If I don't want to feed my dog actual dog food what should I feed her?

Question

Please do not respond if you are telling me that I must feed her dog food! Thank you.

I recently found out that cartain products from the brand I feed my dog (nutro) have been recalled among MANY other brands. To avoid the risk, I would like to stop feeding her dog food completely. Any advice on how to do this, and what to feed her so that she gets all her nutrients?

list of recalled brands
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/17/national/main2581329.shtml

Answer 1

There is another diet option other than dog food. Some people choose to feed a raw diet. This involves feeding the dog raw meaty bones and organ meat. However it is not as simple as throwing a couple chicken bones in a bowl everyday. If you wish to feed this type of diet, do lots and lots of research first. Switching to this diet without knowing what your doing can lead to nutritional problems for your dog. I'll give you some links as a starting point in research if you are interested in this type of diet.

http://www.willowglen.com/barf.htm.........

http://www.bestfrisbeedogs.com/diets.htm...

http://www.rawlearning.com/rawfaq.html.....

http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.html.....

http://www.rawdogranch.com

What's Really In Pet Food
http://www.api4animals.org/facts?p=359&m...

I feed my dogs a raw diet. What they get each day varies, and it needs to varied in order to be balanced. Today they'll be getting chicken, ground turkey and some chicken livers.

I encourage you do actually do the research on this before buying into the OMG raw meat will cause this or that. There are risks with everything, look at commercial pet food right now, but with a raw diet if you practice safe meat handling your chances of something bad are very slim. As far as a dog choking on a bone, there isn't one document case of a dog choking on a raw bone and dying, while you can find several cases of dogs choking on kibble and dying.

Answer 2

It is never ok to give your dog our own food! Did you know that dogs are allergic to chocolate and grapes? Just a handful is enough to seriously make them ill! They also can't digest potatoes, which could lead to illness and again, death. If your dog has trouble adjusting, wean him on to his normal dog food. Feed him some as titbits at first. Then mix a bit in, gradually decreasing the amount of human food, and increasing the amount of dog food. Eventually you should be feeding him only dog food. If he likes to snack all the time, check on the dog food packet how much a dog his size should be getting. Always give him enough for the weight he SHOULD be, not the weight he is! (Chances are, your dog may be a little overweight!) Only leave his food out for 30 minutes. This will give regular meal times and the feeling of "you snooze you lose!" Always check with your vet about bad breath. He may have gum disease, rotten teeth or even something stuck in his mouth. Get him used to brushing his teeth. Again, use only dog toothpaste! Human toothpaste will harm him! My dog had bad breath, and it turned out he had cracked his tooth on a stick and old food had become packed up in the hole. It was really smelly, so he had to go under for dental work. Make an appointment with your vet for a weight check up and ask any questions you have. Ask if they have free nurse appointments to keep checking his weight. Good luck, and I hope your dog doesn't get too upset with these new rules! ^_^

Answer 3

Since your dog is new to home made dog food, a diet of mashed boiled chicken with cooked rice (what puppies are fed) would be a good diet to start with. Pick up a bottle of mineral/vitamin/oil supplements and add to food as directed.

My dogs vomit when they eat more than a nibble of raw meat, I tried a holitstic diet for about a week, raw buffalo meat, raw turkey meat, etc. My dogs became ill in a short time and I cut it off.

I do have small dogs and larger dogs can digest some things that small dogs just don't seem to be able to do.

Answer 4

Okay, this is a little bit complicated but it's a good solution if you are willing ot make the food yourself. I feed my dog a homemade version of Hill's Science Diet. I used their website to get an ingredients list and percentage ranking of the food I wanted to copy. I took this to my vet and she helped me work out the amount of each ingredient and what nutrients I needed to include to balance out the homemade food. It costs me about 40 bucks a month to do this but it is well worth it because I know exactly what I am feeding my dog. I make 2 week batches and freeze them into serving in ziploc bags and place in hot water about 20 minutes before I feed him. He absolutely loves it!

Answer 5

I feed my GSD's on boiled minced offal and rice and always have done, I also add oddments of veg- carrots, peas etc to the mix whenever possible.
To be honest it works out a darn sight cheaper than trying to feed 3 big dogs on tinned stuff.
I do offer them biscuits but to be honest they hardly ever bother with them, I usually end up throwing them away when they've been sat there a couple of days.
My dogs are all very healthy and happy.

Answer 6

Be sensible, it is still a dog and high grade products would be best - I've nebver heard of Dr Hills being recalled. You could always try feeding them chicken and white rice, but no matter what you feed it, it could have pitfalls, just be aware of it, Speak to your vet.

Answer 7

Hi,
Good question. Did you ever think of giving your dog vegetarian food? Sounds stupid, but many take it seriously and with good success. It requires some knowledge though. I found a CD-book on the Internet that is called "Vegetarian Cats and Dogs" by an American kind of animal expert. It was very interesting, and serious. But I have no pets so I haven't tried it out myself.
Once I even read a story about a lion called Little Tyke that refused to eat any meat (search on the Internet for "Little Tyke".)

Answer 8

I totally understand your thinking at this point in time. I'd defiantly check with your vet for the proper nutritional diets. I do know that when my rottie was sick a few yrs back, her vet had me boil hamburger and rice and feed her that. I also know that chicken meat...not bones..is very healthy for dogs as well...hope that helps.

Answer 9

You should do some research on the Internet. You can also ask the vet with a dog's daily intake of nutrients should be.

Answer 10

you can feed your dog some people meat you can feed it cheasse you can also feed your dog like a hot dog, stake,chicken but don't feed it with any sauce or not spicy.