ok - I'll set another place!! How's Rhubarb Crisp for dessert?? ...only Max likes it teehee..:)
--- On Mon, 7/6/09, Darlene Garr <[email protected]> wrote: From: Darlene Garr <[email protected]> Subject: [eskiepeople:10726] Re: Food- Delete if you can't stand Cindy talking about evaluating dog food :6) To: [email protected] Received: Monday, July 6, 2009, 4:36 PM Marian, I'm on my way for dinner - sounds delicious!!! --- On Mon, 7/6/09, marian Lyall <[email protected]> wrote: From: marian Lyall <[email protected]> Subject: [eskiepeople:10722] Re: Food- Delete if you can't stand Cindy talking about evaluating dog food :6) To: [email protected] Date: Monday, July 6, 2009, 5:52 PM I pretty well feed all of mine whatever is on the table now and save the Kibble for those days when I have other plans... So far this week they've had salmon, broccoli, new potatoes, fresh green beans, chicken, brown rice. They've also had eggs on toast for breakfast - they like toast points, and a bit of fruit with it. Tonight we're having beef stew with beef from my friends farm, new potatoes, green beans, yellow beans, cubes sweet potatoes, carrots, again from the farm. And we'll have leftovers tomorrow. Thinking about pasta and meat sauce on Wednesday. For kibble I feed Natural balance light formula. For treats I make them a tuna or salmon fudge that they love and munch on frozen. I am really lucky in that all four of mine. I am beginning to introduce a bit of frozen raw from a local company and so far so good. Love fresh fruit and vegetables!! I grew up on a farm and the dogs and cats got a bowl of porridge and milk for breakfast, whatever they could catch in the fields, and leftovers for dinner - they were never hungry - although Dad always maintained that they were better off a bit hungry and none of them had shots and they all lived to a very old age...they also never got sick!! Sure does make you wonder. Yesterday Lillie came with me to pick up the meat at the farm and just went nuts when I put it in the car...sure don't get that reaction with store bought meat!! Nothing beats grade A quality food for my babes` Marian --- On Mon, 7/6/09, Cindy Capen <[email protected]> wrote: From: Cindy Capen <[email protected]> Subject: [eskiepeople:10719] Re: Food- Delete if you can't stand Cindy talking about evaluating dog food :6) To: "eskiepeople" <[email protected]> Received: Monday, July 6, 2009, 2:06 PM #yiv2137230487 #yiv1118685075 #yiv447972435 .hmmessage P { margin:0px;padding:0px;} #yiv2137230487 #yiv1118685075 #yiv447972435 { font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana;} There are quite a few high quality foods. I agree with Perry, they'll eat if they're hungry enough. If you only put down kibble, nothing at all else, it's not surprising that the dog might look askance. You might want to do homecooked a few times a week. I give 1/2 cup kibble, heaping tsp of yogurt or pumpkin 1-2 helping spoons of canned, some leftover chicken or salmon or something from our meals, also beans are a good inexpensice protein. I give a little garbanzo or kidney or black beans sometimes....like a teaspoon. I alternate canned dog food brands and proteins like Merrick's Natural Balance, Wellness, etc containing proteins like duck, buffalo, pheasant, fish, I've even given them tripe from a can after reading about it. They love it but it smells....strongly LOL. I do believe it's important to read the ingredients. If I'm satisfied with the ingredients and a dog doesn't eat my thought would be: the dog isn't feeling well, is bored with this food and would like a change or maybe there's a problem with this batch of food (like the recall), assuming there is some variety in what I add to the food. So if a dog won't eat, I'd look further. It's possible to get samples of food at some independent pet food stores to see if your dog will eat a particular one. You don't mention which Natural Balance you've been feeding, but alternating or trying the L.I.D. which I use is an option. Generally speaking, a vet or a pet store chain has little of the higher quality food or at least very few to choose from, -just not the variety that an independent pet store will have. Some you may want to google and read the ingredients on are: Solid Gold; Wysong; Innova; Merrick; Evangers; Wellness; Pinnacle; Orijen; Acana; Natural Balance; Prairie; Taste of the Wild. A few years ago I was told Nutro was the low end of the better dog foods. I just looked at Nutro and they have three chocies: Max, Natural Choice and Holistic. I would skip Max because the proteins are chicken and beef which may be allergens because they're common proteins.This is personal preference on my part, but your Eskie might do fine. The Natural Choice has a Lamb, a Herring and a Venison, but they include grains so if you prefer grain free or maybe only one grain, take a look at some of the other brands. Someone mentioned Hill's Science Diet. Here's a link to the ingredients in the A/Z product their vet sold them: http://www.hillspet.com/hillspet/products/productDetails.hjsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441760718 and pasted below Ingredients Dried Potato Product, Hydrolyzed Chicken Liver, Potato Starch, Soybean Oil (preserved with BHA, propyl gallate and citric acid), Hydrolyzed Chicken, Powdered Cellulose, Calcium Sulfate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Glyceryl Monostearate, Iodized Salt, Choline Chloride, vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid), Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), DL-Methionine, Taurine, preserved with Mixed Tocopherols & Citric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract. I had a bad recollection about BHA so I looked it up: BHA (bē′āc̸h′ā′) noun a waxy, white, synthetic antioxidant, (CH)CCHOHOCH, used as a preservative in foods containing fats and oilsNope, don't want BHA. Many dog foods are preserved with Mixed Tocopherols, a natural source of vitamin E, which is preferred. I can't recall ever reading about hydrolized chicken in dog food, so another uh-uh in my opinion. As far as what vets offer, keep in mind they have a relationship with Hill's and the other couple pet foods commonly sold by vets. It is much like human doctors have with pharmaceutical companies. In addition, I've been told vets on average have one course in nutrition. Bottom line, I don't believe in buying food from a vet, unless it's a holistic vet and even then, I'm going to read the ingredients. If you want some education on reading ingredients, go to www.littlebigcat.com and click on the free article library on the left and alphabetically see choosing a commercial cat or dog food. Oh, I'll just go get the link..wait a sec... http://www.internet4classrooms.com/msword_keyboard_ibm.htm (article on choosing a commercial pet food) http://www.internet4classrooms.com/msword_keyboard_ibm.htm (Free articles link at LittleBigCat.com-) The vet, Dr. Hofv, is a recently retired holistic vet and while she mainly writes about cats, a few of the articles pertain to dogs. If you're interested in supplements, I suggest reading the Biosuperfood article. If that piques anyone's interest, email me and I'll suggest a couple other websites. I currently have mine on Natural Balance L.I.D.. Either the fish and sweet potato or venison and sweet potato, because the duck gave Nikki gas and other than that, none of my Eskies has ever had noticeable gas. The L.I.D. stands for limited ingredient diet. It's grain free which I prefer...or at least I want a better quality like brown rice, quinoa, etc and never corn, which is a cheap filler that dogs can't digest any better than humans can. (But I still like corn on the cob :). http://www..naturalbalanceinc.com/dogformulas/SPFish.html The link is to Natural Balance fish and sweet potato. Because Nikki tends to be allergic, I use uncommon proteins. Most dogs, especially if you've adopted them as adults, have had chicken and beef and maybe lamb. They are less likely to have had fish, duck, venison,,etc. Alternating every couple months I've been told is a good idea, not to mention less boring for the dog. Of course doing some home cooking or adding some to kibble is a good idea. Remember, before "pet food" was invented, people fed their dogs some of what the family ate and I've read dogs and cats used to live longer than since "pet food" became the norm. Interesting to ponder. Cindy > Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 11:48:32 -0700 > Subject: [eskiepeople:10624] Food > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > > > Does anyone have any recommendations on a good food for my Eskie? > When I first got him he was on Natural Balance, but he really does not > seem to like it anymore. He is 1 1/2. I did get some samples of > Taste of the Wild (dry) that he seems to like better but was curious > if your dogs are picky too. All the companies of course say that > theirs is the best and I do want to give him quality food. Canned > food is almost impossible. He did eat one can of Nutro. I thought he > would love canned. Any ideas? The new Internet Explorer® 8 - Faster, safer, easier. Optimized for Yahoo! Get it Now for Free! __________________________________________________________________ The new Internet Explorer® 8 - Faster, safer, easier. Optimized for Yahoo! 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