what you guys think about the blue buffalo dog food. I feed mine the salmon recipe. Definitely notice a difference.
what you guys think about the blue buffalo dog food. I feed mine the salmon recipe. Definitely notice a difference.
How much do you pay for a bag? (it is pretty good food)
But the thing is for the price I can get it here for is more than feeding my dogs raw. So for me personally, blue buffalo don't make sense.
Yeah, its expensive. I also don't have many dogs anymore
Switch to a raw diet. once you find your rhythm with it you will be glad you made the change.
Have you tried the premium raw diet in my book Pantherman?Originally Posted by Pantherman
If so, how long did you do it and what did you think?
If not, give it a shot for at least a month, and I bet you never buy another bag of kibble again
Hey Jack just a quick question. I tried the raw diet outlined in your book last winter. Now looking back this may have been a bad time to try to switch but never the less these are the issues I ran into. Rather rapid weight loss accompanied by very loose stools. I did this over a 2 week period and I had some dogs loose as many as 4 lbs and in winter with the weather I had to abandon it. Did I just not give it long enough to settle witn the dogs? Oh I will also mention some seemed fine but over half of a yard of 15 did very poorly for those 2 weeks. I love the way the dogs look that I see in pics and on other yards that are on raw and I'm willing to take the time to do it.
I am not sure I have an answer for you Dave.
Perhaps we can start by asking 1) what were the weight ranges of the dogs you were feeding, and 2) how much of the diet did you give?
I have heard of a few people saying this, and (in general) dogs do lose excess fat when fed raw, which is the result of a no-carb diet, but severe weight loss shouldn't happen (unless they weren't being fed enough or had underlying problems).
My own experience is the stools are ROCK HARD, so maybe if you help me understand your situation, I could try to provide any feedback.
Jack
PS: I have switched every dog I've ever got back to raw, immediately, and never had any runny stools. I do know raw can cause problems with dogs that have coccidia, though, so it's possible your dogs had coccidia (without you knowing about it), and became symptomatic by being fed raw.
Yea I thought it was weird that only about half the yard experianced the runny stools. I even added yogurt with in the first couple of days to try to remedy that. My dogs are from 30-45lbs. I was giving larger dogs the thighs and smaller dogs the legs w/ 1/2 cup of juicer pulp, 2tbs yogurt, 1/2 rice, 3x4" peice of liver, and an egg every other day. Would switching back to kibble hide the signs of coccidia? Its been about a year since and still no signs of sickness.
Okay, now that you said that, you just weren't feeding enough IMO.
I give my 36 lb dogs a whole thigh, and I would give a 45 lb dog probably at least that + a drumstick, if not 2 thighs. (Only a dog < 30 lb, or a puppy, would get just a drumstick)
To that I would add a whole egg every day, 1/4 cup of gizzards/hearts, yogurt, 2 oz of oil mix, + veggie mix (I only give 3 tBsp).
If your dogs had loose stools, it could be too much rice & veggies, not enough meat. Typically, dogs fed enough chicken have extremely small, dry stools.
If it was coccidia, and it could have been, yes kibble could mask it because kibble has beet pulp in it which absorbs moisture. Coccidia thrives in a raw-fed environment and you're not supposed to feed raw to a dog with an active case of it. The thing about coccidia is you can NEVER get rid of it (much like babesia), so many dogs carry it without having symptoms. Even when you treat coccidia, the drugs are coccidostats, meaning they only stop the protozoa from reproducing so fast, but they don't actually kill the bugger.
So, yes, some dogs on your yard can have the symptoms while others don't. Also, some dogs can tolerate rice and vegetables better than others. If you feed massive amounts of chicken (no rice, no veggies) your dog will poop what look like rocks. If you feed only rice and veggies, your dog will poop a puddle, so I very much doubt the chicken was the problem ... probably too much vegetable matter and not enough meat.
JMO,
Jack
.
Thanks a bunch for the knowledge. I was unaware that coccidia could do that. I do feed a kibble though that is free of beet pulp, but I will try more chicken this next time.
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