I used to feed my doggy poison. :D

[Cardinal]

I'm in the possess of switching my dogs to raw. So I'm giving them some kibble with some of the raw food in it. But my dogs, the moment they saw food that looked far tastier then the kibble they'd been having they ate it in a matter of seconds. Then my little girl started backward breathing (sometimes little dogs will make little weird noises when they eat far too fast) and I was wondering, now that I'm switching them how can I get them to eat slower? They obviously prefer raw food but I don't want them to get health problems for eating too fast. (not sure if this exactly belongs here, I dunno has to do with raw feeding)

Bigger pieces. ;D I'd try switching to something larger, even if its larger than a full meal. It wont spoil going in and out of the fridge a couple times if need be. =) My pooch has a gulping problem and will gulp whole wing pieces. :l

Also, feeding raw and kibble at the same time isn't really a good thing. Kibble digests much slower than raw because of the starch. Feeding raw and kibble allows the raw to brew in the stomach far longer than it normally would, the risk of food bourne illness is increased because of this. =) Thats why salmonella recalls aren't unheard of in kibble, if not somewhat common. The kibbles sits around in the gut a while and the dog is longer exposed to the illness. Raw fed dogs are at very minimal risk because raw food moves so quickly through their systems the bacteria never gets a chance to 'take root'. That and the acidity in the stomachs of kibble vs. raw fed are much different. Breaking down bones and such takes a much more acidic gut that kibble. The acid also helps kill off any nasties. Many people even wait 10-12 hours between kibble and raw feedings.

[Snowseph]

Is there possibley a dog food that could make your dog not gain any weight? None of the dog food brands that you named were it. Only asking since, my dog, Buddy, is really thin. We give plenty of food to eat each day. o far we have had him for about 9 months. He was about 5 months when got him, he is a little over 1 year now, but he never gains anything at all. He is still thin, bout the same as when we got him. Could it possibly be the food. Im not sure what the brand is but it has the word 'soup' in it. Thank yoi

[Imzadi83]

Is there possibley a dog food that could make your dog not gain any weight? None of the dog food brands that you named were it. Only asking since, my dog, Buddy, is really thin. We give plenty of food to eat each day. o far we have had him for about 9 months. He was about 5 months when got him, he is a little over 1 year now, but he never gains anything at all. He is still thin, bout the same as when we got him. Could it possibly be the food. Im not sure what the brand is but it has the word 'soup' in it. Thank yoi

If it's Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul you need to be careful as they've had a recall of that due to salmonella. Here's an article explaining it. Though it doesn't sound like that's what's going on with your dog you still need to find out if they type of food you have has ben recalled.

[Lupen]

It is possible to do a partial raw diet, however keep the amounts of raw meat low otherwise it could mess with their systems. It does not matter exactly when they eat it, if you feed too much it would still give them loose stools. However it is definitely possible to give raw every so often. If your dog tolerates raw meat well, then you can give it a bit more often (though do not give too much because if you give meat too often, you're going to need to start adding organs and bone to make the diet balanced). But if your dog's stomach is not very strong, it may be a better idea to hold off the raw feeding unless you can completely switch the diet over.

Just make sure that, if you do feed any type of raw food like chicken, the meat must not be enhanced. Most of the meat you find in normal grocery stores is enhanced because it is for human consumption and they enhance the meat to keep it fresher longer.

Edit: This is a good starting point:

http://dogster.com/forums/Raw_Food_Diet/thread/743967

Thanks ^^ Like I said, I don't want a completely strict raw diet, but I still would like to maybe give them some raw chicken, pork or turkey maybe twice a week.. I fed my dog the chicken breast tonight, and at first she was hesitant, sense she has never had anything like it before (and shes a picky eater to begin with.. she won't even eat most people food if you feel like treating her once and awhile), but after licking it and playing around with it for a bit, I think she realized how good it was and finished all of it. I also gave her a tiny bit of raw turkey and she seemed to like that even more.

Next time we go to the store I think I'll see if I can find some liver or other organs for them to eat, and I'm sure they'll love pig's feet or ribs. It just sucks cause around here we don't really have any hunters that I could get some nice venison from, and I might build up the courage to ask the butcher at our store, but I'm shy IRL and I know asking if they have any leftover brains or bones isn't exactly an everyday thing :P I'm sure I can still find some nice stuff thats actually for sale around the store though.

One thing though, sense I am going to feed them more raw and they need to eat liver, what happens if she refuses to eat the liver? She may end up liking it but knowing her and how picky she is... Is there anything I can add to it to make it more appealing? I heard parmesan cheese could be added to the chicken maybe? So I'm sure that could work for liver too.

[GrumpyCinnamonster]

Ordered Earthborn for small dogs. I'm going to give it a try, and if it works out, then I might eventually convert them onto the primitive Earthborn. Assuming they even like Earthborn, and assuming I can convert them onto the primitive version in the future, since the primitive one is mostly protein, will I need to be supplementing their diet more than what I already do? When they aren't eating kibble(due to the recall they aren't eating any kibble at the moment) I give them boiled chicken, a small amount of steamed rice, raw spinach or greens, grated carrots or yams, grated zucchini, and grated summer or acorn squash. For fruit, it's normally black berries or blue berries, but we do have a small raspberry bush(it grew into our yard from the neighbors. We are never sure if it is going to come back each year) that gets some fruit during the year, and the dogs love to pick the berries off. Sometimes I'll share a golden delicious apple or d'anjou pear with them. Apples and pears are occasional treats(as I said, normally when I'm having one I just share), because I worry they would give my dogs diarrhea. Prince sometimes get's cottage cheese or low-fat plain yoghurt, because his occasional extreme separation/night anxiety upsets his stomach. The vet said it would help him. Now, I don't know if it really does, but I rarely give it to him, since adding steamed rice to their homemade meals seemed to work better than the cottage cheese/yoghurt.

[Cardinal]

Is there possibley a dog food that could make your dog not gain any weight? None of the dog food brands that you named were it. Only asking since, my dog, Buddy, is really thin. We give plenty of food to eat each day. o far we have had him for about 9 months. He was about 5 months when got him, he is a little over 1 year now, but he never gains anything at all. He is still thin, bout the same as when we got him. Could it possibly be the food. Im not sure what the brand is but it has the word 'soup' in it. Thank yoi

As stated before, "Chicken Soup for the dog lovers soul" has had a recall so you may want to check it out.

How much does he weight?
What breed is he?
How is he thin?
How much excersize does he get a day?
How many cups do you feed a day? Not scoops, but 8oz cups.. Unless your on metric then it'd be the equivalent, but pretty sure its strictly a US brand. ;D
Pictures from the side and above?

People now-a-days see a dog with a bit of rib and assume its "to skinny". I like my dog with some rib on her and think its the perfect weight. Not fully visible, but when she moves or twists I like her rib becoming very slightly visible. I also like her having a nice trim waist. You can see the faintest rib on her. Then from above that trim waist:

Boy friends doberman:
Boy friends mother elderly lab mix:

All these dogs look really good with their weight. =) These dogs are also all different ages and breeds. Rottie that's 6, Dobbie thats 2ish and just out of puppy years, and lab mix thats roughly 10.

Besides, puppies go through this reallllyy lanky 'teenager' faze anyways where they tend to be all leg and stringy muscle. He should fill out as he gets older!

Ordered Earthborn for small dogs. I'm going to give it a try, and if it works out, then I might eventually convert them onto the primitive Earthborn. Assuming they even like Earthborn, and assuming I can convert them onto the primitive version in the future, since the primitive one is mostly protein, will I need to be supplementing their diet more than what I already do? When they aren't eating kibble(due to the recall they aren't eating any kibble at the moment) I give them boiled chicken, a small amount of steamed rice, raw spinach or greens, grated carrots or yams, grated zucchini, and grated summer or acorn squash. For fruit, it's normally black berries or blue berries, but we do have a small raspberry bush(it grew into our yard from the neighbors. We are never sure if it is going to come back each year) that gets some fruit during the year, and the dogs love to pick the berries off. Sometimes I'll share a golden delicious apple or d'anjou pear with them. Apples and pears are occasional treats(as I said, normally when I'm having one I just share), because I worry they would give my dogs diarrhea. Prince sometimes get's cottage cheese or low-fat plain yoghurt, because his occasional extreme separation/night anxiety upsets his stomach. The vet said it would help him. Now, I don't know if it really does, but I rarely give it to him, since adding steamed rice to their homemade meals seemed to work better than the cottage cheese/yoghurt.

Don't be afraid of protein! Dog are carnivorous with inclination to being opportunistic omnivores, but still carnivores through and through. Veg, fruit, and especially grain really have no place in a canines diet. While fruits and veg do offer additional vit's and min's its important that they are no where near a significant part of the diet. Besides, many fruits and veggies are double sided, especially things like broccoli or spinach. Broccoli in large amounts can surpress the thyroid gland on a dog and spinach, along with a lot of other veg and dark leafy greens contains oxalates which are toxic to a dogs kidneys if fed in excess. Fruits contain sugar which totally stresses out a dogs pancreas. Besides, veg mater has to be altered, the cellulose wall has to be broken down first by grinding or cooking.

Protein is actually the building blocks to a healthy coat and a healthier dog. Protein sheds excess fat while building up strong lean muscle. You might find this to be an interesting read if nothing else: http://rawfed.com/myths/cookedfood.html

Allssoo you may have heard the myth "Dogs fed high protein diets will have kidney issues" his is false. They were testing on rats which are omnivores leaning towards herbivorous.

Cool blog on dog food: http://rufflyspeaking.net/blog/choosing ... ee-kibble/

[Navacoy]

I couldn't agree more with all of this I refuse to feed my dog the crappy foods that stores such as Petcetera and Petsmart sell. I feed Kali Acana, and you can really see the difference it makes I definitely reccommend Acana.

[Cardinal]

I couldn't agree more with all of this I refuse to feed my dog the crappy foods that stores such as Petcetera and Petsmart sell. I feed Kali Acana, and you can really see the difference it makes I definitely reccommend Acana.

Orijen and Acana are my top picks for kibble, I just REALLY wish they were more affordable!

[GrumpyCinnamonster]

I'm not afraid of protein, just worried about making sure they get all their vitamins and minerals. I just looked at the official Earthborn website ingredient list, and that is not the same ingredient list I saw on another site! The list on the other site was pretty much pure protein with no added vitamins or minerals. Maybe it was intentionally just a list of the protein sources in it, so buyers could see how concentrated it was? I have no idea. I now feel more comfortable making it a goal to eventually convert them onto it now. Actually, I probably would have ordered it instead of the other one had I seen the correct ingredient list. I'm aware of the oxalates in spinach. I personally LOVE spinach, but can rarely eat it, because it gives me kidney pain if I eat too much. I've been prone to getting kidney stones/infections, and have a bad habit about not drinking enough water though. I limit spinach to one fresh bunch a month, and that I share with my animals. Other than that, it's mustard or collard greens, which I do feed raw and cut into small pieces. Goitrogenic foods are safe when not consumed in excess, and generally packed with valuable nutrients. I do not feel I am endangering my dogs by giving them green veg, but I will start to cook them if that is what is recommended. Should I be cooking the non-leafy green veg as well? As for the grain, the rice is the only thing that has really helped when Prince gets anxiety and then diarrhea(sometimes vomit) as a result of his anxiety. He is at a good point though(I've worked really hard with him to make him comfortable when we leave and at night), and so he rarely has his anxiety freak outs, but the last time I said that and stopped the rice he eventually had another attack and there was a lovely diarrhea mess to clean up. It's a tablespoon and a half at most, roughly 3 times a week(on my pre-recall routine). I don't believe it harms his health in that amount, and actually it would seem worse to stop feeding it rather than continue. Sure, it's has no nutritional value and adds unnecessary calories, but the bulk of it seems to help his bowels. If you could recommend a non-grain item that would act similar to rice, then I would be willing to try it. Who knows though, maybe the Earthborn will make it so he doesn't need it. After they've adjusted to the Earthborn, I'll try taking him off the rice to see if he still gets diarrhea during a severe anxiety attack.

I've never heard that myth in regards to dogs, but I heard it a lot when I trained for a 5k. Definitely false as long as you stay hydrated and eat a quality protein source. As I said, I have sensitive kidneys(can you have sensitive kidneys? Maybe they are just bad kidneys), and never had a physical problem while consuming massive amounts of protein for recovery. Canines eat a lot more meat, so I'd assume they would be able to handle a very high protein diet much better than omnivorous humans.

[Jazi]

EVO, Herring and Salmon

Herring, Salmon Meal, Salmon, Herring Meal, Peas, Eggs, Herring Oil, Pea Fiber, Natural Flavor, Apples, Sunflower Oil, Carrots, Cottage Cheese, Dried Chicory Root, DL-Methionine, taurine, Vitamins (Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin E Supplement, Betaine Hydrochloride, Niacin Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex, Riboflavin Supplement, Beta Carotene, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Biotin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Folic Acid), Minerals (Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Calcium Iodate), Direct Fed Microbials (Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus casei Fermentation Product, Dried Enterococcus faecium Fermentation Product)

This is what I feed my cat now, along with the TotW that I'm weaning her back off of. Now that my paychecks are increasing and after hearing that feeding raw isn't too big of a jump in price from nice kibble, I'm wondering... how do you raw feeders suggest I switch her over? Sadly the cats in my family have never gotten raw food (unless you count what they stole from the dogs) aside from one of my past cats who I fed lightly cooked unseasoned turkey out of desperation because she wasn't eating (colon cancer, we lost her a few months later :[ ), so I'm not sure how to go about convincing Saffy that she should eat something like that. The dogs took to it right away, being dogs that already were fed leftover meats it wasn't that hard to switch them to the venison.

Just for kicks I tried giving her one of the mice that Quetzal had refused (frozen/thawed, fed a high quality diet and kept in a sterile environment before being killed, essentially the same as a whole prey model), just to see if she would do anything with it. She poked it, picked it up by the tail and set it back down, and then ignored it. It worries me because she was previously an outdoor cat that hunted her meals (previous family didn't feed her) and I was expecting her instincts to kick in, though it could have been because it was already dead and not moving like she'd expect them to. So what now? What do you do to a stubborn switcher? Unlike most dogs, cats will starve themselves to death if they don't think their food is tasty enough for their attention.

I know she likes kibble and canned with fish ingredients the most, won't eat the processed pink goop canned food (don't blame her) but will eat the solid chunks. When she has an upset stomach from the heat I give her chunky canned food (EVO), a half teaspoon of milk, and a pinch of rice for fiber. Recently though I've switched the milk/rice additions with a raw egg; she likes that better and I don't have to worry over whether the few pieces of rice will stress her tummy. Otherwise she just gets her normal kibble.