For those interested after recent topics of conversation:

 

I found this very interesting and to the point

 

http://www.blakkatz.com/dryfood.html

 

http://www.thepetcenter.com/imtop/protein.html

Edited September 26, 200816 yr by KAZ

Another iunteresting point to note here though is that pet mince sold through supermarkets almost always has preservative 220(I think that's the number) in it. This preservative has been implicated as a cause of strokes in pets including my own cat s make sure that if you choose a meat diet that it is purchased through an outlet that does not use preservatives.

Brilliant articles Lib I am going to print those off to keep and read further.

Edited September 26, 200816 yr by KAZ
typos

Somewhere around there is a scoring system used to grade dry foods based on protein levels and the proportion of certain ingredients, etc., it's quite eye opening.

For those interested after recent topics of conversation:

 

I found this very interesting and to the point

 

http://www.blakkatz.com/dryfood.html

 

http://www.thepetcenter.com/imtop/protein.html

A very interesting read Libby. I totally agree with them. It wasnt until I bought my two pups last December that I googled "dry dog food" and discovered to my horror that it has virtually no goodness in it whatsoever. I make sure my pups eat chicken, dog mince (with no preservaties - from the local butcher) vegies etc and not much commercial dog food at all!

Edited September 26, 200816 yr by jenene283

My dogs get a variety. We cook up roo meat macaroni and vegies. Makes heaps and works out at $1.50 per 2 litre icecream tub. They also eat raw meat ( roo mostly ), chicken carcasses and necks, beef bones ( raw ) and raw egg and cod liver oil over their dinner twice a week ( for glossy coat ).

The cats virtaully get the same kinds of food...varied, cooked to raw. Biscuits or kibble is a very small part of their diet...usually just a half handful per day.

When I'm at work (checkout operator at Big W and hate it) and I see all these people buying huge bags of dry kibble especially the cheap and nasty ones and the tins of P#@ and C@#m) I get so damn angry I feel like telling them its no good for their dogs but I have to bite my tongue

Sorry but my carpet insists that my cat eats a premium dry diet, if she doesn't she gets the runs everywhere. In the past we have tried her on everything from straight mince of various types to tin muck and the only ting she settles on is the dry food. We did all this testing while we were staying at our old house and when we left we had to replace the entire carpet due to all the spot cleaning we had to do, I ain't going there again!!!

 

I agree Jenene and even if you have made the decision to use dry there are better brands for much the same price available through stock feed places. The brand I use for my dog costs about the same per kilo as homebrand and it is also the brand used by a large number of greyhound breeders. It is good quality, with what I have been told is a good proportion of the important bits in it. Heck, if people can race a greyhound on the stuff it's got to be halfway decent!

Edited September 26, 200816 yr by melbournebudgies

My guys get royal canin the reason is that is what SEDA give their dogs and I have seen an improvement in them since they get it. they do get once a week some tin stuff (normally what is on special) they like anything from a tin i know it's got little to no value in it for them but then either does Chocolate for me

I have a large bag of biccies in the shed they have free range to- then they get fresh roo necks/meat/bones, camel and various other meats we get at the box that week that I wont mention! Plus my ferrets and dogs get alot of whole rabbits that I get. (whole=whole, nothing done to it)

Always read the ingredients list on the biccies- had a look at a new brand today and there was about 6 cereals listed before they got to the meat by-product (meat meal- meat being whatever animal they have at the time.)

Plus having 4 large dogs in the backyard you can tell which biscuits are shite by the amount of it they deposit. Cheap biccies = busy me!! and a substantial odour which you dont get on a proper diet.

 

Dogs do eat an amount of plant matter in the wild in seeds,berries and grasses so to have grains/cereals added isnt too bad but its not something a cat does.

Cheers Lib- be interested to have a read of those links tomorrow

Hills is a very good brand of dog and cat food. It was originally made for animals with certain problems such as kidney disease, arthritis, food allergies etcetc, but now they have diets for healthy pets that are excellent. they also have foods for different breeds and lifestages, all scientifically formulated to produce healthier pets. Check them out.

Hmmmm I used to use supercoat but my dogs never ever ate it ....

 

They get table scraps

Rice 2 times a weeks

Chicken, Necks and wings

 

I gave my 2 previous dogs raw meat - But that lead to issues ( wanting more and shopping on their own free will with the neighbours, sheep and chickens & ducks ) so now i cook the meat and these 2 are spoilt rotten

Raw meat shouldnt make a dog do that- that is another problem altogether. All our dogs on the farm were fed raw meat and werent stock killers. Most of the farmers I know feed raw meat to their dogs, if there was any basis to this most dogs wouldnt be fed raw meat.

That is what I thought - But i think that it was a load of **** that i was told ....

They were put down after taking out a flock of sheep Oct last year ....

 

So I might go back to mince for these one then... Thanks Pie

I used to jog my dog with my neighbour while she rode her horse, one day we stopped at the farriers on the way home and the farrier asked if I'd like a bone for the dog.... I should have asked more questions before I said yes!

 

He came back with about half a horse leg including fur and hoof!!!! My dog proudly carried it all the way home. When we told my neighbours mother she was horrified and claimed that our dog was going to start attacking horses now

My little dog, Spunky, Is really REALLY fussy and will not eat any kind of dog food, other than those little itty bitty single serve MyDog premium with toppings

 

He mostly gets leftovers from what we eat - we eat quite healthy with rice, meat, pasta, veggies most days - he only gets the dog food if we eat everything or if we have something that is unsuitable for him. - tonight he had medium-rare steak and veggies

Edited September 27, 200816 yr by **Liv**