I used to feed my doggy poison. :D

[Cardinal]

Why not just do a raw diet if all the kibble is bad? If you live in a place with butchers/farmers/hunters its rather easy to score cheap or free cast off's to feed your dogs and it'd be a lot healthier than veg and rice, especially considering rice has little nutritional value to a dog.

I did a quick search comparing 100grams of rice to 100 grams of ground beef and 100 grams of chicken breast. Theres literally no comparison.

Rice:

Calories: 130
Fat: 0.3g
Protien: 2.7g
Omega 3 & 6: 13mg and 62mg.
Calcium: 10mg
Iron: 1.2mg

Ground Beef:

Calories: 332
Fat: 30g
Protien: 14g
Omega 3 & 6: 62mg & 596mg
Calcium: 24mg
Iron: 1.6mg

Chicken Breast:

Calories: 172
Fat: 9.2g
Protein: 20.8g
Omega 3 & 6: 120mg & 1740mg
Calcium: 11mg
Iron: 0.7mg

Rice: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cer ... sta/5712/2
Beef: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/bee ... cts/8004/2
Chicken: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/pou ... ucts/696/2

What I posted is just a snap shot. The links are way more indepth.

[fairytale.]

Pedigree may be the "good stuff" where you live, but that doesn't make it "good" in the big picture. Foods like Pedigree contain a lot of fillers, odd chemicals, questionable protein sources, and synthetic vitamins that aren't approved for use in human foods (for good reason!).
I'm going to echo what everyone else is saying, a diet of mainly rice is not healthy. In general, if you are feeding a cooked diet, it should be no more than 50% carbohydrates. Cooked bones are also dangerous.
I'm not sure what is available near you, but I have a plethora of cooked dog food recipes I would be happy to share if you are interested. They may not be 100% balanced, especially for the recipes that do not specify which veggies to use, BUT that is why variety is key and you should change the recipes and ingredients you use.

First of all, I never said the Pedigree was good, I just said that it was better than most of what we can get here. It's also darn expensive. Any kibble at all is expensive here.
The bones we give them are raw. Well, our leftover pork chop bones aren't, but...
We've become wary of the store bought dog foods here that aren't kibble, because our former dog died. It seems the food we had been feeding her had been tested for aflo toxin (or however you spell it), and the stuff was in it. But, they refrained from mentioning that. :roll: So, her liver failed and she died. For a while our dogs now were getting kibble in the morning and posho (casava mush) in the evening. Then, Shadow, the oldest dog, proved to be allergic to the posho, so we switched them to rice and kibble, but Shadow had an egg every morning instead. But, Shadow died last year (she was old and had skin problems, etc. Not the healthiest dog, I'll admit), and now Whittie and Pippin get rice for breakfast, and the occasional bone. I do believe the watchman mixes some veggies in with the rice.

I did not mean to offend you, but I am sorry if I did. Either way, you are not feeding them a balanced diet. I am happy to send you some recipes if you PM me. If you are unable to or are uncomfortable with feeding kibble, a balanced diet is the best thing you can do for your dogs. Rice, raw bones, and cooked bones (which, even if given occasionally, are still not safe), is not balanced. You may not see issues now, but you will run into health problems due to nutritional deficiencies eventually.

[E.urka]

Please stop advocating that raw diets are the all-holy-grail miracle food. They come with many many risks, so their cons outweigh their pros.
We live in an age of faddishness in lifestyles; how else can one explain the $29 billion spent per year on unproven nostrums and remedies? In the US, thanks to Utah senator Hatch's bill exempting healthy supplements from the FDA surveillance, we are free to consume untested, non-quality-controlled weeds and herbs from the source, which have shown to be toxic. We consume all meats, no meats, grapefruit diets, caveman diets and we switch from killer butter to margarine and then back again. Do we owe our pets any less? Apparently not.
For some years, Hucksters has been pushing the dreadful "raw diet" of raw meat and bones for dogs. Nevermind the absence of scientific evidence! After all, it's natural right? natural has to be good for us (NOT! snake venom and boutulinum toxins are natural too...mhhm)
But aren't dogs descended from the wild wolves? and don't wolves eat raw meat? But evidence shows that wolves never ate so well in the wild, they are usually not well nourished and carry formidable parasite loads, In addition, wolves ate more then just meat, they ate vegetation from the animals stomach and intestine when eating the animal. Just because evolutionally dogs are derived from wolves, does not mean they are wolves. In fact, there is anthropological evidence that domestic dogs have been eating cooked foods for over 300,000 years and thus cannot be compared anymore with a wolf. Cooked meat is more digestible to a dogs stomach.
There is a very large deal of evidence that in fact that dogs usually do not do well on a raw diet. Raw meat can infect animals with parasites, toxoplasmosis, salmonella, Escherichia Coli and campylobacter. These are zoonotic issues (which means the dog can give these to the human being through feces, saliva, blood, etc) The diet can EVENTUALLY give the canine IBS, nutrient deficiencies, vitamin A toxicity, in addition choking and bloody stools can be a big issue when feeding raw diets such as chicken and turkey bones as they can break and splinter tearing the animals esophagus, stomach lining and intestines.
Raw diets also grind down teeth prematurely.
In conclusion, for most of the dogs history dogs ate what we ate, which consists of cooked table scraps- Commercial diets are only about 100 years old and dogs these days are living longer than ever, which suggests present day feeding regimens are doing okay.
We have many other choices now, including diets aimed for special medical problems such as Urinary, Dermatitis, and Weight control diets.
Nutritional education for our pets can be improved for both owners and medical professionals. In the mean time, common sense goes a long way.

Your ultimate food you should feed your pooches is Royal Canin from the Vet. It gets tested regularly, it's healthy, it's medical specific purpose(Urinary issues, Dermatitis, Kidney function) and age specific purpose (puppy, adult, senior) It is from a reliable source and you can trust it. If anyone would like a dry weight analysis on the moisture content of the foods they are feeding now in comparison with Royal canins guide, feel free to PM me.
Lets also keep in mind I'm a Veterinary student, and I don't pay $50,000 + to learn squat. I am fully prepared to back up any information and questions through PM from the CVA clinical textbook, the CVA veterinary medical ethics textbook and pages upon pages of notes, papers and documents.

[Cardinal]

My dogs have never been physically healthier on a raw diet. Riddle me that. All skin issues cleared up, muscle to fat ratio on my idiot is perfect, meathead WITH IBS symptoms completely cleared up, breath is better and teeth are much better in my 10 year olds mouth. I could go on. ALL DIETS HAVE RISKS. Ive fed numerious kibbles and wet foods. Ive fed vet foods. Ive fed the best of the best kibbles and the worst kibbles. My dogs have never been healthier on my choice and its the choice Ive noiticed the most dramatic change. We're 6 years into raw feeding.

[E.urka]

It's dangerous, risky and you should not be advocating it to uneducated people without stating the cons in details, which are possible. Big round of applause your dog is great- but lot's aren't. Please post the cons so people can have a real choice instead of jumping on the bandwagon.
That's just like going to the doctor to get a new medication and not being told the cons, just the pros.

[Angelus Gaston]

Same here been feeding raw since before raw was a huge deal all my animals look great even with the Taste of The Wild when we run low on raw food.

Vet food isn't as good as they make out even stuff for illness's such as urinary stones it didn't do anything for my cat switched him to raw with Apple Cider vinegar cleared it right up. Its away to make money like all vets food.

[E.urka]

It's sad how everyone blames the vet clinic for just wanting "your money" and giving us bad reps. We are here solely to help YOU and your pet, show a little appreciation for what we do, you'd be pretty quick running to us as soon as one of your animal gets sick for our help.

[Cardinal]

I dont believe vets are bad?

There are plenty of vets that advocate raw diets? Several in my area are like this and many other folks experience this as well.

[Angelus Gaston]

I don't think vets are bad its just what I was spending on a vet recommended diet was a lot for only a few weeks of food.
http://www.medicanimal.com/PURINA-Veter ... NPCEuLD_GM
Found the RC one as well
http://www.medicanimal.com/Royal-Canin- ... p/I0000470

What I spent on that lasted a week or two because the cats were always hungry on a raw diet at those prices I was getting a month maybe more depending on what I got and were from.

[Jazi]

Sorry, but if that's the way you talk to potential clients, then I never want to be a patient at your clinic. I have a very good relationship with my dog/cat vet, and with my exotic vet, and both of them know that I'm a raw feeder. Both of them think diets like science diet and royal canin aren't worth the money and don't recommend them unless better can't be found in the first place.

While I will agree that many supplements need more research and less blind reliance, people have been feeding raw for upwards of thirty years. It only recently became popular. I'd be more willing to trust someone with thirty years experience than a brand new vet student or graduate.