<p>nrdsb4 - I was just referring to at least two threads I started on dog food issues. I started one when our prescription food was recalled and never put back into production again. I finally started making my own dog food. Which then led to my mistake of using pumpkin that had been in the frig too long, giving my dog some rather icky digestion problems.</p>
<p>But what it’s come down to now, when I make up her food, I make up a month at a time and freeze it in ziploc bags, one for each day. A month of food (which requires a large storage bin to mix it in!) is 5 lbs. of ground beef, 40 cups of white rice, 20 hard-boiled eggs, 60 slices of white bread pulverized into bread crumbs and 20 teaspoons of calcium carbonate (I now just grind up the egg shells as I peel the hard-boiled eggs). I do use a food processor for the bread and eggs/egg shells, but I only have a mini-food processor, so it takes a while. At each meal, we add a tablespoon of pumpkin, which we now store and freeze in ziploc bags with each bag holding about 4-5 days worth.</p>
<p>The end result is that she absolutely loves her food, but then again, the only food I’ve ever seen her not eat is mushrooms and onions (not that we give them to her, but if they’ve fallen to the floor it’s the only thing she will refuse to pick up). And we’ve dropped a lot of food on the floor over the years! So yea, it’s a lot of work, but she absolutely loves it. And truthfully, after all of the research I’ve done, I do think it’s the healthiest alternative (oh, she has kidney issues which is why the diet is lower protein than other diets).</p>
<p>I couldn’t tell you which brand our dog likes the best because she gobbles down anythng edible (and many things inedible) so fast that it would be impossible to distinguish any likes or dislikes in there. Her dinner time lasts all of about 30 seconds.</p>
<p>Our dog eats very fast too and probably would eat anything. However, breeder started the litter on a commercial raw diet and we pretty much stick to that–frozen commercial is fairly easily available around here (several brands but we’ve been using Primal Raw). For lunch (almost old enough to skip now) he wolfs down Fromm’s kibble. He also liked Merrick–both sold in local pet stores. I suspect he would eat the lower-rated stuff too—but haven’t experimented with it.</p>
<p>I like what cnp55 says, since it pretty much parallels what we’ve read and heard:)</p>
<p>I also make homemade dog food. You are much nicer when it comes to what you put in.</p>
<p>For us, I rotate between stew meat and chicken. In both cases I add brown rice and frozen vegetables. Also what I do is whatever leftover vegetable we had for dinner goes into a plastic container in the freezer. I use the same container and just keep dumping into it until I need to make the food. </p>
<p>It takes me about 45 minutes start to finish to make their food.</p>
<p>I have found that it is much cheaper than any store brand out there. I make a big batch and put it in containers, then I freeze them.</p>
<p>For a 2 week supply it costs me about 4 bucks. That is about 30 cents a day.</p>
<p>We started doing this yrs ago as our border collie got older and was having digestive issues (he left me presents everyday in the home). The vet had stated the best thing for him was boiled chicken and brown rice.</p>
<p>Since I do this, we joke that their dry food (free fed) is their cookies/snack and I buy whatever is on sale.</p>
<p>We get giant bags of dry food made by Azmira. It’s some sort of expensive, natural brand. We get it at a specialty pet store. He seems to like it. We have varied and tried other things, and he likes most of what we have tried, but some aren’t as good on his system. We also feed him a can of no-sodium green beens at dinner. He loves them.</p>
<p>I completely agree with post #18 from cnp55! we used to buy Science Diet, I mean - they sell it at the vet’s, right? it took very little research to discover that we were basically giving our dog junk food.
We now routinely buy Wellness, Fromm’s, and Taste of the Wild depending on what coupons we have and the local sales. I also try to do most of my buying at a locally owned pet supply rather than one of the big chains.
Yes, I spend a little more on the better foods, but as I’ve stated before I really do believe that I will save n vet bills in the long run.
For treats my dog loves apple slices (honeycrisp is her favorite, she’s very picky), and when it’s heartworm med time I coat the pill in peanut butter. She would eat rocks if they were covered in peanut butter.</p>
<p>Wow, sounds like a real process-but you obviously love your dog! My dogs would be thrilled to have you for a Mom. </p>
<p>I was approached at Whole Foods the other day by a rep for a product containing pumpkin. She said it was good for the digestion. I bought a can, and the dogs gobbled up the food; my Lab eats anything happily, but our doodle is very picky. He, too, seemed to love the pumpkin. This can had pumpkin and something else in it; I wonder if just plain canned pumpkin would work just as well-it would be less expensive.</p>
<p>We feed our dogs Innova. It is expensive but they eat less. Our old dog was very picky. She would leave her food sitting in her bowl for the crows. We tried different brands. What worked was two different things. The fish based dry food. Problem it stinks. 2nd thing was use the same dry kibble as our other dog but put a small amount of Merrick wet food. Merrick wet food is like no other can food. It looks like real food. It has names like Thanksgiving Feast, Grandma’s Pot roast etc. We just used a small amount. Just enough to make her eat the dry food.
Our present two dogs will eat anything.
We buy our food at a local feed store.</p>
<p>We feed our dog (Pembroke Welsh Corgi) Orijen. It’s not cheap, but she only eats 1/2 cup twice daily. My husband researches lots of things, dog food being one of them and he decided that would be the best for her. Honestly, I don’t think she’s ever met a food she didn’t think tasted good. We should have named her Hoover because she’ll suck up anything off the floor and sometimes before it even hits the floor. If she hears me say an expletive while I’m in the kitchen, she comes running because it usually means I’ve dropped a food item on the floor.</p>
<p>*For picky eaters, if you don’t mind adding to their kibble, yogurt is a great addition. *</p>
<p>Never thought of that. Does yogurt prevent diarrhea? My dogs do get diarrhea if they eat cheese or milk. (and they LOVE cheese…but even a small amount is a problem)</p>
<p>A little late to the party on this thread, but here’s my 2 cents – 40 lb. Wheaten Terrier. He has been eating dry dog food since we got him from the breeder. Originally on Iams, but I changed to Blue Buffalo when there was the big dog food scare. Blue Buffalo is now available at Petco. He gets hard boiled eggs once in a while, and bits of cheese now and again. Otherwise, NO people food and NO wet dog food. I honestly think he’d eat anything, though – and that’s how I know he’s sick, i.e. he doesn’t eat.</p>
<p>We have two labs and they will eat anything. However, after years of feeding them whatever was on sale at Petco or Costco I switched to Blue Buffalo. My vet told me that some of the other foods was like feeding them McDonalds every night. Our Petco carries BLue Buffalo now. It is a bit pricey but I feel better. Of course I cannot control everything they eat. The younger one just ate the rust off our bumper producing a nice hole.</p>
<p>We feed the dog a half a pouch of wet dog food and a 1/2 cup dry dog food–with fresh veggies if there are some in the vegetable crisper that need eating. She scarfs it all up in 30 seconds–none of this “small dog/picky eater” thing.</p>
<p>We have a friend who also makes his own dog food. He cooks it in a 9 by 13 pan. He’s had more than one guest who almost mistook the dog’s food for a yummy casserole.</p>
<p>If your dog is a picky eater and doesn’t have allergies, you’re feeding the dog too much food.</p>
<p>There’s a standard protocol for training your dog to eat promptly when the food is put down.</p>
<p>Put down the food. Take up whatever is left ten minutes later. Don’t feed again for 24 hours (12 for small dogs).</p>
<p>Next meal is half the size of the previous meal. Again, if there’s any left after ten minutes, pick it up. Repeat.</p>
<p>When the dog is enthusiastically eating what’s put in front of him/her, now you start increasing back to the appropriate amount of food. Keep in mind that will probably be less than is on the packaging, since dog food manufacturers want to sell dog food and don’t care if your dog is fat.</p>