Pet Food Recall

[rages4calm]

I guess it has to do with the fact our dog cost us $650 bucks (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel)
and the fact she has always wanted that dog

www.carl-prewitt.com/tessa

[Duffy Pratt]

The dog food industry started as a way to make money off the stuff that was unfit for human consumption. That's largely what it still is. There is no reason dogs should not live for an average of 20 or more years. But we think of dogs as old when they hit 12 or so. Why? Mostly because we feed them crap and over-vaccinate (some of it has to do with ridiculous breeding practices to make them cute). For the most part, pet food is made of the worst of the worst of meats, rendered fats, and grains that the dogs cannot digest (but have the unpleasant side effect of causing allergic reactions, loose stools, and can even hurt the digestive tract).

If you want your cute puppy to do well, you should consider feeding a raw diet (after doing some research). Don't ever feed any of the wet canned foods. They are universally awful. There are some good kibbles available too, but not in the grocery store or Petsmart or Petco. Find out who sells food like Innova, or California Natural, or Nature's Variety. There are some other high quality kibbles, but not many.

For a RAW diet, you can start looking into it here. Or you could do a google search on BARF Diet. BARF stands for either Bones and Raw Food, or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, depending on who you ask.

Duffy

[suzyjazz]

Yeah, I saw Nutro on the list and that bothered me because I used ot feed Nutro dry food. We decided it was too rich for my greyhound so we changed food.

[suzyjazz]

Originally Posted by Duffy Pratt

Find out who sells food like Innova, or California Natural, or Nature's Variety. There are some other high quality kibbles, but not many.

I was thinking of switching to Innova. I've heard good things, too. It's sold in feed stores and I think on their web site they will help you find a place near you that sells it. It seemed like there was a place not far from home but I don't remember where it was. I think I'm going to look into that this weekend.

[Roy]

We've been giving Shadow Exclusive the last few years . She seems to be doing very well on it although I may go back to the lamb and rice variety as opposed to the chicken and rice

[Duffy Pratt]

I've been feeding my dogs combinations of Evo by Innova, Raw Instinct by Nature's Variety, and the Whitefish and Sweet Potato formula by Wellness. You can get the last two at Pet Country on Dulles, and the owner tells me he is going to start carrying Evo in about 3 weeks.

I used to feed raw, but my wife complained about the mess when we only had one dog. When we got our second dog, she made me promise to switch to dry food. (Raw involves quite a bit of mixing and cleaning, and you are constantly leaving raw food out to defrost.)

Duffy

[Digital Prophet]

Originally Posted by Duffy Pratt

If you want your cute puppy to do well, you should consider feeding a raw diet (after doing some research).
....

For a RAW diet, you can start looking into it here. Or you could do a google search on BARF Diet. BARF stands for either Bones and Raw Food, or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, depending on who you ask.

Duffy

We feed raw too. But since we don't use B2G we wound up opening our own raw dog food distributor. Check out our Feeding FAQ for information.

All of our dogs are on the raw diet and we have found that it's not only better for them but cheaper than a "premium balanced" kibble. But I don't want to sound like an informercial. PM if you have raw diet questions. Oh but I will say: beware of "raw" diets that are really just "raw kibble".

Prophet out.

[Digital Prophet]

Originally Posted by suzyjazz

I was thinking of switching to Innova. I've heard good things, too. It's sold in feed stores and I think on their web site they will help you find a place near you that sells it. It seemed like there was a place not far from home but I don't remember where it was. I think I'm going to look into that this weekend.

There is a dog boutique place thing out by Katy Mills where we used to buy Canadae (back in the kibble days). I think they may carry that Innova brand. If you like I can call my trainer and ask for the name of the place.

Prophet out.

[kenw]

dry is the only way to go. The wets just appeal to the owners. Pure marketing......

[suzyjazz]

Originally Posted by Digital Prophet

There is a dog boutique place thing out by Katy Mills where we used to buy Canadae (back in the kibble days). I think they may carry that Innova brand. If you like I can call my trainer and ask for the name of the place.

Thanks for the offer, but that's OK. Katy Mills is pretty far, too. There are several places on Westheimer and that will actually be closer. If I like it I might just end up ordering it and having it delivered.

Originally Posted by Duffy Pratt

You can get the last two at Pet Country on Dulles, and the owner tells me he is going to start carrying Evo in about 3 weeks.

Duffy, I looked into Evo (since it's close by) and it has very high protein content, too high for Jazz. Thanks for mentioning it, though.

Originally Posted by kenw

dry is the only way to go. The wets just appeal to the owners. Pure marketing......

Yuck, I hate wet food. It stinks and it's messy. I give it to Jazz out of desperation occasionally when she won't eat and her stomach is making crazy sounds. She will always eat wet food and if she doesn't then I know she is really sick and I need to take her to the vet. I hope the Innova will help these problems, but we'll see.

[Duffy Pratt]

Suzy:

I'm curious how you arrived at Jazz' protein requirements. Dogs are basically carnivores. Carbohydrates are basically useless to them. Here's one article on the subject. Remember, once you add the water to a dry food (which is what happens in the stomach), that 40% protein goes down to something like 10-20%. So its not as high as it looks. For the most part, commercial dry foods are way too low in protein and it leads to fat dogs (not a problem for Jazz, I know).

I'm not saying that you are wrong about Jazz. But I am curious how you know how much protein is too much for Jazz.

Duffy

[markfh]

Our 17 year old chihuahua was in kidney failure and he stopped eating.

We started feeding him "real" food because we knew how much he liked his treats of what we ate and figured it couldn't hurt him anyway.

He started to eat on his own after a while but would only eat what we ate and refused anything else. He lived 2 more years on "real" food.

We only put him down because of a really bad eye infection that could only be treated by removing the eye and the vet said he wouldn't survive the surgery.

I'm still not sure we made the right decision. The little guy wailed when he figured out what was going on and it just tore our hearts out.

Sarge gets lots of "real" food and he loves it...

[suzyjazz]

Duffy, my notes from the vet are about other minerals not protein, but I think I remember them mentioning it as well. Anyway, these other minerals are actually the ones I need to look for. My memory was fuzzy, so good thing I kept the records. I PMed you for more detail.

[Cope]

Originally Posted by Roy

I may go back to the lamb and rice variety as opposed to the chicken and rice

Our male Golden had an allergic reaction to lamb and rice, so we have used chicken and rice for many years.

[engstrom]

I also feed my dogs Innova Evo. Yeah, it's high in protein - make your own decision. My dogs are doing well on it.