Dog food for thought

[Bird]

When we bought our Chihuahua as a puppy, the lady we bought her from said they fed Science Diet, so that's what we bought from PetSmart until recently, when I started buying Iams at Walmart. It's been a few years, but my grandson once did a little high school project of trying to determine the best dog food and came up with a tie between Science Diet and Iams. I don't know exactly how he did his project or how good it was. Until we got this Chihuahua, I was always partial to Purina products; always fed our rat terrier Purina One.

For the amount a Chihuahua eats, I'd buy the best food available . . . if I just knew what that was.

But I also made the mistake of giving her bits of whatever I was eating (yeah, I know, bad mistake) so she's definitely too fat just like me!

 

[arrow]

Actually, most of the high end dog foods are very high in nutritional value. Purina products included. Its what we do not know that is the harmful aspect that is put into very common dog foods. If a food has corn or any other simple carbohydrate, I'm not using it. If a food is listed with "animal digest" or "meat byproducts" its not going into my dog. Even this Science Diet I'm using has "beet pulp" in it. Ever see a canine attack a beet field to get at those plants? I'm feeding this Natures Best because it is the lesser of the evils of even the rest of the Science Diet dog foods let alone what is available in the supermarkets. It is still not what I think is a perfect dog food. It is just a start for me as it seems every other dog at my wife's clinic dies of cancer. Look at how many of us have lost dogs to cancer. I cannot believe this disease is supposed to be the end game for our 4 legged buddies or us for that matter. These are divisions of cells gone amuk not at the end of life your cells will not divide any longer. What kills these 105-110 year old people. Why are dogs not living longer than 8-14 years on average? As I said, genetics can certainly play a role but mutts are dying of cancer as well. I'm not kidding, 1 month before my 13 year old Bubba died, he was like a puppy running and jumping around. He then got slower and slower. How long would he have lived if cancer hadn't gotten him. Cheez he had a ton of life left in him. I could be wrong of course but if a living entity gets cancer other than being genetically predisposed, cancer in my opinion is being caused and I think it is something we're doing that is very common and not yet thought of in connection to this killer disease.

 

[Bird]

if a living entity gets cancer other than being genetically predisposed, cancer in my opinion is being caused and I think it is something we're doing that is very common and not yet thought of in connection to this killer disease.

You may or may not be right. The medical profession sure doesn't know what causes cancer in humans, so I wouldn't expect veterinary doctors to know what causes it in dogs.

 

[arrow]

You may or may not be right. The medical profession sure doesn't know what causes cancer in humans, so I wouldn't expect veterinary doctors to know what causes it in dogs.

Actually, they know quite a bit about what causes cancer. For instance, most lung cancers are caused by smoking. Asiatic cultures are prone to esophageal cancers because of what they eat. Colon cancers are most prevalent around breweries so there is a connection to that bologna sandwich and that bottle of beer we use to wash it down. People who work with solvents such that have benzene develop cancers. No, they know a lot. Its what they do not know or is not yet associated that may be the troublesome aspect. I have my own theories on processed sugars. One day in my opinion, they'll come out with something such as sugars are as dangerous to you as cigarettes. Its in just about everything. But it is all fodder for pondering at this stage.

 

[Gomez]

I agree that overly processed foods are probably not the best things to eat, health wise. One simple test I heard, was it something we would have eaten 100 years ago? Many of today's foods are food products, far away from their simple roots.

As for dogs, my vet recommends feeding the dog a whole cornish game hen. He claims the chicken bone choking hazard is an old wives tale. Can't say I agree with him.

 

[WantedWolf]

Thank you for starting this thread, I am sorry to hear anyone losing a friend.

Me and my little buddy are battling the unknown right now. I dont belive it to be a serious as cancer but we are and have been in the "testing phase" for a long time.

He is a 9 year old15# terrier that has alot of skin issues. Originaly it was "assumed" to be allergys. The poor guy has suffered multiple hematomas in both ears and very itchy, flaky sores all over his body. We have since changed vets for reasons I wont mention. Our new vet(s) are great and we are finaly taking a proactive approch. His blood work is always great exept for a low thyroid reading occasionally.

Anyway we went thru the food thing a few times and I tried many types. What we now feed our dogs is "MediCal Hypoallergenic Formula" (They make other varietys but the "Hypo" is all I have experience with. )
the flavor this version comes in is "Duck and Potato"
(thier website Welcome to Medi-Cal Royal Canin)

I would like to hear if anyone has real reason against it although to what I understand this is very complex food, with spliting apart protiens so the dogs system doesnt recognize it. They call them "Highly digestable unique protien sources".

There's quite a bit of foods that dogs must not eat. Some that I didn't even suspect (grapes, raisins, onions, baby food, fish bones, hps(beer), milk, mushrooms, potatoes, tomatoes, raw eggs, tobacco, yeast dough ) and I still see people feeding their dogs chocolate.

My dogs have been eating this food for 4.5 months now and I havent noticed any change in his skin issues and we are booked in june for a canine dermitoligest. I have however noticed the claimed "smaller stool" but also that both my dogs have alot more energy, the one sleeps much better and they dont seem to need/or/want? to drink as much water. But they do still drink a healthy amount.

Arrow , to what I can see none of the ingredients that you have specified against are listed.
The Carbohydrates reads: Highly digestable -- Oats, Rice
And for fibre:
Low fibre, reduced stool volume, optimal soluble/insoluble fibre ratio

Do you know of these to be bad, and also I have to say I have never heard about the potatoes being bad. Tobacco I can see

 

[Bird]

He claims the chicken bone choking hazard is an old wives tale.

Yep, I've been afraid to give our dogs bones. However, when I was a kid growing up out in the country, we always had dogs, but of course they were bigger dogs, strictly outdoor dogs, and my parents never bought any dog food. The dogs got the scraps after we ate, so they always got the chicken, rabbit, squirrel, quail, beef, and pork bones.

 

[Alan L.]

Our "almost" 11-year old cocker passed away from cancer more than a year ago. We noticed a limp in a front leg one day and 40 days later he died. We considered amputation of his front leg but it had already spread.

He ate mostly Nutro Natural Choice dog food during his lifetime. We have another cocker who still eats Nutro. When she was a pup on Purina One she had skin allergies. We then switched her to Muenster Natural Dog Food, which is made in the town of Muenster about 50 miles from here. It cleared up the allergies. Later it became less convenient to get MNDG so we tried Nutro, as it also does not have any chermical preservatives (and they don't use any animal "byproducts". She eats Nutro Light.

Our Rat Terrior Benny east Nutro Ultra puppy food and seems to be doing well on it.

I don't know what causes cancer in dogs (or people for that matter), but I wish I did.

 

[tallyho8]

Years ago I had a dog with heartworms that I brought to a vet to be treated. A blood test revealed bad liver and kidney function so he could not do heartworm treatment until it was normal. He told me to feed the dog boiled ground meat for 2 weeks then come back.

The blood test was near normal, the dog was treated and lived a long time after.

Maybe boiled ground meat is one of the most natural foods for a dog?

 

[DocHeb]

I agree that overly processed foods are probably not the best things to eat, health wise. One simple test I heard, was it something we would have eaten 100 years ago? Many of today's foods are food products, far away from their simple roots.

And the life expectancy of a male in 1900 was 48 years, and is around 75 now.