What kibble are you feeding?

[wolfsoul]

Thanks Glacier, that's where I found the place in town that may sell it -- though I have never seen it there so I'm going to have to call and ask. I bet they probably wouldn't have that formula (not alot of working dogs around here) but maybe they could order it for me.

I know what you mean about them losing weight fast. My dogs are so hard to keep weight on. At one point I was feeding Solo 16.5 pounds of raw food A DAY. Otherwise in perfect health. The vet says it just must be the amount of exercise they get as neither one had worms or anything. Since I'm now doing the raw and mixing in the kibble and feeding them each three meals a day and tons of treats in-between, Solo has gained a bit of weight, Visa still hasn't but I'm hoping she will. What can ya do...intact working Belgians with high metabolisms. My excuse: They says that underweight dogs live longer. Atleast it's true.

[Glacier]

I know what you mean about them losing weight fast. My dogs are so hard to keep weight on. At one point I was feeding Solo 16.5 pounds of raw food A DAY. Otherwise in perfect health. What can ya do...intact working Belgians with high metabolisms. My excuse: They says that underweight dogs live longer. Atleast it's true.

Wow! That's alot of food! That's why you'd be hard pressed to find a serious musher who feeds exclusively raw. It's just too hard to get enough fat and calories into a working dog. I supplement heavily with raw--mostly wild game, but the hard keepers especially, need the kibble too. I always giggle a bit when people say you can't mix the two. Every musher I know does it, usually in the same meal, without any problems.

I had to take Pacer to the vet this morning. They made me weigh him 3 times. He's lost 11 pounds since his last trip. The last trip was made in the off-season. This one he's just coming off his working season and is at his lightest weight.

I don't even have the intact excuse! All my dogs are altered and I still can't keep weight on some of them!

[wolfsoul]

Wow! That's alot of food! That's why you'd be hard pressed to find a serious musher who feeds exclusively raw. It's just too hard to get enough fat and calories into a working dog. I supplement heavily with raw--mostly wild game, but the hard keepers especially, need the kibble too. I always giggle a bit when people say you can't mix the two. Every musher I know does it, usually in the same meal, without any problems.

Totally -- I have tried and tried to keep with just raw, and it just isn't working to keep their weight up with their activity. Took me a while to realise that wolves in the wild running however many miles daily may eat only raw but they also eat an entire deer LOL.
As for mixing the two, I always used to be afraid of it -- you hear the "kibble may keep the raw back and the bacteria in the raw will make the dogs sick" theory. But my dogs tend to have loose stools when I feed them kibble, so the way I look at it, it's the raw keeping the kibble back! Dogs are dogs -- they will eat rotten things covered in bacteria and not get sick (my garbage hound is living proof). So I don't see the big deal mixing kibble and raw.

[crow_noir]

I just get over those mentioned problems by feeding raw in the morning, then feeding kibble in the evening. (When i have raw available.)

The problem that worries me though is the problem of kibble and raw supposedly being one opposite sides of the pH scale.

...
As for mixing the two, I always used to be afraid of it -- you hear the "kibble may keep the raw back and the bacteria in the raw will make the dogs sick" theory. But my dogs tend to have loose stools when I feed them kibble, so the way I look at it, it's the raw keeping the kibble back! Dogs are dogs -- they will eat rotten things covered in bacteria and not get sick (my garbage hound is living proof). So I don't see the big deal mixing kibble and raw.

[wolfsoul]

I just get over those mentioned problems by feeding raw in the morning, then feeding kibble in the evening. (When i have raw available.)

The problem that worries me though is the problem of kibble and raw supposedly being one opposite sides of the pH scale.

Unfortunatly feeding kibble alone gives my dogs diahrrea.

Kay -- they do say the more inconsistent the colour, the more natural the food is -- and I have found that this is correct when purchasing my own processed organic foods. Though since they said that wasn't the case, that really is weird. I tried Timberwolf when I got Visa and she had bloody diahrrea for the entire month of feeding it. I saved it for dogs that I sat and they all got bloody diahrrea too. I have been afraid of it since.

[Kfamr]

They did perfectly fine on it.

Jordan, it wasn't the color that bothered me the most, it was completely different kibble shape compared to the rest of the bag. Like the Innova I feed now, it's square-ish kibbles, not exactly the same each kibble - if I were to find a round symetric piece, with a different color in there I would be concerned.

[BC_MoM]

I feed my two Pedigree, and they do fantastically on it.
I no longer feed ANY type of canned food (and never will again), they get ham mixed in with their kibble.