Taste of the Wild Bison.....and Buddy

[Intheswamp]

Well, we've had this part Boxer for several years and he's always had "skin problems". The vet has just about convinced us that he's allergic to air.

I got to reading the other day and realized we had been really feeding him junk all these years. He is a very active dog, having the run of the place. The closest neighbor are my Mother's two dogs (about 1/4 mile away) that he goes to visit them all along. He's never been fat as he constantly runs (when he's not sleeping

).

After reading *several* threads here on BYC and elsewhere I began homing in on a dog food for Buddy. As it was I had three foods on my mind when I went to TSC this afternoon....Diamond Naturals (Lamb), 4Health (Lamb), and Taste of the Wild (Bison). After walking back and forth comparing ingredients and analysis I decided on TOTW Bison (had already actually decided before I got there). One of the clerks recommended 4Health so on a whim I picked up a 5# bag of it to try, also.

I get home....and it's taste test time!!!

My wife told me that Buddy had just ate supper (basically just nudged around a bit in his bowl of corn cereal). So, I take a handful of the 4Health and a handful of the TOTW and place each in a bowl. I sat each bowl on either side of his regular bowl that was filled with his regular food. I called him over and he first went to the 4Health bowl, smelled it, moved to the middle bowl (regular food bowl), smelled it, then moved to the TOTW and smelled it...and started eating it. He ate that handful and went back to the 4Health and ate that. He then went to his regular food bowl, smelled it...and passed on by to the empty bowl that had had the TOTW in it. He slapped the bowl!!!! He liked that stuff and wanted more!!!!!

I went and got him two cups of it and he every bit of it!!! Talk about a dog picking his own food!!!!!

I'm very interested in seeing if the TOTW helps the skin rashes that he's prone to and also whether it puts some weight on him.

Anyhow, I just thought I'd share this with you....definitely got my attention when he slapped that bowl wanting more!!!! My wife is threatening to start calling him "Wild Thang".

I'm so thankful I got interested in chicken nutrition so that I inadvertently became more conscious of my friend Buddy's food!!!

Ed

 

[jerseygirl1]

What you may want to try is mixing his old food with the new food, so that he doesn't start getting the runs from his stomach being totally switched over to the new food - There shoudl be some transgression period so that he can change over without an upset to his system

 

[Katy]

It has helped my dog who used to lick, lick, lick all the time because of her skin allergies and give herself hot spots so much. I did have to switch her from the bison to the pacific salmon one tho because she's a house dog and was putting on too much weight with the bison flavor. I feed my outside dogs the Diamond Naturals lamb & Rice. Taste of the Wild is made by Diamond also.

 

[Crazyland]

hahaha Smart dog you have there!

You can give him canned pumpkin to help with the stool also. Not the pie filling but pure pumpkin. Might be hard to find though.

 

[Intheswamp]

Thank ya'll for the replies. So far Buddy seems to be tolerating the TOTW pretty good. No problems with the runs that I can tell....but he tends to go out in the hayfield to do his business. His butt looks clean, though...

His skin problem is mostly that he will suddenly acquire a very pink skin tone which then leads to a few hotspots. Vet says it's allergies. We hope the food change will help this out.

Interesting, but this morning I poured his two cups TOTW in his bowl and he wasn't really interested in eating. He made a few rounds outside and came back in but still wasn't hungry. I had to go on to work and didn't want some other critter to get his food so I cut up a boiled egg and mixed it in...he gobbled it all down. I guess he just wasn't *that* hungry this morning but the egg got his interest up. I wonder if the two cups he had last night was still holding him over this morning...after all, all he had done was sleep since eating it. Anyhow, I left him with a contented look on his face.

Buddy is an interesting dog. He really seems to get into some deep thoughts at times as he blankly stares into the distance...he would've been a good mascot for Jack Handy's "Deep Thoughts". We are about 100 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico but it's fun to sit on the front porch and listen to the sound of the ocean as the wind blows through his ears.

Ya gotta love him.

Ed

 

[alabamachick]

TOTW is a great dog food, DH and I fed it to our dogs for months! I too have an American Bulldog who we believed was simply allergic to EVERYTHING.

4Health is actually made by the same people that make TOTW, it's packaged for TSC with their 4Health Brand. We are using 4Health now, and havent had any problems with it so far. Although I agree with thinking the dogs think it is blander. Course, my boys are so used to getting new dogs foods now they will jsut about eat anything. We were switching foods just about every wo weeks until we found one that worked.

If your boxers skin doesnt begin to clear up, and you can afford the time to do it, I would suggest a raw "detox" diet to get him off any kibble for a little while. There are many receipes you can go by for a dog his size. It IS costly in time and money, but I think its worth it. Raw chicken, beef, pork, deer, anything really, also make great alternative treats, Since you'll have to start getting Holistic treats too. Switching just food wont help.

I am so glad to see people getting in to the "No Corn, No Wheat, No Soy" ...My family simply thinks I'm crazy when I tell them that what they are feeding their dogs is absolutely awful. "But we Feed BENIFUL! Its the best there is!! My VET told me so..." Gosh, makes the hair on my neck stand up just thinking about it!

I wanted to add, Next time try Raw egg instead of boiled. And the shells can actually be crushed up and added too for some extra calcium...

OO OO Also wanted to add, He May not be as hungry because the better quality dog food is better utilized by the body and therefore less has to be fed, but go by what works best for him. Our 55lb shepherd/bull terrier gets 1 cup twice daily and is a little on the pudgey side, but the 90lb american bulldog has to have 2 in order to maintain his weight.
Another plus...Smaller poops!

 

[Akane]

My 70lb akita goes 24hours on 2 cups of totw even when she doesn't eat anything else for the day. The higher the quality of food and the more nutrient dense (check kcals/cup) the less they need to eat. In the end if you only give them what they need the cost comes out similar to feeding the cheaper stuff. Although we found we are saving some using diamond naturals (same company that makes totw but not grain free) since the dogs don't enjoy it as much. With the totw they would eat a little even when they weren't hungry and a bag would disapear much sooner than it needed to along with the shiba getting chubby. My akita won't eat at set mealtimes to the point of starving herself until it impacts her health so it was impossible to portion them out individually. With a food they don't enjoy a ton they also don't over eat while still getting what they need. They have plenty of other things for enjoyment. They get frozen carcasses from everything I raise whenever available including coturnix, button quail, guinea fowl, chicken and probably soon rabbit. Then I mix up satin balls to give them one every other day. http://www.heartlandgdr.org/satin_balls.htm The other days they get a frozen bone of whatever I can get my hands on that week. They end up only eating 2 cups of diamond naturals for a 70 and 30lb dog. They only need about 1/2-3/4ths that amount when on TOTW but the shiba is a pig so we end up still feeding 2cups.

 

[bumpershoot]

I like TOTW dog food a lot and feed it almost exclusively when we are not feeding raw (not touching that raw topic, tho...). We rotate the protein source with each bag (bison, fowl and salmon). I would bet that your boy doesn't need quite so much kibble as before because it has a higher caloric content per cup. It's one of the reasons that a quality kibble is more economic in the long run to feed. When my male pit was in his prime he would have only consumed one cup per meal...or...two cups per day. Now the geezer is down to two thirds of a cup per meal.

 

[lockedhearts]

My dogs do not like the salmon one but will eat the other 2 it has helped my Jack Russells and I can feed my Bouvier like a cup per day instead of 2 or more of another dog food.

 

[Skyesrocket]

Also wanted to add, He May not be as hungry because the better quality dog food is better utilized by the body and therefore less has to be fed, but go by what works best for him. Our 55lb shepherd/bull terrier gets 1 cup twice daily and is a little on the pudgey side, but the 90lb american bulldog has to have 2 in order to maintain his weight.

I think your right about why he wasn't hungry. Either that or he has dad trained to add garnishments.

I think if I had a gassy dog that I wouldn't be giving it hard boiled eggs though.

Ed, Buddy sounds like a very lucky dog.​