Article on canine nutrition

[ccit]

How to have a healthy dog in just eight weeks is an article by Kate Bendix that appears in the Daily Mail colour supplement today. It covers the importance of canine diet in the prevention of disease, obesity and home made and raw diet. Well worth a read.

[Guest]

Thanks for that it just reminded me why i used to make my own dog food. Looking at doing that again.

[ccit]

There are some recipes for dog food and treats in the Weekend colour supplement so it might be worthwhile asking around for a copy. Some people keep the magazine for the television and radio schedules.

 

The book by Kate Bendix that is the source of the article and recipes is on offer in the Mail bookshop but it is sold out so there must be a lot of interest in the subject.

 

Why Adding "Human Food" to Your Dog's Diet Is So Important is an article which may interest you. It appeared in Dogs Naturally magazine and is written by Rodney Habib. The suggestion is to cut down on the kibble and replace a meal with home cooked food as it will lead to better health for the dog. Obviously it is important to only give food that is safe for dogs.

Edited January 11, 2016 by ccit

[Chez2]

Thanks for that it just reminded me why i used to make my own dog food. Looking at doing that again.

 

jan2665 - my husband can recommend some good raw feeding books if you need titles suggesting. He bought a lots of books when one of our dogs was sensitive to various things in her food. We switched to raw food which sorted her out. He has sold the books now as far as I am aware.

 

We recently changed raw food suppliers, we have used three or four in total. There is a big difference in quality between suppliers. One was twice as much as the others and the dogs were losing weight, too much veg mixed in we think. There were lots of fancy flavours but our dogs aren't picky on having lots of flavours. They eat so quick it looks like the inhale their food.

 

We let our frozen raw dog food defrost in a cool box for twelve hours, depending on temperature/time of year.

 

Hubby has made dog treats and we have bought some off ebay. We only used them as a puppy training aid as the dogs ate them too quick. I think they contain a lot of liver which they can only eat small quantities of. Hubby is the dog nutrition expert not me.

[vwkittie]

I'd like to raw feed but can't work it with a dog that goes everywhere with us, staying at hotels, other people's houses, camping etc.

 

Unless it's ok to raw feed most of the time and still use tinned/kibble when you're away, but I've always assumed that wouldn't be good for them?

[Chez2]

I'd like to raw feed but can't work it with a dog that goes everywhere with us, staying at hotels, other people's houses, camping etc.

 

Unless it's ok to raw feed most of the time and still use tinned/kibble when you're away, but I've always assumed that wouldn't be good for them?

 

I wouldn't suggest giving kibble anyway but the diet depends on your breed and age of dog and how sensitive they are. We have only had German Shepherds so I don't know what level of protein your dog would need. We have fed good quality, high protein meat and potato dry food along side or intermittent with raw feeding. Our dogs are outside kennel dogs and need their food adjusting depending on time of year and their activity levels. We adjusted their diet using this type of dry food (if necessary).

 

We used to take our dog away with us, only for the weekend though. Its only like taking human food, as long as you have access to a fridge/freezer to re freeze cool blocks for the cooler. The food is concentrated to you don't need to lug large amounts around with you. Put each packet of raw food in a good quality plastic container to stop and leakage. If you set off with it frozen it should be fine for a weekend in a cool box if you add frozen cool blocks to it. That's what we did anyway, we do that at home too. Its easy to wash and sterilise a cool box.

[ccit]

There is no reason why you can't use kibble with a predominantly raw fed dog. The usual advice is not to mix it at the same meal.

 

However, a better choice might be cold pressed dog food as it goes well with raw feeding. Examples are Gentle, Markus Muhle, Black Angus and a new one called Guru but there are more.

 

Also worth considering is freeze or air dried products such as ZiwiPeak and Pure. They just need to be reconstituted with water.

 

A good quality wet food would be another alternative.