[Maren Bell Jones]

Seems to be alot of people feeding innova cal-nat or evo. Have you seen any change in the food since PG took over the company? Makes me nervice like feeding any foods made in adiamond factory. Try to stay away if I can. Tend to go with food made in Canada..

I have not noticed a drop in quality. My understanding is that since P&G purchased them, but didn't replace any of the staff at their plant in Nebraska except the people at the very very top when it changed hands and it's pretty much been business as usual. I think they still only make Natura products at their Nebraska plant because when I visited it several years ago, they were nearly at capacity only making Natura products.

 

[Kara Fitzpatrick]

I feed Acana and I love it.
Orijen can be too rich and cause the runs with my dogs.

 

[Lindsay Janes]

Don't have a malinois, but I used to have one. All of my dogs are on Raw. I spent five years trying different kibbles, but wasn't happy until I was introduced to Raw. It was the best thing that ever happen to my dogs. I am very happy with my dogs' weight than I did when they were on kibble.

 

[Thomas Barriano]

Raw feeders are almost like Vegans.
True believers out to spread the gospel according to them.
I feed my dogs Dutch Shepherd, GSD and Dobermanns all
Sams Club Simply Right complete nutrition $20/50# mixed
50/50 with Exceed $30/40# bag. The dog feeding business is a big scam with pet owners being convinced to spend more money on their dogs then they do on their kids food :-(

 

[Michael McClure]

Raw all the way..... I have had my dogs on raw for over a year and we all love it wouldn't think of changing!!!!

 

[Britney Pelletier]

Raw :mrgreen: wouldn't have it any other way!

I do supplement with Nupro and Salmon Oil, and they get a little kibble here and there to keep it easier on them for when we travel and have to feed it.. when they get kibble it is usually Precise Grain Free or Earthborn Holistic Grain Free.

 

[James Downey]

I feen my dog dead animals, a few greens, McDonalds on occasion, natural balance for treats....They share my ham sammich for lunch somtimes... They eat the left over waffles from the kids everymorning. They eat grass, and from looking at thier shit apparently styrofoam and something that looks like sillystring except it's stronger. Sometimes they get my oatmeal.

I feed everything except food that has been processed for canine consumption.

 

[Nicole Stark]

A bit of Soylent Green too eh?

 

[Tim Connell]

A bit of Soylent Green too eh?

Good one!!!

 

[Christina Kennedy]

We feed raw and Acana. Acana has been the best dry food for us so far and the only dry food that all the dogs do well on. I personally prefer 100% raw but sometimes I am lazy and it is also hard to travel with. My young puppies are normally 100% on dry because they work for their meals and it is just easier that way.

 

[kristin tresidder]

i'm sure it's socially unacceptable to say that i feed diamond right now, but i've fed the dutchies and the stafs the diamond natural extreme athlete for years, and always been happy with it. i've never had trouble with it through any of the recalls & the dogs muscle tone & coats always look top notch.

i've also fed raw, and really liked it - but it's a lot of work, and no matter what anyone says, it is expensive to do right. when lo started eating almost 5# per day by himself, i bowed out of that venture.

whatever you feed, i would look for something high calorie, high fat/protein, and no corn. you'll feed less food that way.

 

[Guest]

i'm sure it's socially unacceptable to say that i feed diamond right now, but i've fed the dutchies and the stafs the diamond natural extreme athlete for years, and always been happy with it. i've never had trouble with it through any of the recalls & the dogs muscle tone & coats always look top notch.

i've also fed raw, and really liked it - but it's a lot of work, and no matter what anyone says, it is expensive to do right. when lo started eating almost 5# per day by himself, i bowed out of that venture.

whatever you feed, i would look for something high calorie, high fat/protein, and no corn. you'll feed less food that way.

Hey Stranger!! Its been a while.

Sounds simple, I like. Too many trying to pick it apart at times.

 

[Bart Karmich]

I raised the puppy on raw (a wide variety of meaty bones from the butcher, primarily consisting of chickens, but also pork and beef bones, organ meat etc.), and I fed supplements like salmon oil and E.
Sometime before he turned 2 years old he started to hack up chunks of bones in the middle of the night. I believe it's normal to vomit the larger chunks with some stomach fluid for lubrication rather than pass them, which would sometimes irritate the intestines and cause the puppy to have a lot of mucous in the stool or diarreah. So I wasn't so much concerned about the bone vomiting for his health, but he's a house dog and sleeps in the house every night. It was becoming routine that he would wake me up banging on the back door to let him out. If I didn't get there in time, he'd leave it on the back door mat. He's too big for a doggy door - I might as well just leave the door open.

So I figured I could either get a meat grinder and grind my own dog food - already I was quartering about four whole chickens a week, or try some kibble. I figured kibble would bring some consistency to the stool, which I would never get with a wide variety of raw foods.

Dog Foods I've tried besides Raw

I've fed Embark - it is mostly plant-based and it produces huge stools. I don't like to feed all that alfalfa. But I did just buy a 10lb box of Love. I expect to feed it intermittently.

I've fed Orijen - the regional red meat one produces a foul smelling flatulence (otherwise the 30lb bag went well). The regular Adult formula worked well with no problems. The six fish worked great. I actually used the six fish before I even switched to mostly kibble because in the raw diet I could not afford any other kind of fish protein. I've fed three 30lb bags of six-fish and they've gone well. The dog's coat looks as good as ever and he has good energy.

I've also fed EVO salmon and herring. I prefer this to Orijen because it doesn't have all the potatoes -- just some pea fiber. It is the only kibble with no grains or cereal of any kind, no potatoes, no sweet potatoes and no alfalfa. It's just about 50% protein on a dry-matter basis, and has enough fat for active dogs. I've gone through about four 30lb bags and it's worked great.

All the other EVO formulas have potatoes, and in that case I would rather feed Orijen.

Weight dropped on kibbles

I can tell you that my dog seems to have lost about 10 lbs switching from raw to the kibbles. These kibbles are about 500 calories per cup and I feed about 4 1/2 cups a day but he doesn't maintain the weight he had when fed what was probably quite a few less calories raw. His body condition is maybe 2.5 at best.

I still feed some raw like chicken wings, chicken ribs, and big soup bones for teeth. It was mostly the drumsticks and thighs he was vomiting, but whole chickens are the only raw staple that's practically affordable to me.

I also feed all our table scraps. They have a high value for him and work great in training somethings that don't need interactive reward delivery. For interactive training treats I feed hot dogs or one of the meat rolls.

Caloric Intake

I figure his intake is at least 2500 calories a day and sometimes 3000. Based on his urine, he's getting plenty of protein. His activity level is basically either on or off. He spends all night and most hours of the day sleeping on the floor, but will explode with activity whenever I take him somewhere or do something with him. So either he's burning all those calories in just a few hours of activity every day or they're not being absorbed very well. I figure he could probably use some more fat intake for additional fuel. I'm happy that he's not overweight but I'm a little concerned about atrophy. He has plenty of energy, speed and power, but I'd like to see more muscle mass - not body builder stuff, but just so he doesn't look like I starve him.

 

[Katie Finlay]

Raw feeders are almost like Vegans.
True believers out to spread the gospel according to them.
I feed my dogs Dutch Shepherd, GSD and Dobermanns all
Sams Club Simply Right complete nutrition $20/50# mixed
50/50 with Exceed $30/40# bag. The dog feeding business is a big scam with pet owners being convinced to spend more money on their dogs then they do on their kids food :-(

I don't think I've ever tried talking anyone into raw feeding. I've only given out information about its benefits if I was asked to. I generally just try and steer everyone away from grains. But if it's working I don't care what anyone feeds.

 

[Marta Wajngarten]

Orijen fish. Expensive, but still the cheapest kibble I can find that doesn't make him drop weight.

Have you tried Go! Chicken? I think we had this chat before... Haus couldn't keep weight on Orijen Fish, he did much better on Go Chicken and gets less of it (it's also cheaper then Orijen, triple win!). The only other high calory food I have found (in fact highest) was Evo chicken and turkey, although I haven't tried it as it's more expensive then the Orijen. I might consider mixing in a bag once in a while.


My guys are on raw for the most part, when we travel or when I run out of raw they get a combination or one of Orijen Fish and/or Go Chicken.

 

[Gina Pasieka]

Currently feeding Nature's Variety Instinct kibble and Raw. I was feeding Abady, but I kept dealing with some foul diarrhea.

 

[Debbie Skinner]

We feed raw to our malinois and pups except when pinched for time or run out and then fall back on EVO. Raw for us is cheaper to purchase initially than grain-free. However there is the extra time, purchasing and running freezers, more clean up of bones, packing away the raw in the freezers, rationing and feeding the raw... At the kennel..much more labor intensive cleaning (steam cleaning grease off concrete).

The boarding dogs get EVO for the grain sensitive ones (board a lot of rescue dogs and pitties..blues have skin issues). The rest get StrongPoint which is a great kennel food in my experience. I've been trying the StrongPoint for about 8 months now. The kennel dogs get raw bones and raw meat as well depending on the particular dogs.

One of my malinois female that was returned this year @ 5 years old and was always very thin with the owner. I tried straight raw and I tried Evo free fed. What finally has worked for her is free fed Strongpoint and a lot of raw. Different strokes for different dogs. It's a kibble that has rice, millet, sorghum as the grain and beef for the meat.

Made my run to Henco (feed warehouse) on Tuesday to buy feed. There may be changes coming as far as distribution as they were dropped as a distributor 2 weeks ago, and the staff thinks P&G will be soon offering EVO at the big chains..Petsmart.. Was told this is the same move they made with IAMS many years back...dropping the IAMS distributors off and putting IAMS in the super stores. The food is still made at the same plant and so far I have no news of the quality changing.

 

[Vic Harter]

I feed Nutri-Source Grain Free Chicken. My dogs love it and it seems to be the only Kibble that my dogs don't loose weight on.

I've tryed Innova, Diamond, 4 health and all of my dogs lost weight and even had break outs of diarrhea :-/

 

[Britney Pelletier]

I don't think I've ever tried talking anyone into raw feeding. I've only given out information about its benefits if I was asked to. I generally just try and steer everyone away from grains. But if it's working I don't care what anyone feeds.

Exactly! and I've been feeding raw for 10+ years..

If people are having serious skin, coat or digestive issues with their dogs, I will certainly suggest it, but it's not the only thing I would suggest. I think it's also important to bear in mind that there are some "issues" our dogs have that are completely intolerable by some people and they will seek an immediate remedy to fix it, and other people may not even notice or address it as an issue.

For me personally, this is a larger factor in my decision to feed raw or high quality kibbles. I've seen what my own dogs were like on low-quality foods and it just does not meet my standards. It's really not a conspiracy at all, people just like to cast stones because it's an easy way to excuse yourself from getting educated and then making a decision.

I don't judge people for feeding Ol' Roy, but it is not for my dogs and I know their condition on it would never meet my approval.

 

[Katie Finlay]

Exactly! and I've been feeding raw for 10+ years..

If people are having serious skin, coat or digestive issues with their dogs, I will certainly suggest it, but it's not the only thing I would suggest. I think it's also important to bear in mind that there are some "issues" our dogs have that are completely intolerable by some people and they will seek an immediate remedy to fix it, and other people may not even notice or address it as an issue.

For me personally, this is a larger factor in my decision to feed raw or high quality kibbles. I've seen what my own dogs were like on low-quality foods and it just does not meet my standards. It's really not a conspiracy at all, people just like to cast stones because it's an easy way to excuse yourself from getting educated and then making a decision.

I don't judge people for feeding Ol' Roy, but it is not for my dogs and I know their condition on it would never meet my approval.

Agreed. If I didn't have my co-op, I wouldn't feed raw. I know it's expensive, especially with multiple dogs. And I don't feed all organic, pastured, grass fed, etc. I certainly try to and would prefer to, but I have to get what I can afford.

I also use Natural Balance food rolls and Zuke's Mini Naturals for training. So I don't know if I'm even a 100% raw feeder in that sense. But the dogs do fine with them so I don't stress about it.

As far as travel goes, I just use THK. I get THK $10-20 cheaper through my co-op, which is wonderful. I have an IBD dog that will vomit all bones and have diarrhea with everything but THK with a little muscle meat added. So since I'm already buying it, it's not that big a hassle to use it while I travel. I also use that to add veggies. None of that processing and blending. I don't have time for that, lol

I'm pretty stoked right now. I got THK Zeal for $86 instead of the normal $105 in the local pet supplies. And a box lasts me 1 - 1 & 1/2 month(s).