TDG

kissta, dogs and humans have completely different digetive tracts and handle raw foods differently. giving those eggs raw will supply all the unaltered nutrients, vitamins and enzymes. if you are dead set against feeding anything raw, you can lightly scramble them, but this way you are going to lose a good portion of valuable nutrients. you also might want to consider a better quality food. while nutro isn't as bad as some other mainstream brands out there, you are paying a premium price for a mediocre product. nutro contains less than 30% meat, the rest are various fractions of rice and some beet pulp. when i first got my dog, i fed him nutro puppy food and had lots of trouble keeping weight on him, mainly because he didn't even want to eat half of the amount he was supposed to eat daily - it was just too much for his little stomach and he didn't get enough nutrition out of it. nutro max natural is an even poorer quality food than nutro natural, with more cheap protein fillers (gluten meal) and even less real meat. have a look here if you want to learn about the differences in commercial dry food and how to avoid the poor quality stuff: [url]http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood[/url] i highly recommend switching your dog to a premium quality product, but if you are limited to shopping at petco or petsmart, your choices are going to be very limited. natural balance is one brand that's of good quality and not as difficult to find as others. my top recommendations are innova and canidae, but there is a good number of other good quality products. you just need to do your homework and locate a place that sells them.

i actually feed my dog a lot of the same stuff i fix for the human members of the household, but i leave more of his (especially meat) raw instead of cooking it. since i'm cooking almost everything from scratch, i don't feel guilty feeding my dog pasta and meat sauce for example, and whenever i make chicken stew, i cut off the wings before i boil the chicken to feed them raw, and also give the dog some of the veggies and stock from the stew. i [b]have[/b] noticed that i make more of an effort to prepare healthier human meals since i stopped feeding commercial food exclusively, simply because it's easier to streamline all the shopping and food preparation. overall i feed my dog a diet that is about 70% raw and 30% cooked. evening meals are usually strictly RMBs.

lada daddy, try the eagle pack performance or healthwise active dry. pretty good foods, clean, high quality ingredients. i don't own pits but know some weight pulling people and also hobby mushers who swear by eagle performance for keeping weight on. :)

[quote name='Lada Daddy']Yes there is a lot of corn in it, BUT it also doesn't have any ash[/quote] every pet food has ash. ash is the residue you get when you burn a food sample under laboratory conditions - it's the anorganic portions that are left over, mostly from the bones. there is no such thing as an animal being allergic to ash. the ash content of a food depends on two things: the overall meat content and the bone content of the food. a low ash content in a food is overall a good thing, since high ash levels stress the kidneys, but so does feeding poor quality, difficult to digest protein, such as from grains. a low ash content in a food can be achieved by doing two things: - in low quality pet foods, the meat content is kept low and cheap protein fillers (mostly gluten of some sort) are used to boost the protein content. the meat meals used in these foods are usually high in bone content and have less "real meat" in them. these poor quality foods have an actual meat content of as low as 12%, but generally under 30%. so essentially you are feeding a carnivorous animal a diet consisting of over 2/3rds grain. - in high quality pet foods, top quality meat meals are used, made from meats that contain less bone matter, or even deboned meats. these foods have a high content of meat and gluten products are generally not needed to boost protein content. these foods usually have a meat content of 30-50%. the sad thing about AAFCO labeling regulations is that every bag of food only shows the [b]crude[/b] fat and protein content, but this doesn't mean that this protein is actually digestible. so a top of the line food with 25% protein listed has more digfestible protein than a poor quality food that lists the same value. compare it to looking at a chunk of meat with bone and a cow hoof. both have a fairly high protein content, but the meat ranks much higher on the digestibility scale and has a much higher nutritional value. the most obvious sign of feeding a high quality diet is the size of your dog's poop piles. the softer and bigger they are, the lower the food quality. of course the pet food industry has caught onto that and makes heavy use of "strool conditioners" like beet pulp, that make the poop drier and smaller artificially. if you are interested in learning more facts on commercial dog food, have a look here: [url]http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood/[/url]

[quote name='Lada Daddy']I started my girls out on Nutro Max, and switched over to Pro Plan performance blend for the high fat content for my little monster. I have had VERY good results with it and it is MUCH less expensive than the "salon" dog foods.[/quote] less expensive per bag or per actual daily feeding cost? lol :)

i'm not going to sign up on a forum with that many ignorant people just to make a point that's proven already, but if anyone who is already registered there wants to make a point, here are some hard numbers, comparing different heartworm preventives and how many recations and deaths they have caused over a certain time span. [url]http://dogsadversereactions.com/moxidectin/comparison2.html[/url] note how long PH6 was on the market and how many animals it has killed vs. how long other products have been out.

i recommend getting the books "on talking terms with dogs: calming signals" by turid rugaas (ISBN: 0967479606) and "the other end of the leash" by patricia mcconnell (ISBN: 0345446798). you can easily find both of them on amazon if you do a search for the ISBN numbers. if you order both of them, you'll even get free shipping. yeah, you'll have to spend a few bucks, but on the other hand you'll be learning so much more than anyone on any forum could tell you in just a few pages worth of posts on the internet. pat mcconnell and turid rugaas are two of the most brilliant people in the dog training world. :)

i think ultimately home prepared will be the best thing to do, especially since she's still young and has a (hopefully :)) long life ahead of her. a friend of mine consulted with monica segal for a feeding regimen for a 9 week old pup she put on raw shortly after he came home from the breeder. she has been raw feeding her adult dogs for 6 or 7 years already but didn't want to risk doing anything wrong raising a fairly large breed pup on raw. she was very, very happy with the consultation.

if you want canned tripe, tripett is the best you can get. you only get the full health benefits from fresh tripe tho, if it is left raw and just frozen. it smells awful but it's so healthy for the doggers. :)

[quote name='Horsefeathers!']His reply to me was "you can't believe everything you read on the internet." :o[/quote] well, i hope you'll print out the FDA note above and hand it to him. :lol:

great news!!!! :) :B-fly: :B-fly: FDA Talk Paper T04-37 September 3, 2004 Media Inquiries: 301-827-6242 Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA [b]Fort Dodge to Comply with FDA's Request to Recall ProHeart 6 Injectable Heartworm Product from the Market Due to Serious Health Concerns[/b] Fort Dodge Animal Health, of Overland Park, Kansas, at FDA's request, has agreed to immediately cease production and recall its heartworm medication ProHeart

depends on the ingredients in the food. i'd be happy to dissect an ingredient list if i had one to look at. :) if i ever had to deal with anything like that, i would definitely go off commercial food entirely. monica segal is a great person to consult with, monicasegal.com.

oops sorry - i guess i must have vanished again already before seeing your post. the merrick canned food is a great quality product. it's all human grade, no icky stuff in there. however, i'm with you on the "not at that price, I could cook for all of them for way less". i feed home prepared (both cooked and raw) and spend about a third of what the merrick would cost to feed per month, and that includes at least some organic ingredients.

if you are interested in details about commercial food, have a look here: [url]http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood[/url]

bil jac is a poor quality food. it's mostly made from the byproducts of the human food industry, contains large amounts of molasses (a sweetener, which makes the food attractive to dogs) and is preserved with a synthetic stabilizer that is already banned from use in human food products in some countries because it is suspect to be a carcinogen. nutro isn't a very high quality food either, but it is better than bil jac. the main downsides of nutro are that it contains "poultry fat" and only has a meat content of under 30%, the rest is grain. considering you are willing to pay the price for these products, which are fairly expensive, i can tell you that you can do much, much better buying a true premium food and pay about the same or only a little more. using such a high quality food means feeding smaller amounts (since fillers are absent and more of the food actually gets digested), so a bag will last longer. more info here: [url=http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood/]the dog food project[/url]

- Where do you get your bones from? since i live in a large city, i get mine from supermarkets. whole foods still does their own cutting and trimming at their stores, so they are usually my first destination. the huge plus is that all their meat comes from naturally raised and even organic sources. - What size/proportions/cuts have you found to be best for your dogs? depends on the size of your dog and how crazy they are about chewing. make sure to keep the pieces big enough so they can't swallow them. my dog is small, but i give fairly large pieces since he is a power chewer. the best thing are the knuckle ends of marrow/soup bones. they are soft, unlike the middle pieces. which cut of bone depends on whether you are looking for something really hard that just gives a bit of chewing exercise (e.g. knuckle bones) or something that is good for chewing but also provides some nutrition, like beef necks, pork necks, pig's feet, turkey wings etc. - Do you sterilize them in any way before feeding? no, i give them as they come. when starting out i would recommend to trim most of the fat off and also remove some of the marrow, both are very rich and some dogs get digestive upset when they aren't weaned onto that slowly. - If you feed raw bones and kibble, is there still the concern as with feeding a partial raw/partial kibble diet? as far as i know, [b]there is no concern[/b] about feeding raw *and* kibble. i know the myths that are floating around allover the internet, but have never been able to substantiate them. even dr. pitcairn recommends to supplement kibble with some raw meat and other things in his book "complete guide to natural health for dogs and cats" and my holistic vet also said it's not an issue at all. - How often can you feed bones without worrying about upseting the balance of nutrients in the dog's current diet? i feed bones as a part of my dog's daily diet. they are mostly entirely consumable and not just for chewing (recreational bones, like beef knuckle bones or beef ribs), but there is no worry about upsetting the balance of nutrients. - Does anyone have a dog that tends to gulp food if they feel they might get it taken either by people or other dogs? And if so, how do you deal with it? i don't, but a friend does. feding the dog in a crate does help a lot. - What problems (even if they weren't really big problems) did/have you had in feeding raw bones? make sure you introduce bones slowly. do not give the dogs chunks of bonmes and let them chew for hours on end int he beginning. the more bone matter they consume, the more likely they will develop constipation from it until they get accustomed to it. keep a can of pumpkin (plain, not the pie filling mix) on hand to help with constipation if it occurs. another thing that might be an issue is that not all dogs tolerate all types of bones equally well. my own dog does best on beef, turkey and lamb but has some trouble with chicken and pork, so i generally feed much smaller portions of those two items.

i've seen those linked on another forum before, those are supposedly from new zealand. :) that they are german wouldn't make sense, since german ads are usually printed in german, not in english. translating the text from english to german brings results that don't make sense and aren't even funny. [url]http://www.20six.co.uk/weblogEntry/11ecltrs4blxi[/url] [url]http://www.petersonspad.com/Australian%20Dog%20Food%20Ads.htm[/url] totally funny tho. :)

have you tried mega doses of a high-quality, human grade fish oil? feeding canned fish is a good idea for supplementing food in general, but the effect of 1000 mg of fish oil per 10 lbs of body weight daily can't be replicated by feeding canned fish a couple times a week. the omega 3 fatty acids are powerful natural anti-inflammatory agents and also stimulate the immune system. one other thing you might want to consider is to eliminate grains from your dog's diet as much as you can. grains are high in omega 6 fatty acids, which are harmful if consumed in large amounts. commercial kibbles are at least 50% grains to begin with, so you could either consider a potato based kibble, but ultimately a raw diet would be a lot more beneficial. i only have very limited experience with this kind of issue, but hopefully this link will help: [url]http://www.bowchow.com/arthritis.html[/url]

[quote name='K']:o there has been a class 2 recall...thats an admission that the drug is dangerous..or not?[/quote] sadly, no - it's just an admission that there are some "bad" batches in circulation. i hope this poison gets taken off the market once and for all soon. :( apparently in australia they are pushing the one-year version already. :(

here s something on rimadyl that you might find interesting, and you might also want to print it out and show it to your vet. i'm aware you know about possible side effects and that this doesn't have anything directly to do with your post, but i think this is important information to share. [quote]Permission to Cross Post Dear Friends: I am asking your help in sending the following press release to media in your state/country - I have the Press Release in a .PDF format and if anyone is interested in obtaining it, please write me personally and I will be glad to send it to you. - I am starting today to send to the media in South Carolina, but we must try to reach media in all states and countries. Thank you in advance for assisting with this project. Sincerely, Jean (Always for George - Always for the Rimadyl Dogs) [url]http://hometown.aol.com/luswinton/myhomepage/memorial.html[/url] LAWSUIT OVER VETERINARY DRUG SETTLED FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Johns Island, South Carolina - August 18, 2004 Jean Townsend of Johns Island, South Carolina announced today that a settlement has been reached with Pfizer, Inc. in what appears to be the first lawsuit of its kind in this country a lawsuit over injuries that led to the death of Ms. Townsend's chocolate lab, George. Ms. Townsend originally brought a class action lawsuit against Pfizer in October of 1999, two years after the tragic death of George. The lawsuit alleged that after initial approval by the FDA, the drug Rimadyl

[quote]Hi everyone~Im getting my puppy in 3 days. His foster mom feeds him Iams large breed puppy food, but from what Ive read, Iams isnt the best choice for him (or maybe Im wrong about that?)[/quote] you are absolutely right, iams is a pretty poor quality food. if you want to learn more about dog food ingredients and how to tell if a food is of good or bad quality, have a look [url=http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood/index.php?page=identify]here[/url]. [quote]Any suggestions about a good brand to switch him to? (that wont break the bank)[/quote] if you look at daily feeding cost vs. simply the price on the bag, no premium food will really break your bank, simply because you will have to feed much less of a high quality food since it is made of highly digestible ingredients and doesn't contain worthless fillers. my top contender when it comes to ingredient quality vs. affordability is definitely canidae. chicken soup is ok, but once you look at what it really costs to feed a certain brand over the time of say one year and not just at the price per bag, it really becomes very obvious. [quote]And how do I go about making the switch as far as mixing the brands (1/4 to 3/4 etc). Hes a 9 week old german shepherd/ yellow lab mix. Also, how old should he be before I switch to adult food? Thank for the help![/quote] if your dog takes the change well and no digestive upset appears, you can switch him over in just 4-5 days no problem. if he isn't taking it well, slow down. for a fairly large dog like a GSD/lab mix i would recommend switching to an adult or all-lifestages formula right away. you will want to aim for slow, even growth and keep a lean puppy to avoid orthopedic problems. your pup will get all the extra nutrients it needs during its growth phase from the larger amount of food it eats compared to an adult dog. the reason we even have "large breed puppy" foods on the market is that at some point companies started marketing puppy foods, which caused larger breed puppies to grow too fast, put on excess weight and consume too much calcium. of course the pet food companies saw their chance to get peopel to buy even more of their products by offering specific "large breed puppy" formulations when a high quality adult/all lifestages food would do just as well. small breed puppies are an entirely different story since their metabolism is so much higher and they have a lot less growing to do in the same amount of time compared to large breed puppies. so don't fall into that trap, ignore the puppy foods and go with a product like artemis, back to basics, blue buffalo, california natural, canidae, chicken soup, eagle pack holistic select, healthwise, innova, karma, natural balance, premium edge, solid gold, timberwolf organics, verus or wellness. if you are on a budget, see if you can locate premium edge in your area. like chicken soup, it's also made by diamond, but it's marketed for a different target group and mostly only available at feed stores instead of pet stores. it's a good food tho. :) healthwise is also a budget line (made by natura from the same excellent ingredients as innova and cali natural) and not available at most popular pet stores.

[quote name='DogPaddle']How about frozen green beans? No salt, fresher kinda, tasty . . . my boys love them still frozen, I give them for treats sometimes.[/quote] frozen is fine too. also fresh if you want and can get them easily. since they are really only intended to bulk up the diet, it doesn't matter. :)

mfaust, since you said you are feeding science diet, here's a link that might be interesting for you: [url]http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood[/url] SD is a popular brand that a lot of people buy because they want to do the best for their pets, but sadly it's overpriced crap. it makes me angry how hill's sucker in people with clever advertising but their products don't deliver. "science fiction" would be a better name.

[quote name='MajiesMom']Apparently can green beans are the best and have all the vitamins and nutrients your dog needs and helps them lose weight. You have to rinse them well first though because of all the sodium in the water they’re packed in.[/quote] actually green beans barely contain much of anything except a bit of fiber and a lot of sodium. :) the reason they are used for mixing into kibble for weight loss is that they make a great filler that barely adds any calories to the daily ration and most dogs like eating them.

[quote name='DeafAussieLover']Zoey will be 2 in Dec, it's in her right front leg that she limps sdome times it will be just a little bit, other days it looks like she is missing a leg and his hoppin' everywhere.. it's hard to discribe.. but does this help?[/quote] has elbow dysplasia been considered? a friend of mine had that problem in two of her dogs (unrelated, both different mixed breeds) and it took a lot of effort to find the cause, including a bone scan. both of them have had surgery for it and are doing much better now. they also get adequan injections.