I used to feed my doggy poison. :D

[IAmLink]

I like to give my animals actual meat, but I just don't trust raw chicken. Way to many salmonella scares with chicken products in general. I never buy pork or cow, and fresh turkey, game fowl, and lamb aren't always easy to find at reasonable prices. I personally hardly eat meat. I was on a vegan diet for a year, and when I gave it up I never really regained the desire to consume much meat(I eat fish or turkey maybe twice a month, but other than that my protein comes from pasteurized eggs and plant sources). I don't know if I completely agree with raw either. I know the benefits that raw can have(I myself went raw for some time), but I don't feel a diet needs to be 100% raw. You can still get all your nutrients from a diet that contains some cooked foods. Same thing with organic. I choose organic where I feel it makes the most difference. Oats, as an example, I eat just regular ol' Quaker. Fruit and veg on the other hand, I choose the organic that is on sale for the week at my local market, which actually saves me money(or comes out to the same price as non-organic) and forces me to buy a variety. To be honest though, I still have to make some exceptions on non-organic veg(no one seems to grow organic greens in my area! D:<), but I try my hardest to get the best I can afford and justify. Feeding cooked meat is just a preference of mine, and not something I'm interested in changing at this time.

Anyway, Earthborn is somewhat reasonable(more reasonable that most quality brands it seems...the ones not made by Diamond as least), and will probably stretch far with my homemade meals, so I may just go ahead and order it. I probably won't get the primitive one though, since my dogs aren't use to that kind of diet at this time. The small breed one looks similar to the Kirkland food in ingredients. I'll have to take a close look at it tomorrow. Thank you for the recommendation.

Just as a bit of info, dogs hardly ever get salmonella poisoning. Where a human could very easily get poisoned by raw chicken, that same chicken would go through a dog's body no sweat. Dogs have a much shorter and more acidic digestive tract than humans, so any raw food they eat (if they are used to that kind of diet) does not have the chance to sit in the stomach and intestines long enough to grow bacteria.

Really, the only cases of salmonella poisoning in dogs that are fed a raw diet were almost always because of a careless owner; the owner left the meat out to get warm, it grew bacteria, and then they fed it to their dog T.T

Just thought I'd throw that out there. But I understand your hesitation none the less. That's one of the reasons I buy all my raw food for Okami from an online source that I trust and they get absolutely all their meat from animals that live on free-range farms and are fed the best kind of natural diets for each different animal. It's a bit more pricey than looking for deals and whatnot like Cardinal suggested, but I feel better knowing where the meat comes from and that it is not enhanced, among other things.

Raw is my hero yet again ^^
Took Okami to the vet the other day, the vet was so pleased that her teeth were so shiney and clean. She swore that I must brush her teeth every day. Lolnope!! That's purely from eating her prey model diet. Woooot! XD

[Mice on the Moon]

My 5 dogs eat Fit-and-Trim. They are ALL SPOILED ROTTEN!!!

[Imzadi83]

So, I'm getting a new puppy (so excited!) but I'm not sure if her immune system is polarly different than my other dog's. She's a Chihuahua mix, and not expected to reach over five pounds. Our other dog is a fifty pound GSD mix. My questions:

Her foster mom is feeding her Pedigree. Is that a good brand? Should we continue with that, or switch her to Iams like my other dog? (Don't worry, Scout gets so much human food that it balances out for the crappy brand.) We're not exactly rich (I paid for the puppy's adoption fee), and I honestly find it a waste of money to spend it on expensive food, so please don't suggest a "better brand." I don't want to sound rude, but what money we have I would rather have go to vet bills rather than expensive food.

I understand you hesitancy as vet bills are quite expensive. However many people have found that their dogs are healthier on the "more expensive" better quality food and therefore go to the vet less. So although the food may seem the more expensive option in the begining it may be cheaper in the long run. Also you need to caculate how much the food costs per serving rather then just bag weight since many better quality foods feed a far smaller amount than their lesser cousins. And shop around, espically online, you may be able to find better brands at cheaper prices then your local stores.

[alynnvolkle]

You want to be careful if you gives your dogs too much 'human food' they can have issues with their pancreas. both of my dogs used to eat a lot of food like that but they got sick. A lot of dogs are prone to pancreitous they dont know why dogs get them but its an inflamation of the pancreas and every time your dog has an attack it is a 500 dollar over night vet visit and they have to get their stomache pumped so its not fun for either human or dog. Also if you want to give your meat make sure that it is at least partially cooked ESPECIALLY chicken as a treat we put chicken yams blueberrys carrots and chicken stock in a pot or a crockpot and cook it for a few hours then if you pour it over dry dog food its a healthy tasty treat for them. I know all of this by experiance so trust me human food is a BIG no no because in the long run its expencive and unhealth also dont give your dog raw liver!! you have to soak it in milk to extract the poison if you wont eat it i would suggest not giving it to your dog... Then cook it that way there is no possible way to hurt your dog.

[IAmLink]

So, I'm getting a new puppy (so excited!) but I'm not sure if her immune system is polarly different than my other dog's. She's a Chihuahua mix, and not expected to reach over five pounds. Our other dog is a fifty pound GSD mix. My questions:

Her foster mom is feeding her Pedigree. Is that a good brand? Should we continue with that, or switch her to Iams like my other dog? (Don't worry, Scout gets so much human food that it balances out for the crappy brand.) We're not exactly rich (I paid for the puppy's adoption fee), and I honestly find it a waste of money to spend it on expensive food, so please don't suggest a "better brand." I don't want to sound rude, but what money we have I would rather have go to vet bills rather than expensive food.

I understand you hesitancy as vet bills are quite expensive. However many people have found that their dogs are healthier on the "more expensive" better quality food and therefore go to the vet less. So although the food may seem the more expensive option in the begining it may be cheaper in the long run. Also you need to caculate how much the food costs per serving rather then just bag weight since many better quality foods feed a far smaller amount than their lesser cousins. And shop around, espically online, you may be able to find better brands at cheaper prices then your local stores.

Very true ^

I am a firm believer in that a raw diet is the best kind of diet out there for the vast majority of dogs. And ever since I switched Okami to this kind of diet, she has never been healthier and not once has needed to go to the vet until just recently when she almost had a bowel obstruction. However this was from eating cat litter, not her diet that caused this. Otherwise, she has not needed to go to the vet for any sort of ailment cept for her routine shots. I truely believe that dogs that are on any higher quality diet, whether that be a higher quality kibble, homemade, or raw, they almost always are healthier and need to see a vet less often.

BTW-Okami's fine now. She managed to pass all the cat litter through her system, thankfully :3

[Imzadi83]

@IAMLink - glad to hear Okami is doing better.

[ash9]

Whats wrong with beneful? i love my dog and would not want to poison my baby! <---(my dog) He did throw up a few days ago! ):

[IAmLink]

Whats wrong with beneful? i love my dog and would not want to poison my baby! <---(my dog) He did throw up a few days ago! ):

Well, to put it bluntly, Beneful is basically like feeding your dog a diet of Twinkies for it's entire life, it's really not very healthy at all.

Beneful is another one of those brands with a ton of fillers and meat by-products, with little real meat and hardly any nutritional value. It's still food so it will keep a dog full and they aren't going to die eating it, but it's really terrible for their health. Just take a look at their ingredients and you'll see what I mean.

Though you really can't blame people for thinking that brands like that are the best, even though they're not. Those commercials and adds you see all the time make it seem like the big name dog food brands are the best out there. But sadly, the opposite of that is true 3:

@Imzadi83-Thank you! ^^
She seems to be perfectly fine now, which I am very thankful for. There was a chance she was going to need surgery, but she has passed everything through her system fine after I fasted her for 24 hours.

[ash9]

Whats wrong with beneful? i love my dog and would not want to poison my baby! <---(my dog) He did throw up a few days ago! ):

Well, to put it bluntly, Beneful is basically like feeding your dog a diet of Twinkies for it's entire life, it's really not very healthy at all.

Beneful is another one of those brands with a ton of fillers and meat by-products, with little real meat and hardly any nutritional value. It's still food so it will keep a dog full and they aren't going to die eating it, but it's really terrible for their health. Just take a look at their ingredients and you'll see what I mean.

Though you really can't blame people for thinking that brands like that are the best, even though they're not. Those commercials and adds you see all the time make it seem like the big name dog food brands are the best out there. But sadly, the opposite of that is true 3:

@Imzadi83-Thank you! ^^
She seems to be perfectly fine now, which I am very thankful for. There was a chance she was going to need surgery, but she has passed everything through her system fine after I fasted her for 24 hours.

Well just like heart of coal said her dog scout gets so much human food that it balances out the bad brand. my dog gets atleast a bite of human food every day, if not more, so it is ok to keep feeding him beneful and feed him real meat too?

[alynnvolkle]

We talked to out vet and they gave us a rice and lamb dogfood that has no byproducts or corn wheat anything hard on a dogs digestive system its a little bit more expensive but you may want to shoot for a natural dogfood try talking to your vet it really helped our dogs because like i said earlier they have a degestive problem. Many dogs are allergic to things just like humans so be aware