Dog food Raw V Dry

[BDEE]

Sloppy V hard
Hard to pick up V easy to pick up
Stinky V not as stinky

Also an excellent point - All results of the fact the dog extracts more useful nutrients from raw, whereas kibb is a high percentage of empty stuff which dogs wont / cant digest / use.

 

[Stumble Bum]

RAW food does seem to be one of these recent fads that dog owners are quite fanatical over.

I have a Labrador retriever who eats anything, so she's been on kibble her whole life and at 7 1/2 years is still very healthy and active (though we do give her 'Yu Move' supplements to make sure her joints stay healthy)

Maybe it's changed recently but when we were getting puppies in the past, vets were generally recommending dry mix, and not to sell to me - just to enquire what we were feeding the dog.

Never once did they recommend a raw diet. I hadn't even heard of it until a few years ago.

Calling a raw diet a fad.... Dear oh dear. I've heard it all now.

 

[Semple]

Labs are literally dustbins

Ours would eat absolutely anything that was vaguely food like.

Same for dachshunds, ours eats anything you stick down infront of him.

We actually give him a mixed diet, he gets pouches of chicken/lamb/beef/turkey mixed in with a number of veg from Butternut Box for his breakfast, and then for his evening meal we give him Kibble.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Our 4 dogs (3X GSD's and 1 Springer) have only know a raw food diet. Ages are 9, 8, and 2x7.

MrsHB is very selective about what they get, they are her babies.

Interestingly, 2 of our GSD (Brother and sister) are from the same litter as the Mother in law (2 females) and they've only known a dry diet. Not only are the teeth on our pups substantially better, but in terms of physical size, ours, including the female is much larger in frame and height in comparison to her sisters that the MIL has.

 

[ttaskmaster]

Labs are literally dustbins

Everyone always says that... but ours isn't.
She will eat most things that are offered to her, but won't touch food unless she is clearly given a signal that it's for her.

For main meals, our three get raw food mixed in with various dog-safe fruits and veg, and some 'raw' biscuits, which are like kibble but made from vegetables and proteins and other similar safe stuff.
Everything is low in fat, as one of ours is susceptible to pancreatitis.
They also get occasional snacks of raw meat (chicken wings, and the like) and raw veg - Carrots are good for the teeth.

Being rescue dogs, when we first got them they had been fed on all the usual crap, like Winalot and Pedigree Chum and dry kibble stuff. They used to eat each others poo, but that stopped once we switched to raw food... the theory is that what came out smelt the same as when it went in, which was an indicator of the low quality.
The Lab can really hoover up food, but even she will turn her nose up at the cheap crap dog foods now - If even yer dog won't eat it, you know it's crap!!

 

[VincentHanna]

Everyone always says that... but ours isn't.
She will eat most things that are offered to her, but won't touch food unless she is clearly given a signal that it's for her.

That's likely down to good training though, not natural instinct.

Many of them have a gene which means they never feel full.

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news...lp-explain-why-labradors-are-prone-to-obesity

 

[ttaskmaster]

That's likely down to good training though, not natural instinct.

I wish I could say it was, but she's never been taught this.
She will certainly notice if there's food around, but will not go near it until she's called to. She has a very healthy appetite, but once she's finished her bit she goes off to do other stuff, and the training she has received was all attention-based rather than food rewards.

Many of them have a gene which means they never feel full.

Maybe ours skipped that bit. There have been times when she's just not been interested in food.

 

[Demon]

My only advice is that not all raw food is the same, neither is kibble and neither are all dogs.

Luckily we have quite a few dog people (breeders) in the family who show at crufts fairly regularly, so when we wanted a dog we had quite an overdose of practical advice, and obviously raw food was one aspect they are very keen on but they did say that not all dogs react that well to it and suggested if that occurred then they've also had great success with 80/20 and 50/50 more natural kibble (e.g. Akela and other less well known brands).. The most important thing is finding what works for the dog.. Some dogs have such a marked improvement when on raw that you'd be crazy not to.. but then some dogs don't..

We went through a bit of a journey with our Cocker Spaniel, firstly finding a good kibble (took 4 months, trying each for 2-4 weeks), but did get something he really does well on, then switched to raw for all the usual reasons but despite trying various options found he wasn't doing as well, we've had advice from family (They breed and show dogs) and even took professional dietary advice, but have ended up back on kibble / cooked meats / veg / fruit which works well for him.

 

[VincentHanna]

We're getting a Hungarian Vizsla at some point in the next year, and the breeder was banging on about raw food.

I don't have any space in my freezer at the best of times though.

 

[gary996]

My Vizsla has been on raw food forever now. He's 3 years old and the place that sells it is 5 mins down the road

 

[gjrc]

Sloppy V hard
Hard to pick up V easy to pick up
Stinky V not as stinky

wait so raw food makes for easier to deal with poops?

 

[flea.rider]

maybe it was the food you were feeding him ? ..https://www.millieswolfheart.co.uk/
my 2 get this but we also give raw mixed in .. but then ones 11st and the others 12-13st
they will do a 14kg bag in about 3 weeks

 

[flea.rider]

I wish I could say it was, but she's never been taught this.
She will certainly notice if there's food around, but will not go near it until she's called to. She has a very healthy appetite, but once she's finished her bit she goes off to do other stuff, and the training she has received was all attention-based rather than food rewards.
Maybe ours skipped that bit. There have been times when she's just not been interested in food.

most people don't feed there dog's right .. so they are not getting what they need ..hence they seem to eat all the time ..
but they just need those extra vits .. a good dog food 70-30 or 80-20 .. with no bad carbs(corn potato..ect ect) will satisfy any dog

 

[ttaskmaster]

wait so raw food makes for easier to deal with poops?

It might sound odd.... but actually, yes.
Ours generally leave quite solid and fairly low-odour deposits, compared to when they were on other foods.

with no bad carbs(corn potato..ect ect) will satisfy any dog

Potato is generally considered alright, long as it's cooked and in small quantities. Never raw.

 

[HoneyBadger]

MrsHB gets all her food from here, from the past 10 years. They’re quite close so we used to go pick it up from their house but now they have a unit and delivery service.

https://www.davidsdoggiedinners.co.uk/

MrsHB is good friends with them now. We spend about 100 a month for 4 dogs, excluding treats and toys etc.

 

[Snaggle]

New dog owner here and we went raw right from the start . 0 issues.. he loves it and although its a little more work i think its worth it . I can also confirm hard poo's makes the whole picking up and bagging so much easier . He is nearly 5 months now on same diet and no problems

 

[VincentHanna]

My dog does hard poos on kibble, so I'm not really getting that as a benefit.

 

[Dave Burton]

I was told by my cousin, who's a vet, that dry food vs wet food is a non-point, so long as it's a quality dry food, it's also better for their teeth as it helps with plaque removal, his teeth are pearly white in comparison to a neighbours similarly aged cockerpoo who's teeth are discoloured and it's breath HONKS! We have a 15 month old Cocker that will eat ANYTHING, living or dead, but he actually prefers the dry food all day long. We use the Step up to Naturals P@H own brand, anything else he will not touch, this also came recommended by a work colleague that has bred and shown at Crufts level, so there's some merit in there somewhere!

 

[Demon]

New dog owner here and we went raw right from the start . 0 issues.. he loves it and although its a little more work i think its worth it . I can also confirm hard poo's makes the whole picking up and bagging so much easier . He is nearly 5 months now on same diet and no problems

wait so raw food makes for easier to deal with poops?

If you get the right dry food, there is no reason for your dogs digestive system to not produce hard / less smelly poop.. That's a function of feeding them something healthy/compatible and there are dry foods that are healthy/compatible enough.

However, IME Most raw foods are healthy and on balance more likely to be compatible with most dogs digestive systems.

Once you have found the right food, dry or raw, then IME your dog will thrive on it, it's just easier to find healthy/compatible raw foods than dry.

I was told by my cousin, who's a vet, that dry food vs wet food is a non-point, so long as it's a quality dry food, it's also better for their teeth as it helps with plaque removal, his teeth are pearly white in comparison to a neighbours similarly aged cockerpoo who's teeth are discoloured and it's breath HONKS! We have a 15 month old Cocker that will eat ANYTHING, living or dead, but he actually prefers the dry food all day long. We use the Step up to Naturals P@H own brand, anything else he will not touch, this also came recommended by a work colleague that has bred and shown at Crufts level, so there's some merit in there somewhere!

It's just finding quality dry food A lot of mainstream brands are trash.. and our Cocker did not get on that well, lethergy, skin condition, eyes, all very noticeable after 2-4 weeks of feeding him various big brands, and some he just refuses point blank, which for a dog that will forage anything is quite bizarre!

We used allaboutdogfood (for the love of all that is holy, don't take that place as a bible for what is healthy for the dog, it has rules for it's analysis that some people take offence to, but it is a great resource for getting more information about the ingredients and is better than nothing) to help select dry and raw foods but it does show that there are a lot of dry foods with non ideal ingredients.

 

[Semple]

What actually is the definition of "raw food" - surely can't be feeding your dog raw uncooked meats.

Raw vegetables are about the only thing that would constitute as raw food.