Homemade cooking VS Dog Foods

[Shelties]

I just talked to my vet to set up an appointment with Chloe, i asked him what he thought about me possibly doing home cooking for the dogs instead of giving them their kibbles. He says that i should only use it as a temporarily solution until the pet food scare goes away.

I've seen some people post that vets don't know a whole lot about dog foods and that nutrition was not their line of work....

is there a solid proof that Vets don't study dog foods/ nutrition?

[roman]

well my vet said i should switch to feeding my dogs cooked food but guess what? now the news is saying the human food might be recalled (certain beefs and stuff)

it is getting really out of control

[Shelties]

Originally Posted by roman

guess what? now the news is saying the human food might be recalled (certain beefs and stuff)

it is getting really out of control

are you serious? sheesh!, may as well just go vegetarian

[rmci]

Your vet is probably concerned about your dogs nutrition. As with humans, it's hard to say what your diet is lacking until you go to the doctors. Then you find out you need more of this in your diet, or that you have too much of something else. People will tell you to give your dogs supplements, but as with human consumption, care should be taken that you don't give too little or too much of a certain vitamin/mineral. Giving to much of one thing can cause the body to over or under absorb another thing.

About human food recalls: they happen all the time. Take a look at the FDA's website and you'll see a list which includes brands of milk, icecream, bread, etc.

[Ritz459]

I told my friend about how dry food was starting to be recalled, so she went home and checked her White Shepherd's food out...sure enough, he was eating recalled food!
She tossed all of Shadow's food out (side not: her dog's name cracks me up...he is this big white GSD and his name is Shadow. ROFL) and gave him some chicken and bread instead. She said she wants to start feeding him raw until all of this food recall stuff goes away...is there an info sheet I could print out (like a recipe, maybe?) to give her on how to cook her own dog's food? I don't want poor Shadow to have any kind of nutrition loss...I told her that the food we feed our dogs (Chicken Soup) isn't being recalled and she may want to switch to that instead...

[Rivsky]

I have heard that many vets don't study raw food in their training at all - and then add the fact that many of them get kickbacks from selling kibble (SD and the others commonly seen in vet surgeries) and it's pretty obvious why some of them would rather sell kibble than a raw feeding diet.

As RMCI said there is also the problem of balancing the nutrition appropriately. If you do a google search on raw feeding there is a wealth of info out there. You just need to take the time to read through it and decide for yourself which way you want to go (IMO).

[DoozyDog]

Don't forget to look through the Global Paw recipe section, we have over a hundred recipes for your dogs. I believe we have recipes for making your own kibble, and for raw food diets as well. By the way, I have made several of these recipes for my two dogs, and they are pretty easy.

[calgal]

I get so angry at any Vet. that tries to dissuade anyone from feeding real food just so they can continue making money off of sick animals and dog food!!!!!!

I find it funny that they will put pets on rice and beef or rice and chicken when the pet is sick and then the pet gets well on the real food, only to be put on dog food again. Insane!!!!!

[LilacDragon]

Originally Posted by Shelties

I've seen some people post that vets don't know a whole lot about dog foods and that nutrition was not their line of work....

is there a solid proof that Vets don't study dog foods/ nutrition?

Ask your vet!

Just ask him/her how many hours of nutrition they took in college and if they have gone to any seminars, etc. that WERE NOT paid for by a dog food company.

[Sophie45]

My vet told me to feed my dog Purina or Science Diet. I told her over my dead body.

[sammy]

A good friend of mine is now a vet. She told me that they got a total of a couple hours of lecture on nutrition and it was done by a kibble company-- can't remember if it was Hills (Science diet), Iams or Eukanuba.
I FINALLY found a vet that I trust when it comes to nurtition. She sells a premade raw, Orijen, Evo and some prescription diet products. She's still hugely cautious when it comes to rmb's etc but at least I'm not getting told I'm going to kill my animals with raw meat (which they've never been sick from in 3 years of raw feeding ).

I can understand vets concern about home cooking and raw though in the sense that it's not the type of thing you do without doing lots of research. You need to know how to balance calcium phosphorous ratios and make sure that you aren't going to end up with nutrtional deficiencies over time.

For people who don't want to do all the research and put the work into figuring out balanced meals, a good option is getting Mordy to do up a customized plan. She can make sure your dog is getting all the right balance of nutrients, the right number of calories and can do home cooked or raw or even a plan for people who want to do some kibble/canned and some raw or home cooked. She will take into consideration what your dog likes and any allergies or intolerances. It isn't even particularly expensive given the time it takes her and the $ it saves you in researching, buying books etc Her website is www.betterdogcare.com
I'm planning to have her do some plans for my dogs and cat at some point. I'm not panicked about it yet though. I have confidence in the raw I feed as well as the kibble and canned. The recall has been all foods I wouldn't have touched with a ten foot pole.

[KennelMom]

Originally Posted by Shelties

are you serious? sheesh!, may as well just go vegetarian

Don't forget about the mass spinach recall last year

[KennelMom]

Our vet wasn't familiar with a raw diet, but he wasn't against it either. He said what we were doing 'sounded about right' and our dogs were in amazing health. Of course, they are healthy dogs on kibble as well.

He's never tried to push the vet office dog food crap on us.

My honest opinion is that most dog do perfectly fine and can live long, healthy lives on just about any dog food...provided it's not made with contaminated ingredients. I think the dog's ability to adapt to their diet is part of their success as a species. Most people can't figure out how to feed themselves a healthy diet, so I can see why a vet would entertain the idea of a home-made diet with caution as a general rule of thumb.

[Novel]

I agree with you kennelmom, but with a slight variance. I think most dogs can subsist on most kibbles... but they will not thrive, except for on a select few... and those still can't compare to a raw diet. And I disagree, people do know how to feed themselves, they just choose not to. We have the upper hand when feeding our dogs a good diet, we don't have to taste it... and as you said, they LOVE eating their food.

I've been feeding raw for almost 3 years now. I have no idea where the time has gone, but I constantly get compliments on my dogs health and appearance. Since I didn't get those before, when feeding kibble, even the high quality ones, I can only draw one conclusion.

My frustration is with a vet, who has seen us for years, before and after the raw diet switch, who still will not agree that it is the best thing for my dogs. A bright, shiny coat; bright eyes; clean teeth free of tartar; ears free of infection and a toned body with excellend heart sounds are only the beginning of the observable changes in my dogs....
AND, not to mention Jazz, who was diagnosed with an immune issue that many dogs can't overcome without loads of medication, who was treated very sparingly and lightly for 30 days, and then recovered there after with no medications whatsoever...
Again, one of the praises of the raw diet is that it promotes a healthy immune system, and I could not agree more.

The proof is in the pudding. Dogs are literally dying from eating contaminated foods produced by what should be trusted sources... and vet's say that an owner is somehow going to kill or injure their dogs by NOT feeding it... puuullllease....