dog and cat nutrition. To believe vets or not

[mom'sfolly]

I had a cat develop diabetes at about 18, which is when we found out that the skin allergy we had always fought with was caused by the leftover cereal milk she was allowed to drink. She made it about one more year after being diagnosed. She was the longest lived of all our cats. We now have two adult cats and a kitten that we have had for two weeks. The little toe killer was found near death by our neighbors, and they couldn't keep him. Two weeks later, he is a healthy active kitten, with an unnatural fascination with toes.

My vet actually recommended the website when she said to switch the cats to wet food. She told us what to look for, what to avoid and told us to decide on our own. I hate the stinky food, but the litter box is less toxic, with very little poo.

 

[koop]

My boxer puppy gets Iams smart puppy, she is inside more then the other dogs and like alot of boxers she has a lot of "silent and deadly" farts if we feed her anything else, I would like to give her some venison also but my wife (the AHT) thinks that could be really bad.

My other two dogs get healthy vitality and we have had to cut them back because they got too fat, but they get venison.

All three have nice coats. But the boxer is my favorite

 

[ChickenToes]

The vet I used to go to had the 'Wall of Science Diet' as well. Very disconcerting...

I feed my dog the feed that she seems to do the best on. If I feed her something cheap, she eats twice as much of it and I have to let her outside more often. If I feed her the good stuff (usually Diamond brand) she eats less, doesn't have to go outside as much, and her coat and teeth seem to be in better condition.

 

[TiaView]

It is important that when you look at a list of dog food ingredients you realize that if it says corn (as an example) as the first ingredient, that it does not mean a nice juicy ear of sweet corn. It is talking about a dry starch that has been super heated and extruded with a bunch of other ingredients that are lower on the list (less of them) and usually at that point has lost almost all nutritional value. Not that corn is way up there for a carnivore, anyway. Even if your top three ingredients are meat (protein) after they have been processed there is much less nutrition than you'd think there'd be left in a dry bag. I have seen the results that a simple dietary switch from a poor quality dog food (and folks, who said that Beniful is a GOOD food??? It is garbage. The food coloring alone stains cement in boarding facilities after a dog passes that stuff through it's system! It is corn, chemicals and color...but the commercial is touching.

) to a naturally preserved, high quality protein food can make. Dogs detox and their skin, health and coat improve. Spend a little more on the dogs nutrition and you'll save the money with less trips to the vet. And the breeders that feed Purina and Pro Plan don't do it because they like the low quality food, they feed it because they are feeding a lot of dogs and it is cheaper and better than the grocery store garbage in a bag.

 

[burquechick]

Quote:
That's pretty much what I would think too, and I've been told the same thing from a zookeeper I used to date. But I think it should be mentioned that wild cats are probably eating intestines of the animals they kill too. And I would also presume that most of what they kill is herbivorous. Therefore, I would think that by virtue of eating intestines from something like rabbits perhaps, that cats do need grassy greens in their diet as well. To some extent. Honestly, I think this is why my cats eat grass in the first place. But anyway, wolves sometimes eat berries and other vegetable matter, right? So the primary ingredient should be meat with a side of veggies. And then dogs probably need even less meat than a wolf does (because they are not the same species). But anyway, I hear carrots are really good for dogs.

And the same zookeeper also told me that cats are lactose intolerant, but my cats seem to do just fine with it. In fact, I get my eyes clawed out if I don't leave a little in my cereal bowl for them.

 

[redhen]

What about Nutro?? Hows that food??

 

[BlackBart]

Quote:
Nutro Max?
It is one of the companies that was sued over the tainted feed problem. I would think they would be more diligent now.

 

[redhen]

Quote:
Nutro Max?
It is one of the companies that was sued over the tainted feed problem. I would think they would be more diligent now.

Hmmm.. i wonder if they are though..

What about Diamond large breed?
*i'm thinking of switching from Purina One Large Breed..*

 

[scbatz33]

I don't think most people pay much attention to what goes in their face, much less what goes into their animal's. I have never had avet "school" me on feed. But then, I've never asked. I attribute a vet selling Iams or Purina akin to a Doctor pushing Pfizer or any other drug company's products......

What I have done is read labels. I took a feeds and feeding course in college. I had to study feedstuffs and nutritional content. Last year when our oldest dog went into food "revolt" we tried lots of things. We would switch foods every couple of weeks because he would go on hunger strike. We have fed the most expensive stuff to the cheapest on the market. Wet, dry, canned, bottled, etc. What we came down to was raw diet.

We fed raw chicken and he got an extra 6 months of life before his kidneys completely failed him. But an odd thing happened for our other dogs...the fat one with sensitive stomach lost weight and stopped having gas, the hyper one calmed down and the puppy grew correctly. We had less waste to clean up and the dogs were shiny and healthy.

Our vet was incredibly impressed with the puppy's growth. Said he looked really good for his size - not too heavy, not too thin......She about fell over when we told her what we were feeding. NOT because of it being raw, but because of the cost it must take to feed him raw.

Fortunately, we had a large stock of frozen birds. Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for a 160 lb growing mastiff to eat through that much chicken. We have since had to go back to dry food because of cost. It's a shame too because our dogs never looked better than when they were eating a raw, natural, non-preservative, non- dyed, non-additive diet.

I hope to get back to a place financially when they can go back to a raw diet.

 

[TiaView]

Diamond is a real middle of the road feed at best, but it's not horrible. If you are going to pay for Diamond you might as well go with a bump up for about the same cost. Chicken Soup For the Dog Lover's Soul is a decent food (goofy name but pretty good ingredients) for a pretty low cost for what you get...also put out by Diamond, just higher end.