What do your dogs eat?

[fooferdoggie]

Originally Posted by rbarata

Didn't knew about that. But they never had any problems.

its not worth the chance. Grape and Raisin Poisoning in Dogs | petMD | petMD
out last dog got high end canned and raw food when she started having problems and it kept her going longer then she could have. so our new dogged high endure food and fruit and veggies. helloes bananas apples most fruit cauliflower is his favorite broccoli squash and lots of others. they are his snacks and it helps keep the weight off.

[Arizona Jeanie]

Ty likes frozen green beans, but won't touch them once they thaw out.
Raisins, grapes and also chocolate are bad for dogs--not that the dogs won't eat them if they can get to them. My dad, when in his eighties, maintained his habit of hiding Hershey bars in his workshop, where the kids (all grown and no longer living with him and all on low sugar diets) wouldn't find them--until his standard poodle started finding and eating them.

[Leafmite]

The main food for the dogs is various flavors of Rachel Ray's brand of dry dog food. I have no idea how great it is for them but this is the only dog food I have found that does not give the American Eskimo stomach issues. We have tried nearly everything else. The raw food diet would be out because feeding the Eskie meat makes the Eskie violently ill.

We give our dogs Greenies for their dental health and the Eskie has no issues with them (Only the actual Greenies, though, as the other brands of dental bones made the Eskie sick). We also get the dogs Bark Box, a subscription box that has treats and toys. The Eskie has not had any issues with the treats even though at fourteen, the Eskie is done fetching or shredding so the toys go to the Malti-poo and my daughter's Westie.

Chocolate. While I know it is terrible for some dogs, thirteen and a half years ago, I had no idea it could cause issues and the Eskie really loves it. So, the Eskie and Malti-poo get a little chocolate if I have some. It is one of the few people foods or dog treats that doesn't make the Eskie ill.

The dogs also like peanut butter but forget trying to hide a pill in it. They eat the peanut butter and spit out the pill.

The Malti-poo is a picky eater but she rarely ever gets sick on any food. She willingly eats the Rachel Ray food which makes life easy. She also likes the Bark Box treats (unless they are sausage or pepperoni flavored) and loves the Greenies.

Currently, while my daughter is doing a residency, she and her Westie are staying with us. Her Westie needs a wheat-free diet. Fortunately, the treats in Bark Box are safe and Greenies makes treats without wheat and, though she eats a special dog good (that makes the Eskie ill), I have been buying the Rachel Ray food without wheat just in case the Westie gets into it.

Lastly, the kids and spouse love to feed the dogs at the table (which usually makes the Eskie ill).

So, that is what we give our dogs. I think they have a pretty good life, food-wise. Love-wise is another matter. The Eskie loves my youngest daughter more than anyone in the world and she is usually away at college. So, the Eskie is feeling rather abused. Nothing I do can make up for this terrible tragedy. Only my youngest, walking through the door, brings sheer joy to the Eskie. :|

[Arizona Jeanie]

Hiding pills is a whole 'nuther issue! My late great Bailey girl had that all figured out--peanut butter, cream cheese, hamburger, hot dogs, lard, commercial "pill pockets", she could always somehow sort out the pill and spit it out. I finally gave up and just pushed them down her throat with a treat for a chaser. She didn't really seem to mind that too much, and it was easier for me.

[Subrosa]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

The main food for the dogs is various flavors of Rachel Ray's brand of dry dog food. I have no idea how great it is for them but this is the only dog food I have found that does not give the American Eskimo stomach issues. We have tried nearly everything else. The raw food diet would be out because feeding the Eskie meat makes the Eskie violently ill.

We give our dogs Greenies for their dental health and the Eskie has no issues with them (Only the actual Greenies, though, as the other brands of dental bones made the Eskie sick). We also get the dogs Bark Box, a subscription box that has treats and toys. The Eskie has not had any issues with the treats even though at fourteen, the Eskie is done fetching or shredding so the toys go to the Malti-poo and my daughter's Westie.

Chocolate. While I know it is terrible for some dogs, thirteen and a half years ago, I had no idea it could cause issues and the Eskie really loves it. So, the Eskie and Malti-poo get a little chocolate if I have some. It is one of the few people foods or dog treats that doesn't make the Eskie ill.

The dogs also like peanut butter but forget trying to hide a pill in it. They eat the peanut butter and spit out the pill.

The Malti-poo is a picky eater but she rarely ever gets sick on any food. She willingly eats the Rachel Ray food which makes life easy. She also likes the Bark Box treats (unless they are sausage or pepperoni flavored) and loves the Greenies.

Currently, while my daughter is doing a residency, she and her Westie are staying with us. Her Westie needs a wheat-free diet. Fortunately, the treats in Bark Box are safe and Greenies makes treats without wheat and, though she eats a special dog good (that makes the Eskie ill), I have been buying the Rachel Ray food without wheat just in case the Westie gets into it.

Lastly, the kids and spouse love to feed the dogs at the table (which usually makes the Eskie ill).

So, that is what we give our dogs. I think they have a pretty good life, food-wise. Love-wise is another matter. The Eskie loves my youngest daughter more than anyone in the world and she is usually away at college. So, the Eskie is feeling rather abused. Nothing I do can make up for this terrible tragedy. Only my youngest, walking through the door, brings sheer joy to the Eskie. :|

My vet is seriously old school, and he says that while it is indeed poisonous, a bit of chocolate is good for an older dog's heart. The same could be said for most medicine.

[Leafmite]

Originally Posted by Subrosa

My vet is seriously old school, and he says that while it is indeed poisonous, a bit of chocolate is good for an older dog's heart. The same could be said for most medicine.

I think at our Eskie's age, it would just be cruel to deprive her. She deserves the little perks in life as she is really a great dog.

Pills. I do the same (shove it down their throats and then give them a treat). They must be able to smell them even with the 'disguise.' Thankfully, except for the rare time or two the dogs have gotten injured or ill, it is only once a month (heartworm).

[Mountaineer370]

I have two dogs, both Dobermans, a female who is ten and a male who is nine. When the male was a youngster, he would get regular digestive upsets, and we worked a long time to find food that worked for him. I actually ended up making my own home-made dog food for about a year. Fortunately, he kind of outgrew the digestive issues and I didn't have to do the home-made anymore. I would have done it forever if I had to, but it was very time-consuming, and fixing and storing home-made food for two large dogs took up a lot of space in the freezer!

I now use dry food as a base, and have for many years, but I use lots of different toppings and add-ins. My female has a chronic heart condition and takes several pills both morning and night. She's not too bad about taking pills, but I do have to at least put it in something tasty. So in the morning, I usually add a couple spoonsful of either yogurt, cottage cheese, or even sour cream (their favorite!) and just press the pills into that soft stuff.

For the evening meal, I supplement the dry by splitting a can of wet food between them, or I may top it off with The Honest Kitchen (a dehydrated food that you make by adding water). Again, the moist stuff makes the pills palatable for her.

I tend to try to give a variety of add-ins and toppings on a regular basis. They get a variety of good stuff in moderation (what some would call people food but which I like to call just good food), like vegetables, fruits, cheese, certain leftovers from our meals, scrambled eggs, sardines or mackerel (watch the salt content).

My feeling is I'd hate to think of eating the same exact thing every day of my life, so I'm not going to subject my dogs to that either. Plus, I feel like I'm hedging my bets nutritionally, since I don't trust any commercial dog food manufacturer to provide every micronutrient my dogs may need over their entire lifetime.

It's been mentioned already, but I think it's worth repeating. Certain foods like grapes, raisins, chocolate, onions, and others can be poisonous to dogs. It's easy to find out which ones on an Internet search. Also be sure they don't ever get a hold of any gum or other substance with the artificial sweetener Xylitol. That stuff is very toxic to dogs.

[Optimist]

For the past 5 years, I have been feeding them dry food in the morning and wet canned food at night. I really do not understand how this can be good for them. Recently, I have started feeding them meat and scrambled eggs in the morning, and the canned food at night. I am trying to transition them back to the "BARF" diet I had them on when they were puppies. My economic condition has gone down-hill since I first got them. In the past, I would cook hamburger, liver, and any cheap meat I could get, add shredded carrots, and other vegetables, and add some brown rice and crock pot it, and then divide it in bags and freeze it. I used to add a powdered bone meal made for this purpose to it as well. Then I would thaw a baggie of the "mush" overnight in the refrigerator, and use it for the day.

My cat has a sensitive stomach, and ends up vomiting dry food up. I have started her on only raw meat, and she is able to digest that better. My thought is that dogs are omnivores, so they can take some carbohydrates, fruit, vegetables, but cats are obligate carnivores and only should eat meat. So why am I trying to make them eat dry kibble which is mainly starch fillers? I don't know. It also (believe it or not) is cheaper to feed them real meat.

My brother's cat is overweight due to eating lots of carbohydrates in dry catfood. I think feeding him (the cat) a meat only diet would also be good and get the weight off.

Both cats love raw meat and eat it gladly.

Raw meat diets also keep the animals from having tarter build up on the teeth, and give them a lot more "good fat" that is needed for health.

I am on a ketogenic diet myself, and am in very good health.

[greenpassion]

Obie and Loki eat better than I do I think. I put about 1/2 cup Salmon formula kibble from Zignature in each dish, add warm water to make 'juice', then add 1/2 tsp raw unprocessed LOCAL wildflower honey (this has literally elimated any allergies that Loki has had, especially in the fall) then I add fish oil (from a gel cap that I puncture with a pin), a big spoonful of wet food which is ONLY meat and water for processing. No weird unnecessary ingredients. THEN I add either raw liver or beef or pork in, cutting it up to match the size of the kibble.

It sounds like a ton of food, but for each dog, they get about a cup and 3/4 in their dishes. They eat once a day, and then at night when I get home from work I'll give them another little blob of the 'just meat' soft food, and this is really because Loki is on pain meds, and he'll gobble this up (really more like vacuum it up) never knowing the wiser. He has to have meds 2x"s a day, so this works well.
I realize this sounds like quite a job to make this up each morning, but really it takes me 5 minutes, and while I'm making it, I've got one spinning in circles (Loki) and the other jumping up and down (Obie) in anticipation!

[Optimist]

I'd give my Italian greyhound a whole raw chicken wing and she would crunch and crunch till the bones were broken to fine sherds, without breaking the skin of the wing, and then gulp it down whole. It was scary to watch and I was sure I had killed the dog, but she ate it without any negative results.