the time now my dogs just spit them out!!!!
Just hang in there. Make the switch, either *cold turkey* as I did, or slower, as Sibemom did. That depends on your dog too. My male dog seemed so thankful the lst time I gave him a chicken theigh, while my female just looked at it and then at me as if to ask, "And what am I supposed to do with this?, but when I didn't give in and go back to the dreaded *K* word, she ate it and now there isn't any raw meat she won't eat!! They are just the way we humans are when we go from processed foods to a healthier diet of fresh fruits, veg's etc. At first it just doesn't appeal to us, but as we become accustomed to the difference in taste etc., we can't go back to the processed poison!
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Post by Brooke on Feb 28, 2004 13:59:45 GMT -5
Each dog does differently on different types of foods. Sometimes you just have to keep switching till you find something they do well on. The transitions between kibbles should be slow though because it can be hard on their system. As far as pedigree goes...it's unfortunately not the best food in the world. It has a lot of grains and fillers which they can't digest very well which is a big reason it causes such bad gas. Although I have a dog that has gas no matter what I feed her. Some dogs just have it unlucky but others can be switched and have no problems. I tend to stay away from anything you can purchase in a grocery store and I buy a bit of the more expensive brands from the local pet stores or feed barrels such as: Nutro, Nutro Natural, Innova, Exceed (Sam’s Club brand and great price!), Wellness, Eagle Pack, Canidae, Wysong, Nature’s Recipe, Cornucopia, Solid Gold, Natural Life, Flint River Ranch, Life’s Abundance (though personally I feel Life's Abundance is way way WAY over priced. I have yet to talk to anyone who has fed Raw and hasn't liked it....yet. I know it's a pretty debatable topic. There are lots of things you probably aren't aware of with Kibble. There are lots of dog foods out there (and I've found this information on federal websites) In fact...here is one the FDA put out...which is downloadable or you can just open it. www.fda.gov/cvm/efoi/dfreport.docThere is stuff all over the web for this information...you can do a search on yahoo search.yahoo.com/search?fr=slv1-&ei=UTF-8&p=pentobarbital+dog+foodand find handfuls of returns on this subject. The pet food industries actually use dead animals...not as in just cows, chicken and lamb but as in dead dogs and cats...road kill...you name it it's in a lot of dog foods as a meat source. The funny thing is that you won't find that on the bag. The government puts this information out to let you know though *at least*. These are also animals that come from being euthanized with the drug Sodium Phentobarbital from veterinary clinics or shelters. Many of these animals also die of cancers and other illnesses. They use the whole animal, bones and all. They don't even take their collars or anything else off. So if they have flea collars on, those get processed as well. The chemicals on those aren't too healthy to eat. These animals get rendred down so well You also have to think about that drug that they euthanized them with being in their body as they are being rendered and put in this food. There have been studies shown where they have found that the drug does not deteriorate through heat or cooking. Now the FDA states But if you think that taking a drug like that every day for the entire durainment of your life isn't going to have an effect on your body some how...I dunno. I'm not about to believe that. There are ungodly amounts of animals dying from cancer and all kinds of things. From what I've found statistically the dogs on raw seem to live healthier lives and healthier ends. Just a little food for thought I have yet to switch my dogs to raw yet. I have a big move back to my hometown ahead of me and we will be staying with family so I'm going to wait till we get settled before I make the big switch. As of right now my dogs are on Nutro Max.
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Post by ohclueless1 on Feb 28, 2004 16:23:52 GMT -5
Dave and I talked about it.... He thinks I am a lil I think, but we are going to start raw in the morning... We buy the quicken quarters for us anyways. Its only like 3.70 for 10 lbs. I don't know how she is going to take to this, since she started on the pedigree she hasn't been eating very well to begin with. I mean she eats... Just not like she did on the purina. But I had been told that stuff was not as good for her as the pedigree so we had switched. She was stinky on the purina and its not as bad now either. She just doesn't eat with as much gusto... . It could be she just like to compete with Dave in the stinky department ... But I don't think so... Plus I checked her teeth a couple of weeks ago and they are all yellowish.. Heck they only just came in a couple of months ago!! How can they be so dirty already??
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Post by ohclueless1 on Feb 28, 2004 16:34:11 GMT -5
Oooops I forgot... this is how I have decided to go about it.. We are going to go with the all meat diet... I have spent 4 or 5 hours a nite for the last three days going though emails on that list. They have me convinced. It makes sense to me. Like I said.. the hubby thinks I am a little nutty. But I have been feeding my fish home made mush for over two years. Or maybe I didn't mention it... can't remember.
Anywho...
She needs about 1.6 lbs per day... and I have read that I should only feed her one new food item per week. Chicken quarters first... Then an organ meat, then build it up week after week . Sounds good to me.
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Post by Willow on Feb 28, 2004 18:17:15 GMT -5
She needs about 1.6 lbs per day... and I have read that I should only feed her one new food item per week. Chicken quarters first... Then an organ meat, then build it up week after week . Sounds good to me. It sounds good to me, too! ;D My husband still shakes his head and grins when I am bagging up meat to freeze for my dogs and complains now and then that their food is taking up all the freezer space etc., but I just ignore him or ask something like..."but don't you have to admit they look and SMELL better?" And he agrees. Both my dogs had really bad body odor and mouth odor, which is gone now. The older dog still has some tartar on his canines, but over all his teeth are better and my younger girl has absolutely pearly whites again. ;D
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Post by amyjo on Feb 29, 2004 12:57:55 GMT -5
OhClueless1 - If you feel like it, I think you should start a rawfeeding log too....I was asked to do it when I first started out and now I have pretty much ran out of stuff to say. It will be interesting to see if your experience is about the same or if you run into different issues all together.
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Post by ohclueless1 on Feb 29, 2004 16:36:44 GMT -5
If you like.... I don't mind.
Might be a tad boring for a couple of days, lol. She did exactly what I thought she would do. Gave it a couple of licks and just left it there. I will try again for dinner. I didn't feed her at all yesterday to clean out her system and hopefully have her nice and hungry for this morning. She was mildly interested at first.. I think she might not know what to do with it.
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Post by Willow on Mar 1, 2004 8:40:34 GMT -5
That's what my Aussie did the first couple of times too and then I told her, "Pup is going to get it*, and she gobbled it right up!! .....and the rest is *history*. ;D
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