Feeding advice

[Magz]

sorry been offline due to technical troubles, would love to get advice on raw feeding and certainly want alot of info before I go back to vet so they can't try and sway me onto their ideas. would be grateful if someone could point me in the right direction website wise or perhaps have a chat to me and hubby.

[John Thomson]

Have a look here, I got some good info when I was thinking of switching

http://www.ukrmb.co.uk/showcontent.toy?contentnid=7209
http://www.rawfed.com/
http://www.rawlearning.com/
http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm#started

Loads of info there.........your brain will hurt trying to take it all in. Raw feeding is NOT an exact science......loads of different views on what is 'right'

Read as much as you can and make your own decisions...they will be correct for you and your dogs
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John Thomson
www.cumbernaulddogtraining.co.uk

[Fiona]

Yuk! my cat just brought a dead mouse in to the house and tried to give it to the dogs! Now star loves his food raw but not that raw!!!
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Dogs are like Chocolate, you just can't have one!

[marcella]

a bit too fresh?????

[Cassandra]

Hi

see you got lots of advice already. I do think RAW is one of the best options, but as John says it does require a bit of forward planning to start with. i have three kids (one who is 9mths) so its a bit much for us at the moment.

Next best thing for me is Burns. I can't say anything bad about it...its a wonderful dog food and IMHO the best on the market.
I ain't too keen on the puppy James Wellbeloved because the protein content is still quite high for me and I think John and I mentioned about that being a no no for dogs like BC's because it causes weak bone growth. Their treats are really low on the protein levels tho so I use the JW treats with the burns foods.

With regard to pedigree...my mate calls it pedigree scum

[Fiona]

[Magz]

Will have a good nosey at the web, might try changing to burns first then gradually bring in raw food. anyone know where the best place is to get it?

[Cassandra]

Burns online shop. If you give burns a ring they will tell you your nearest pet shop supplier. Our nearest one is Hamilton, but there could be one up your way.

I also noticed the other week that there is someone selling it at the carboot sale at Overton farm for half price! They also had James Wellbeloved too

[John Thomson]

Margaret,

the easiest is Anglian Meat Products, they supply Pets at Home, we have an account with them and get around a 40% discount.
Have a look at the Landywoods post..........
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John Thomson
www.cumbernaulddogtraining.co.uk

[Cassandra]

essentially you got to weigh up the nutrional needs of your dog and decide which option best suits your lifestyle.

As briefly discussed tonight with John on the puppy walk, its just not practical for us to have that much meat about. I have enough trouble trying to get the mice of the lawn that the cats have killed before Ash either eats or rolls in them lol!

[Magz]

went to the pet shop today and bought new food, started to mix it in with their food tonight, we decided to go for James wellbeloved, got the senior light for Sheila and the puppy food for kiera, will let you all know if things go, once I have got Sheilas weight down and have enough knowledge and time I will begin phasing in raw food. its a step in the right direction.

[Cassandra]

Glad you finally made a decision Margaret. Its a bit of a minefield with all the flashy signs and advertising.

Let us know how you get on!

[shirley c]

My lot enjoyed the mince with their kibble tonight and last night and tonight they all had big bones too, the left overs from the last butcher visit, so we are def. going to get more of them too, they are all shattered tonight with the big bones. If I get some necks, wings and hearts from AMP once we have the freezer over and start really cutting out the kibble

[Sam]

Its very true when they say that you are what you eat' and i agree completely with John when he mentioned on a previous post about the link with cancer and commercial pet foods.
I too lost a bitch to cancer at the age of 7 when she should have had a good few more years in front of her yet . I made it my mission to find out why and the only thing i could drill it down to was diet.
If you feed cancer, you get cancer, it makes no difference to what ever species you are. Cancer does not discriminate. That's when i got wise about food.

Its no use expecting your vets to have any idea about diet either. The main vet schools are sponsored by 'pedigree scum' and diet is a very small part o the curriculum for there training. Some of the older ones and the farm vets have a better idea though, and there are some good dietitians around now and believe me they are horrified if you don't give your dogs a portion of fruit everyday . I do.

On the subject of raw feeding i have pro's and i have con's. Its feeding utopia for dogs if it wasn't for the dogs themselves..lol

I am sure John would agree that it doesnt suit everyone or their dogs. I went the whole hog with a raw diet too and i agree John Landywoods are the beez knees .

My friend raised a litter of pups on Raw too.

For some dogs everything goes swimmingly, for others it doesnt. First obstacle was my bitch refused the veg in any shape or form..lol. Yes i did all the stuff to make it more palatable, mixed it with cheese an made gravy, mixed mince into it, fish etc , got the food processor in action and Jamie Oliver would have been in awe at the concoctions i made to try an get that vedge down her neck in some shape or form , except she wasn't having any of it, All she would eat was the meat. despite food envy she would not touch it an would have willingly starved to death rather than eat it no matter how long i left it down, or if i took it away.
After 4 weeks i could see she was suffering . Her coat was dull an skin was flaky, her eyes had lost the sparkle and i knew that just meat was not a balanced diet for her. Raw feeding didn't suit her.

My boy dog was doing just fine on raw...he eats like he has never seen food before anyway due to food envy . This were his down fall. He scoffs everything so fast and one day he, wandered off half way through a feed, now that is not like him! then he keeled over in the living room garden. I realised instantly that he was choking. I prized open his mouth and had to stick what seemed like half my arm down his throat to pull out the chicken wing that was lodged there. It give me a right old fright i can tell you that!!
After that i tried to slow him down from guzzling his meat by holding it in the attempt to make him chew it, the next investment would have been a meat mincer, except that it was obvious that my bitch wasn't thriving on a raw diet either

So i sourced the best kibble on the market . Holistic and human grade meat, made by a small company in this country. Burns...like cassandra said.

I feed my dogs either burns or kitchen scraps. If i cooked properly everyday i would feed my dogs on my food only, but if we are what we eat, then i am a McDonalds an on my non cook days the dogs get the best holistic kibble going.

There are other good ones out there, but Burns suit mine an with all the problems with the imported ones with mouldy grain and dead dogs , i stick with what i know is good and safe.

Sam
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Damn dags.