***UPDATE September
17, 2000***
I
have tried the Innova dog food, and cannot keep my dogs on it. In nine
years of life, Damian suddenly developed a huge hot spot on his head. He
also has the yeast infections in his ears, so we are treating him for it.
My now ten month old pup, has a yeast infection in her ears as well. She
has never had a single problem since we brought her home at 11 weeks of
age, until now. She was on the raw diet, until just recently. We have also
tried the Natural choice dog food, and it has had the same results. I still
cannot get the Wellness foods, and am still trying to get it. I found one
place that ships to Canada, but the shipping is almost ten dollars more
the $20 bag of dog food. So we are back to the raw foods, and are trying
to clean up the mess that the dogs are in right now. I have not given up
yet, and am in the process of trying to get the Old Mother Hubbard products.
***UPDATE
NOVEMBER 27, 2000***
Well
since the last update, I have gone back to the raw diet. It took until
about two weeks ago for Damian's hot spot to finally heal. I have never
seen such an ugly, oozing ulcer thing in my life. Diva started with really
bad yeast infections in her ears and had very itchy feet. Sable have
loose stools and had hives on her belly. What a disaster! Innova
just did not pan out for us at all. No dog food has worked with these guys.
Having three dogs, I can't feed Damian raw, since he refuses to eat dog
food. I can't blame him, since dog food made him sick most of his life.
Diva likes things that Sable has reactions to, and vice versa. I won't
feed three different kinds of dog foods, since I won't be able to watch
all the time, to make sure one is not eating the other's food. There are
the set backs I mention about the raw diet, but it is the best for my dogs.
Diva's Pano is finally gone, so no worries about the protein levels in
her diet anymore. AFter the mess I had here with my three dogs, I will
never look back to commercial foods again.
As
for the Wellness foods, I tried every possible way to get the food here.
The shipping for a $20 bag of food would be $26 to Canada. This is American
funds as well. I tried to become a distributor, but they make it impossible,
unless you have $50 000 to buy a huge amount of food. I wish I had it,
but I don't. The Wellness food, as well as most of the other high end feeds,
cost more per pound then the natural diet I feed. So what is the point?
Health & Nutrition
I
am not a vet, so do not take what I have to say as any sort of law. I am
speaking from my own experiences with my dogs. I have my opinions, as I
am entitled to have. You have your own opinions as well. All the things
I list on this page have worked for me, and if they have not, I explain
why. However, these are my dogs, and all animals are different. Please
do not think that because what I say, will be good for you. I have put
a tremendous amount of research in what I feed my dogs, and have put a
lot of thought into it as well.
My
own dogs, their food allergies and diets
I
have been feeding a raw diet for two years now. I can say the results
are tremendous and the health factor is astounding. No more food allergies,
dry coats, yucky eyes, smelly farts, and HUGE horse poops. Any health issue
I had ever had is gone with this diet. However, just last week, I had chosen
to switch them back to commercial foods. Later on in this page, you
will see the things I look for in a high quality commercial food, and what
you should look for too. Now here are the draw backs to a raw diet.
-
Very
intimidating to a newbie. You have no idea of what to feed, or not feed,
or how much.
-
A
person really has no idea if they are providing a balanced diet or not.
-
To
provide a balanced diet, you have to feed different things, different days
of the week. If you have dogs like mine, they get stuck on certain favourite
foods, and do not want to eat their healthy veggies, or whatever it is
that you lovingly prepared that day.
-
Things
like chicken backs have a very short fridge life, and will stink to high
heaven if your dog did not eat it all, and you throw it in the fridge for
the next day.
-
You
really need a deep freeze to keep all their foods, and if yours breaks
like mine did, you have a big disaster on your hands.
-
I
have tried to mix supplements in their foods, and they refuse to eat them
that day.
-
It
is impossible to put supplements on the chicken backs.
-
The
dogs eat like pigs, and you always have some sort of giblet stuck to the
bottom of your socks.
-
Raw
foods are very high in proteins and if you have a young dog, it is easy
to get growth spurts. My eight month old puppy has had Pano since she was
five months old. When you try to lower the proteins with raw foods, it
means adding more veggies or grains (if you are using grains). She will
not eat her veggies and grains, since she prefers the meat.
-
Different
dogs have different nutritional requirements. My Pit Bull is too fat (hubby
loves to feed her), my male is pushing nine years old, and needs a different
diet then my eight month old pup. Mind you, my dogs are spoiled rotten,
and your dogs may not be so picky.
My
luck (or no luck at all) with commercial foods
I used to feed Sheena
and Damian Iams Eukanuba puppy food. Damian always had allergies to it,
but we did not know what they were back then. He went to numerous vets,
went through ear flushes, medications, prescriptions, and they finally
wanted to remove his ear canals. Sheena ended up growing too fast from
the puppy food, and ended with HIP
DYSPLACIA. After countless prescriptions of Prednezone, and steroid
shots from France ($80 every two weeks), there was nothing that could be
done outside of surgery. She ended up having a procedure done that the
vet cut her inner tendons of her thighs, to alleviate the pressure on her
ball and sockets of her hips. We were very fortunate that it worked as
she was only dysplastic due to growing too fast.
I finally discovered
what was going on with Damian's yeast infection within his ears, and pointed
it out to his vet. The vet was more then happy to charge me $60 for a twenty
pound bag of prescription food, that did not help him at all. After that,
dog food companies were discovering that a large breed puppy needed to
grow very slowly, and reformulated their puppy foods. What a big help that
was to Sheena now...
The Rude awakening
It
was only after the discovery of Sheena's cancer in 1998, that I started
questioning what the vet had been telling all these years. He said there
was nothing that could have been done any different, I could not accept
this statement. I wish I knew what I know now, back when my dogs were puppies.
There are many factors involved in a dog getting cancer. I believe that
over vaccinating dogs, steroids, and dog food are a big contributing factor
in this disease.
I
have since tried to take my dogs off the raw diet, to try a holistic food.
I bought the SOLID GOLD line.
They have taken wonderful care that they took in researching what kinds
of things they put into it. This line of dog food does not use corn, soya,
wheat, meat by products, animal or poultry fats, brewer's rice, or white
rice. The have the most wonderful assortment of supplements you can add
to the foods, that I am using on myself personally. However, this company
did everything right with the care and research of what they make the food
out of, and totally forgot about what it tastes like. My dogs HATE it.
They have hardly touched this food in five days! If they hate the food
so much, I have to take them off it. I want them to enjoy their meals,
not eat them out of sheer starvation. I looked over the brochures, and
no where in these brochures do they say once, that your dog will love and
enjoy the food. This is really too bad, because it is all that I could
ever want in a commercial pet food. Then again, perhaps my dogs are too
picky. They won't even eat the food with other things that they liked mixed
in with it. I am really disappointed about this, and I also think that
Damian has an allergy to this food as well. The little amount he has eaten
has set his ears off again. Please do not think that this is a bad food,
but when you try it, don't buy a forty pound bag like I just did.
After
more research on this product and company, I would like to retract any
positive remarks I ever had on this food. I discovered that the woman behind
the product was incarcerated for lying about the ingredients of this food.
I still do like the Yucca powder, it works well, but I will never look
this company's way for anything else.
Vitamins
& Supplements
-
I
believe that there is no perfect dog food out there that give a perfectly
balanced diet. There are several things I like to add to my dog's food,
be it raw or commercial. Here are a few things that I like to give my dogs,
and a link or description as to what they do.
-
Sodium
Ascorbate: Also known as vitaminC.
Beneficial in joint and muscle growth, anti-virus, anti-aging, anti-cancer,
and anti-bacteria.
-
MSM:
Helps with air borne allergies, respiratory problems, mold, pollen and
dust allergies. Helps increase circulation, therefore good for joint and
bone problems. Also helps eliminate parasites from the body. A good supplement
for an older dog.
-
Solid
Gold's Sun Gold 75% Yucca powder: Yucca
has a 2000 year old history. It was used as a pain killer during
child birth and as an aid for soldiers, whom carried it around their necks
in pouches. For dogs, it is great for arthritis, bone or joint problems,
and tissue swelling. There is Anise which helps filter the kidneys and
liver. There is also peppermint which works as an endorphin and helps soothe
the stomach.
***NOTE***
I have used this product to alleviate the pain from Diva's Pano.
This product worked wonders with her. If you buy anything for arthritic
pain or pain from Pano, or hip dysplacia, buy this one.
-
Solid
Gold's Seameal powder: This uses sea plants
and trace minerals. This helps boost the thyroid and thymus glands which
control the immune system, hormone system, and and enzyme systems of the
body. It helps eliminate the red tinge on black coated dogs. It also helps
to rebuild the tissue systems, and helps in proper food digestion and absorption.
-
Flax
Seed Oil: Stimulates the immune system,
aids with easier calcium absorption, has, anti-tumor properties, antioxidant,
and helps liver and kidney functions.
UNDER
CONSTRUCTION
Please
come back soon...