Its about food, sorry, but want your advice!

[richnrissa]

Well the Great Dog in the Sky saw fit to answer my wishes and bless me with a gorgeous black Great Dane lady for my family.
She's 5 1/2 years old, a rescue from a very loving home who had to choose between her or a job transfer.

She's been on IAMS food, "green chunks" for quite awhile.
As i researched Danes in preparation for receiving this blessing, Iams was not low, but definitely NOT high on most Dane owners and breeders list.
Eagle brand or raw was ALWAYS at the top.
SOOOO
my questions are:
1. Is it "too late" to consider switching her diet, considering her age?

2. What is the best way to do so (your experiences, allowable links to reference material, etc)

I know it needs to be done gradually, but would just like to hear your experiences, your advice, where you found the most reliable materials online or in books, etc.
I dont intend to even think about starting for at least 10 to 2 weeks, just to give her time to get used to my family, since its such a big change for her, and I want to do it right. I've been around a lot of sites, and, forgive my unabated butt kissing, but this is BY FAR the best forum i've found, with the best advice.

and....i know.....food is all over.....so i'm sorry....feel free to cut and paste your answers to other newbie ?'s from the archives!!


thanks!

[WingedFoal]

Wow, it sounds like you have everything figured out already. And by the way, congratulations on your new addition!!

It's never too late to get a dog on a better quality food. Don't worry about that. Just change it gradually over a period of time (like you've already stated), adding more and more to each meal, while taking away more and more of her old food. Doing it gradually helps prevent stomach upset (and with a Great Dane, stomach problems don't sound like something you'd want ).

I'm sure others will have links and more in-depth advice for you. Good luck with your girl!!

[Cassiepeia]

Awesome! Congrats on your new (gigantic) furbaby!!! Love the Danes. I agree with Winged, do it gradually. It's certainly never too late.

Cass.

[Schwe]

Congratulations on your new Dane!!!! I demand pictures of the black beauty.

Like WingedFoal has said, it looks l like you have everything figured out!! It is never too late to switch to a better food.

[richnrissa]

Well, good, I certainly nearly went blind from all I read about food...but we're just so excited..
I'll add a ?....since i went through a lot of the old threads last night..

for when you cant find the food you want near you...is there a good online retailer for dog food and stuffs?

and yes,...you will ALL get to see pictures soon. We'll probably download them this weekend and post here and send out to friends.

She is soooo beuatiful. Her name is Liebe (german for love) because she is all black except for one small heart shaped patch of white on her chest!!!

[calgal]

Well welcome to you and Liebe.
Don't worry that switching to a premium brand of dog food will hurt her, I doubt it would. I was in rescue for years and fostered quite a few really old dogs that were not in the best health and some who had already lived in many homes and I'm sure had already eaten many different kinds of foods and I had no problem with them when I put them on a premium kibble.

[Novel]

Eagle has some good kibble, I prefer the Holistic Lamb and Rice for a sensitive tummy, and the Holistic Anchovy for the coat. That stuff works miracles and I fed it when I was feeding kibble, but it can be a little gassy, so the Lamb and Rice was nice too.

If you decide to feed raw, which is always my recommendation, especially for a large breed and the nutrition needs that are just not met by commercial kibble, you can begin feeding a raw diet at her next meal. You can't, or rather you shoulsn't, mix kibble with raw as they have different digestion rates. I would boil up a pot of rice, add some raw cut up chicken once it's done, and feed that for maybe two or three meals, and then start with chicken wings and chicken necks or turkey backs with your veggie pulp on the side, or all blended up together if she doesn't take to the wings right off, but most do. Also stop done at the butcher and get some RMB's (raw meaty bones) for her to chew on when she'd like to, and you're all set.
Raw is not difficult to feed and you CAN go blind reading, and that's because each person feeds it differently, and each dog needs it just a little bit differently. Compare it to diet books for people. If you tried to read about how to diet, and read every book expecting to be able to come to a clear concise process, it would never happen because each diet is different. Feeding a raw diet to a dog consists of making sure the dog is at a healthy weight and a variety of foods, just as you would feed yourself, healthy weight and a good variety. In dogs you lean more towards meats, in people you should lean more towards veggies. My highly active dogs eat about 80% meat to 20% veggies, but that's not to say I mix up 4lbs of meat to 1 lb of veggie pulp, no, I give them a meal of meat here, some veggies and meat there, and maybe a snack of carrots at another time. It's easy, and kind of fun to see what your dog likes. Topper loves hamburger, Alley loves fish (yes she eats all the fish guts from our fishing expeditions) and Laney eats EVERYTHING, as long as it's in her dish.

[richnrissa]

Well, after much consideration, and some really great advice from here and my other Dane sources, we've made the switch to raw.

Very interested in any raw 'recipes". I know each dog is different and there are few "rules" per se, but would just like to see how you have incorporated raw into your life.
Basically, we're thinking if we had recipes, or menus, we could see examples of the variety, the schedule, etc and then make even better shopping choices in our attempt to remain 'frugal'--I've got 4 human furbabies i gotta feed too, lol, so saving money is always an goal
thx QW for those great links of his on recipes, i've found a few there...
whatever else you guys have I"m open to!!

[Novel]

Here is a link to a woman that has a Dane Rescue and she feeds nothing but RAW. She actually started a store in Houston that sells just the components of RAW diets. Below is the link to her info page, but if you want to check out her store, do so by all means!!

http://www.bones2go.com/info.htm

[bigdoglover]

Novel,

I have always read that the raw chicken from the grocery shouldn't be fed....what are your thoughts? I was under the impression it had to be organic chix, due to the additives and hormones, and other "injectibles" they infuse them with. Same with the butcher shop. My vet said if I wanted to feed raw chix, then to raise organic ones myself. What do you think?

[Owned by Lucy]

It is a good idea to avoid the chicken and pork that are "enhanced" with a solution to "improve" flavor for both dogs and humans. I do not buy organic but I do avoid those with the "enhancement."

[Novel]

Originally Posted by bigdoglover

Novel,

I have always read that the raw chicken from the grocery shouldn't be fed....what are your thoughts? I was under the impression it had to be organic chix, due to the additives and hormones, and other "injectibles" they infuse them with. Same with the butcher shop. My vet said if I wanted to feed raw chix, then to raise organic ones myself. What do you think?

I have gone to raising my own chicken and duck, for a variety of reasons. I don't know where my store bought stuff is coming from, and the cheaper I buy, the more I wonder what I'm buying. Unfortunately, since we had to start the chicken population over due to varmant attacks, I can't keep up with my dogs demand. Topper could eat a chicken or duck 5 -6 days a week by himself. The girls would probably eat 3 -4 each, so thats about 11 - 14 chickens per week, and I'm just not producing that kind of volume.
Since I try and incubate as many eggs as possible, that doesn't leave us many to eat, and so I buy the 5 dozen box at the store. It's still just a couple bucks, but I know that they put some sort of preservative on the shell so I am not able to feed the store bought shell. Not dangerous to people, we don't eat the shell, so it is perfectly legal lacing of our food with dangerous products.
As far as the actual chicken, I feel that home grown, or locally grown organic is probably the best, and range fed versus commercial chicken feed. If you feed your dog chicken that has been raised on a pre-mixed and packaged feed, I'm not sure you're really stepping far from the original problem. Commercial feeds!
The store bought chicken is a hormone and steroid fed monster of breeding, genetics and husbandry. Many of these birds not only never feel the wind or see the light of the sun, but they are fed hormone and steroid laced feed so they grow as fast as possible. Because these chickens grow so fast, many of them are unable to walk long before they are butchered, but it doesn't really matter because they are housed in a 12" x 12" mesh cage that provides feed and water 24 hours a day. They couldn't move if they wanted to. In my opinion, this causes a problem that we are seeing with the splintering in the weight bearing bones, even when fed raw. I relate those bones to someone that has put undue pressure on their legs, i.e. obesity. The bones in those legs are not healthy bones. They have done research that the bones in obese children are more prone to disease and other problems like fractures. But, I'm getting off subject. Those chicken bones from the store, are not the same bones that you would find in an organic chicken, just one more reason to be wary of store bought.

OK, so to summarize: Store bought chicken vs home grown chicken
Store bought is:

• More expensive
• Does not provide the same nutrition as home grown because the store bought has been fed a commercial feed it's entire life
• The bones and tissue are abnormal and unhealthy if not diseased
• Has been fed high doses of hormones and steroids it's entire life.
• Has been stored for an unknown amount of time, could come from anywhere, carrying any number of diseases, and is surely packaged with some sort of preservative to keep it looking good on the shelf for as long as possible.

Now with all that said, you must wonder why I would ever go down to the market and buy chicken for the dogs... because even though the store chicken is usually raised in the same way as the chicken we find in commercial kibble, the store bought chicken has not been cooked, and I'm not having to feed all of the other things included in a commercial kibble. It may seem a fine line, but it's a step in the right direction. My best advice is if you base your raw diet on poultry, as I have done, mix it up, and throw some other meats in there when you can, beef, fish, etc.

Final thought, I do believe that the local meat market or butcher shop is better than the pre-packaged chicken at the grocery store, because you have a much better chance that the local farmer at least raised the chickens in a coop, with access to outside, probably still fed them a commercial feed, but they were also exposed to the sun, and maybe some bugs, and some grass too, all contributing to a healthier bird than the commercially raised monster.