Dog health & food thread

[CascadeLuke]

Dogs are family - let’s treat them well. Post questions and advice here.
Was searching teh tgrs for healthy dog food recommendations without luck and wanted to start a discussion. I’ve been wanting to begin feeding our Australian Shepherd more true food- non kibble. Have seen many new food companies come into the fold and curious on recommendations and results of the collective. I wouldn’t be surprised if we actually had some experts up in here..

[schindlerpiste]

My dogs eat chicken (whole chickens are less than $1/lb) and Nolo kibble. Sometimes, I throw in sweet potatoes and/or whole grain rice. If we eat fish, they always get the skin.
Nolo is really good kibble.

[nickwm21]

So much marketing BS and conflicting information in the dog food world….

I’ve given up and just grab my pup a different / random bag from the “fancy” pet store every time. She enjoys the diversity I think… I know there is some thought about being careful changing food, but it seems more natural to me that her food is constantly changing…

If I went fresh food I would DIY instead of buy… if you’re going to go there, go all the way… I’m sure there’s some pretty easy crockpot dump recipes; frozen chicken + frozen veg + rice…


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[GiBo]

My co-worker's wife is a vet who specializes in animal nutrition. Consults to dog food companies. I asked her if it was worth buying the fancy stuff and she said no. She said avoid the very low end stuff, but if your dog is eating regular kibble and is healthy and happy it's fine.

[ötzi]

I kinda got lectured yesterday (by the plumber, who breeds and trains German Shepherds) about what we feed our dogs. They've been on Iams kibble with some Pedigree canned for taste. He was all about Fromm's: https://frommfamily.com/products/dog...uctTag=&Sort=4

His big thing was cancer, he said 50% of dogs die of cancer now and in the past it was relatively unknown. I don't vouch for either of those statements, but if they are in fact true, diet would be a likely culprit. I dunno, I'll look into it more I guess.

[irul&ublo]

My co-worker's wife is a vet who specializes in animal nutrition. Consults to dog food companies. I asked her if it was worth buying the fancy stuff and she said no. She said avoid the very low end stuff, but if your dog is eating regular kibble and is healthy and happy it's fine.

My vet goes fucking nuclear on all the fancy dog foods. Says it’s bullshit. Especially the no grain stuff. Dogs are omnivores and unless there’s an allergy issue, grains are ok. She also recommends switching up foods every few months.


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[Danno]

There was a thread or many in here that had lots of advice from hutash (hope he's doing well). He said (paraphrasing) that Science Diet has spent way way way more on studying dog nutrition than the other companies, and the boutique companies have spent very little. Based on that, I have fed my pup Science Diet and she does fine. It's not cheap but it's not as expensive as some boutique brands.

[BCMtnHound]

Growing up the farm dogs ate chicken shit, cow shit, table scraps, butchering leftovers, and whatever bulk kibble was on sale. They were happy, not neurotic, and most lived past 12 (if they minded their teeth with the farm animals).

Just my opinion but don’t overthink it. Dogs suffer from the same neurosis we do. We feed our large breed girl table scraps, freezer clean outs, butchering (fish and game) leftovers, and med-high quality locally produced kibble. She gets her daily neighbourhood sniff and exercise, several treats, turned 13 in Mar, and every season now is a bonus.

The cancers are like ours I think. Micro plastics and forever chemicals in everything, bad air, manufactured lifestyle stress, in some cases being overbred, and living much longer. Commercial kibble has only been around for what? A bit over a 100yrs? Dogs have been by our campfires for how long? 30,000yrs?

[XXX-er]

I would feed not the cheapest stuff but a medium to higher level protien that wasn't too expensive, IME it took my lab a bag to see if she was gona puke that brand up so I didnt find if it was gona work until the second big bag

so we found a medium priced/ medium protien level brand that stayed down/ left firm stools and we stuck with it, moving around trying different brands was not a good strategy IME but I supose YMMV

my son has an english style lab which are a pretty stocky confirmation so they weigh his food every AM to keep it from getting fat

[TStriker]

I’ve been wanting to begin feeding our Australian Shepherd more true food- non kibble. Have seen many new food companies come into the fold and curious on recommendations and results of the collective.

Just Food For Dogs https://www.justfoodfordogs.com/

edit: I'll flesh this out a bit
We switched our dogs to JFFD on the recommendation of a veterinarian. (didn't completely discontinue kibble, but reduced it to around 20% of their diet)

Our older dog had issues that required us to start seeing an internal medicine specialist around Christmas of '21. His outlook wasn’t great, but meds, supplements, and switching to "real" food seemed to give him a new lease on life. He lived another two years to the ripe old age of 16.

Our "younger" dog is now 14.5 and on a combo of JFFD, kibble, supplements, and a little human food, and she's hanging in there.

That's all anecdotal, but worst case scenario is we wasted a little money, which I'm more than fine with.

[skuff]

I kinda got lectured yesterday (by the plumber, who breeds and trains German Shepherds) about what we feed our dogs. They've been on Iams kibble with some Pedigree canned for taste. He was all about Fromm's: https://frommfamily.com/products/dog...uctTag=&Sort=4

His big thing was cancer, he said 50% of dogs die of cancer now and in the past it was relatively unknown. I don't vouch for either of those statements, but if they are in fact true, diet would be a likely culprit. I dunno, I'll look into it more I guess.

My dog eats a combo of kibble with canned. He just had a checkup at the vet and they said if he's eating the food(s) and likes it, just keep doing that.

He also likes the Fromm's treats, never tried the kibble or other foods. And Fromm's is a WI company so I want to support that

[zion zig zag]

We do Science Diet primarily. We also save and freeze all of the scraps when butchering elk and deer and then once a week or so I’ll pull a package out of the fridge and throw it in the crock pot with brown rice, sweet potatoes, carrots, etc and make a batch of food that lasts a few meals. They go crazy for that.

[Mofro261]

My girl loves her greens- esp likes chomping on freshly wet grass. She is also crazy for broccoli. We have been using Fromm's for her kibble and mixing in cut up broccoli stalks in with it. She's super high energy at 4 so she's still getting 3 cups+ a day and hasn't moved off of 36-37 lbs on that diet.

[ötzi]

Ha, I thought my dogs were the only ones that love broccoli, they're crazy about it. Also apples, carrots, and red bell peppers.

[XXX-er]

We do Science Diet primarily. We also save and freeze all of the scraps when butchering elk and deer and then once a week or so I’ll pull a package out of the fridge and throw it in the crock pot with brown rice, sweet potatoes, carrots, etc and make a batch of food that lasts a few meals. They go crazy for that.

A buddy did much the same thing, to get her skinny rescue husky to eat she would cook up a pot of scraps & stuff which she woudl freeze into a muffin pan and put in a big bag in the freezer for convienence, these were referred to as " hockey pucks " cuz its Canada eh

Husky would get one hockey puck for dinner, from frozen just pour on hot water, mix with some dry food and the princess husky could not resist

[Ted Striker]

My dog loves broccoli too, along with green beans, carrots, and apples. And the crazy one: Lacinato Kale.

[Kevo]

My pup’s favorite thing in the world is sweet potato. Her vet told me to supplement with sweet potato for extra calories when we started doing really long trail runs together.

She now gets baked sweet potatoes almost every day in addition to her Nulo kibble. She gets very vocal about it if we ever run out of potatoes.

Her second favorite food is mangos. She won’t eat any other fruit.

[The Reverend Floater]

I had an interesting conversation with a pretty well known vet who specializes in sporting dogs with a focus on longevity--Basically athletes trying to stay in the game. I have two pointers who hunt hard and the older one just turned 10, but she still charges and will do 25+ miles in a day. Her health, quality of life and longevity are pretty important as she'd be miserable if she didn't get to hunt in the fall.

He swears by Hill, Eukanuba or Purina Pro Plan, as those are the brands that are still actively tracking performance and constantly tweaking their recipes. On top of that, those three apparently own their own manufacturing and he pointed out that most brands manufacturing controls are exactly what you'd imagine, especially as many of them share factories.

He was also adamant that there is really no supporting data for supplements, with only collogen showing any sort of promise. Finally, he said the most important component was keeping your dog at a consistent, relatively skinny weight all year long.

FWIW I've been feeding both of my dogs Eukanuba Large Breed with water poured on it since they were eight weeks old. They have 16 years between them and the only time either of one them have been to the vet outside of maintenance visits have been cuts or lacerations while in the field.

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[Danno]

^^^^^
That basically tracks what hutash has said here many times.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

On my last visit to the vet I got one of the newer partners at the clinic. He was a pretty recent grad and his research in school was cardiovascular health in dogs. He asked what I was feeding and I said a grain free kibble. He said that the data indicates a higher risk of heart disease in dogs fed a grain free diet. Just another data point. I switched to a high quality kibble with chicken, lamb and rice.


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[The Reverend Floater]

On my last visit to the vet I got one of the newer partners at the clinic. He was a pretty recent grad and his research in school was cardiovascular health in dogs. He asked what I was feeding and I said a grain free kibble. He said that the data indicates a higher risk of heart disease in dogs fed a grain free diet. Just another data point. I switched to a high quality kibble with chicken, lamb and rice.


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Yes. For got this dude touched on that as well.

Another interesting point he made was that one of the best things you can do for your dogs overall health....get another dog, no joke.

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[Name Redacted]

We give our dog Honest Kitchen Whole grain, human grade. He is pretty healthy and has not had any digestion issues which our old dog had. We switched one time to something else fancy, and his coat got really dull and he started losing hair. Very noticeable right away so switched back. He also gets a little salmon oil on his food every day which gets him to eat his meds (anxiety).

[TStriker]

...one of the best things you can do for your dogs overall health....get another dog

Because they'll have a butt pillow they can count on.

[XXX-er]

Finally, he said the most important component was keeping your dog at a consistent, relatively skinny weight all year long.

You GP would probaly tell you the same thing

[Buzzworthy]

My Boogybear was having issues with several kibbles we’ve previously fed him. So decided one day to do chicken breast, rice, beans, carrots and sweet potatoes in the crock pot one day about 6 months ago.

Still just cooking them a big crockpot every 3 days. Put it all in on a 4 hour timer with occasional stir. Dish and stack it up in the fridge.

So much less poop out in the yard. My picky Grimm eats all his food every meal. Boogybear has no issues anymore. They both aren’t out trying to eat grass constantly either which they then threw up with some of the kibble.

My Danes are so much happier with this setup.
And I’m not killing my back hauling around 50+ lb bags of dog food every other week.