Nutrition
1. HOW DIGESTIBLE ARE DOG FOOD INGREDIENTS?
You never want Corn or By-Products. These are un-digestible.
By-Products are what the slaughterhouse throws away- (Chicken-By-Products) for example are: Beak-Feet and Intestines.
CORN is NOT digestible, it goes out the same way that it goes in.
You get more meat with Chicken or Lamb Meal, than wet meat. Meat meal is wet meat with water and fat cooked out. It is turned into a concentrated form of meat. Wet meat is 80% water.
Soybean- used as a protein source in food instead of meat.
Corn Gluten- liquid part of corn that is digestible protein and it makes it tasty for the dog.
Rice or Ground Rice- easiest grain to digest- very good.
Barley- digestible grain.
~~~~VERY IMPORTANT~~~~
Unidentified Sources - whenever you see the word “meat” or “animal” instead of Chicken, Lamb, Beef, etc. BEWARE of these. It’s something that they don’t want to list in ingredients because it could have come from Horse or something worse.
Brewers Rice - easy to digest but it’s what’s left over after brewing beer, so nutrients have been cooked out.
Wheat or Wheat Flour - digestible grain.
Sorgham - sweet stuff to get the dog hooked on the taste.
2. HOW IS IT PRESERVED?
Mixed Tocoperals-is a natural form of vitamin E. It’s derived from fat or oils. This is a good natural way to preserve. Some food is chemically preserved with BHA or BHT. AVOID chemically preserved at all costs. They are doing cancer carcinogen tests on BHA now. It’s believed to cause cancer in animals- but not proven yet. If it’s in their food, they are getting a dose of it with every bite.
3. SUPPLEMENTS
What has been added to the food to improve skin and coat or to protect joints is; Linoleic Acid and Omega Fatty Acid are skin and coat supplements. Glucosamine Chondroitin is for joint protection. Glucosamine doesn’t work well without the Chondroitin.
4. FOOD ALLERGIES
Symptoms are: Chewing on paws or legs, itches without fleas, Rashes on the tummy, prone to ear infections or hot spots.
MAIN FOOD ALLERGY TRIGGERS:
CORN, BEEF, WHEAT, SOY- It’s what’s pumped into cow that is the trigger like, Bovine Growth, Steroids, Euthanasia drug.
For a HYPO-ALLERGENIC FOOD TRY: KIRKLANDS OR NUTRO NATURAL CHOICE and NATURES RECIPE VENISON, NUTRO NATURAL CHOICE LINE including, Lamb and Rice, Chicken and Oatmeal, Dental, Silver Senior and Lite are all hypo-allergenic. It takes about 8 weeks for the dog to de-tox allergy triggers off of them.
5. CANNED FOOD
It is 80% water. It is not very nutritional. It rots out teeth and gums over time. It’s just like ketchup or mustard, not dinner. If you need it to get a dog to eat dry food, go 75% dry to 25% wet. Or, try Chicken and Rice soup at the grocery store.
6. HOW TO TRANSITION A DOG FROM ONE FOOD TO ANOTHER.
It’s very important to gradually begin to mix the new food with the old food, if not, they can get an upset tummy, gas and loose stools. Starting with day one, you will put 75% old food to 25% new food for at least 3 days. Then 50% old food to 50% new food for at least 3 days. Then 75% new food to 25% old food for at least 3 days.
RAW DIET
What is raw feeding?
When raw feeding, what you see is what you get. There are no hidden ingredients, no fillers. All the mystery is taken out of your dog's meals. A raw diet is composed of the same food you eat, but as it suggests, nothing is cooked. Well, I don’t know many people who eat bones, but for the most part, raw food is human food.
Why feed raw?
Dogs in the wild did not have little cooked pellets that contained cooked vegetables and grains (or cooked meat, for that matter), thus their systems are not made for digesting these ingredients. A raw diet is a direct evolution of what dogs ate before they became our pets.
Some pet owners who have made the switch have noticed drastic changes in their pets, including:
- Shinier, healthier skin
- Fresher breath/cleaner teeth
- Improved digestion
- Improvement with allergy Symptoms
- Decreased shedding
- Increased stamina
- Firmer, smaller stools
- A general increase in overall HEALTH
What can I feed?
When discussing raw feeding you'll often hear people talking about RMB's, which stands for Raw Meaty Bones. A raw meaty bone is a bone with a *lot* of meat on it that is consumable. Yes, a dog can eat (and will enjoy eating) the entire bone. No, the bone is not going to splinter; those canines will be put to good use grinding bones up.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Cooked bones run the risk of splintering- NEVER feed cooked bones!
A dog on a raw diet will need a variety of different meats in order to reap the benefits that each protein provides; for example one type of meat may be higher in iron, while another may be higher in vitamin A. This is why a rotating diet is recommended in order to maintain a healthy raw diet.
Also, your dog does need organ meat, for its high nutrient content- feed liver or kidney as 10% of their diet.
When you first start your dog on raw, introduce one protein source at a time. Feed chicken for a week, then beef for a week, and so on, to introduce these foods to your pet’s system. This way you can easily detect a protein allergy. Once the food is introduced you should have no problem varying meat daily during normal weeks.
A note on bacteria: This was one of my concerns when we starting looking into the raw option. Raw meat is not safe for humans because of bacteria like e-coli and Salmonella. But, canine digestive systems have some natural immunity to bacteria, and can handle the bacteria in meat without issue, when in good overall health.
In addition to meat, include vegetables, eggs, fruit, yogurt, etc. Eggs, like bones, are a good source of calcium, so are good to use when you don’t have bones. Pumpkin is a good system regulator, so we keep that on hand for most meals. There are countless good foods to give your dog, once you start looking! Grains, however, are completely unnecessary- since commercial pet foods are always grain-based diets, many people are used to the idea that their dogs need grain. It’s just not true. Some of the positive effects of feeding raw are related to eliminating grain from your dog’s diet.
EXACTLY WHAT WE FEED RAW
The type of raw diet we feed is based off a prey model diet. Basically you're trying to feed them the most natural diet
consisting of raw meat bones, musle meat (boneless meat, and organ
meat. The only other thing we add is greentripe, which is mixed in with
ground beef
and we don't give them fish we use a fish oil supplement. Other than
the ingredients mentioned above that is all we feed, no grains, no
veggies no fruit. Dogs are carnivores and should be fed like a
carnivore.
What We Feed
As a Prey Model Feeder I feed 50% RMB’S (Raw Meaty Bones),
40% Muscle Meat and 10% Organs. Any thing higher than 50% RMB’s is too
high in calcium and can cause problems. Below is a list and definition
of some of these three ingredients. Once you get the hang of it, any
animal source can become food. Please note that when starting a new dog
onto a raw diet
it is best to stick to one source of protein for the first two weeks. I
usually start them on Chicken parts, ground chicken or turkey, and Chicken Livers and whole eggs for the first two weeks and after that introduce other proteins gradually one at the time.
RMB’S (Raw Meat Bones)
Chicken leg quarters
Chicken or Turkey wings, necks or backs
Whole fish or canned jack mackerel and sardines
Emu Necks
Deer Necks
Ribs of any animal
- NO raw pork, trichinosis is still an issue unless you are POSITIVE the meat you get is clean. It’s a nasty little worm that does a lot of damage. I don’t feed pork product period, it’s hard for them to digest.
- NO raw salmon. It can have a liver fluke that can potentially destroy your dogs liver. Canned is fine. One part of feeding raw that happens across the board, unless it’s a young pup, is detox. Their system has to get rid of all the garbage that has built up over years of feeding Kibble, good or bad quality. It usually takes a month with the worst case scenarios.
**Avoid
large weight bearing bones, like leg bones of cattle and large animals.
These are teeth breakers. Any other cut though is usually fine as long
as it is 50% bone.
~~~ NEVER FEED COOKED BONE ~~~
Muscle Meat
Muscle
meat is any meat with no bones. Heart is also considered muscle meat,
not organ meat. Some of the things I feed are as follows;
Ground or Boneless:
Turkey
Chicken
Beef
Emu
Venison
Catfish nuggets
Cow, Goat, Deer, Emu, Chicken, or Turkey hearts
Lamb
Elk
Goat
Organ Meats
Organ meats can be liver, spleen, kidneys, pancreas, lungs, brains etc. I usually stick to liver. During hunting season
I usually contact deer processors to get completely wild organs and
sometimes they are free! If you can't find anything close to organic
organs, just feed beef or chicken. Raw food is going to be more
nutritious than anything you find in a bag anyway.
How Much we feed?
Generally we feed between 2-4% of their body weight
Puppies
should always be fed at their expected adult weight, so for a 20 lb puppy that you expect to weigh 77lbs, you should be feeding based
upon 77lbs. He needs this extra nutrition to grow.
Some people
feed very active dogs as much as 5% and less active dogs as little as
1%. The beauty of feeding this way is that you can adjust it as needed
without having to overhaul the whole system.
Break Down
You
have a 77lb dog, that you are going to feed based upon Prey Model of
50% RMB’s, 40% Muscle, and 10% Organs. You start by feeding 3% of the
dog’s current weight.
77 x 3% = 2.3 lbs
2.3 x 16 = 36.8 ounces (2 lbs x 16 ounces per pound)
32 ounces x 50% = 16 ounces or one pound of RMB’S
32 ounces x 40% = 12.8 ounces of Muscle Meat
32 ounces x 10% = 3.2 ounces of Organ Meat
Total 32 ounces or two pounds
DOES YOUR DOG NEED HELP GAINING WEIGHT?
Satin Balls Recipe
10 lbs cheap hamburger (high fat %)
1-large box Total cereal (about 12 cups cereal)
1-large box uncooked oatmeal (about 15 cups oats)
10 raw eggs (shell and all - egg shells are full of calcium.)
1-15oz jar wheat germ
10 packages Knox unflavored gelatin
1 and 1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 and 1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
Pinch of salt
Mix all together in a bowl, make base ball sized balls, put in ziploc bags, freeze and feed! Feed 1 to 2 daily..
Satin Balls are great for putting weight on a dog or helping them keep their weight while away at a show or under stress. I keep a batch made up all the time so all I have to do is grab what I need.
If you have lack of space in your freezer just make patties instead of balls!
~~~~ Have questions about feeding your dogs the raw diet call David at 269-655-6428 ~~~~
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