The Pet Thread

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by TXSTYLE

I appreciate the detailed response Rick and I have heard of this brand. I definitely plan to use a healthy dry kibble food. I've wondered how dogs like salmon or seafood in general?

Our first female was a little picky but loved salmon. Sometimes you just need buy a small bag of something and see how it goes.

I neglected to mention, we sometimes give them a couple of blueberries, banana slice or baby carrot as a treat but never give table scraps from our plates.

[TXSTYLE]

Originally Posted by Littlebear

I sort of think people food is bad enough, with dog kibble being like the floor sweepings. Then they add some vitamins.
So we use about a half cup of kibble as a vitamin supplement, which makes Onlow's meals ~ 3/4 people food. Raw beef or cooked chicken, sweet potato is his starch of choice lately, and some vegetable, which should be steamed or frozen to help break the cell walls.
Onslow also gets a raw chicken wing each morning, which gives him the essential 'bone' vitamins & minerals, often missing from home cooked meals.

Murf

Interesting. We probably won't be going the human table food route.

[Littlebear]

Originally Posted by TXSTYLE

Interesting. We probably won't be going the human table food route.

*Pizza crust can be a training bisquit.

Raw turkey or chicken necks are also good ways to get the bone nutrients into your dog. The necks have soft cartilage & thus pose no danger (raw wings are soft too). Also canned small fish like Mackerel, but not too often because of the high salt.

[paquet]

Fromm's is one of the dog food brands linked to canine heart disease - due to it being grain-free and such

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by packet

Fromm's is one of the dog food brands linked to canine heart disease - due to it being grain-free and such

Scary headlines but still being studied and debated.

https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinar...itary-dcm-dogs

[kscarrol]

Agree with Rick. We also fed our older King Charles' Fromm's Salmon À La Veg. Jake lived to be 15 and Chloe will be 12 in April with no issues. Our new dog, Tilly, is a breed which is notorious for skin allergies/issues so we feed her Nature's Blend Limited Ingredient Duck and Potato. At least with Tilly's breed, the skin/itching seems to be tied to chicken so I would avoid that as a main ingredient. Both get a squirt of fish oil on top of their dry food to help with skin and it also helps keep coats looking great.

[kscarrol]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

Scary headlines but still being studied and debated.

https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinar...itary-dcm-dogs

I've seen this discussed on such scientific platforms as facebook... As pointed out, being studied but look at the data, around 1,100 dogs and 20 cats have developed the disease. The latest data I could find in a quick search show around 90 million pet dogs in the US so 0.001% have had some issue. Clearly needs way more study to eliminate other environmental factors.

[TXSTYLE]

What's you guys thoughts on all of this "grain free" food? My Breeder suggests sticking with a high quality more expensive product of course but says that grains should be included.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by TXSTYLE

What's you guys thoughts on all of this "grain free" food? My Breeder suggests sticking with a high quality more expensive product of course but says that grains should be included.

You shouldn’t need to avoid grains unless the dog has a sensitivity / allergy. But quite a few of the better foods are grain free.

Our Angus had bad food allergies throughout his life and his dermatologist (BTW I don’t even have a dermatologist) put him on grain free. In some cases it’s necessary.

[happyjack]

be careful of grain free foods. i know three families, including my sister, who fed those types of foods and had dogs die before they were 5/6 years old. my sister was feeding hers blue buffalo.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...sease-n1025466

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by happyjack

be careful of grain free foods. i know three families, including my sister, who fed those types of foods and had dogs die before they were 5/6 years old. my sister was feeding hers blue buffalo.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...sease-n1025466

Did they die as a result of heart problems?

[Littlebear]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

....
For the most part, I wouldn’t overthink it. There are some who swear by raw diets and some (like us) that prefer kibble.

Also, you didn’t ask, but we have fixed feeding times with no grazing throughout the day. We started with 4x/day as puppies, then 3x, then 2x, then 1x around the time they reach a year old....

Hi Rick,

Just to clarify, do you feed your adult dogs once a day?

Murf

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by Littlebear

Hi Rick,

Just to clarify, do you feed your adult dogs once a day?

Murf

Yes. Adults 1x / day, puppies 2x - 4x depending on size / age. These are small breed dogs. Not sure if same would apply to larger breeds.

[kscarrol]

I'll tag along as well. Our King Charles is fed once a day though there are treats over the course of the day. Our Boykin is much more physically active so we feed her twice a day.

[Littlebear]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

Yes. Adults 1x / day, puppies 2x - 4x depending on size / age. These are small breed dogs. Not sure if same would apply to larger breeds.

Thanks. I often tell people, "...but they are dogs."
Meaning in this case, they should be hungry sometimes!
When I grew up our dogs didn't get breakfast. Nor did the hunting dogs next door.

Murf

[happyjack]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

Did they die as a result of heart problems?

without a necropsy it’s impossible to say for sure, but the vets of all three dogs diagnosed the symptoms preceding death as heart failure.

all three dogs were large breed — 2 labs and 1 golden retriever— that had been fed grain-free foods for their entire adult lives.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by happyjack

without a necropsy it’s impossible to say for sure, but the vets of all three dogs diagnosed the symptoms preceding death as heart failure.

all three dogs were large breed — 2 labs and 1 golden retriever— that had been fed grain-free foods for their entire adult lives.

That’s the problem with the grain free debate. It is still being studied but the initial news headlines (fueled by the FDA, which has since seemed to back off a bit per link I posted above) made it seem otherwise. Some dogs have a genetic predisposition to the heart condition so unless studies definitively link widespread causation it is difficult to conclude the food is bad. But hard to overcome the headlines.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by Littlebear

Thanks. I often tell people, "...but they are dogs."
Meaning in this case, they should be hungry sometimes!
When I grew up our dogs didn't get breakfast. Nor did the hunting dogs next door.

Murf

It’s interesting because the females seem to eat food more like cats - until satisfied. But the males seem content devouring whatever is given, whenever it is given. If they had the opportunity, I think they might eat an entire bag of food, throw up and then eat the throw up. Of course, that’s why we are here for them - to prevent them from doing stuff like that and keeping their weight healthy. (I’m better at keeping their weight in check than my own!)

[happyjack]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

That’s the problem with the grain free debate. It is still being studied but the initial news headlines (fueled by the FDA, which has since seemed to back off a bit per link I posted above) made it seem otherwise. Some dogs have a genetic predisposition to the heart condition so unless studies definitively link widespread causation it is difficult to conclude the food is bad. But hard to overcome the headlines.

yep i get it. lots of anecdotal evidence at this point, and all 3 of the dogs that i know happened prior to the headlines, so there was no effort / understanding of various other contributing factors WRT grain-free food.

[ramman434]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

We feed our female Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream Salmon Puppy Food and will switch her over soon the the adult version of the same.

https://www.jakespetsupply.com/colle...mon-puppy-food

We like salmon as the first ingredient and it helps her coat look great. The food has good reviews, she likes it and ingredients overall seem healthy to us (and she is healthy). Also it is easy to find as our preferred pet supply store stocks it.

The male adult was eating Fromm’s, which is also very good, but he has an issue with crystals in his urine and is now on prescribed food from Royal Canin.

For the most part, I wouldn’t overthink it. There are some who swear by raw diets and some (like us) that prefer kibble.

Also, you didn’t ask, but we have fixed feeding times with no grazing throughout the day. We started with 4x/day as puppies, then 3x, then 2x, then 1x around the time they reach a year old. The males we’ve had devour everything immediately. The females sometimes eat everything, sometimes don’t. We throw away what they don’t eat within 15 minutes of putting it out.

My wife and I use Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream Salmon for our adult male dog & just got this puppy food for our female we just adopted Tuesday. They both love this kibble. I just auto-order mine from Chewy.com . I set the schedule and it saves around $5 each order.

Also, FIXED FEEDING TIMES ARE A MUST. Especially for training. Great for my 4.5yr old, and fortunately the shelter was already beginning this for the puppy. My adult male eats all of his in one go. The puppy eats about 1/2 of what we put out, and then gets the other 1/2 later in the day. So she's technically eating 4x per day. But as stated above, will be weened down to 2x.

[kscarrol]

Originally Posted by ramman434

FIXED FEEDING TIMES ARE A MUST.

Very true!! It has gotten to be quite funny as dinner time approaches and both dogs are staring me down and following me everywhere, waiting for dinner! Their little tummies are well trained.

[ShopVac]

Got my good DSLR lens repaired...that is all.