Commercial, homecooked or raw dog food?

Question

Do you feed your dog store-bought dry kibble/moist canned? Do you cook home meals for your dog? Do you feed raw "BARF" (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food)?

Why?

Answer 1

i feed my dog homemade which i recently switched to because of all the tainted dog food

Answer 2

Hi, I cook up a pot of chicken or chicken livers along with some wild rice and vegies and mix it with a good quality dry dog food. I wait until chicken goes on sale and the livers are only one dollar.  It lasts for four days in the fridge and my dogs just love dinner time at our house.  They never leave a crumb, I have 5 wonderful and healthy dogs.

Answer 3

I don't use raw food because:  It's messy & kinda gross, I don't have that kind of time, dog food companies have spent YEARS and YEARS making appropriate foods for dogs - of which there are a LOT of choices.  And, I have two friends whose dogs died from wolfing down the meat fed with raw diets.

I give my dogs kibble, with a little bit of canned food for flavoring.  

I don't cook for them, but I do mix our leftovers & scraps in with their food.

Answer 4

I feed them bought dry food because that's what the guys from the breed told us, they gave us a brand name that they have been using for years. Sometimes, as a prize, we also give them yogurt or some serrano ham (I'm Sapnish) but always at meal times and in their dishes so that they don't ask for food, and they don't. They are very healthy so far. Some times when using another brand, they started losing hair...

Answer 5

I feed Canidae which is a high quality dog food available at limited places.  Most foods bought at the supermarket are all the same low quality types.  I wouldn't feed them to a goat!  Raw and home cooked can be very good. You have to be quite diligent when cooking your own or feeding raw that you are providing all the nutrients necessary for health.  Cutting corners can result in dietary deficiencies. They are also quite time consuming to produce. Time I don't have.  I have too many animals to care for to be cooking dog food also. I am confident in the quality of Canidae. It has human grade food ingredients and rates an A+ on the dog food testing scale.  

Answer 6

I feed prey model raw, differing from BARF in that BARF uses veggies, prey model doesn't. Dogs are carnivores and don't really need and can't efficiently digest plant matter.

I feed it for several reasons, most important my dogs are doing awesome on this diet. they look great and are full of energy.

One of my dogs Bindi has struggled with weight since I got her as a puppy. She always comes out healthy at vet visits. Most of the problem was she just ate very little food. Even on the highest quality kibble she wouldn't put on weight, her coat was dry and brittle, and her teeth looked like c**p. (She's only 2)

Now on raw, she actually eats, and enjoys eating. She's put on weight, her teeth look good, her coat is soft, shiny and healthy. She looks awesome, she's more focused. Its been a complete 180 from when she was kibble fed.

Max my lab, loves the chewing action he gets with his food. His black coat glistens. His teeth look great for a 5 year old dog that's never had a dental at the vet. He to is able to focus more now, and his energy level screams puppy.

My puppies were put onto raw at 6 weeks old. They look great, their coats are so soft, they don't have that typical puppy pot belly.

Bonus with all the dogs, they digest so much of what they eat cleaning up after 6 dogs is easy. Their poo is so small, and dries up in the sun and crumbles to dust in a day or two. And holy cow the grass in the dog area is so green and thick.

Aside from all the benefits I've found for my dogs, I got sick of recalls, formula changes, and bad distributor storage. Even if you find a high quality food you never know if the warehouse stored it properly. Take a look at Petco a few months back with the FDA raid. The warehouse was full of birds and rodents. Petco tried to comfort me with Well we always return anything that looks like its been gotten into.

This diet is also easy once you get the hang of it. And only as expensive as you make it. Last month I fed everyone for $60. I look for sales and stock up, I put ads in papers to buy people's excess meats, and I get freebies now and then too.  

Answer 7

Definately raw.

My dog has only ever eaten raw food.

Tonight he had a raw mutton leg!

I dont feed B.A.R.F as such or Prey Model but maybe a combination of both.

My dog gets a carcass meal half the week and the other half he gets meat with offal or eggs or vegies.

I also give raw fish.

I always give seaweed or kelp 3 times a week, this has a powerhouse of nutrients that are fully digestable for a dog and highly beneficial.

My reasons why?

It's a long story but I was interested in raw food as a healing modality in humans first and spent a long time researching how it prevents and heals many ailments.

I had been to raw food institutes and spoke to people who used it in their cancer treatments. I found it extremely fascinating and I saw how it reversed the aging process.

So when I got my dog a bit over 2 years ago there was no doubt in my mind that I would feed raw.

I had spoken and become friends with a vet who endorsed it and the rest is history.

If anyone is interested in feeding raw I highly reccommend a book called 'Work Wonders' by Tom Lonsdale.

You can read it in a night and is a wealth of info, I love his philosophy, carcass based diet with some vegie matter.

take care.

Answer 8

I feed a commercial diet- grain-free Blue Wilderness, since it is the most practical for me.  I was feeding EVO but it is very difficult to reliably find it on the road; Blue Wilderness is easier to find, and almost as good :).  I am an OTR truck driver and due to being on the road most of the time with my 2 small dogs, it is impossible for me to home-cook or feed raw.  

When at home, they get an occasional turkey neck, oxtail or raw meaty bone as a treat.  If I'm laid over somewhere, I have been known to find a local grocery store I can squeeze the truck into, buy some chicken necks or giblets, and go find a nice grassy area where I can sit and read a book with my dogs on-leash, so they can enjoy their treat on the road.  

I'll also occasionally do a "freezer stew"....by taking any of the leftover meat I'd frozen and probably won't use due to being freezerburnt. I'll buy some veggies and sweet potatoes or use any I have on hand, and make a catch-all "stew" for the dogs.  They love it, and it never causes any tummy upsets when I add it to their food....if anything, it helps the state of their digestive tract and the veggies help clean 'em out a little!  

I mix it with their food, and I can fit a couple big tupperware bowls in my truck's refrigerator where it lasts about a week and a half.  So sometimes, they do eat a mix of homecooked/commercial on the road.  

If I was at home all the time, I'd switch to BARF in a heartbeat, as I think it's one of the best diets you can feed a dog.  But, we all do the best we can given our individual circumstances :)

Answer 9

store bought dry and wet food

why? because its easier

they only home cooked meals my dog gets are left overs.