Food

[jwhizz420 177]

Have me dog on raw , doing great shining coat no complaints, freezer broke last month and switched to gain 28 , energy levels went through the roof, every walk he ran like a demon increased aggression. And destroyed the sette while I was at work.But his coat went dull and was shiting like a donkey. Is there anything I can add to his raw to give them energy that the gain was giving him. Thinking keep him on raw during summer then switch to the gain come the season. Anyone mix raw and kibble ?

[alan81 110]

your dog is fine on raw, happy and content and if kept fit will do all you want of him. when you put him on gain you say his aggression rose and he tore up the couch and wanted to run all the time and I bet he's always panting to. these are all sings of what was a happy dog on raw that is now a stressed out dog on kibble. stick with the raw mate it sounds like your dog is happier on it.

[jwhizz420 177]

Cheers Alan , that makes sense , I didn't see it as stressing him out, guess it's like kids on them monster drinks, and yes he was panting a lot, whys that ?

[skycat 6,174]

Dogs pant for a number of reasons, not just because they are hot. They can pant because they are in pain, usually some type of internal discomfort, or if they are stressed/anxious/over excited. The dull coat suggests some kind of dietary imbalance, though it could also be caused by moulting: most of mine are moulting at the moment and this can make the coat look dull as the old fur is shed: daily grooming helps.

But if the dog's behaviour changed as well it might suggest that the food didn't suit him at all: many dogs are mildly intolerant of some preservatives found in complete dry food, or they may be intolerant to some of the ingredients: wheat and soya are both badly tolerated by some dogs. The fact that he was shitting a lot more also suggests that most of the food he has been eating has not been properly digested: cereals do this as dogs are not designed to eat a largely cereal diet. This can put the dog's gut, it's digestive system under more stress. Gain, along with most mid price range foods, is cereal based, which means that the greatest part of the food is made up of cereals, not meat.

Look on the side of the bag for ingredients, and if cereals of one sort or another are the first ingredient listed, then there is more of them than anything else.

 

I've found that most dogs are calmer when fed a raw diet, though their work ethic/prey drive doesn't go down at all, and they are better able to cope with work. But it is important to give the dog enough carbohydrates for 'slow drip' energy if the type of dog demands it. Fast dogs, as opposed to Collie or Saluki, often need more carbs than these. Sprint type dogs do better with more carbs: boiled rice, pasta, brown bread for example. Also, you may need to increase the fat content on raw fed dogs: fat provides energy in dogs. So very lean meat alone, or chicken carcases where there is not fat left on need additions in the form of lamb or chicken fat: much better than vegetable oil by the way.

 

You can mix raw and kibble, but this can upset their stomachs sometimes as the two types of food take different lengths of time to digest. Adding a very small handful of kibble is usually OK.

[jwhizz420 177]

I've got him back on the raw, beef mince , tripe , sardines chicken wings , some herbs, and brown bread , maybe increase his carbs then, I was only using a little to bulk his stools up. Gets really confusing reading up about raw, last article reading said no carbs. I sometimes worry that I might be missing something in his diet .

[skycat 6,174]

Forgot to say: cereals can make some dogs overheat. If anyone has ever tried a detox diet: cutting out processed carbohydrates and sugar, for example, you many have noticed that you feel less stuffed up in the head, cooler all over, as well as calmer. Trouble is, so many people today eat stuff on a regular basis that should really be kept for occasional treats, so many don't realise how much better they'd feel if they ate more naturally: the old fashioned meat and two veg meals of our parents and grand parents, with no snacking on fast foods, is so much better for us.

 

With dogs eating complete manufactured foods, not only do the manufacturers add sugar and extra salt to add flavour, there are also a ton of chemical flavour enhancers and preservatives, not to mention the artificial addition of vitamins that have been lost in the high temperature treatment of foods during the manufacturing process.

 

In other words, eating simply and naturally, which in a dog's case means raw, takes away all the chemical and processed crap they have to eat when they eat cheap cereal based complete food.

 

Sugar beet pulp is often added as a cheap filler in these foods to, which is also a totally unnatural food for dogs. For anyone wanting to try and experiment on feeding raw, you'll notice the following things:

The dog will need to drink a lot less: because natural food contains a lot of water.

It will almost certainly have better smelling breath, and it's crap won't smell like the rancid contents of an old deep fat fryer full of dead rats!

It won't fart as much either!

It's coat will be better because the body won't be trying to get rid of toxins through the skin. I've met a lot of dogs whose coats have a nasty greasy feel to them, and they've all been fed on cheap commercially produced food. IMO, Gain is no better than any other cereal based food on the market, and whilst it isn't the worst, I'd sooner feed my dogs on something that I can identify, instead of filling them up with rubbish where I don't know the raw ingredients, nor their provenance.

 

Bad breath is not part of being a dog: it is nearly always down to a diet that isn't suited to dogs, except in the case of illness or infected teeth/gums.

 

I could go on, but that's it for now