Just wondering what everyone feeds their dogs.

We feed our dogs a bunch of different brands, rotating randomly between Honest kitchen Dehydrated, Timberwolf Organics, Merrick, Evanger's, and Solid Gold.

We also feed a lot of table scraps. If it's good enough for me to eat, it's good enough for them, and almost definitely better than any prepackaged dog food. We do raw sometimes.


until recently, our vets were adament that we pick one brand and stick with it, but recently our main vet admitted that she really has next to zero education on dog nutrition and neither do most vets, they are just told in vet school to find a good brand and stick with it.

We also switch abruptly with no stomach issues.

I think (hope) the era commercial dog food is changing as people become more aware of what their pets are eating. I think the dog food poisonings of the past year have made a lot of people start asking questions.

We feed my American Cocker Spaniel and Mini-Dauchund nothing but Gravy Train or Alpo dry dog food. Anything else gives them the runs.
Since your dog is used to a wide variety of foods that would explain why they stomach tolerance for those foods are there.

We fed our dogs scraps along with dog food. Mom would even cook them oatmeal and add fat and carrots for them. And with the exception of one that was poisoned, friggin neighbours, they all lived to be 12 to 17 years old.

Cesar canine cuisine. Sugar would not eat anything else. If it don't have that cute white pup on the pack she will ignore it.

Our dogs are on the Bones and Raw food diet. We buy ground chicken and grind fresh veggies and mix it all together. Then we form it into patties and freeze them for later use. We also give them raw chicken bones or raw beef bones with each meal. They are very healthy, far more so than dogs getting kibble and/or canned dog food (My wife's business is dogwalking/dogsitting so we see a LOT of dogs). Highly recommend it but it is a bit costly unless you have a friendly butcher

my dog gets dog food, and whatever he gets from the table, he eats everything, i don,t think there is any food he wouldn,t eat.

we had a dog who died from eating chicken bones . we never fed our dogs them since . is this not true then that they are dangerous. the neighbour threw them over the fence apparently .

we have two german shepards. we feed our dogs dry mix (bakers) . along with ground chicken/beef and veg and i feed them boiled meat twice a week . they have bones from the butcher usually the big cow leg bones . they also get some table scraps but not potatoes and starchy products . these tend to give them runs

That could be because he's had the same foods for so long, he has lost the enzymes necessary to digest anything else.



Actually, except for the caramel coloring and the main proteins being by-products, that's not all that bad. It's very, very weird for a dog to eat only one thing, though.

were they raw or cooked?

Sugar's vet told us that giving bones to a dog is not recommended b/c it will hurt a dog if it broke the wrong way while the were eating it & punches a organ or something in the dog.

Oh im not sure really like i said they were thrown over . i was quite young but i remember my uncle shoveling snow from the roof to try save the dog but it didnt help this was on the advice of the vet . . i just never gave them either raw nor cooked just in case .

When I had my pup, I fed her Purina Puppy Chow (dry) and Purina Meaty Chunks (canned).

Didn't have her long......someone stole her.

My Rottie eats Iams dry food, and Pedigree canned food...Plus whatever happens to be sitting on top of my counter that he can reach....Then at night he gets his biscuits and bacon strips...It's neverending... Our Vet said not to give him chicken bones, as hey splinter easy and can get caught in his throat...

Awww nativechick...people are so cruel aren't they...

Raw chicken bones don't splinter.

As for Iams and Pedigree, if it works for your dog, that's great. I wouldn't feed that stuff to my dog though.

Hey, as long as my dog eats it and he's healthy that's all that matters...

Strictly dog food or meat. We buy whatever of the better brands is on sale.

Very sorry to hear that.



It's mainly the Spaniel that gets ill eating other foods... but he's very weird anyway. If sunlight comes through a window and causes a reflection on the wall he will bark at it until he poos.
He freaks out when I turn on the vaccuum as well.

Never give a dog raw meat, nor the bones - especially chicken or turkey as they are very dangerous for them. Chocolates a no no too.
My little bute as dog food and biscuit meal, all washed down with water, shes a dog and not a furry human like some believe.

i don't really have dogs to feed.......but i do feed dogs to my cats. i'm serious they'll eat dog. there was some dog that got hit by a car so i took it and gave it to my cats and they loved it. sometimes i take one of those little dogs and toss it into my cat den and watch them tear it to peaces..... people are going to hate me.

I had American Cockers too... but I've had other large and small breeds as well.

I've always fed all of them a dry brand called Precise. It's harder than hell to find, but it seems to be pretty darn good for them.

I've also added flax, spirolina, and other good mineral rich stuff. And, for whatever reason, my cockers LOVED raw carrots, so they got those as treats.

Raw chicken bones, as someone mentioned are perfectly fine for your dogs. Raw, they are soft and do not splinter. I tried this diet with my cockers (on the recommendation of a vet), and the male did fine on it, but it turned the female into a feral nutcase. After a week of trying to break her from going psychotic on the raw meat (she ferociously guarded it, and woudln't let anyone near it, and really didn't eat it either), we gave up and put her back on Precise and NEVER EVER gave her any fresh meat again.

Actually, there's a lot of evidence that raw bones, even chicken or turkey, are not dangerous at all. many people feed raw chicken and turkey with the bones all the time. It's the cooking that makes bones splinter. It's a hot debate, though.



What do you imagine dogs ate before the 1950's when dog food hit the market in force?

Human leftovers and scraps. This is why a dog can exist on even Iams and pedigree and Dad's and Kibble and Bits. They evolved eating human garbage, and garbage is exactly what I think some brands are. But, like I said, if your dog is thriving, that's cool. However, it should be noted, that common dog ailments like diabetes, obesity, and food alergies or intolerances were far, far less common before commercial dog food.

It always amazed me how people just accept that they have to switch brands very slowly to avoid stomach upset. Isn't that a red flag that a dog shouldn't eat the same thing day in and day out?

That's a problem that has to do with your dog and her personality, NOT with the meat. She's a dominant dog with resource guarding issues. You just finally gave her something she saw as worth guarding. Meat does NOT make dogs violent or "psychotic."

Well i was a bit worried about the chicken bone thing but i looked it up on the net and theres a book by a breeder who has bred hundreds of dogs and has tried most dog foods this is what is said about chicken bones there .



source

don't give a dog raw meat? if they were in the wild they would be eating raw meat all the time. that's really what they're suppose to be eating. i give dogs and cats raw meat all the time i never seen anything wrong with it.

BARFers treat Billinghurst's books like holy scripture.

We don't go all BARF simply because of the time and cost commitment. But we do feed raw food when we can, and I believe that table scraps are the best thing for dogs, with obvious exceptions. Actually, a good diet plan I've tried to implement is that if it's too crappy for my dogs, I shouldn't be eating it either. hehe

Where on earth did you get this info from? what do you think wild dogs eat? It wouldn't be practical for most people but whole carcass feeding i.e. fur, feather, flesh and bone produces the best conditioned dogs you'll see anywhere.

what a coincidence, my dogs eat cats.

My Dogs a Yorkshire Terrier, we feed him Iams and meat wise, cooked/raw lambs Heart, Cooked:Liver, Leg of Lamb bone has a chew on that, its a health feed because the Dog i had before also a yorkshire Terrier lived to age 21 on the same diet, (minus the Iams) a little tip, If you dog has fleas, the best way to get rid of them is to put one or two cloves of Garlic in their drinking water and leave it in until it goes soft and then put fresh cloves in, plus Garlic is good for their blood, and coat, do it and i guarantee you wont see any fleas, plus save yourself a sh** load of money and do away with stupid sprays, shampoos and injections.

Oh i definitly will try that. luckilly they are flea free i use that front line but its quite expensive compared to some other brands. How long does that take to work and can it be used as a preventative measure or just a treatment once they have them. sounds much better for them to than chemical based products

It does work, you have to leave the Garlic in the whole time, i take my dog the beach and when we come back it never has fleas, my dog doesnt know what a flea is and im not joking, !!

I have a Miniature Schnauzer and feed him Nutro Max and sometimes Nutro Natural if his skin starts getting weird with weather changes.

I realize that.. I had a pair, a male and a female. The male was fine, he was happy, dopey, sweet and dumb as a post. The female did have other issues, I didn't mean to suggest she didn't. She was mostly fear aggressive, I even had her sent away for 8 weeks when she was about 5 months old to have a trainer correct the issue. She did ok after that, but she was always smart, devious, and I'm pretty sure she was a cat wearing a cocker spaniel suit. haha. She was also my most favorite dog I've ever had... rest her soul.

IAMS <--my dog loves it

and yea he gets scraps of our left overs LOL but he loves the IAMS mixed in with dog food

I feed my Staffy Cross on a different meal every night of the week which is based on his own needs.

He has a mixture of raw meat, cooked meat, biscuits, tinned food, fish esp. tuna, goats milk and raw eggs.

He has garlic added to his food twice a week for coat condition, plus it keep his doggy breath away but he doesn't smell of garlic.

He can have table scraps if there are any but I usually only cook what I need so I don't tend to waste much.

Every time I have chicken or duck, I cook up the carcas and make him the best soup any dog's ever gonna have.

I use dog gravy or the soup to soften up his breakfast biscuits. Dog gravy tastes nice but there're no salt in it.

The only thing I wouldn't give him are small cooked bones, sugar, salt, a lot of bread or anything with spices in.

Raw egg is fab for a dog's coat condition.

When I feed my dog, I put the bowl down and make him wait until I say he can have it and sometimes, half way through his dinner, I take it away for a bit or tell him to leave it. He never questions my authority. It's good for a dog to understand that the 'top dog' (me) is in control of the food.

Once every three weeks or so, I will not feed my dog for 48 hours, as it helps their digestive system and makes them a little more 'back to nature' as wild dogs never ate twice a day in the wild like my doggy.

For his treat when he's training, he has small bits of liver friend in garlic. If you've never tried this, you should try garlic flavouring for your dog's treats, they LOVE it - but don't use garlic salt as the salt can kill a dog if they eat to much of it.

We have 4 king charles caviliers and they all eat dry food (Pro Plan) but they all love a piece of pitta with humous or pistacchio nuts, crazy for them, and chicken schnitzel as well. I had a bernese mountain dog and found her stuffing her face with a big box of chocolates one day that she found in the bedroom cupboard, she died young from a digestive disorder about a year later which I think due to this.

i would warn you not to mock the cats. they are not a very nice enemy to have.

I just feed him whatever I have. Can't really be stuffed buying pet food anymore, I love my dog too much for that

It's hard to say Moon Monkey... Bernese are known for their digestive issues. I had a wire hair fox terrier growing up. That damn dog at one point ate an entire case of thin mint girl scout cookies... she was pretty sick, but recovered after a few days of ummmm... a very irritable stomach. Several years later, she ate an entire bag of Oreos, again, sick, but recovered, and a third time she actually jumped on the kitchen counter and scarfed an entire box of liquor filled chocolates. VERY drunk, very sick for days. Dang dog still lived until she was 22 years old. I think she would have lived longer, but she got Parvo and died.

Either way, I'd say ya, keep chocolate away from your dogs, it really isn't good for them. I don't know if it could cause a digestive disorder, but it might aggrevate an existing one.

Here's a tip for keeping fleas and worms away, and ensuring a helathy coat. Give your animals nutritional or flake yeast. It is strong flavoured,s oyou might have to add it to a gravy at first, but once the dogs get used to it, they seem to love it. It is also great on popcorn for humans. It is incredibly high in vitamin b.

Try this...

http://api4animals.org/facts.php?p=359&more=1

Well said.


Good food.

Sam gets Eagle Pack Holistic Select. Like Nutro, meat is the main ingredient instead of unhealthy fillers like corn, which dogs don't digest properly (gives em gas). Since I wouldn't eat a primary diet of cereal all day long just because it contains all the vitamins I need, I suppliment my dog's diet with healthy treats and table scraps. He gets meats, and anything else appropriate for dogs. To keep him from getting bored, I often put his treats in a kong or treat dispenser. A bit of peanut butter helps make it stick.

I've seen a couple dogs live to pretty impressive ages, interested to know if any of you have seen the same, and what their diets were? My husband had a border collie growing up that lived to be 18. They fed her mostly table scraps, they also gave her about 1c of semi-moist packets in the morning, I forget the brand but it often went ignored. My Grandma had a mini-poodle that lived to be 16. She cooked him chicken, vegetables, and occasionally gave him table scraps.

Incidentally, I started this same topic awhile back. Interesting to see the different replies.

i have German Shepherd,

and a Siberian Husky,

i feed dry Pedigree Large Breed Dog Food

sometimes i mix some canned pedigree also

i used to have boxers and would always pre soak

dry food with water, it is good idea for smaller dogs

because if they eat too much dry food and than drink

a lot of water it could twist their stomach and kick the bucket

I feed Eukanuba Natural Lamb and Rice. Collie dogs (mine are Australian Shepherds) tend to have rather dry skin, this food seems to really do a good job....they also really, really like it!

Our border collie lived to be 17 and he had table scraps. Maybe they are a long living breed.

Interesting point, had to google that one. I found a couple of charts (here, here) showing the average lifespan of different breeds. They seem to be at the norm with other dogs of the same approximate size, 13 years. Maybe it's the table scraps. After all, dogs have been scavenging from humans for over 10,000 years.

We have a Fox Hound mix and a Pitbull mix. We feed them Beneful kibbles with half a can of Alpo on top (they split the can each meal). Often they get a splash of milk with this.

Regarding chicken bones... Our dogs LOVE them. I don't give them the long bones if they seem too brittle because when those bones break in a dog's mouth they can get very sharp.

Lately I've been adding glucosamine (sp.?) pills to their food because the pitbull, who is 12) is getting some arthritis in her hips.

I uhh.... used to feed my dog rice, vegetables and some asian foods... Actually... my dog ate the same thing what my family eat on the table. We thought it's much cheaper that way. That was 10 years ago. Now I don't have any pet.

That's what I think, too. We always had dogs that lived longer and were way healthier than people who fed their dogs specific brands. We never had the vet out for the dogs, they were really healthy.

you shouldnt swap between foods for your dogs.. its the worst thing you can do.. their body gets used to one product brand, and then has to get used to another. it causes a lot of dietry and intestinal problems.. diarrhoea being one of them.. also i cant believe that you feed your dog table scraps. WRONG.. if you want the dog to suffer a very painful death from pancreatitis, keep walking down that path. and the vets in your country sound like hacks.. they arent taught nutrition? where did they get their degree from,, a back of a weetie packet?



again.. shouldnt feed dogs table scraps.. very, very unhealthy



only cooked bones will do this.. feed dogs chicken necks, wings, and a marrow bone once in a while




raw meat is dangerous? where in the wild, have you seen a dog build a fire to cook its kill? raw meat is the best thing for them (offal is a no no if you want them getting hydatid tapeworms) chocolates, onions and raw potatoes are very bad... liver toxic.




you "love" your dog too much to buy good dog food.. surely you scoff when you made this remark? feeding your dog what ever you have is a one way trip to the vet

you need to feed your dogs premium brand foods.. iams, euk tuckertime (in australia) etc.. and if you are going to buy store bought foods.. their premium brands.. tinned foods are crap, and are 85% water. there is little nutrition in the tinned poop you get in the shops. you are much better making your own food if you dont want to buy the top notch stuff. good mince, rice, and vegies (carrots, grated apple, corn) make a heap of it and freeze it off.. definitely NO table scraps. no pork (pork = pancreatitis) no cured meats (ham, bacon etc) bread, biscuits (cookies for those americans out there ) just remember... one peice of bacon for your dog is the equivilant to more than 20 peices for us humans