Need Food Advice...
Hi Everyone,
I've been having a hard time deciding what to feed my new Shiba puppy Daisy who will be here on Thursday...
My other dog, a 9-yr old Pomeranian, has been eating The Honest Kitchen for years now with raw Grassfed Angus Ground Beef added in at every meal. He never tires of it and he's in great, great health, everyone thinks he's a pup still and I credit alot of it to this diet.
I was thinking of feeding Daisy THK Embark and perhaps adding in the Ground Beef and/or boiling her salmon and other fishes, but now I'm not so sure since I've read recommendations about Orijen or Timberwolf Organics. Also read that Shibas do not take well to beef either, but am not sure, seems to be mixed... Does anyone have any suggestions or experiences to share?
Also, can anyone recommend a good fish oil to be added into her diet?
Thanks in advance!
Comments
It sounds like you have already been feed your pm really good stuff. Your breeder will likely have her eating some other food already, in which case whatever food you decide to feed her, you will likely have to transition her slowly to whatever you choose to feed her.
Moto never eats beef. No particular reason. He eats a lot of fish, turkey, and lately I have been feeding him some raw dry bison as a treat. The cats have also moved in on this action. Now when I give him a bison treat, they are sitting right next to him waiting for him to share (which amazingly he does!).
But, I digress. I am sure some of the other folks here will have some great specific advice. And I am sure Daisy will make it very clear what SHE wants. Shibas are good at that.
Welcome to being owned by a small but mighty dog.
I don't have much to add other than that my shiba eats beef without any trouble, which is good because I live in Alberta (famous for beef). Also, I like to just feed fish rather than adding fish oil, assuming your pup wants to eat fish. My shiba loves whole, raw trout.
I have an honest question for everybody. When I got my Shiba the breeder was feeding her chicken soup for the puppy lovers soul and said that if I could not find that to feed her Purnia Pro Plan puppy chow. Then I got my Kai pup a few months later and I started feeding him Purina Pro Plan puppy chow as well . Since then a few weeks ago I switched to Iams puppy chow and my shiba has been very fusy about it and she has been barking at night for random reasons such as in the kitchen and keeping me and my husband up. I am thinking its because she does not like the Iams food and is hugry and has even been trying to eat the cat food and the cat poo. I have noticed that everyone in this forum that has talked about what they feed their dogs has mostly been about raw diets or a special type of food that you cant get at the local petsmart and that is hard to find or more expensive. Since I am semi-new to having dogs, are the brands that you get at the stores all that bad? I know that there was the whole recalled food thing (thank god I didnt have my dogs then) but since I am new to it I am uncertain what to feed them since I have been reading what you all feed yours.
Please give me some advice and thoughts. Thanks!
What I would suggest is first look at the ingredients of the food you are feeding your dogs. If the first ingredient isn't chicken, or salmon, or beef, but some meal or grain you may want to consider switching them. Also if it says "anything" by-product or "meat" but does not specify the animal from which it comes, again you may want to consider switching.
The foods that everyone mentions here often, are indeed more expensive than your average foods. However if they are going to promote optimum health for your furry family member, minimize their health issues, and lengthen their lives, obviously it is worth it's price ten fold.
Dogs especially primitive breeds are not built to digest grain. So many dog foods now are all grain based and therefore nutritionally inadequate.
For years I was feeding my pets Nutro. I thought I was providing them the best food possible. Then there was the recall. That scared the hell out of me. Then I met a guy at the dog park whose dog was the healthiest looking animal I had ever seen. His coat was radiant! I asked him what he fed his dog. He told me he was a hunter, and often fed him the game he killed, as well as vegetables from his garden. Otherwise he would go to the butcher shop and feed him about $100 a week of fresh raw meat. I said I could never afford to do that. His argument was the same one I give for why I am vegan, that was "It's cheaper than chemo".
I started doing some research. and asking questions. You will see, Rachael and I both posted discussions similar to yours, asking what and why people fed their dogs.
I have since switched all my animals to Orijen, and supplement with raw bison, turkey and salmon. Moto eats less now. Poops less now. His poop barely smells. And his eyes stopped oozing green stuff! My vet now teases me that Moto eats better than she feeds her children. He is my child.
Check these sites
Orijen
Innova EVO
The Honest Kitchen
K9 Cuisine (they do free shipping too)
I hope this helps. I am sure some of the other folks here will have lots of other awesome suggestions as well. I know some people have taken their dogs to veterinary nutritionists with success.
Best of luck!
You know the funny thing is, I took Keira my shiba to puppy class a few months ago, and I asked the trainer (I went to the puppy class at PetsMart) what she recommended for puppy food. She said "Honestly, if you want to talk dog food I DO NOT RECOMMEND ANYTHING HERE" I was shocked because up until the dog food scare I thought what was in those bags were good enough for them. They seemed legit up until she said she has been doing reseach on dog foods for years and if I wanted to talk dog food to ask her after class because she didnt want to get in trouble with PetsMart because she isnt supposed to suggest brands out of the store. Up until then I had no idea, or herd such of a raw diet for dogs. I thought it was quite funny actually but reading all of your posts about foods it makes sence. If most people are starting to realize that then why are pets stores not selling the brands you guys have menchaned and just use the basic Iams, Pedigree, Purnia? I am realizing now since Keira has been so fussy that maybe the puppy food is all that bad, I mean she is eating cat food and cat poo...eww.
Dogs like cat food because it is high in fat, and if it is a cheap brand, it has probably been sprayed with rancid fat to make it more delicious for the cats.
There are a lot of good dog foods out there, they just aren't at petsmart or the grocery store. Pick up the Whole Dog Journals review for wet and dry foods that they did at the beginning of the year. That is a great starting point. They also did a 5 month series on home cooking and raw for your dog.
I have Nemo on Solid Gold Barking at the Moon at the moment. I switch between that and Timberwolf Organics Ocean Blue. Both are grain free formulas and he does well on them. I'd like to get a third grain free in there, but Nemo does not do well on poultry. I might check out Inovas EVO Red Meat for his next bag.
I do not feed raw, sure he gets some raw chunks of food here and there, but for the most part I don't have enough freezer space to buy in the bulk that I would need to make it affordable. I wish I could lavish him with $100 a week worth of raw meats, but I literally cannot afford that. I do use supplements with his kibble diet. I currently have him on three supplements from Standard Process, their whole body support, enteric support and immune system support. They are great products that were developed in part by a holistic vet I have taken my cat too. Luckily enough I have an in-law who works there so I score all of these for free, hopefully she works there forever.
In my experience, the bigger chained pet stores don't have very good selection. My favourite pet stores have always been the smaller, locally-owned chains. If you check on the websites of any of those foods, they should give you a list of retailers.
As far as vets and dog foods - vets get sponsored by dog food companies, so if they have Science Diet posters up all over the place, it really doesn't mean anything other than they're getting money from Science Diet. The vet schools themselves are also sponsored by pet food manufacturers.
I know how tempting it is to just throw the food away. Don't. You will still need to ease them into the change, otherwise they can have all sorts of gas and diarrhea. Start by mixing about 25% of the new food into their regular food. Do that for a day or two. Then mix 50/50 for a couple days. Then 75% new food. Then you can switch completely.
And I learned the hard way that almost all dogs, LOVE cat poop. I consider it additional incentive to keep the litter box really really clean.
Moto LOVES Orijen 6 Ocean fish formula.
.Don't feel naïve, this is exactly why this forum is here - to help people who want to learn. I think most of us started feeding our dogs the bad stuff then found out how bad it was.
We feed Orijen and RAW w/ lots of supplements to our pack. Orijen makes a good puppy food and you will probably see a big change in you dogs skin and general health if you switch to a more holistic food. There are a lot of different choices out there now and most have already been outlined above - so I am not gonna add much more.
Well I did it. I ordered some Origin puppy food from K9cuizine. Thanks everyone for helping out.
What do you guys give your dogs as far as treats and chews go? Do you stay away from the kind at the store or get the kind from that website? Mine love these treats called Goobers which are shaped like a peanut and smell like peanut butter. They absolutely LOVE them. Keira my shiba is starting to get very fusy with treats and her food, and thats the only kind she seemes to like anymore. She even fusses about doggie bisquets. I wonder if its a female shiba thing or a shiba thing all together? Kenji my Kai will eat anything and everything. He wont fuss about anything you give him. lol. He even eats fruit or veggies which she just looks at me like "you cant be serious, i will not eat that" look.
It's expensive but I buy it. Jason and I are vegan, and to be honest the idea of my house smelling like meat kinda freaks me out. It is the thing that holds me back from going completely raw.
I even make my poor husband feed our snake, it is just too much for me to handle.
As for treats, Nemo will eat anything, so I can buy whatever, but I try to buy ones that are healthy. I look for a short ingredient list and ingredients that are real, no "mono this" and "hydrogenated that". Nutura puts out a treat line called Mother Nature, they are affordable and a nice quality, Nemo likes them a lot. He also like the Plato Duck Strips (not cheap) and I cut those up into really tiny pieces most of the time, more bang for the buck. A kong filled with peanut butter is his favorite treat though, but he doesn't get those to often, as it isn't the healthiest. I also dehydrate sweet potatoes for him and he loves those. Blue Dog Bakery makes some nice treats and they are big supporters of dog rescue, they always send a boatload of treats for the picnic I run every year.
A local store here, Bad Dog Frida, has a lot of natural and organic treats that you can order, or get the brand name from.
http://www.baddogfrida.com
Shiba puppies are the cutest puppies that exist.
Too bad she wasnt on a spay/neuter contract and I just got her spayed =-( They would have had some cute babies =-)