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  #1  
Old March 21st, 2010, 07:56 AM
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Article AGAINST RAW

As you know I have been looking into RAW and Kibble and whether they can be mixed etc, and I came across this (see link)

http://www.rgj.com/article/20060409/...-diet-for-dogs

This professor gives all the reasons why the BARF is really bad for dogs.

Opinions anyone
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Old March 21st, 2010, 08:23 AM
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The only thing is with further investigation it may be found many of those "experts" who are against feeding raw may be employed by the company they say you should buy the dry kibble from. At some point during the article there is probably a certain brand mentioned.
I find it hard to believe that a dry, hard kibble that shatters on contact with the tooth, if bitten into at all before being swallowed, can help dental issues. The article says to avoid by products but again, without paying a huge amount of $$ for a food, the average consumer can not afford to buy the dry kibble that does not contain by products.
The sanctuary that was mentioned at the first of the article - take in abused and neglected animals. Therefore many may already have health issues before arrival. I would be more apt to think many issues were present on arrival.
You can form your own opinions. Most of us do. But I would like to think personal knowledge and experience of people who's pets are on balanced, correctly made raw diets speak for themselves.
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Old March 21st, 2010, 08:41 AM
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Just like everything else in life - some experts think that BARF is good and some think it is bad. You can always find "facts" to support both sides of the arguement. I find it interesting that the "expert" interviewed for this article mentions chicken-by-products as something you don't want to find in your dog food then goes on to say that Iam's and Science Diet are good foods because they don't contain soy. No, Iam's doesn't contain soy but Science Diet does, and both contain chicken-by-products. Science Diet lists 3 corn products between their number 1 ingredient - chicken and their number 4 ingredient - chicken by product. After your chicken-by-product you have soy and yet another corn.

I talk to a lot of raw feeders on a daily basis and have fed raw. Not one of them have had any of the issues that this expert says are dangerous. I don't know of anyone who got salmanella from their dog after it ate chicken.
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Old March 21st, 2010, 08:49 AM
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Thanks for posting that.

*Sigh*, if you have to add nutrients to the food to make it nutritionally complete, then it is not a proper diet for that species. Why is that such a difficult concept for "scientists" to understand .

Highly processed, sterile food is not good for humans, they need some bacteria in their digestive tract to stay healthy. It is not only the stomach acid level that makes it difficult for bacteria to flourish, it is the time the food stays in the digestive tract. Cats and dogs have a much shorter one than humans so the food doesn't stay in it so long.
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Old March 21st, 2010, 08:51 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 14+kitties View Post
You can form your own opinions. Most of us do. But I would like to think personal knowledge and experience of people who's pets are on balanced, correctly made raw diets speak for themselves.
ABSOLUTELY....and I have taken a lot from everyones opinions on this board and am now feeding Lola RAW plus Acana. That is why these boards are so valuable. There is so much info out there that it becomes mind-boggling....

...as a specialist nurse we deliver 'best practice' which is evidence based research, and expert opinion" I am a firm believer in experience being utilized within the boundaries of evidence based research....and many on these boards ARE the experts
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Old March 21st, 2010, 09:07 PM
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There is almost no research or 'controlled studies' about raw, because there is no 'company' that can benefit from demonstrating the benefits of raw feeding. The big pet food companies spend millions on biased research to help support their brands, but it is biased and when you look into the methods used in the study its quite obvious the it is skewed. Unfortunately funding comes from the big companies and any findings that dispute their brands will quietly go by unmentioned. *I am a big raw food proponent through what i have seen in dogs who have switched to raw*
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Old March 21st, 2010, 09:37 PM
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People are able to feed themselves without eating a highly processed prepared diet each day, and the fact that vets and other people think the average person isn't smart enough to feed their dog the same way is ridiculous. These people make it sound as if it's rocket science to figure out how to feed your animal without buying a prepared formula from some company.

Quote:
"As more people experiment with raw meat diets, veterinarians are seeing frequent cases of pancreatitis, ulcers, malnutrition, injuries due to the raw bones, systemic bacterial poisoning and other conditions."
I don't even get this quote. Enough people don't even feed RAW to make the assumption, the vast majority still feed kibble or canned.

As far as pancreatitis that's an issue with ANY animal no matter what it has been fed. My vet told me it's one of the main dangerous illnesses he sees, and I really doubt most of his patients eat raw food.

Malnutrition I could believe, if someone does not do the correct research. I really doubt they're seeing that in the vast majority of people feeding raw food though, and that would be an error caused by an idiot owner rather than an issue with the diet itself.

Bacterial infections generally only happen when the animal is fed food that's not fresh, raw or not. These infections happen even with animals that eat kibble. If kibble is old and out of date, or has been stored improperly you will see this.

Injuries due to raw bones can happen, especially if your dog tends to be a gulper and does not chew. I don't think these injuries are all that common though. Either way, you do not HAVE to feed your dog whole bones if he tends to gulp, so that's not a very good argument against raw feeding.

Quote:
further, he said, "Nutritionally, feeding these raw ingredients decreases their bioavailability while the cooking process increases the bioavailablity of nutrients."
I don't know where he's getting this one. I haven't seen research that shows cooking increases bioavailability of nutrients for dogs. I've seen research that shows bioavailability of specific nutrients are increased with cooking some vegetables, meats, and grains for humans. I have not seen a complete research study on this for canines, so I'm not sure what he's citing. And besides that, NO good study would state that bioavailability of nutrients in general is lowered, it would show bioavailability of SPECIFIC nutrients (because some nutrients are more easily absorbed when cooked, some nutrients are not even present in something uncooked, and some nutrients are present or more easily digestible in raw food.)

Quote:
"The beauty of beet pulp is that half is soluble and half is unsoluble. It provides the best of both worlds."
Ok. Now I'm convinced these guy is just a shill for some pet food company. I've never heard ANYONE besides a pet food company or an ingredient supplier for a pet food company extol the value of beet pulp in dog food for the nutrition of the dog. It's in kibble because it's a high calorie source of fiber that holds the kibble together well. No other reason. You notice you rarely see it in canned foods. I don't think it's evil like some people do, but it's an unnecessary filler. It's a good ingredient for the pet food company because it's a cheap filler that holds together well. They don't add it for the health of your pet, it's for their own benefit.

Quote:
BARFers often claim those who disagree with them are toadies for the pet food industry. So I asked Hussein if he were one.

He laughed and said no, that most dog food companies do research in-house and don't fund university studies.
Well that convinces ME then!

I couldn't find any information on this guy. He wasn't listed on the colleges website as a member of the faculty so maybe he doesn't work there anymore. Couldn't find anything on him on google. No info whatsoever, so I can't say what he is . I just know the information he gave isn't very scientific or detailed and is generally the same shoddy info a pet food company will throw at you. Some of his info was accurate, such as looking for chicken meal in kibble (though, then the 2 companies he named generally DON'T use chicken meal as the main ingredient) and stating that soy isn't that great (then he names a brand that DOES use soy (Science Diet, as already stated)). I'm not sure why he named any brands anyway, because if he was an independent unbias scientist he wouldn't be recommending any specific brands.
Maybe he's NOT a shill for the pet food companies, but I wouldn't trust this guy as a scientist at all.
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Old March 21st, 2010, 10:20 PM
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RAW is the ONLY diet I have ever been able to successfully feed to my three dogs. Part of the beauty for me in raw is being able to easily accommodate each of my dogs special needs.

Its unfortunate there is not alot of physical data to support raw, but for myself I don't need any data because I have seen the live results in my dogs... almost immediately they had a refreshed energy about them, coats were shiny, eyes bright etc. and that was within a few weeks of starting. I have a 9 year old dog who was starting to show her age, we switched to raw and she is like a pup again - its incredible, I have never seen results like this with any other dog food.

Alot of the arguments against raw can be said about kibble (i.e. the process of making kibble does not eliminate all bacteria, dogs can choke on kibble etc etc.)

I have a friend who is a vet in Ontario and she herself is about to start trying raw. Yes, I think you do need to use common sense and make sure you wash down your counters etc. just like you would handling any other raw meat, but I think alot of the arguments against raw just simply don't hold up.
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Old March 21st, 2010, 10:59 PM
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Quote:
Its unfortunate there is not alot of physical data to support raw,
It's unfortunate that there's not a lot of physical data on dog nutrition in general for that matter. Up until recently dogs weren't necessarily considered part of the family, but more like livestock, or just working animals. So people fed what they could feed, meat scraps and whatnot (and oddly enough dog's lifespans - assuming they didn't die of injury or illness - were not much different than now). When people started keeping dogs more as family members the big corporations jumped right into the market (Nestle, P&G, etc.) to make cheap foods that they marketed as highly nutritious with lots of advertising so people would buy. This was a good way for the companies to use their leftovers (non human grade meat byproducts, grain leftovers and stuff like that). It became generally cheaper and more convenient for people to buy pet food in a bag or a can than to prepare their own foods.
It's only very recently that more than a few companies have jumped into the market with better food formulas and people have started to question the ingredients in big name pet foods. Hopefully now that there are more and more people wondering about pet nutrition there will be more unbias studies done into canine and feline nutrition.
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Old March 22nd, 2010, 05:47 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MyBirdIsEvil View Post
more convenient for people to buy pet food in a bag or a can than to prepare their own foods.
Same with baby food!! what did everyone do all those years ago without all the jars and cans!! And adults too! unfortunately we are in a world of pre-packaged, preservative packed, living....and the planet is suffering because of it.
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Old March 22nd, 2010, 06:40 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cassiek View Post
Its unfortunate there is not alot of physical data to support raw, but for myself I don't need any data because I have seen the live results in my dogs... almost immediately they had a refreshed energy about them, coats were shiny, eyes bright etc. and that was within a few weeks of starting. I have a 9 year old dog who was starting to show her age, we switched to raw and she is like a pup again - its incredible, I have never seen results like this with any other dog food.
Me too when I switched my Puddles to raw the change in her fur and activity level was astounding.
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Old March 22nd, 2010, 10:27 AM
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Personal opinion here. What do you think dogs ate BEFORE they were domesticated...

Meaning from when the world was created to about 150 years ago...what do you think they ate? The answer is RAW plus plant material. They did not go extinct did they?

IMO, feeding RAW for the average healthy animal is likely superior to can/kibble.
I'll be honest, I've never fed RAW nor do I intend to, nor do I wish to defend my choice. But logically, to me, RAW makes very good sense. OBVIOUSLY if the meat is ill prepared some dogs can get sick...but if you trust your butcher to feed your family...you should be able to trust them to feed your dog.
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Old March 22nd, 2010, 06:13 PM
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The article was from 2006, so I think there are probably some additional research studies that have been done on raw since then. I read until I got to a part that this biologist said that 'chicken meal.......means the breast has been taken out for human consumption and the rest goes into dog food'. IMO that statement is not only inaccurate, it makes the man sound like a fool. He also said that it's more ideal to have 'whole chicken' as the first ingredient. Umm........no - a meal will already have the water removed and will stay as the first ingredient during processing, a wet meat will lose alot of it's weight during processing and will drop to 3rd or 4th on the ingredient list. IMO any of his students should really be questioning anything he teaches them - which is maybe why he's not on the University website anymore. I don't feed raw, but just reading that far through the article was enough for me to decide that this is one person's opinion that I don't think holds any water.
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Old April 12th, 2010, 05:59 AM
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just an update here.....been feeding lola nature's variety RAW medallions now, got rid of the kibble completely and just feeding lola the raw (only takes 4 medallions a day because she is a toy breed so not too expensive)

I ran out the other day so gave her some acana until I could get to the store that afternoon - and she vomited the ENTIRE feeding back

so RAW medallions it will continue to be. (with a dentastix chew to help prevent tartare build up)
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Old April 12th, 2010, 06:48 AM
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I have found that Puddles can't tolerate her old cheap food since I have switched her to raw and NV Instinct canned. Gotta wonder how crappy the ingredients really are in the food.
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Old April 12th, 2010, 09:32 AM
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Must admit my vets here hate people feeding bones to their dogs, they see to many problems because of it. We've had our share too, so no more for mine. As for raw. Well, I bought a dog off a breeder who swore by a certain all natural dry food and a raw diet. She talked one of her puppy buyers into feeding it and the pup got returned to her as an adult with absolutely the worst coat I have ever seen on a sheltie, and that was after she'd had him back for 3 months, trying to fix the problem. The day she actually picked him up, well, I hate to imagine how bad it was, she drove from a show to the airport to get him and he was so bad she hid him in her dog trailer when she got back to the show. So, she probably thought "Come in sucker" when I was very interested in buying him, but I was confident about working some magic and thrilled that I could have him. Long story short, that awful all natural dry food left permanent dirty stains on his teeth, I found he hated the raw diet, so I took him off that, and after some coat care and a decent diet he ended up winning his class at a Sheltie National. Don't you love a good ending?
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Old April 12th, 2010, 11:10 AM
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That's great, but I'm confused as to your point

Are you for raw, against it, neutral?

I feed a high quality kibble and my greater swiss mountain dog has an awesome coat. I've fed raw before and the dog I was feeding it to looked great.

I really can't imagine a kibble, even the cheap stuff, and raw causing a horrible coat on its own, it sounds like there was some kind of other neglect going on. Like they weren't feeding the stuff properly in general and weren't caring for the dog and its coat. I haven't had a sheltie, but they have a similar coat to a rough collie (which I had and now my mother in law has him) and if you don't rake their coat out daily, exercise them and feed them properly they will get hot spots or chew on themselves and their coat will just look crappy. My mother in law missed a knot on his butt and he got a hot spot there and now he's fur looks really bad there (well before we shaved the fur off to treat the spot, so now he looks worse ).

So yeah, point is, just not sure what you're implying about the dogs coat? What do YOU currently feed?
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Old April 12th, 2010, 11:44 AM
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I am on several other forums and there is this one poster that sounds exactly like the article that has tried to push is RAW opinion down the throats of everyone. He (she) had only theory - nothing proven - and had a few vets on the forum questioning everything he (she) said.
I love to read each one's opinion. Some diets work for certain people, some don't. The only problem I have reading these posts is sometimes it is hard to understand exactly what the poster is meaning - placement of words - and a few readers seem to take the post personally.
What would this forum be like if it were Skyped? We could see who was posting and be able to talk that way. Some times just seeing the face makes the meaning of the post come out differently.

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Old April 12th, 2010, 12:09 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Goldfields View Post
Must admit my vets here hate people feeding bones to their dogs, they see to many problems because of it. We've had our share too, so no more for mine. As for raw. Well, I bought a dog off a breeder who swore by a certain all natural dry food and a raw diet. She talked one of her puppy buyers into feeding it and the pup got returned to her as an adult with absolutely the worst coat I have ever seen on a sheltie, and that was after she'd had him back for 3 months, trying to fix the problem. The day she actually picked him up, well, I hate to imagine how bad it was, she drove from a show to the airport to get him and he was so bad she hid him in her dog trailer when she got back to the show. So, she probably thought "Come in sucker" when I was very interested in buying him, but I was confident about working some magic and thrilled that I could have him. Long story short, that awful all natural dry food left permanent dirty stains on his teeth, I found he hated the raw diet, so I took him off that, and after some coat care and a decent diet he ended up winning his class at a Sheltie National. Don't you love a good ending?
What was in the all natural dry food? That's kind of a conundrum in itself, isn't it? If you are not feeding the proper raw diet with the proper amount of nutrients then yes, I can see the problems you are speaking of.
But to each their own. A lot of people on this forum feed raw and have had amazing results from it. I have never, before now, heard anything else.
Sounds to me like there were other things going on with this poor dog beside bad nutrition.
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Old April 12th, 2010, 08:53 PM
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Goldfields, I am curious as to what problems you have had feeding dogs RAW bones...? IMO, they are mother nature's very best toothbrush/dental floss for dogs. I have two smaller dogs who before starting RAW last fall had terrible teeth. I will admit I am a bad doggie mom and never brush their teeth and at ages 7 and 9, their teeth were in dire need of a cleaning. Last week, after 6 months of raw, I took them in for a cleaning and received the best news... not only did they not have to pull any teeth, the vet tech told me that she has never seen such wonderful teeth in small dogs this age! When I told her that I give my dogs a raw diet supplemented with raw bones, she agreed that the raw diet and bones was THE contributer to their clean bill of oral health!

I can see how a dog owner/vet would have a lot of problems with bones if they are fed COOKED, but I have never heard of a RAW bone causing any problems (yes, things can happen, but not very often).

I have never seen my dogs in better shape since starting on raw... all 3 dog's have beautiful coats, a sparkle in their eyes, lean muscle, and little fat. I have never found a diet I can feed all three of my dogs successfully until now - raw.

But yes, raw still needs to be given in the correct ratios and portions. So perhaps this dog was lacking a major nutrient in a raw diet?

I'm surprised he hated raw... my dogs trample me down for it!
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Old April 13th, 2010, 10:27 AM
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Sorry, had a busy day. Okay, first off, that dog had no health issue that could have caused his appalling coat. He was bred by a top breeder/exhibitor/judge here who has been involved solely with this breed for more than 30 years, importing dogs from England and breeding heaps of Ch's. Point I was making is that she, like so many of you, thought highly of raw food diets. The dry food she used was not cheap, far from it, and by the way, I DO consider her an expert, so for a while followed the diet she suggested. Another point I was making, it will not suit EVERY dog. Ben hated it, it did him no good, the dirty brown dry food gave him dirty brown stains on his teeth that could not be shifted and his previous owner would have tried everything to try and get the dog looking good, because he did want to win with him. I know the breeder would not have parted with him the second time if she could have got his coat right but maybe she was just too set in her ways to experiment, who knows? I thought it was a dietary problem all along, I just knew I could turn the ugly duckling into a swan so imagine how annoyed I was when another top breeder/exhibitor tried telling me that the coat was a product of his breeding, that when you double up on such and such a dog in a pedigree you get bad coats. I just told her to give the dog a chance, I'd only had him one day at that stage. I'm not going into what made the coat bad, or what I fed to have him looking so beautiful, I just thought this was a classic case of raw food having a detrimental effect.
And bones? Well, if you show dogs you want them to have full dentition. I have watched one of my bitches actually pull out a premolar that became stuck in a bone. The friend who bred my red cattle dog had his brother bleeding all over her patio after that dog damaged inside his throat with a piece of bone. My boy nearly choked to death on a piece. My childhood dog got an impaction from eating bones. A blue cattle dog from the past got hold of a rabbit that cats must have killed and ate it, then later vomited up the most horrifying splintered, jagged bones, I was so glad she did that. Time proved that she just couldn't eat rabbit whether it was raw or cooked(and off the bone), it always made her vomit.(thank heaven) Regardless of my experiences with troublesome bones, I was surprised when my vet's receptionist told me that vets at that clinic I go to hate dogs being fed bones, maybe I should ask my vet what's the worst he's seen? I never have this attitude that "It won't happen to my dog", I think it's better to be safe than sorry. I use a scaler on my dogs' teeth.
MyBirdIsEvil, there is no way known my dogs get groomed every day and I have NEVER had a hot spot on a sheltie. My sister has. I asked my mentor about that problem and she said it usually occurs if shelties aren't dried thoroughly after being bathed, and hey, I blow dry mine and make sure there isn't a damp spot anywhere, and my sister doesn't. Could your Collie have got damp under that matt on his rump?
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Old April 13th, 2010, 10:59 AM
aslan aslan is offline
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Goldfields you've now confused me too...you said the " dirty brown kibble gave him dirty brown stains on his teeth". Kibble has nothing to do with raw feeding?
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  #23  
Old April 13th, 2010, 11:11 AM
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Raw is exactly that. Raw beef, raw pork, raw chicken, raw rabbit, etc. with raw bones. Cooked bones are deadly to animals btw. It has nothing to do with dry brown dry food. It incudes veggies, tripe, and any other nutrients raw feeders feel necessary to add to their pets' food.
As Marko said earlier in this thread - what do we think dogs and cats ate before the pet food industry came along? Cats have thrived for years and years on mice, birds, even rabbits. JMO
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We can stick our heads in the sand for only so long before it starts choking us. Face it folks. The pet population is bad ALL OVER THE WORLD!
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Old April 13th, 2010, 11:18 AM
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Goldfields Goldfields is offline
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This was supposedly a superior dry food, not one of the commercial ones, made with all good, natural products, and just part of the hype about how we should be feeding our shelties back then. Not amusing that he had stained teeth all his life from that, and heavens only knows what was in it that did that to them. Mind you, his wouldn't be the worst teeth a judge has seen on a show dog. I was interested in using one at stud, so asked at a show could I check his teeth. They were so incredibly dirty that I almost reached for my tooth scaler, I could not believe that anyone could let them get so bad, or show this to a judge. The dog went Best of Breed. Unreal!
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Old April 13th, 2010, 11:18 AM
aslan aslan is offline
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oh 14+ you couldn't have called it any better as you read the article look what suddenly appears.

"If you switch the dog to Science Diet or Iam's," he said, "you'll find (the gas) disappears because they're not using soybean meal."
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  #26  
Old April 13th, 2010, 11:20 AM
aslan aslan is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Goldfields View Post
This was supposedly a superior dry food, not one of the commercial ones, made with all good, natural products, and just part of the hype about how we should be feeding our shelties back then. Not amusing that he had stained teeth all his life from that, and heavens only knows what was in it that did that to them. Mind you, his wouldn't be the worst teeth a judge has seen on a show dog. I was interested in using one at stud, so asked at a show could I check his teeth. They were so incredibly dirty that I almost reached for my tooth scaler, I could not believe that anyone could let them get so bad, or show this to a judge. The dog went Best of Breed. Unreal!
but you're talking about kibble not raw this is what confused me..so the breeder suggested a crap kibble which resulted in stained teeth and crappy coat..none of which has anything to do with raw feeding.
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  #27  
Old April 13th, 2010, 11:22 AM
BenMax BenMax is offline
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My GSD eats raw fish as a treat only. I have not converted to raw nor do I plan to. For the dogs I feed Acana or Oriijen kibble and Merrick can. For the cats they get Nutri Source Kibble in the morning and 5 out of 6 get can food at night. For me personally, there is too much prep work involved with feeding raw. I want the convenience of opening a bag, a can, and feed. Yes I sound lazy but it really is a matter of time convenience.
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  #28  
Old April 13th, 2010, 11:31 AM
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MyBirdIsEvil MyBirdIsEvil is offline
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Quote:
Could your Collie have got damp under that matt on his rump?
I think mainly the knot caused irritation and he chewed on and licked himself there causing an infection. Moisture does aggravate the situation though because it allows bacteria, fungus and/or yeast to grow. We generally treat with plain old yeast infection medicine and it works.
Any dog can get a hot spot no matter how they are dried. It's usually not caused by water, it's caused by the dog chewing on itself for whatever reason and licking which causes a constant moisture and presence of bacteria, fungus and/or yeast. If a dog has allergies to something or becomes irritated for some reason they may chew or lick and a hot spot will be caused.

My point was that a properly fed diet does NOT cause huge coat issues and the appearance of neglect, which it what it sounds like happened in your situation. Just because the breeder shows dogs and has champions does NOT mean they know how to feed RAW properly; I don't personally know you or your breeder, and wouldn't know if either of you have nutritional knowledge in general. There are indeed SOME dogs that don't do well on specific diets, even RAW, and I don't think anyone implied otherwise. Any dog can have nutritional needs that can't be met by normal diets, or allergies to specific items. In GENERAL I have seen dogs do just fine on RAW diets.

As far as NATURAL foods, I have no idea what kind of "natural" food the dog was being fed, so that doesn't say anything about foods labelled as natural in general. The word natural, concerning dog foods, doesn't even have a distinct definition by the FDA, so a food labelled natural isn't necessarily nutritionally complete just because it's labelled as such, and doesn't contain specific types of ingredients just because it says natural.

Concerning the danger of raw bones, yes it is possible for a dog to choke or get a blockage if they tend to gulp, and also depends on what kind of bone they are given. Certain bones, specifically large leg bones and such, aren't always safe to give and CAN cause broken teeth. That's why it's important to completely research raw feeding and learn what parts are safe to give.
Even so, the danger of bones isn't a valid argument against raw feeding, IMO. If someone is worried about such a thing they can feed the correct ratio of GROUND bones which pose no danger of broken teeth or becoming lodged in a dog's intestines or throat.
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  #29  
Old April 13th, 2010, 11:41 AM
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Originally Posted by aslan View Post
oh 14+ you couldn't have called it any better as you read the article look what suddenly appears.

"If you switch the dog to Science Diet or Iam's," he said, "you'll find (the gas) disappears because they're not using soybean meal."
But we all know that most of these articles are written by employees of the big pet food companies. It's their job to turn people away from a diet that is beneficial to a dogs' or cats' health and onto their inferior products. I sometimes wonder if they have a stake in every vets' office that sells their stuff.
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We can stick our heads in the sand for only so long before it starts choking us. Face it folks. The pet population is bad ALL OVER THE WORLD!
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  #30  
Old April 13th, 2010, 11:53 AM
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MyBirdIsEvil MyBirdIsEvil is offline
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Mainly the pet food companies are like drug reps for the large pharmaceutical companies that go around getting doctors to prescribe their drugs. The reps tout the benefits of their food and the vets get a discount on the food which is sold at a huge markup. Many vets don't get a well rounded education on pet nutrition in school and don't do their own research (which is honestly understandable because veterinary school is a lot of time and work in itself, so who has the time to start doing their own research?). The big reason for this is there aren't many unbias educators to teach nutrition in the schools, so the vets have all the information that the big name pet food companies put out beaten into their heads. If you notice, most nutritional studies are done by big name pet food companies because they have the money and incentive to perform those studies. There aren't really that many independent unbias studies done on pet nutrition.
I do understand why some vets are hesitant to recommend foods outside of the large name pet food industry. It's because they're wanting to recommend foods that have been fully researched and have scientific studies (albeit bias) backing their nutritional benefits. If the vets had more unbias information to go off of I think they would be more likely to recommend better foods. There is just not the amount of independent research on pet food nutrition that there has been on human nutrition.
To be fair, us owners are also shooting in the dark because we're going largely on anecdotal evidence and the small amount of unbias research we can find. We could be wrong on some of our info also, but we need more research to make fully educated decisions about our pets.
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