I feed Coco raw....a variety of meats, fish, organs and sometimes fruits and veggies just because she likes them.
1 - 20 of 37 Posts
I feed my three Acana because I've had nothing but fantastic results with it. My dobermans inparticular are very sensitive to different foods, and we've tried pretty much every quality kibble out there on them, and constantly had dry coats, hives, rashes, vomiting, explosive diarrhea, and/or pudding consistancy stools on them all. It was getting to the point where we thought we might just have to feed them "cheap" food, and maybe high quality food was too rich for them, but then we found Acana and have never been happier with a food. They all eat different formulas of it, but it's the one brand that has consistantly worked for us. Dance was fed raw for a while, but then we ran out of freezer space and decided to try her on Acana, and to be honest, there really isn't much of a difference between her health then and now. Her coat is still soft and shiny, skin is not dry at all, stools are barely bigger than they were on raw, etc. Acana just works incredibly well for us.
Keira eats Acana Pacifica, but I think I'm going to try her on the Ranchlands to see if she can tolerate that (she seems to mainly have a poultry and wheat intolerance, and Ranchlands is all red meat I believe). Would be nice to be able to rotate protein sources for her.
Ripley eats Acana Adult. Would prefer him to eat a grain free variety, but he just doesn't do as well on grain free diets. But I can't imagine him looking any better anyhow, so we'll stick with what works!
Dance rotates between Acana Wild Prairie, Grasslands and I'm going to try her on the Ranchlands next time around. She's eaten the Pacifica before as well and has done well on it also.
They also all get fish oil (rotate between Grizzly Salmon Oil & Nature's Logic Sardine oil) in the winter. They might not actually need it, but I know my skin gets drier in the winter, so might as well make sure their's doesn't.
They also all get RMBs a couple times a week. Helps keep their teeth clean, and it's good for them.
Keira eats Acana Pacifica, but I think I'm going to try her on the Ranchlands to see if she can tolerate that (she seems to mainly have a poultry and wheat intolerance, and Ranchlands is all red meat I believe). Would be nice to be able to rotate protein sources for her.
Ripley eats Acana Adult. Would prefer him to eat a grain free variety, but he just doesn't do as well on grain free diets. But I can't imagine him looking any better anyhow, so we'll stick with what works!
Dance rotates between Acana Wild Prairie, Grasslands and I'm going to try her on the Ranchlands next time around. She's eaten the Pacifica before as well and has done well on it also.
They also all get fish oil (rotate between Grizzly Salmon Oil & Nature's Logic Sardine oil) in the winter. They might not actually need it, but I know my skin gets drier in the winter, so might as well make sure their's doesn't.
They also all get RMBs a couple times a week. Helps keep their teeth clean, and it's good for them.
I feed TOTW Pacific Stream. I'm going to start 1/2 kibble 1/2 raw once my outside freezer is running.
Her gas was terrible before I switched, she was on Innova. Terrible gas. Horrific. Now she has no dandruff sleek coat, better gas.
Her gas was terrible before I switched, she was on Innova. Terrible gas. Horrific. Now she has no dandruff sleek coat, better gas.
mmctaq: To answer your questions:
When I began mixing because I believe (and regardless if the bag says it or not) that being fed the same food over the course of an animal's life you will develop a deficiency in something. No food it totally complete in everything that the body needs so supplementing and rotating will help. I wish I could go out and feed a rotation of raw or just toss out a whole animal and let him at it (that would be best because of all the vitamins and minerals in the organs, bones, etc. But I do try to supplement with meat when I can (not just muscle meat). I am going to try moving to just Back to basic once this mix is done and see if he will eat it with his ProBalance. If he doesn't I am going to mix with another kind. As it sits, I am positive he is still missing something. We can't make a perfect diet. Only nature can.
I got the results from several veterinary journals and other medical journals. I was studying up on Hip dysplaysia and joint arthritis and that was the overall conclusion of many of the articles. I believe I still have the powerpoint I did on these articles so I can find the titles and get them for you if you wish.
The severe damage I spoke of was of long term HIGH levels of the vitamin. Not just long term vitamin use. High levels of some of the vitamin B's can cause kidney damage, heart issues etc. Again This is LONG TERM HIGH LEVEL use. Its harder to do with B's because they are water soluble meaning most of the excess will be shed out when urinating. There is a balance you need to obtain with all minerals and vitamin. Most aren't getting enough its hard to really overdose on them, but I always stray on the side of caution just in case.
The stopping while I am mixing is just because of the potential of doubling up on that vitamin dose. Again straying on the side of caution I stopped giving these for the time.
As for your last comment, I am sorry that you have lost trust in veterinarians to do an adequate job in helping you create a proper diet. I am currently in the application process to become a veterinarian (I plan on focusing my study and care on proper nutrition). I can understand your feelings as to many vets are driven to push certain types of diets. I can assure you if/when I become a vet no amount of money is going to force me to push a diet I feel is unfit. Like people diets for animals are never the same animal to animal. I really hope you aren't insulted by my comment about consulting your vet it was not my intention. I truly hope when I become a veterinarian that my clients trust me enough to come to me with all concerns of their pets.
I didn't put what I fed and why as a catch all for everyone. I wasn't even suggesting people follow it. I hope that is not how you took this.
Question for you:
When you are deciding on veggies and fruits to feed. Do you use fresh? A few of the "homemade" diets I have read, that included feeding veggies, always had canned. Which doesn't add up to me because the canning process takes many of the good vitamins and minerals out.
When I began mixing because I believe (and regardless if the bag says it or not) that being fed the same food over the course of an animal's life you will develop a deficiency in something. No food it totally complete in everything that the body needs so supplementing and rotating will help. I wish I could go out and feed a rotation of raw or just toss out a whole animal and let him at it (that would be best because of all the vitamins and minerals in the organs, bones, etc. But I do try to supplement with meat when I can (not just muscle meat). I am going to try moving to just Back to basic once this mix is done and see if he will eat it with his ProBalance. If he doesn't I am going to mix with another kind. As it sits, I am positive he is still missing something. We can't make a perfect diet. Only nature can
.I got the results from several veterinary journals and other medical journals. I was studying up on Hip dysplaysia and joint arthritis and that was the overall conclusion of many of the articles. I believe I still have the powerpoint I did on these articles so I can find the titles and get them for you if you wish.
The severe damage I spoke of was of long term HIGH levels of the vitamin. Not just long term vitamin use. High levels of some of the vitamin B's can cause kidney damage, heart issues etc. Again This is LONG TERM HIGH LEVEL use. Its harder to do with B's because they are water soluble meaning most of the excess will be shed out when urinating. There is a balance you need to obtain with all minerals and vitamin. Most aren't getting enough its hard to really overdose on them, but I always stray on the side of caution just in case.
The stopping while I am mixing is just because of the potential of doubling up on that vitamin dose. Again straying on the side of caution I stopped giving these for the time.
As for your last comment, I am sorry that you have lost trust in veterinarians to do an adequate job in helping you create a proper diet. I am currently in the application process to become a veterinarian (I plan on focusing my study and care on proper nutrition). I can understand your feelings as to many vets are driven to push certain types of diets. I can assure you if/when I become a vet no amount of money is going to force me to push a diet I feel is unfit. Like people diets for animals are never the same animal to animal. I really hope you aren't insulted by my comment about consulting your vet it was not my intention. I truly hope when I become a veterinarian that my clients trust me enough to come to me with all concerns of their pets.
I didn't put what I fed and why as a catch all for everyone. I wasn't even suggesting people follow it. I hope that is not how you took this.
Question for you:
When you are deciding on veggies and fruits to feed. Do you use fresh? A few of the "homemade" diets I have read, that included feeding veggies, always had canned. Which doesn't add up to me because the canning process takes many of the good vitamins and minerals out.
I have an itchy little feeling that I am not understanding what you mean in some places. I cannot make sense of some of this.mmctaq: To answer your questions:
When I began mixing because I believe (and regardless if the bag says it or not) that being fed the same food over the course of an animal's life you will develop a deficiency in something. No food it totally complete in everything that the body needs so supplementing and rotating will help. I wish I could go out and feed a rotation of raw or just toss out a whole animal and let him at it (that would be best because of all the vitamins and minerals in the organs, bones, etc. But I do try to supplement with meat when I can (not just muscle meat). I am going to try moving to just Back to basic once this mix is done and see if he will eat it with his ProBalance. If he doesn't I am going to mix with another kind. As it sits, I am positive he is still missing something. We can't make a perfect diet. Only nature can
I got the results from several veterinary journals and other medical journals. I was studying up on Hip dysplaysia and joint arthritis and that was the overall conclusion of many of the articles. I believe I still have the powerpoint I did on these articles so I can find the titles and get them for you if you wish.
The severe damage I spoke of was of long term HIGH levels of the vitamin. Not just long term vitamin use. High levels of some of the vitamin B's can cause kidney damage, heart issues etc. Again This is LONG TERM HIGH LEVEL use. Its harder to do with B's because they are water soluble meaning most of the excess will be shed out when urinating. There is a balance you need to obtain with all minerals and vitamin. Most aren't getting enough its hard to really overdose on them, but I always stray on the side of caution just in case.
The stopping while I am mixing is just because of the potential of doubling up on that vitamin dose. Again straying on the side of caution I stopped giving these for the time.
As for your last comment, I am sorry that you have lost trust in veterinarians to do an adequate job in helping you create a proper diet. I am currently in the application process to become a veterinarian (I plan on focusing my study and care on proper nutrition). I can understand your feelings as to many vets are driven to push certain types of diets. I can assure you if/when I become a vet no amount of money is going to force me to push a diet I feel is unfit. Like people diets for animals are never the same animal to animal. I really hope you aren't insulted by my comment about consulting your vet it was not my intention. I truly hope when I become a veterinarian that my clients trust me enough to come to me with all concerns of their pets.
I didn't put what I fed and why as a catch all for everyone. I wasn't even suggesting people follow it. I hope that is not how you took this.
Question for you:
When you are deciding on veggies and fruits to feed. Do you use fresh? A few of the "homemade" diets I have read, that included feeding veggies, always had canned. Which doesn't add up to me because the canning process takes many of the good vitamins and minerals out.
I agree with you that it is better to vary the diet. When I was still feeding kibble (which I have not for many years), I rotated among the half a dozen best kibbles I could find. As a way of addressing one of your other posts, I did not wean from one food to another carefully, I just opened a new bag and fed. If this is done on a frequent enough basis, there are no digestive issues... digestive inflexibility, I believe, is "trained" by never switching foods... eating the same food for extended peiods of time is not a normal thing for most species of animals.
HOWEVER, I cannot follow your logic with regard to thinking that feeding one food will result by definition in deficiency or thinking that combining two foods increases the risk of over supplying certain nutrients (stopping supplements while mixing foods... what might you "double up," and how?) or thinking that feeding a food with a vitamin supplement on a continuous basis is any different than feeding any one food on a continuous basis. What makes you POSITIVE that your dog is missing something?
Yes, I would appreciate information on the articles regarding Omega 3 fatty acids and hip dysplasia/arthritis.
I would also appreciate any information on the potential of any of the B vitamins to cause any damage when dosed at any level over any period of time. I am unaware of any such information being out there. And, for you to specifically state that you use caution when you are adding supplements is puzzling, since you are correct that too much of a good thing is often not better but worse, and most kibbles contain an overabundance of the things you seem concerned about.
I just Googled your supplement to see if you could, in fact, cause a problem. I am curious why you chose it and I hope it is not expensive. It contains pretty much negligable amounts of everything except a couple of trace minerals that you might not want to over-do. As far as the B vitamin thingie, there is not enough of any of the B vitamins in this to even bother counting.
As for the vet thing: I know one vet locally who knows enough about nutrition that I would have interest in her input. Sadly, she has chosen to not maintain a practice, but floats all over four counties filling in for other vets who have gone out of town. I work in one of the big box stores and I spend more time talking about food and nutrition to folks than I do doing the job I am actually supposed to do. I hear all day every day the crap people are told by the majority of local vets (this is probably more than twenty practices, most with multiple vets, who are seen by the majority of our customer base). I have a local vet telling folks that their dogs are allergic to "protein"... not A protein, but "protein." I have local vets who will sell steroids for years to a person feeding Dog Chow. I have local vets who will sell bags of "hypoallergenic" kibbles and forget to mention that the Milk Bones have to go in the trash. I have local vets selling urinary kibble to cat owners, when vets in Europe have been saying for YEARS that dry food is the SOURCE of almost all of the urinary/kidney/diabetes issues in cats (there is a grand total of one local feline practitioner who tells clients that cats should be fed only wet food). I make nine bucks an hour and have no college degree, and I fix EASILY probably half of the chronically-plagued, miserable-for-years food-issue dogs whose owners I talk to. The vet in the store I work in sends me her clients who need diet counselling. I'm sorry, but this is just WRONG! It is wrong and it makes me furious when I talk to someone who has been victimized economically and with a dog who has been victimized health-wise for years by educated professionals whose job should be to help them. Was that a rant? I guess it was. All done LOL!
Vegetables and fruits: fresh and raw, for the most part. Organic where I can. Seasonal things (e.g. berries) sometimes frozen if out of season... sometimes, I freeze my own for later. I ofen will use a winter squash, and this I cook. Everything is pulverized in a Cuisinart, packed into boxes and frozen... what the Cuisinart doesn't adequately smash, I figure the freezing will finish by exploding cell walls. I haven't looked at a whole lot of recipe-type or homemade diet things... the few I have looked at, I do not recall seeing recommendations for canned produce... but then, this is not really how I feed so I may just not have been paying close attention.
1 - 20 of 37 Posts
