DIET
Their are many different dog diets available to purchase online, pet superstores, supermarkets, garden centres. But what is the best diet for dogs? We firmly believe in the raw diet. But we do understand if someone has a dog off us and doesnt want to feed raw. However it is best for the dog to eat the same food we have fed for at least 3 weeks after the puppy comes to you. Because whilst a dog is stressed from house move it is detrimental to change diet during the stress period.
We will give you a voucher to redeem free meat from natural instinct. www.naturalinstinct.co.uk
If you do not wish to feed raw, all you need to do is buy some of the food you do want to give, and gradually mix into the established food small amounts of the new food, and over 2-3 weeks gradually swap over. But never swap quickly or else you will have a puppy with a very upset stomach and you will end up at the vets.
Raw food diets contain bone, fresh meat, offal, vegetables, but you must remember to give natural minerals and vitamins. Dogs are carnivores and the structure of their teeth is to bite, tear and the digestive system is designed to deal with all the bone, fats, natural proteins etc.
With many of the modern raw foods diet they do the thinking for you and everything your dog needs is in the food. But their are many that do not and you are just getting meat and bone and nothing else. So its very important to keep learning about diet so that your dog grows correctly.
It is not the breeders job to be a dietician, You can contact direct the food manufacturers and they will give you more details about the food they sell.
We have learned recently that amino acids are highly important as well to a dogs diet. Taurine or the lack of it in the diet can cause heart problems called Cardio dilated Myopathy. This is seen in many many dogs breeds, Taurine is found in heart so adding heart to the dogs diet can give it taurine. If you do not like to handle heart then you can buy taurine supplements. I think knowing this however makes us realise that with the raw diet we must give a broad spectrum of food types.
We will give you a voucher to redeem free meat from natural instinct. www.naturalinstinct.co.uk
If you do not wish to feed raw, all you need to do is buy some of the food you do want to give, and gradually mix into the established food small amounts of the new food, and over 2-3 weeks gradually swap over. But never swap quickly or else you will have a puppy with a very upset stomach and you will end up at the vets.
Raw food diets contain bone, fresh meat, offal, vegetables, but you must remember to give natural minerals and vitamins. Dogs are carnivores and the structure of their teeth is to bite, tear and the digestive system is designed to deal with all the bone, fats, natural proteins etc.
With many of the modern raw foods diet they do the thinking for you and everything your dog needs is in the food. But their are many that do not and you are just getting meat and bone and nothing else. So its very important to keep learning about diet so that your dog grows correctly.
It is not the breeders job to be a dietician, You can contact direct the food manufacturers and they will give you more details about the food they sell.
We have learned recently that amino acids are highly important as well to a dogs diet. Taurine or the lack of it in the diet can cause heart problems called Cardio dilated Myopathy. This is seen in many many dogs breeds, Taurine is found in heart so adding heart to the dogs diet can give it taurine. If you do not like to handle heart then you can buy taurine supplements. I think knowing this however makes us realise that with the raw diet we must give a broad spectrum of food types.
RAW FOODS
- Chicken mince, including bone.
- Turkey mince, including bone.
- Chicken necks, wings, carcass
- Turkey necks, wings, carcass
- Beef mince, excluding bone
- Lamb mince, excluding bone
- Lamb ribs
- Beef bones
- Duck
- Rabbit
- Pheasant
- Venison
- Salmon
- Cod heads, salmon heads
- White fish
- Sardines
- Offal but not every day
- Fruit
- Herbs
- Green tripe
- Fish oils
- Minerals, vitamins in the way of supplements.
Kibble foods
Kibble is another word for dried dog food. It is a complete dog food, containing wheat gluten, maize, rice and can often be linked to intolerances in the digestive system. If you want to choose kibble I suggest you go with a rice based product and avoid wheat or maize.
With kibble foods you will need to choose a better quality one. I would advice you check out:
www.edenfoods.co.uk. www.millieswolfheart.co.uk or www.platinum.co.uk
Kibble is another word for dried dog food. It is a complete dog food, containing wheat gluten, maize, rice and can often be linked to intolerances in the digestive system. If you want to choose kibble I suggest you go with a rice based product and avoid wheat or maize.
With kibble foods you will need to choose a better quality one. I would advice you check out:
www.edenfoods.co.uk. www.millieswolfheart.co.uk or www.platinum.co.uk
Check out. www.eden.co.uk www.millieswolfheart.co.uk or www.platinum.co.uk
Tray Foods
Cooked meat in a tray with many flavours. This meat is stored in a shed or garage if you wish. It is easy to serve, and the dogs enjoy it. This would be my second choice to raw feeding.
Check out www.naturediet.co.uk or www.forthglade.com
Dogs are like humans, we like food. But it can also effect our health, behaviour and temperament, activity levels, and energy.
Educating yourself on the natural diet is pretty much down to you as their are so many different view points online. I personally like the idea of cotswold as they are creating dog food designed to be quick and easy and containing everything your dog needs.
To educate yourself on the barf diet you can purchase from Amazon books by Dr Ian Billinghurst a leading nutritionist in America. Another American food expert is Wendy Volhard.
In the Uk their is a group on facebook called UK BARF. This is most helpful to people.
Did you know you can swap from kibble to raw with no dietary issues. But you can not swap the other way around. So if your puppy has been fed raw foods you need to purchase at least 2 weeks of food, so you can mix in gradually kibble into the raw food until your puppy is eating more kibble than raw. It is a gradual process. If you swapped abruptly your dog will end up with diarrhoea and sickness.
Im sure you will read somewhere that your dog will get Salmonella from feeding raw. This is untrue. The dogs digestive acid is so strong that it can cope with anything. Dried food companies used to set off rumours to put off people feeding anything else but there food. But actually dried sacks of dog food can contain salmonella, so its a bit of a silly myth. The most important thing about feeding raw is HYGIENE. Ideally prepare your dog food on another work top to yours, or utility room. Or have a plastic place mat you put down to prepare your dogs food on. Have separate utensils for the dog. Clean the utensils away from your own, so no dishwasher.
Keeping meat in a sealed tub in the fridge away from your dinner that you are going to eat later on. Keeping unused meat cool in the fridge or throw it away. Do not leave meat out on a worktop, floor all day other wise it will be full of flies, and will of heated up creating bacteria to grow. Use common sense.
If your dog is hyperactive, check if your feeding kibble if their are any food colourings in it.? Their is a well known brand of dog food that causes dogs to be hyperactive.
Educating yourself on the natural diet is pretty much down to you as their are so many different view points online. I personally like the idea of cotswold as they are creating dog food designed to be quick and easy and containing everything your dog needs.
To educate yourself on the barf diet you can purchase from Amazon books by Dr Ian Billinghurst a leading nutritionist in America. Another American food expert is Wendy Volhard.
In the Uk their is a group on facebook called UK BARF. This is most helpful to people.
Did you know you can swap from kibble to raw with no dietary issues. But you can not swap the other way around. So if your puppy has been fed raw foods you need to purchase at least 2 weeks of food, so you can mix in gradually kibble into the raw food until your puppy is eating more kibble than raw. It is a gradual process. If you swapped abruptly your dog will end up with diarrhoea and sickness.
Im sure you will read somewhere that your dog will get Salmonella from feeding raw. This is untrue. The dogs digestive acid is so strong that it can cope with anything. Dried food companies used to set off rumours to put off people feeding anything else but there food. But actually dried sacks of dog food can contain salmonella, so its a bit of a silly myth. The most important thing about feeding raw is HYGIENE. Ideally prepare your dog food on another work top to yours, or utility room. Or have a plastic place mat you put down to prepare your dogs food on. Have separate utensils for the dog. Clean the utensils away from your own, so no dishwasher.
Keeping meat in a sealed tub in the fridge away from your dinner that you are going to eat later on. Keeping unused meat cool in the fridge or throw it away. Do not leave meat out on a worktop, floor all day other wise it will be full of flies, and will of heated up creating bacteria to grow. Use common sense.
If your dog is hyperactive, check if your feeding kibble if their are any food colourings in it.? Their is a well known brand of dog food that causes dogs to be hyperactive.
Why are people moving away from kibble to raw? Simply the dogs are healthier, have less allergies, smaller stools, good teeth, skin and hair.
How can I tell if my dog has an allergy to food?
Positives to raw feeding.
How can I tell if my dog has an allergy to food?
- Looses weight and doesn't hold weight, not digesting food very well. Other dogs eat your dogs stools as they are still nutritious.
- Stools may have a lot of mucous around the stool.
- Diarrhoea
- Dried skin, flakey skin or wet weeping skin.
- Hives to sores on skin.
- Nibbling at feed, rubbing eyes.
- Over production of yeast on skin, in ears and feet.
- Auto immune disease.
- Immune system can be stressed which can then start demodex mange.
- Swollen eyes, lots of eye gunk.
- Swollen fat ears.
- Smelly wind and lots of it.
Positives to raw feeding.
- No bad breath
- Less Tartar on teeth
- Skin is not dry or flakey, no dandruff.
- Skin is supple and feels well hydrated.
- Coat shines in the sun.
- Eyes are bright and healthy.
- Anal glands self empty.
- Stools are smaller, firmer and easier to pick up.
- Less Stools in the day.
- Food digests slower.
- Less wind.
- Good weight and good muscle development.
- Grows slower, which in turn is beneficial to skeleton growth.
So how do we go about feeding raw food as it sounds complicated ?
- You must think storage. Obviously a freezer just for the dog in the garage.
- You will need plastic containers that have sealed lids for storage in your fridge whilst defrosting.
- Food should only be prepared on a chopping board that you only use for the dog food.
- Anigene is a bacterial, fungicidal, virucidal, and sporicidal product which can be brought in 1 litre bottles from Amazon or elsewhere on line. It is something I couldn't live with out.
- Ideally buy human grade animal food in sealed containers which are more hygienic.
- Do not leave the defrosted dog food beside your dinner in the fridge.
- Buy only stainless steel bowls as stainless steel does not harbour germs like plastic or ceramic. This is why in industrial kitchen you will see stainless steel everywhere.
- Do not leave raw meat out so that flies get on and lay eggs. In the summer time, feed the dog and if he does not eat straight away, remove it.
- Always wash bowls quickly.
- Never buy from a supermarket minces and come home and feed straight away. Fresh meat may contain parasites, and should be frozen first before feeding.
- You should have knives and scissors which are just for the dog food, do not mix them with your utensils.
- Buy complete food mixes and they have done the thinking for you. But check, do not assume they have vitamins and minerals in them.
Quantity of food?
For the toy breeds, utility breeds, and other they do not use up as much energy as an HPR breed of dog. The Vizsla is so active they burn off their calories, and especially in the winter times as they use food for energy to keep warm. So you may feed far more food to a HPR breed than other breeds.
www.naturalinstinct.co.uk have a food calculator on their website and you can put your dogs weight in, and it comes up with the right amount of food, but remember you may have to double it if you own an HPR breed of dog.
Dr Ian Billinghurst set out that a dog should eat as a puppy 10% of its body weight in food amount. But an adult dog 2-3% of its body weight. Ive got to say I nearly double it for Vizsla puppies.
We always weight puppies on the morning of leaving so we know their weight, and can give approximate food weights as they leave.
A true carnivore diet the dog would need 80% muscle meat, 10% bone and 10% offal. This is why I like Cotswold as they prepare food on that ratio.
You will find many people follow different diets. You must find the one that suits your dogs.
Now remember none of the meat is cooked! I often go through all the diet requirements and the one question that always comes is " but you do cook this? Right? No wrong.
By cooking bone we harden it and make it hard to break down with stomach acid. We do not want to give our dogs intestinal punctures. Raw bones dissolve in the stomach/gut. By cooking meat we take away good enzymes. Dogs need raw.
Bone
A dog needs bone in its diet to gain calcium and other minerals and nutrients. This is why you will see in raw diets that bone is included in many of the prepared meats. Beef and lamb does not unless it has added chicken/turkey. Bone also creates a nice firm stool. Sometimes however people feed too much chicken bone and the dog can become constipated. To over come constipation you should feed more muscle meat, or add in water to the diet. Water softens the stool and the dog passes it easier. Especially puppies. You can add 1/2 mug of water to each meal. Many people feeding the barf diet do not realise that bone makes up the diet.
Minces
Most dog food is in the form of minces over chunks. The minces are put through a mincer to grind the bone. In the puppy varieties they often run it through twice so their is less larger lumps of bone. So when people talk about feeding minces it does not meat the meat from tesco. It has bone in dog food. Beef and Lamb and Venison doesn't usually have bone in it, unless its mixed with chicken minces. Most minces come from birds and all the carcass goes in the production. This is why you should not eat dog minces.
Can I give my puppy adult food? Yes you can as puppy meat is just run through the mincer finer, but actually the adult minces are good, and come with more variety in food groups.
Offal
Dogs need small amounts of offal to grow properly. Offal however fed in large quantities can cause diarrhoea or black smelly, runny stools. So do not over feed offal.
Fats
Make sure your dog is not eating too much fats, especially if they are older and put on weight easily. Some dogs can not tolerate fats very well, quite often the Pug, Frenchie and breeds that swallow food whole rather than chew well.
Eggs
Eggs are good in moderation. Dogs can also eat egg shells. Eggs are a whole food in themselves, but you can over do giving eggs. Eggs contains lots of vitamins except Vitamin C. They have are a good zinc source. Zinc is used in reproduction.
Herbs and Fruits
Dogs naturally will eat herbs and fruit as part of their diet, again to have the right nutrients in its diet. Dogs enjoy apples, plumbs with pip removed, strawberries and raspberries.
Minerals
In the wild a dog would get a lot of minerals from eating their prey, but also through soil and roots. We noticed that our dogs used to lick the soil certain of the year, until we started feeding green tripe with straw still inside from the cattle. You can feed natural minerals from www.dorwest.com
Iodine
Iodine is found in some food groups, such as seaweed, spinach. If your dog has an under active thyroid your natural nutricionist may suggest your dog eats this as part of the diet.
Fish Oils
Fish oils are just as important in dogs diets as they are humans. Creates good teeth, hair, and skin, joints and many other things as well. It is said it can help the brain also.
Vitamins
You can either include food groups which are loaded with vitamins, or you can add vitamins in the form of supplement powders or liquids.
Fresh water
Water should always be available for your dog. Some dogs can detect the chemicals in our drinking water and may prefer to drink rain water. Some dogs that have allergies may be better on bottled water or rain water.
If your dog is not well, go to a homeopathic vet, as they will help you with the right diet for your dog. They will know what supplement to give your dog to benefit it.
Reproductive
Bitches who are being bred with benefit from Wheatgerm oil from www.dorwest.com usually taken a month before a season, doubling the daily dose a day before mating, the day of mating and the day after mating. Then continue for 3 weeks as it helps stop absorption of puppies. But at this time giving raspberry leaf tablets until 2 weeks after birthing. I prefer to add raspberry leaf even in my bitches diet in and around seasons as it can help with infections and all sorts of things. Bitches food quantity remains the same until the bitch is 6 weeks pregnant then you up the food by another meal per day, little and often basically. When the bitch has had the puppies feed her very well, keeping to three meals per day. Around 3 weeks of age the puppies mum must then be given larger quantities of food to help produce milk in the most draining time of their lives. When the puppies are weaned off you can reduce her food intake and increase exercise. They should not be over exercised whilst nursing puppies.
As for males, stud dogs should be given wheat germ oil as well, and this helps with fertility and sperm production.
Raspberry leaf.
I use Raspberry leaf on all my girls just before they come into season and up to whelping. This can help with bacteria in the tract. It is supposed to aid easier births as well.
Worms
Just because a dog is raw fed does not mean it will get worms more than a dog fed dried food. That is a wrong assumption. Make sure you worm your dog regular as you would do anyway.
List of food suppliers.
1 www.naturalinstinct.com
2 Http;//www.berriwoodwholesale.co.uk
3 Http://www.naturesmenu.co.uk/prize-choice
4 www.raw4paws.co.uk Norfolk only
5 Http://daf-petfood.co.uk
6 Http://purrform.co.uk
7 Http://www.manifoldvalleymeats.co.uk
8 www.bulmerdogfood.co.uk
9 www.kiezebrink.co.uk
10 Http://albionmeatproducts.co.uk
11 www.theyloveit.co.uk
12.www.davidsdoggiedinners.co.uk
13. www.cotswoldraw.com
14.www.benyfitnatural.co.uk
Vitamins and Minerals
www.dorwest.com
Also for more artificial supplements
www.zooplus.co.uk
www.hyperdrug.com
If you do not wish to feed raw I would then recommend, Forthglade "Just" Range, or Nature diet. These two tray foods are well thought out, and makes an easy feeding diet for HV, Pugs and French bulldogs.
Tray foods
I recommend tray foods for easiness for all breeds of dogs. Obviously if you own a large breed dog then it could be rather expensive.
www.naturediet.co.uk
www.berriwood.co.uk
www.forthglade.co.uk
If you wish to feed dried, I have difficulties in finding a dried food that I absolutely like the sound of. But here are some ideas.
www.wolf.co.uk from www.zooplus.co.uk
www.platinum.co.uk
www.millieswolfheart.co.uk
www.autarkyfoods.com
Good luck in feeding your dogs.
Remember what goes in comes out. So purchase Poop bags, poop scoops. Find out if your council will allow you to put dog waste in your litter bins, as most answers are no. You could be fined. Use the red boxes provided by councils to dispose of dog waste.
When walking dog not leave dog poop in bags on walks and have no intention of picking them up. This is irresponsible as dog poop carries all manner of hazards. So dispose of it properly. You can purchase a DICKY BAG. www.dickybag.com this bag can clip to your rucksack and it holds several poops. Also a nice air freshener is in side. Once zipped up you can not smell poop on the walk. Then put the stools in the red boxes available provided by councils.
Buy biodegradable poop bags, so that when they go to landfill the bag breaks down, and you are not adding to the plastic pollution of the earth. All my bags are biodegradable.
Dog poo can contain parasites, and especially worms. Contact with this worm for young children or pregnant woman can render blindness. Would you really live with yourself if that happened, so clean up after your dog. If you feed the barf diet your dogs stools will be easier and smaller to pick up.
We use a hotbox which is a natural composter. The heat kills bacteria and was recommended to me by the council. They cost £195 online. The compost can be put in the garden after the bacteria has removed all harmful material. It takes 30 days to turn to compost. You can also put leaf matter in it to speed up the process and water. It heats the stools up to such a heat it removes bacteria. But I have noticed that you must use them correctly. Plenty of leaf matter inside and water if your dogs fed raw food. It comes out just as garden mulch. Its brilliant really.