Growing big healthy dogs

[houndogger]

I would be up for that for sure. I would split the trip expenses with ya.

[brotherjack]

We feed ours red meat (deer/elk/whatever we shot last year) with Actr1um brand kibble on top. Dogs don't get much bigger or healthier than mine, so I'm assuming it must be good for them.

[Deadeye]

Wow, I had no idea that so many people were using a raw food diet. Do you guys find dogs on raw food any more or less prone to coprophaegia (eating feces) ? I'm thinking about the 'secondary digestion' aspect of coprophaegia. I'm guessing it would also be better for older dogs' joints than giving them glucosamine ?

I work in a kennel of 40-50 adults and we use human grade kibble like those above. The kennel's owner was originally a dog food wholesaler, so it's been a bit of an education for me.

Our 'standard' kibble is made by Taplow (in N. Van I think). I'm not sure what it's marketed as on retail shelves (we buy by the ton), Extreme Diet maybe ? The oil content is so high it actually leaves a heavy film on the inside of the bag.

We use Nutro's Lamb and Rice for dogs that are on meds or develop any irritations, as lamb is apparently hypoallergenic for dogs.

Nutram Puppy Choice is what we give the pups up to a year old. It's one of the controlled-growth foods and it's actually a stipulation in our standard sales contract that the owner continue feeding with it for a certain length of time (I don't deal with the business side of it too much, so I'm not sure exactly how long)

Generally, raw chicken is around 80% water so chicken MEAL actually has a higher protein content than just chicken because the water is extracted during processing.

I think it's kind of funny that foods are marketed as 'human grade' but the bags are always labelled 'not for human consumption'. It's just a regulatory issue but it's still a chuckle.

My own dog (Shep/Elkhound) gets a salmon and sweet potato mix with flaxseed, canola and salmon oils. The last batch I got was packaged in retail bags, so I noticed it was endorsed by Dick van Patten. I don't know whether that's a good thing or not...lol

On a final note, we've started giving the dogs a couple teaspoons of unpasteurized yogurt in their food. Because our kennels are essentially fenced parks rather than traditional pens, sometimes they get into stuff they shouldn't and their digestive systems get kinda messed up for a few days. The probiotic qualities of the yogurt seem to combat that pretty well. Dairy producers aren't legally allowed to sell unpastuerized yogurt for human consumption, so you won't find it in the grocery store. We get it right from the farm.

While it would be a fraction of the cost to give the dogs a common bulk feed, you can definitely see the difference in the dogs' health. Given the numbers of dogs we have, health problems are really rare and a solid diet can only help. Healthy happy dogs make strong healthy pups.

[newhunterette]

The farm Breanne works on is owned by a gentleman who has created a line of organic suppliments and foods for animals as well as for humans. There is 2 St Bernards and 1 Bull Mastiff that Breanne cares for and - Cleo is about 14 years old (St Bernard) and has had lots of hip trouble - she has been given this organic suppliment mixed with her food and she runs and frolics and plays with the other 2 dogs and it takes her less effort to get up and down

We are in the process of getting some for our Blue Heeler as she had CCL surgery last year and even though she recoevered amazingly from the surgery, we want to see if this suppliment will keep her at her energetic pace as she keeps our black lab in line and with Hunter's (lab) energy, Sissy needs all the help she can get lol (Sissy is approx. 12 years old - a pound puppy so not exactly sure of her birthdate)

[Marc]

I have a female lab who used to follow my male around the yard to get a second meal. Now with the raw she doesn't do it that I've noticed. The scat dries out pretty quick and turns white. They love the raw diet and scarf it down as soon as i put the bowl on the ground. I still add some recovery to the older dogs food as my 11 1/2 male has hip displasia and the female 9 1/2 has some arthritis problems. The thing I've noticed the most is they've all slimmed down. I'll be curious to see how much weight the labs lost since their last visit to the vet at 94 lbs a piece. I'm guessing that they're more in the ball park of 80 lbs now.

[newhunterette]

Hunter weighed in at the vet 2 weeks ago 82 lbs and he says she has to lose 12 more pounds - she used to be 102 pounds - we have put her on Nutro natural choice light for overweight and less active dogs - she is definetly not less active but this was what has been reccomended as well as Sissy gets nutro natural choice for senior dogs as she has broken all her canine teeth through the years and needs smaller bites and we will be adding the Udo oil and powder suppliments to both their foods as it great for stabilizing orthro troubles in older dogs and active dogs.

Azshia has been authorized and certified as an animal nutrition coach with her veterinary assistant classes from Hill's Pet Food - Hills w/d is for weight control and g/d for nutritional management of older dogs - r/d for severely overweight dogs - p/d for large breed puppies for managment of growth disorders for large breed dogs as if they develope to quickly they can suffer bone disorders

Another type of food is Royal Canin/Medical but it is costly. The have Low Fat food for prevention of digestive disease and Weight Control/Mature for the less active older dog - Development for puppies and Adolescent for puppies of large breeds to control growth weight - Fibre/Calorie Control for the overweight dog - Mobility Support for dogs with arthritis and this is clinically proven to releive signs of arthritis.

Most of these come in wet or dry type of foods

[Doe Eyes]

Marc,
My Alaskan Malamute pup is 3 months old...40 lbs.
I would like to switch her over to a raw food diet also....I have absolutely no idea about how much to feed her.
Right now she is eating 4.5 cups of Orijan Puppy which is approx: $70 per bag...but I think I would prefer a raw diet.

How did you calculate how much to feed your dogs?

[Marc]

Marc,
My Alaskan Malamute pup is 3 months old...40 lbs.
I would like to switch her over to a raw food diet also....I have absolutely no idea about how much to feed her.
Right now she is eating 4.5 cups of Orijan Puppy which is approx: $70 per bag...but I think I would prefer a raw diet.

How did you calculate how much to feed your dogs?

I've been lucky that the breeder also feeds her dogs on raw so I've been getting guidance from here.

I did a bit of research on the net and I found that roughly 2-3% of the dogs body weight. So for example Marshall at his fighting weight is sitting around 80 lbs. so 2% of 80 would be 1.6 lbs. This changes from dog to dog and also age of the dog. I've been feed Marshall roughly 2 lbs per day or two frozen blocks but as his energy requirements increase so will the portions. My older labs who don't need as much energy have a half block each twice per day. It's going to be one of those feel as you go checking to see if you can still feel his ribs or not and go from there.


I've also been giving my dogs an omega 3-6-9 capsule a day as well as a dog multivitamin twice per day.

I'll try and get a picture of all 3 of the again to compare them to a few months back so you can see the difference in the dogs since they were switched over.

[Wolfman]

My dogs do really well on the EVO diet. Koda is growing like stink on it.

Wolfman

[HighTideChessies]

Thought I'd chime in on the RAW food diet thing. Here are some guidelines we follow from our vet for calculations etc.

Easy conversion - for Adult dogs - adjust for activity level - 80 pound dog gets 800grams/day, 70 pound dog gets 700 grams/day .. etc. Our vet recommends feeding only once per day after the dog is 8 or 9 months old.

70% raw meat and raw bone, carcasses, etc. -- all previously frozen! Chicken, turkey (necks, or ground up as the bones are pretty hard), duck, lamb, etc. (we generally avoid beef, buffalo, etc.)

20 - 25% veggies - sweet potato, yams, greens (avoiding broccoli, cabbage, that sort of thing)

5% organ meat - kidney, liver, tripe, all the fun stuff

We supplement with omega 3,6,9; canine plus multivitamin, kelp & alfalfa powder, probiotic or goat's yogurt.

Once a week or so we give cooked fish - salmon, sardines, etc.

When we don't have time to prepare our own meals for our dogs we buy it in bulk from the same place Marc mentioned. They have a great selection of premixed or meat and bone only (if you want to add your own veggies etc.) It's amazing how well the dogs do on it! The bricks from store are great and they like the meatsicles in the summer

Cheers,
HighTide Chesapeakes
www.HighTideChessies.com