What's For Pet Dinner?

[bestthingever]

For my small dog's, I boil a large breast chicken, shred it and mix it with boiled rice. I get about a weeks worth of dinners .. During the day, he munches on Ians healthy naturals' lamb and rice (has done wonders at eliminating his joint stiffness problem it seems)..

For the cats, they are all addicted to meow mix original. I've tried to get them into better cat food brands but they just don't want them, even new kittens when they are old enough to eat will avoid their kitten food and go after the meow mix, and only the original one..weird but least they picked a brand decent priced enough I guess since we have way too many permanent kitties around

This sounds like a good idea for my Shih Tzu. She's the only one of my dogs that has a sensitive stomach.

My cat only likes Purina Naturals dry food. Like you, the premium brands don't interest him, nor do any of the wet foods I've tried. Silly cat !

 

[Happy Domino38]

I felt the exact same way when the Breeder handed me her 'approved diet list'!! Especially when it was raw CHICKEN backs!! I was worried about some of the bones puncturing a part of her intenstines or something, but the vet was all for it!

Here's a bit about the green tripe..

Green tripe retains an attractive odor dogs love. This odor is literally “washed away” unless the tripe is green. Benefits for the dog include noticeably better coats, more luster and shine no more flaky skin, richer color, etc. Other breeders rave about how white the dog’s teeth are and the lack or need for dental attention. Most breeders will comment about their better stools and are impressed with their increased vitality and energy levels.

Why is green tripe so healthy?

Since tripe is taken from cow’s stomachs, they receive nutrients from grasses and grains that have been already processed naturally by the cow's stomach system. Also present within the tripe are naturally occurring gastric juices, amino acids and live enzymes not found in processed or cooked foods. These gastric juices are excellent cleaners for teeth. Amino acids are necessary for proper muscular development. It is also an excellent source of protein, fiber, fat and delivers equal calcium to phosphorus ratios. Green tripe also contains Lactic Acid bacteria, also known as Lactobacillus Acidophilus which is a good intestinal bacteria and a main ingredient in probiotics

 

[bestthingever]

Thanks, Domino. 'Spose I coulda looked that up myself, but was feeling lazy.

So then, green tripe is different from regular tripe. And you don't feed it as a treat, but as their main evening meal ? Where do you get it ? I've seen tripe in the grocery stores (shudder), but I don't think it was 'green'.

 

[Happy Domino38]

We get ours from a local butcher shop BTE!! And nope, not a treat, it's half the evening meal anyway..one 'sandwich' Ziplock bag size of the green slime with a single chicken back.

Now, THOSE are relatively disturbing to listen to, all the bone crunching!

 

[juicefreak]

i forgot to mention, the reason we started grinding chicken 1/4's is the thigh joints of a chicken have the most natural glucosamine of any foods that i am aware of. We bought an electric grinder and do about 30lbs at a time, tub it and freeze it.

I've seen it bring back older arthritic dogs from crippling pain to painfree puppy like behavior.

we grind because i got horrified by the bone crunching too lol. ours comes out like ground beef.

 

[jj2]

Once a year, around the fourth of July, Buddie gets a steak. It's a RW thing. Nothing like seeing a grown man cook and cut up a sirloin tip.

Yes he is a veteran.

 

[Stephaniems]

I don't do raw basically because of my kids, I don't like the idea of them petting and perhaps getting some of the raw food on their hands and then getting sick from it. I use a good dog food enhanced with omega vitamins. Also I watch how my dogs behaved and looked on it when I switched. I've been concerned about the stuff they stick in dog food for along time now. When I was in high school and was out of a job for a few months all I could afford was the cheapest crud at the store, it made my dogs hair fall out within 2 months. So now I cant go cheap when it comes to my pets. Yes my parents were not the greatest.

I also give healthy leftovers to them. Cats get whatever their picky little behinds will eat, and if I buy the same food 2x's in a row they will start refusing it, since they believe theyve had it too long.

 

[bestthingever]

Since reading this thread, I have officially started my 3 labs on raw chicken daily. Right now, they are getting raw chicken wings as a mid-day snack, and raw chicken backs (with some kibble on the side) for dinner. The crunching sound is a little intense until you get used to it ! Today I also bought some raw turkey wings and necks, so we'll see how that goes....I wish green tripe was available in my area, but so far I haven't been able to locate any.

 

[geeker]

@MSmusicstudios

Those pups of your are downright adorable.
The looks on their faces...priceless!
I'd better be quiet with my admiration, because my big yellow doofus will be jealous.

 

[Drozd]

we feed our pug/beagle mix merrick (specifically the wilderness blend).... just really like the company overall the quality of their food (both wet and dry) and the overall feel and vibe of the company (they donate a bag for every dog adopted from their local humane society, send your dog birthday cards and coupons if you're registered with them, etc).

As for feeding them better quality foods with no filler...it's true in theory...they don't need as much to keep them fit and active....but they will try to eat more of it because they like it better, so it'd definitely not a put the dish down and let them free range for the day... expecially with heavily food motivated breeds..

 

[Klynn]

I feed my 20 month old puggle girl raw chicken quarters, pork necks, etc, other meats that I find on clearance, ground beef, beef heart, beef mixed with green tripe. She LOVES anything! I was a little concerned about bones too when I started, but she loves those too and no problems. I joined a pet feeding co-op on yahoo - there's prob one in your area too, so everything is a little more reasonable, including dehydrated food (she gets that too, sometimes).
My cat is a different story. I've had him 5 years and he'll ONLY eat kibble so far. I'd like to get a little moister food in him, but ... he's a cat. (And no way am I going to get into whole rabbits, mice, etc.) So far, I haven't found a canned cat food he'll eat. Or a dehydrated cat food.

 

[Drozd]

I feed my 20 month old puggle girl raw chicken quarters, pork necks, etc, other meats that I find on clearance, ground beef, beef heart, beef mixed with green tripe. She LOVES anything! I was a little concerned about bones too when I started, but she loves those too and no problems. I joined a pet feeding co-op on yahoo - there's prob one in your area too, so everything is a little more reasonable, including dehydrated food (she gets that too, sometimes).
My cat is a different story. I've had him 5 years and he'll ONLY eat kibble so far. I'd like to get a little moister food in him, but ... he's a cat. (And no way am I going to get into whole rabbits, mice, etc.) So far, I haven't found a canned cat food he'll eat. Or a dehydrated cat food.

have you looked at/tried the merrick canned cat food?... that stuff is crazy...I know I sound like a rep or something but seriously... many of their canned dog foods if you didn't know better you'd think were soups (like the wingaling which has chicken wings cooked on the bone in it)....but their cat food is the same....
and one of our cats is picky, she won't even eat canned tuna...but will whoop on the other cat for this stuff...

 

[Klynn]

have you looked at/tried the merrick canned cat food?... that stuff is crazy...I know I sound like a rep or something but seriously... many of their canned dog foods if you didn't know better you'd think were soups (like the wingaling which has chicken wings cooked on the bone in it)....but their cat food is the same....
and one of our cats is picky, she won't even eat canned tuna...but will whoop on the other cat for this stuff...

I haven't tried Merrick yet, but that will be my next effort (putting it on shopping list). I did get some Prairie Homestyle ... he licked up all the sauce, left the chunks, and threw it all up the next day. My prob is he's been eating kibbles (Solid Gold Katz-N-Flocken) most of his life and he doesn't like change. lol He's got quite a history, in February he was sick for the first time in his life, an x-ray showed that all his internal organs, that should have been in his abdomen, were in his chest in his heart sac. Immediate surgery and he's a new cat. If a very expensive one. But, I couldn't even think about not giving him the chance of life. It was up in the air, no guarantees, they didn't even know what they would find when they opened him up. The amazing thing was it was congenital (sp) and they were all surprised that he lived that long. He's fine now. Even adaptedd to letting Chloe (the puggle) come live in 'his' house.
Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Drozd]

I haven't tried Merrick yet, but that will be my next effort (putting it on shopping list). I did get some Prairie Homestyle ... he licked up all the sauce, left the chunks, and threw it all up the next day. My prob is he's been eating kibbles (Solid Gold Katz-N-Flocken) most of his life and he doesn't like change. lol He's got quite a history, in February he was sick for the first time in his life, an x-ray showed that all his internal organs, that should have been in his abdomen, were in his chest in his heart sac. Immediate surgery and he's a new cat. If a very expensive one. But, I couldn't even think about not giving him the chance of life. It was up in the air, no guarantees, they didn't even know what they would find when they opened him up. The amazing thing was it was congenital (sp) and they were all surprised that he lived that long. He's fine now. Even adaptedd to letting Chloe (the puggle) come live in 'his' house.
Thanks for the suggestion.

no problem...that's the dry food that our cats get too...lol...but on occasion we give em a bit of moist food here and there...
I understand about the very expensive cat comment...with us it's not the cats but the puggle...he likes doing dumb stuff that requires vet trips often...

but if you want to check out ingredients and stuff before even buying it check out their website merrickpetcare.com they give the ingredients for each of their products and the nutritional breakdown as far as the calorie content, crude protein, fat and fiber breakdown..and they have about 15 or so flavors so it's easier than standing in the store and reading cans..

here's to finding something he likes...

 

[beebopnjazz]

Dakota eats Blue Buffalo - I mix the fish/sweet potato with another (if he get his fish he leaves the cat food alone (for the most part). He does get table scraps - mostly meat - the little granddaughters give him stuff though or they drop it on the floor - took a while to figure out why he was gaining weight- when they were babies he used to park himself under their highchairs - have you ever seen the caloric value of mac n' cheese? OMG!

The cats were eating Iams but I found out they've been bought out by Proctor and Gamble. So I switched them to Blue too. They do eat canned food too - half of Oreo's diet is canned (he's 4.5 yr old rescue) - the two old kitties (14/15) don't get as much canned food - Mr. Morgan is a sumo-kitty (think size of an 18 lb turkey) - I call him tubby. Fine' is slender - she begs for more food - I give it to her and I turn around and she's letting tubby eat it (he won't push her out of the way - he's not aggressive) - she also knocks things down off the table so tubby can lay on whatever it is (sweaters, coats, bath rugs)

 

[jj2]

Buddie totally gets flipped out over storms and fireworks. As you can imagine, it's been really bad lately. This results in a nervous stomach which means she eats grass. THEN she barfs it up---yuk!
Besides watching her like a hawk all the time she is out, anyone have any ideas how to stop the grass munching? Besides drugs that is.

 

[o4_srt]

We feed our dogs (1 unknown mix, 1 german shephard/golden retriever mix, 1 king charles cavalier) merrick before grain.

Corn/filler doesn't do much but make them poop everywhere all the time. MUCH better after the switch to merrick. In addition, the bags have a ziploc seal built in, no more food container in the corner of the basement, food gets sealed after every meal.

 

[jj2]

O4, your doggie upset at something? Or just playing.

 

[o4_srt]

O4, your doggie upset at something? Or just playing.

nope, they are playing their favorite game: "Bite my face"

 

[jj2]

Well, they certainly get into the game.

Buddie does that when her & hubby are rough housing. If we have company, they actually back off to keep out of danger.