How much of this do you believe? Is the BARF diet the only safe route now?
abhorman asked:
OK So I have an 11 month old Mastiff and run a group for them here in my town. I get asked nutrition questions all the time and try and be helpful. I feed my pup Blue Buffalo and felt like this was a good decision for us. I cant quite wrap my head around how to do the BARF diet in a two bedroom in the city. Maybe I am missing something.
I did some research the other day and found this, amongst other things which said the exact same thing. Do people know about this? I knew about the recall but I didnt know these gory details on the pet food industry. I thought there was a dangerous chemical found to cause the recall but not this and I consider myself to be fairly intelligent and on the ball! Am I to believe that my family dog when I was growing up was fed dead animal remains and waste inside his store bought food? I am really shocked by this and wonder is Blue Buffalo safe enough for him now? Is raw the only way to go at this point? How is everyone dealing with this info?
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OK So I have an 11 month old Mastiff and run a group for them here in my town. I get asked nutrition questions all the time and try and be helpful. I feed my pup Blue Buffalo and felt like this was a good decision for us. I cant quite wrap my head around how to do the BARF diet in a two bedroom in the city. Maybe I am missing something.
I did some research the other day and found this, amongst other things which said the exact same thing. Do people know about this? I knew about the recall but I didnt know these gory details on the pet food industry. I thought there was a dangerous chemical found to cause the recall but not this and I consider myself to be fairly intelligent and on the ball! Am I to believe that my family dog when I was growing up was fed dead animal remains and waste inside his store bought food? I am really shocked by this and wonder is Blue Buffalo safe enough for him now? Is raw the only way to go at this point? How is everyone dealing with this info?
Lose weight, Lose Fat
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I think feeding a Bones and Raw Food diet is one of the best ways to feed dogs. We’ve got a lot of dogs dying of cancer and diabetes and so much stuff. I think commercial dog food greatly contributes to our unhealthy dogs.
I agree with you, though. Unless you have a house with a freezer or are otherwise very wealthy, it’s very difficult to feed BARF.
My philosophy is just to do the best you can by your dogs. When I was in college and didn’t work my parents fed my dog Pedigree. Not exactly high-quality food, but there wasn’t much I could do. When I was able, I switched to a better brand of food. (I use Whole Dog Journal to decide what’s a “good” brand.) I’d like to feed BARF but it’s just not possible financially or spacewise.
I suggest you check out The Goldsteins’ Wellness & Longevity Program: Natural Care for Dogs and Cats. When I read this book, their diet protocol really made sense to me. I saw it as the “next best thing” to a BARF diet. It was doable for me. In a nutshell, they tell you how to find a high-quality dog food. Then, they have you add stuff to their food. Yogurt and omega-3 oil in every meal… Table scraps are encouraged (this assumes that you eat healthy) as are vegetables. They also suggest a vitamin/supplement.
I think this is the healthiest my dogs’ diet can get without going full-hog BARF, which just isn’t feasible for me at the moment.
Good luck!
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I feed my dog raw food, and it doesn’t break my budget. I also do not put a lot of energy into it because I buy the frozen raw meat in patties. Granted, I have a small dog, who will never eat as much as a Mastiff does, but it works for us.
Other than feeding raw, you can look into other dry dog foods like Canine Caviar, which only uses human-grade ingredients. Since I only feed raw, I don’t know much about dry dog food, but there IS safe good quality dog food out there – you just have to do the research and then do the best for your dogs.
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Personally, I believe that if you have the time and dedication to feed your dog the BARF diet then more power to you. However, you must be careful to do this diet right and not make any shortcuts or your dog won’t get the ingredients it needs.
A diet that may work well for one type of dog may not work so well for another. I believe that in most cases a good quality store brought pet food is just fine. It is not so much the brand of pet food but who manufactures the food. As you have read, Menu foods manufactures or bags a lot of food, including human food.
Some food was recalled because it actually contained dangerous ingredients. Other brands were recalled because it was manufactured by a place that made something known or thought to be dangerous ingredients. Therefore, some recalls were mandatory while others were voluntary.
Blue Buffalo, the food you feed your dog was gypped by it’s manufacturer, American Nutrition, and cut of ties with them. The manufacturer added rice protein concentrate although Blue did not approve that ingredient.
This whole recall shows that while some dog food comapnies are careless and only want to make a cheap buck others care but cannot keep a strong eye on manufacturing regulations. Even those with strict manufacturing regulations cannot inspect every bag. Help from the government will be helpful and, hopefully, some laws can be passed that will make pet and human food safer.
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I’ve done quite a bit of research on this subject and though there are detractors who say BARF, raw and the whole natural food diet is a bad idea I still believe it’s the better way to go. It boils down to logic and common sense for me. A dogs physiology supports the BARF/raw crowd. Commercial kibble is only a recent option when you think about it. It was developed about sixty years ago and most of it has absolutely no nutritional value no matter what the vendor, vet or commercials say. I also think it is directly responsible for the reduction in longevity of our canine companions. All the cancers, allergies and other aliments they suffer from these days are most likely the result of a lack of a compatible, nutritional diet.
My dogs are doing great on a combination raw and home cooked diet with a few supplements. And for what it’s worth, I started them on the traditional kibble diet and when I switched there was a noticeable difference in their energy level, their coat and the allergies went away.
To me it makes sense so if you can find a way to give them a good natural diet I think you and your dog will be better off for it.
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I live in the city with my mastiff and he eats a raw diet. However, I couldn’t realistically feed him a raw diet if it wasn’t for my chest freezer. It’s not a huge chest freezer (~10 square feet) but a regular freezer just wouldn’t cut it unless I was going to the grocery store twice a week or didn’t use a freezer for any of my own food. Surprisingly he eats very little – his food for today consisted of three chicken leg quarters and a few ounces of liver. Most dogs on raw eat about 2-3% of their body weight per day while Bowser only eats about 1-1.5% (giant breeds generally have slower metabolisms than small and medium breeds). Since your pup is still growing he’d probably consume 2-3% of his weight daily but would require less as he matured.
If you’re not sure that you can manage feeding a raw diet at this point I certainly don’t think that you should beat yourself up for feeding Blue Buffalo — from what I understand it’s a very high quality food that uses only human grade ingredients. You could use this time to research raw diets; there are about a billion different ways of doing things and it can be kind of overwhelming when you first start reading about the Billinghurst vs. Lonsdale vs. Pitcairn, etc. ways of feeding. Even if you can’t feed your dog a total raw diet you can always incorporate some raw food items into his diet to supplement the Blue Buffalo.
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Well, *technically*, Prey Model aka a Natural Raw Diet (NRD) is superior to BARF b/c it is more natural. You simply feed raw meaty bones, big chunks of meat. organs, and whole prey as opposed to grinding everything up and adding veggies and supplements. But, yeah, any raw meat diet for your carnivorous pet is far superior to kibble and canned food.
Lahoma