Fellow dog owners - what food do you feed?

[sorraia]

I don't have a superior attitude with raw. It is not easy to feed dogs raw. Lots of research has to be put in it and you have to really know your dog very very well because you have to tweak the diet depending on your dog's response to it. So you also have to read and read and read all about nutrition.

This a thousand and a million times more.

My older dog is a pointer/am staff mix. She's very high energy (as is typical of those breeds!), and while on kibble (even high quality kibble using real meat instead of by-products and meals) she did alright, but she wasn't exactly thriving. She smelled, that yeasty smell (though never actually diagnosed with a yeast infection). She had bad gas all the time. Her coat wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. She had dandruff, and it was hard to keep weight on her (even when feeding double or more than what she is supposed to be getting, according the directions on the kibble bag!). I tried different foods (don't remember all the brands, this was years ago). She did better on canned, but that was just too expensive. My cats were already on raw, so I decided to switch her. Took a little bit of tweaking to find exactly what works for her... but now that I know, she's in great shape! No more yeasty smell, no more dandruff, coat and skin in great condition, no more gas (unless she gets fattier meats... like lamb, and even pork, too much beef doesn't agree with her either), and she holds her weight well now (no more bones sticking out every where and people accusing me of starving her!). I do have to feed her more in winter than in summer, because she's very lean and doesn't have an undercoat to keep her warm (thus she ends up burning more calories in winter to keep warm, even in our mild So Cal winters!), but that's no big deal. And like I already mentioned, there are some meats I can't give her (though organs from those same animals seem to be alright) or have to limit. The bulk of her diet is composed of poultry. It took a lot of research, and it took some trial and error to find out what works, but she's doing great. She's approaching 7 years old, and her only health problem is arthritis (vet says she has a genetic predisposition for it, nothing to do with diet or lifestyle). Her only supplement is glucosamine for the arthritis, and you wouldn't even know she has arthritis (this poor arthritic dog runs and leaps like a puppy). Otherwise... great condition! She gets a yearly physical, with bloodwork, and every time she gets rave reviews about what great condition she's in.

The true "miracle" story is with my cats. My younger female (who loved switching to raw) didn't really show any difference in health between her manufactured diet and raw (except her breath doesn't smell as bad on raw). My male cat (who was the hardest to switch, even though he had to fend for himself for a period of his life!) showed improvement in overall condition... primarily his coat when from dull, discolored, and harsh, to soft, luxurious, and vibrant (sounds like a shampoo commercial!). My senior cat at the time (RIP) was the one who showed the most improvement. She was about 11 or 12 years old at the time I switched (and ironically the easiest of the three, despite having lived on kibble her entire life!), and looked at least 3 or 4 years older than she really was. She had cataracts, was arthritic, stopped jumping years ago, had a harsh brittle coat, was overweight, and though she seemed happy enough, she didn't have any pep in her walk. Switched her over and within the first 6 months she lost weight (to an ideal weight), her coat regained its condition, her cataracts cleared (still there, but not as obvious as before), and her arthritis improved. There was one day in particular when I KNEW this was the right diet for her: She JUMPED 3 feet from the bed to the window sill!!! For a cat who had not jumped for years, and pulled herself up on to the bed instead of jumping, that was amazing! The vets and vet techs could no longer guess her age. One time I took her in for a routine check-up, and asked the technician how old she though this cat was. Technician said she couldn't be over 12 years old, and nearly fell to the floor when I said this cat was actually 16 years old. She lived 6, almost 7, years on raw before she had to be put to sleep. The couple of years of her life she experienced renal failure, but never showed the classic symptoms of it (vomiting, loss of appetite, weight loss, etc). The only way we even knew she had renal failure was because the bloodwork showed it. When that happened, I did some more research, altered her diet a bit, and she lived happily until it was finally her time to go.

Definitely not an easy diet. I DO think it is the best, and most appropriate diet for dogs and cats (in fact, I think whole food, minimally processed, is the best and most appropriate diet for ANY animal, actual food choices depending on the species, of course). I don't see that as a superior attitude. It's an opinion, one I like to believe is based on fact, but others are free to disagree. I keep a few cans of canned food on hand for emergencies (if the big earthquake hits and I lose power, or another disaster such as wildfire forces me to evacuate, I'm not going to be able to provide a raw diet, at least not easily), either using it or donating it before it expires, and purchasing more to replace it. If I need to go out of town and get a house sitter, I will provide canned food for their convenience. But otherwise, my animals are on raw. That's the way I prefer it, and that's the way my animals are thriving.