Dutch Shepherd Forum

leih merigian wrote:Keep in mind regarding the raw thing....you can always go with a prepared raw, like Bravo or Oma's (or whatever brand they have in your neck of the woods), and just open the container and plop it in a bowl...no worrying about percentages of muscle/organ/bone, etc.

I checked out those 2 sites (Bravo/Oma's) and found them very interesting and informative. I feel the same way about the rawness

Sugars Mom wrote:Yes, I have considered trying the raw diet...trying to get over the, well, rawness of it all!

Thanks for the info.

Keep in mind that when you cook the food you are killing some of the natural enzymes/nutrients it contains.

I feed the meat raw and the dogs love it. Knowing what goes into the commercial foods, I would never go back to feeding it. Most folks feel the same as I do after they start feeding raw, and then wonder why they didn't do it sooner. (Especially once they get over the blood and raw bone thing.)

Honest Kitchen has a good dehydrated food that you can add your own meat to/or feed as is, if you're worried about getting the "balance" right, or just don't have a lot of time to spend making up the food. It's Made in the USA. All human grade, organic ingredients, and made in a FDA inspected plant.

http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/?gclid= ... 4AodJEbriA

And they make training treats.

http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/products/pecks/

The bone thing was my biggest hurdle, but I just threw them come chicken with bone, had a heart attack while watching them crunch it up like nothing, and then got over it. They love it so much and they are not dead yet from a bone

Another thing is to pay attention to everything "extra" that your dog eats, not just what goes in her dinner bowl.
She could have allergies to your training treats, something the family gives her as "leftovers" from their plates. (Not all human food is good for dogs.) Even preservatives in things when you may not even know they are in them. Manufacturers don't have to list some of those things if they are already in one of their ingredients when they get them, and not added by them at production. (Like ethoxyquin.) It's one of the things that makes tracking down food allergies so hard.

Thanks for the Honest Kitchen site too. Am going to read, read, read and figure out how and what method is best for me. I really have a hard time cleaning/cooking a whole chicken for humans (makes me gag) so I think perhaps dehydrated is for me, will see.
Also, trying to figure out the balance by adding other nutrients is way too much work for me.

Meant to add, but pushed submit btn too soon - dogs currently eat kibble - Orijen.

Regarding allergens, one thing to keep in mind is that true food allergies are not all that common, and that the vast majority of dogs have sensitivities-to-allergies (meaning it's a continuum) to other environmental factors, whether reactions to insects/parasites, to weather related stuff, etc.