dog and cat nutrition. To believe vets or not

[geebs]

I have yet to see a cat attack and eat corn or rice in a rice patty.. What are they designed to eat???? uh... pretty simple... meat.. and yes they will fish your tank and eat all the cute little fishies... So what nature made I don't mess with... I buy fish and meat for my pets.. That is what they were designed to eat... Corn and high starches create's "hot spots" and hip dysplasia in dogs.. UTI and blockages for cat... My cat eats birds, mice, squirrels (love him for that) and when he needs a meal... Shrimp (whole and raw) My dog also eats squirrels.... good doggie.... and he get meat from the butcher... I buy it once a week and freeze in little portions...It costs no more to feed him this than expensive dog food.

 

[chickenpiedpiper]

There are as many correct pet food diets as thier are people who own pets. Please be willing to agree to disagree.

I try to feed the best food that I can afford, AND that my cats and dogs LIKE. My cats like the science diet sensitive stomach, but they also like the variety of having a second dry food to choose from, so I keep two bowls available to them, side by side, one with the SD, which always goes empty, and one with some other kind that catches my fancy, currently a friskies I think. My cats are all over 12 years old, and no major health issues, and all go out door and hunt at will.

Same with my dogs, they have free choice Nutro available to them all the time, and my oldest dog is 14, and my Great Dane is 10 and still going strong! that is old for danes, and he still has no health issues other than arthritis.

on the other side of the coin, my grandmother fed cat chow and table scraps to her cats, and Goldie lived to 23 years old, and most of the others into thier late teens, all outdoors.

My vet once said that there are thousands of perfectly healthy Cat Chow cats out there, if it bothers you, do some research and choose for yourself a food that makes you feel confident, and that your cat likes, and you will both do well. Good advice!

 

[BlackBart]

Quote:
I agree. The results can be misleading but not technically dishonest. As long as they meet the standards.
After the tainted food scandal lots of info came out. I still think there are outstanding court cases against Nutro over the whole thing.
Pet food is big business and a dumping ground for by-products. The USA guidelines are much stricter than the Canadian guidelines and that is not saying much.

We have raw pet food stores here. They take raw meat (organic) and grind it into serving portions then freeze it. Lamb, beef, chicken, turkey, bison etc. With or without veggies, ground bones and organ meat. They sell herring, tripe and lamb necks as well.
I was told by a nutritionist to buy a kibble that is made by the company who's name is on the bag. A company that makes their own kibble and markets it as their own.
Not like Nutro (and others) who buy from a huge pet food manufacturer and then put their name on the bag.

My dogs love the raw food, my cats hate it. I bought my dogs up on raw food. The cats I didn't. The cats get canned food and good nutritional kibble and as many mice and squirrels as they can catch. They are de-wormed regularly as well.

My dogs love chicken legs and necks. I get all I can from my Friend who process's her own birds. She will not feed them to her dogs because she says the throw up. They "wolf" it down because they are so eager for it, then barf it up.

When I lived up North in Inuvik, we fed all of our sled dogs frozen meat and fish, the cats too.

Anybody try Ellen D's Halo pet food? curious.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

8 years of vet school and vets only get a few hours of nutrition training. I have worked in that field a LONG time and most of the time they simply push what they are selling.

Check out this independent website; http://www.dogfoodproject.com/

 

[Bossroo]

We have dozens of coyotes on our place, so I see their droppings almost every day of the year. I see all types of in season vegetation in the droppings... grapes, rose hips, pumkin seeds, corn, wheat, barley seeds , grass seeds, etc. among mouse, gopher etc. bones and hair, and small bird bones and feathers. They are omnivores afterall.

 

[arabianequine]

Quote:
They have to eat to live. Does not mean it is by choice....they are not gonna let themselves die of starvation. I would not think. Now maybe they tried some of that they do like it.

 

[MoSo]

Both of my dogs are single coat short-hair, and on cheaper foods they both have eczema and other skin/hair problems. What they eat definitely contributes to those skin/hair problems and we've completely fixed one dog and vastly improved the other by switching to better foods with fewer fillers and more actual meat (and fewer meat byproducts).

More filler ingredients - like corn - mean fewer actual ingredients, like meat, in the food.

ETA; We feed TOTW Bison and venison, which is around $40 a bag (35 lbs? 40lbs? I forget. Last about a month for my medium- and large-size dogs).

 

[chickerdoodle]

I would like to add, spending money on a vastly better diet may cost more initially but they eat less of it. Granted some dogs are like some of us humans and will eat more than we should (guilty

) but you can feed less as they don't need as much. I have also found over 30 years of pet ownership (and yes I am a professional in animal behavior and medicine) that you save so much money on veterinary care in the long run its definitely worth it. There will be those with stories of "well my old mutt lived to 18 and ate nothing but cheap generic food" but that dog may have had disorders unknown to the owner or maybe could have lived to 22 if fed a better diet!

I feed my 65lb. super active, athletic, well muscled Belgian Malinois 1 slightly rounded cup of EVO twice a day. Yep-- it comes out to only 2 1/4 cups total! It cost us $51 for a 27 lb. bag and lasts about a month. She was eating 4 cups a day of Nutro when we got her and she was too lean and her coat was no where near as good as it looks when fed EVO. I'm not selling EVO--I am actually furious

Proctor and Gamble just bought the company!!! I am just giving you my take on what a good diet can do.

I highly recommend you check out the http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/ web site as its an independent laboratory analysis on most dog foods. They rate the foods with stars--6 stars is the best and 1 star the worst. It also explains what ingredients are good or bad and why! Its very educational.

 

[Beekissed]

I feed my 65lb. super active, athletic, well muscled Belgian Malinois 1 slightly rounded cup of EVO twice a day. Yep-- it comes out to only 2 1/4 cups total! It cost us $51 for a 27 lb. bag and lasts about a month. She was eating 4 cups a day of Nutro when we got her and she was too lean and her coat was no where near as good as it looks when fed

That's funny that you should mention this feed ratio....I have a Lab mix of the same wt. as your dog and I feed him the same amount of dog food~but its Ol' Roy and it costs $18 for a 40 lb. bag that lasts well over a month and well into the second month. He is glossy and very high energy, muscle bound and the picture of health. He has only been to the vet to be neutered...he is four years old. I only vet if the dog has a problem....apparently he has no problems.

Of course, my dog is an outside dog and supplements his diet with apples, mice, eggs, veggies and anything else he wants to eat in his day.

There will be those with stories of "well my old mutt lived to 18 and ate nothing but cheap generic food" but that dog may have had disorders unknown to the owner or maybe could have lived to 22 if fed a better diet!

That would be my story....

Here's a theory....maybe dogs weren't really meant to live for 22 years. In the wild they certainly wouldn't and this is a great feature that helps with dog population control. When one dog dies, this leaves space for another dog to exist.

Think of all those dogs sitting in shelters, waiting for your 22 yr old dog to kick the bucket so he can be placed in your home...but you keep feeding all that high dollar feed to make your dog have an unnaturally long life....meanwhile, little Spot is waiting patiently at the pound for you to let the old mutt die so a young mutt can take his place.

It's the ultimate in recycling and it also solves the growing problem with overcrowded animal shelters....

 

[Stina]

That's messed up.