Scavengers or Picky Eaters? - Dog Food Topic

So, I posted on my FB profile status yesterday "you know you love your dog, when you walk out of WalMart with a big, huge bag of Ol' Roy. {ok...for the record, it's not me...just what I see}". Well, many of my dog friends weighed in on this. They all had great points. One owns a pet food store in BC, and swears that the by-products are causing cancers and killing good dogs. Another stated that as a farm girl growing up, their dogs scavenged and ate everything from dead animals to kibble, to table scraps. She said they lived long healthy lives, and basically died of old age. Another said, that whatever works...feed it to the dog. If it's Ol'Roy...then lucky...they get off cheap! The trick, is to change food up every once in awhile so that dogs aren't getting a steady diet of one particular thing.

I don't want to beat this topic to death. I have my own theories, and to a certain extent I can see all sides of the discussion. Any thoughts?

My previous dog lived on Dog Chow, table scraps and lived to 15 years of age. But I'm sure back then a lot of the ingredients used to make dog food came from within Canada or the U.S. The pet food formula to make these pet foods never changed so much like they do now. You also never heard of pet food recalls. Even with some of the higher quality kibbles now, some of those companies that produce them are being bought out by other companies who are getting their ingredients from other countries like China where the quality just isn't up to par IMO.

My dog trainer for a while kept pushing Eukanuba (sp?) on me to give to my dog (who is picky when it comes to brands of kibble), and swears that these no grain brand kibbles cause kidney issues in cats and dogs. I refused to waste my money on a brand of dog food that IMO I don't find all that great of quality, and something I know my dog won't eat. But just said I'll look into it. Not more than 2 weeks after recommending Eukanuba to me, her dogs were sick and it had something to do with the recall on the food. I prefer to stick with Natura Brand kibbles (ie. California Natural, Innova), Orijen and rotating with Kirklands brands pet food, as that I'm aware of there hasn't been a recall on those brands.

I guess my opinion would be whatever your pet likes and works best for them, and your pocket book.

K-Flash wrote:

So, I posted on my FB profile status yesterday "you know you love your dog, when you walk out of WalMart with a big, huge bag of Ol' Roy. {ok...for the record, it's not me...just what I see}". Well, many of my dog friends weighed in on this. They all had great points. One owns a pet food store in BC, and swears that the by-products are causing cancers and killing good dogs. Another stated that as a farm girl growing up, their dogs scavenged and ate everything from dead animals to kibble, to table scraps. She said they lived long healthy lives, and basically died of old age. Another said, that whatever works...feed it to the dog. If it's Ol'Roy...then lucky...they get off cheap! The trick, is to change food up every once in awhile so that dogs aren't getting a steady diet of one particular thing.

I don't want to beat this topic to death. I have my own theories, and to a certain extent I can see all sides of the discussion. Any thoughts?

I don't think the topic will ever be beat to death. I agree with what the others stated as when I was growing up we fed grocery dog food, table scraps and they did scavage and lived to old age. I don't care for filler in dog food and I think it's good to switch brands often and of course gradually. Since we had to change our human diet I have been home cooking for the dogs the same things we eat which includes vegetables and fruits. I have reduced the amount of kibble and always add water to it. We have a lot of wild meat and I have been feeding that to them both raw and cooked. I don't give them bones even though they are supposed to clean teeth. If the bones were small I would likely try them but small dogs and big bones I can't see them wrapping their mouths around them. I give daily probiotics also. I'm reducing bought foods a lot but since they provide minerals, vitamins etc I am using the kibble as a suppliment. I have been doing a lot of reading on the various diets other dog owner find as superior to dog health in their minds. There's so many things on the lists of what and what not to do it makes ones head spin. For years I have been paying attention to what the wild dogs eat...their diets are very much seasonal. Anyways some of the things I see in the scat they leave for me to investigate I have been feeding my dogs as it's what the feral ones eat. Blueberries, raspberries, saskatoons, etc. I've also been paying attention to the type of floral my own dogs eat on their own and encorporating them on a regular basis. In the summer they steal tomatoes, apples from the ground, peas, carrot tops, beet tops and the berries mentioned above plus wild rose hips and clovers and other stuff I'm sure I have failed to remember. The only dog permitted in the stable area is the Border Collie and he eats horse feed that gets left on the ground...rolled oats, rolled barley, beet pulp pellets, flax seed and fenue greek. Oddly he never eats alfalfa which I see more and more added to commercial dog foods even although he has every opportunity. I never get tired of learning about or discussing canine nutrition.

I think my dogs growing up ate the soft version of ol' roy...I can't remember what it was called, and they lived pretty long with no health affects until old age.

I choose to feed Tank kirkland because of the cost and the quality. I don't do any research but I do see that his eliminations are smaller and he has soft fur and is never short of energy and thats enough for me.

Our vet says he is in great health and the only foreseeable problem is maybe hip issues when he is older, but only if he gains weight, which so far, he hasn't.

I feed all my pets Kirkland. They all look great. I've saved a ton of money that I can use for their yearly vaccinations. You can't beat $25 for 40 lbs. of dog food and $13 for 20 lbs. of cat food.

You certainly can't, and the savings on the food also covers the cost of membership to Costco. My cats are on it too and it seems like they are eating less than recommended. There is always food left in their bowls so it must be filling or they don't like it enough to eat it all.

Great feedback from everyone. I guess it really does come down to what works best for the dog, and as we all know they are all different. Some time ago, I picked up the book called "Pet Allergies - Remedies for an Epidemic" by Alfred J. Plechner, DVM & Martin Zucker. Reading some of Dr. Plechner's stories made me really focus on what I was feeding my dogs. What prompted me to seek answers, was the fact that every time I fed my dogs (post feeding) they itched. I started to ponder this, and began looking for answers. This book gave me some alternative diets, and now I feed half kibble, and half something else. That "something else" could be diced carrots, broccoli and cauliflower, brown rice, cubed bits of boiled liver, cottage cheese, and apples. I'd love to be able to feed them lamb, but lamb is a rather expensive meat, and I'd have to find a cheap supplier, in order to justify buying it in bulk.

BBE, when I got my young dog from the breeder, she tried to put me onto Eukanuba. I had already decided I was going to feed him Acana so continued on with that. Not sure why I had something against Eukanuba, just figured I'd stick with what I knew.

Pooper, what kind of probiotics do you give your dogs?

Jamn & Kbullet...Kirkland perhaps is the same thing I could be feeding my dogs only packaged differently, and more expensive...LOL.

I definitely think, there's something to be said for changing things up, and offering variety. I think we'd all have digestive issues, if we dined on cheeseburgers every day.

kbullet wrote:

You certainly can't, and the savings on the food also covers the cost of membership to Costco. My cats are on it too and it seems like they are eating less than recommended. There is always food left in their bowls so it must be filling or they don't like it enough to eat it all.

My cats get Kirkland, I wouldn't be able to afford the cats if I didn't put them on Kirkland. They just eat too much. An approximately $42 / 30 lbs bag of Innova would be gone in a week and a half. Nothing seems to fill them up. At least with Kirklands, the bag would last me 3 weeks, and with dog food it would last me 3 months giving 2 cups a day. But I do buy Orijen and mix it in sometimes or use Orijen as a treat. Also sometimes mix raw egg, yogurt and some meat in with the kibble to change it up.

Probiotics...Fortiflora, or plain yogurt that is either bought of homemade. I've been getting lazy on my yogurt making. Floiforta is a flavored powder and a tad on the expensive side so I use it for times when something I offer gets an upturned nose.

Eukanuba isn't a food we use. A friend with Havs also switches brands on a regular basis and it was disasterous, it turned the black on the dogs an orange tinge like they had gotten too much sun.