Real Meat?

Husky626

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#1
My puppy is ~11 weeks old, should i start buying him real meat for him to eat? Should i feed him Milk?? Right now I'm feeding him some can food every night, the can food contain chicken taste only and no real meat. When I feed him the can food, i mix it with his dried puppy food. By the way, do they even sell real meat in canned food, I haven't checked since i bought a stash full of the no meat can food. Is it healthy feeding him the no-meat can food everynight??
 
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#2
Dogs are carnivores and they need meat, especially when they're growing. Ditch that stuff. You don't have to feed canned food; just make sure you're feeding him a high quality food that's organic and made from human grade ingredients. Or you can feed the BARF diet, or a home cooked diet.

Please, please, don't give him liver or kidney, though. The purpose of those organs is to filter toxins from the body, and they get caught there. The stuff - hormones, chemicals, ad nauseum - that's put into non-organic, commercial psuedo-human grade meat production is unreal - and poisonous. Beef heart is a good source of protein.

I don't recommend regular milk for puppies. I do, however, use a calf milk replace from the farm supply store for my pups since they're large, big boned dogs. It has all the good, nutritional stuff that strengthens bones and grows muscles, but all the fat is removed. The $20.00 bag will last several months.

Whatever way you feed, do your research so that he'll grow up to be healthy and strong.
 

RD

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#3
Just curious, WHAT is the canned food you are feeding that only has 'meat flavoring'??

I'd agree with Renee. Calf milk replacer is a good supplement (As a matter of fact, Renee, do you think it would do Dakota any good? I was thinking of picking up a bag tomorrow when I go out..) but milk easily gives them diarrhea.

I feed my dogs a raw diet (LOL right after I bought a $27 10lb bag of Innova I decided that raw was best. :rolleyes: ) and they do wonderfully on it. What I like most about it is that I KNOW exactly what they're getting, and i can 'tweak' the diet to fit my dogs. (For example, my papillon needs a diet very high in fat and protien, in order to keep weight on him, so I feed him a fatty cut of meat) I can also control the amount of a certain food that they get. My trouble with kibble is the high amounts of grains it contains. I feed a small amount of grain on rare occasions to Ripley, but mainly it's meat, bones, the occasional veggie and organ meat. (I was feeding tiny bits of liver for a while, but decided that even though he loved it, it wasn't worth risking a health problem) The only thing he doesn't get that I want to feed him is green tripe, but I just can't find it anywhere... :(

A home cooked diet is, IMO, equal to a super-premium, natural, organic food like Innova. But, with the home cooked diet, YOU have to figure out just what vitamins the dog needs, wheras with kibble it is easier to figure out.
 
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#4
Grace, I don't see how it be anything but good for Dakota. He's not going to be a big dog, but he's going to be a very athletic dog and will need all the bone and muscle density he can get.

I got tickled at your reaction to the price of Innova. I buy the giant bags, and they're a lot less expensive - only $36.00 for the puppy, a little less for the adult. One bag lasts me a week and a half, sometimes two, depending on the weather. I can't imagine the expense and sheer workload of trying to process and feed raw or home-cooked to my three. Can you imagine! And they say size doesn't matter. (lol)
 

Brattina88

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#5
Renee750il said:
I got tickled at your reaction to the price of Innova. I buy the giant bags, and they're a lot less expensive - only $36.00 for the puppy, a little less for the adult. One bag lasts me a week and a half, sometimes two, depending on the weather. I can't imagine the expense and sheer workload of trying to process and feed raw or home-cooked to my three. Can you imagine! And they say size doesn't matter. (lol)
Its funny how if you have one dog (for example) buying high quality dog food is expensive(!) and feeding a home made diet (which I've switched to for Maddie and Carly for those who don't know yet ;) ) is cheaper and full of benifits, but if you have huge beasts *hint,hint;who could that be?* the dog food is a lot cheaper. How does that make any sense? :confused: :D
 
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#6
LOL - and Charley insists that Shiva is a "reasonable sized dog" and Kharma will be a bit small . . . and worries about Bimmer being "delicate." Although he doesn't worry quite so much anymore after seeing how he's put the Fear in the pack of dogs across the road.
 

RD

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#7
And just WHAT does Charley consider to be a HUGE dog?? ROFL

I see what you mean, Renee.. Your girls would easily eat 3-4lbs of food a day if they were raw fed.. Not to mention that it would be SO time consuming!
As for the Innova.. WHERE do you get it so cheap?! I kind of cringed at paying that much, but this was the only place within 50 miles that sells Innova.. :eek:

I just have to chuckle at how you describe Bimmer as being 'small'.. I bet he's actually a good sized dog. (To people who don't have FILAS! rofl)
 
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#8
I think Charley would consider some Beast in the range of 200 pounds a "good-sized dog." (rofl) There are people - not too far from here - that actually breed 200 pound Filas (allegedly) but even Charley sees the folly of that kind of breeding . . . much as he likes the really BIG dogs.

I get the Innova in Knoxville at the Agri-Feed and Pet Supply on Middlebrook Pike. They're also the dealer for the area, so I guess that helps them keep the cost at a reasonable level. On top of that, they also give me a discount on a $40.00 purchase with the premium card the Knoxville News-Sentinel makes available to subscribers. A bag of food, a bag of cookies and I've essentially gotten free cookies!

As far as eating raw, they get to eat raw on occasion . . . they just have to catch it first! (rofl)

The people we got Shiva from had a friend who owned a slaughterhouse, so all of their dogs - including the puppies when they were old enough - got the remains that weren't processed for customers. Evidently this was a slaughterhouse that did mostly custom work, not a large commercial one. You should've seen those pups swarm at suppertime! They wanted to show us how well the pups ate, but I was cringing, thinking about a 2 hour ride back home with a puppy with a bellyfull of raw meat. I didn't have to worry about it for long - about 30 minutes down the road to be exact. Fortunately, I'd grabbed an old, worn out blanket and some old towels. :eek:

Bimmer only weighs about 60-65 pounds, depending on the season. Except for a few wolfy characteristics, he looks like one of the old, smaller GSDs that were bred - healthy, strong work ethic and great temperaments - years ago. He's actually extremely similar to the first GSD I had years ago.
 

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#9
Its ok to feed your dog organ meat as long as its not every day. I would say once a week is more than enough. However..heart is good and there's nothing wrong with feeding that on a regular basis...or gizzards..just avoid feeding LIVER and KIDNEY every day..that's a once a week thing if you ask me.

Anyways, not to get off topic. What kind of food are you currently feeding your dog? There is a difference between dry food and dry food. You can buy crap, such as IAMS/EUKANEUBA/pro plan/Science Diet/Pedigree/Nutro/Purina..

Good foods are: Wellness, Solid Gold, Wysong, Canidae, Eagle Pack...

If you want to switch to a home cooked or raw food diet, you need to do some research first, as you always have to make sure the diet is balanced..whether it be meat to veggies...calcium to phosphorus...or grains to meat (and yeah, its not BAD to feed your dogs grain..as long as you know what proportions to feed it in..I feed my dogs brown rice with their meat and veggies).

Good luck in your research.
 
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#10
Pitbulliest, unless you know the organ meats you're getting are organic, please, please stop feeding liver and kidney. Those organs, being filters, catch all the hormones, chemicals and various toxic trash that commercial meat is injected and fed with. Trust me on this one. You'd choke if you saw a list of the stuff the big producers want us little producers to bombard our cattle with before they even get it. Needless to say, we don't do any of it. We won't even talk about hormonal and antibiotic laced chicken . . .
 

pitbulliest

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#11
Well I barely feed my dogs kidney or liver anyways..last time was about two months ago for me..however I do feed heart occassionally...chicken hearts..not beef...I'm not sure how that works out..do you know anything about those? I know that they aren't used to filter toxins so I don't think I have much to worry about. Let me know what you think.
 

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#14
Ahh thank you that makes me feel better. I tend to use gizzards and hearts from chicken in my home cooked recipes for my dog...and yes I have purchased beef heart too my pittie loves it..thanks so much for your info :)
 
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#15
You're very welcome.

When I cook beef hearts for mine, I save the broth and freeze it, then thaw it out later and drown their kibble in warm broth for a cold weather meal. You should hear all the noises when they eat that! (lol)
 

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