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Can I do this? (Food q)


gooeydog

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I'm in the market for a meat grinder (have to get a better paying job first, as I'm poor at the moment), so I can make the dogs' food, but in the meantime, think I've found a way to switch them from kibble while keeping my nerves intact. They're currently getting soaked kibble with canned food mixed in, occasionally with some fresh, lightly cooked (small-ly cubed and poached) meat in place of some of the kibble. The canned food is Neura 95% meats (made by the people who make wellness), and I've recently upped the amount of that from 1/2 can to 1 can, decreasing their kibble amount. I realized last night that the amount of meat in the canned food isn't that far off from what Goo'd be getting on fresh food (she's right at 50 lbs, so going by the 2% rule, around 1 lb meat, she's already getting 12oz), and that I could probably manage (financially) to feed the Neura food only with fresh veggies, etc, cutting the kibble completely out of the picture.

I just don't know if this is an acceptable way to feed, am I right in thinking that I could just substitute the Neura for real meat for now, at the same amount, or is there some other way to figure this out? And is there a concern with too many vitamins/minerals from the food already having "fake" ones in it, then adding real ones from fruits/veggies as well?

I'm thinking that if I can pull this off, it would work out well anyway, as I can't see myself packing dead chickens to take on vacation :lol: nor my mom cooking for the dogs when I go away, so even after they're switched, I can keep a few cans around for emergencies when I can't feed them the "real" stuff.

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gooeydog, your plan is fine. it's even possible to feed kibble and raw as a mix if that is what you want to do. some people claim it's a bad idea because of different digestion rates, but that is completely untrue. :) in very rare cases an individual dog may have some difficulty adjusting, but the whole thing about digestion times differing so much is an old wives tale.

diarrhea can be both detox or stomach upset, some animals just don't take well to change.

it is incorrect that too much pumpkin will worsen diarrhea. there is absolutely [b]no[/b] such thing as a "pumpkin overdose" and it works as well for loosening up constipation as it works for firming up diarrhea. you need to find the dose that works for your own dog, but don't worry about giving more. it's rich in vitamin K and A (in form of beta carotene, so no danger of toxicity). many people i know use a mix of canned pumpkin and cultured yogurt as a filling for frozen kongs.

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[quote name='Ravyn']I know that you can't make your dog 'sick' by giving it too much pumpkin, but if it has diarrhea and you give it too much, it WILL make diarrhea worse.

I guarantee it. I've experienced it.

Like an orange flood...[/quote]

that might be true for an individual dog, but it isn't an automatic thing that is guaranteed to happen to every dog. some dogs can't even tolerate pumpkin and it doesn't work for them at all, even in small doses.

banana is an alterantive that usually works pretty well too.

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Thanks guys, this is helpful :D

[quote]I take it you're switching from kibble to raw/cooked?[/quote]
Well, she gets some fresh cooked meat in with some of her meals, though I haven't done it much lately because she'd been having some digestion issues due to food change, and it seemed the fresh meat on top of that was just not helping. I'd like to eventually get a bone/meat grinder and use that to grind fresh meat that I can feed, either raw (not likely to begin with that, as one of the dogs is senior and I worry about her adjusting- I know it shouldn't be an issue, but she's already prone to belly issues, and her age on top of that makes me like all of these put together :o :-? :drinking: ) or lightly cooked as I'm doing now, along with other fresh foods. The time before last that I added any substantial amount of fresh chicken (one of the meats she does well on in foods, and I've fed both with her normal meal and 12 hrs from, makes no difference), she had the runs for several days (and was reluctant to eat during that time, which led to her losing some weight when she's already pretty scrawny), the pumpkin usually helps, but it didn't work at all that time, I had to give her actual meds for it, which I hate to do. The most recent time we've done meat add-ins, I added less meat, and mixed some pumpkin in with her food as I added the meat, so as to stay ahead of the game, and we didn't have any problems, she was eating the food without pumpkin within a few days and had solid poop. I was only feeding that meat to get it used up so I can buy more, but I think that when/if we do make the switch to all fresh foods, it'll be a gradual one, as I worry about her being able to tolerate that sort of thing again, and the worst incident occurred when I gave more chicken than usual without gradually working up to it as I had before, so I can only imagine what it might be like switching cold turkey :o

I do have another question though,
[quote]many people i know use a mix of canned pumpkin and cultured yogurt as a filling for frozen kongs.[/quote]
Doesn't freezing the yogurt kill of the bacteria? So would this be counterproductive since the reason for feeding cultured yogurt is for the probiotics? Just wondering, as I sometimes end up with the dogs' yogurt going bad (Goo doesn't like it, and will refuse her food if I put it in there for more than a day of two in a row, so I have to feed it on different days to fool her), and it'd make it a lot easier if I could just freeze some of it.

One more, when I do start adding veggies and fruits, should I feed combos of different things every day, or only one type per day? I'm planning on blending and freezing the veggies/fruits, so either way would be no problem, just curious as to what's considered the norm. I'm thinking a variety, but not quite sure.

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[quote]Doesn't freezing the yogurt kill of the bacteria? So would this be counterproductive since the reason for feeding cultured yogurt is for the probiotics? Just wondering, as I sometimes end up with the dogs' yogurt going bad (Goo doesn't like it, and will refuse her food if I put it in there for more than a day of two in a row, so I have to feed it on different days to fool her), and it'd make it a lot easier if I could just freeze some of it.

One more, when I do start adding veggies and fruits, should I feed combos of different things every day, or only one type per day? I'm planning on blending and freezing the veggies/fruits, so either way would be no problem, just curious as to what's considered the norm. I'm thinking a variety, but not quite sure.[/quote]

it can kill off some of them, but if you don't freeze for too long, it'll be fine. heat destroys more than cold.

as for the veggies, you can either use one kind at a time, or a mix. personally i make batches of 3-5 kinds of veggies that last 2-3 weeks. for one i might use carrots, broccoli and yellow squash, and the next time zucchini, sweet potato and green beans etc.

the batch i made today had broccoli, sweet potato, yellow squash, white potato, sweet potato and tomatoes. :)

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