Hey all! Feeding your pet and keeping them at a healthy weight can be VERY difficult . . . especially with the wide array of junk food being passed off as "healthy diets" that line the pet store (and your veterinarian's) shelves.

In addition to being a dog trainer I have a good bit of nutritional training for both canines and felines. If I don't know the answer to your questions I can ask the pet nutritionist that we have on staff.

My own dogs eat a homemade raw diet. I'll be more than happy to discuss that with anyone interested. A raw diet is more of a lifestyle change and if you're not ready for that, no problem. I'll be happy to guide you in the right direction for good pre-made raw, freeze dried, kibble, etc.

Just let me know what you need. I'm always happy to help people along in finding the right food for their dog!

-Lys

Hi Lys, Just wondering what your opinion of Canidae dog food is? I changed my two poms over to that about a year ago and they seem to be doing fine. Just curious.

Canidae is a food I recommend for anyone who wants to feed their dogs a higher end food, but don't have the money to spend on Innova, Prairie, etc.

What did you switch them from?

I highly recommend this site for dog nutrition: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/ This site gives a compilation and ratings of the best food for dogs.

I own a 12lb Yorkshire Terrier and she currently eats Innova dry food and 1/3 can of Evangers wet food daily.

I just joined 3fc, but pet nutrition is something I have become obsessed about over the past year. I feed my two cats a homemade raw diet. One is a diabetic and the other has Inflammatory Bowel Disease, both are issues with a very strong link to diet. Since I switched them to a raw diet, both conditions became controlled. My diabetic needs no insulin and my IBD cat is now a regular pooper (most of the time) - thankfully!!! She also has brain damage that makes her very uncoordinated and an uncoordinated cat with diarrhea is pretty awful

BP

Oooh! Raw feeders! My crowd!
I've been feeding raw for about 8 years now (as a Vegetarian, myself, this has been a pretty funky thing). The dogs are happy and healthy and that's what counts to me!
Just curious, Lys, about where you are in MA...I used to live there (now in PA).
--Sue

Hi threegreygirls!

Got any pics - I love sighthounds! If I ever find myself with the space and $ I'd love to get a GSD and a Greyhound.

Sometimes I wish I had access to cheap meat like you do in the US. Feeding my two cats runs me about $40 a month. I'd go broke feeding three big dogs

BP

BoPeep -- Oh, do I have Pics!!! I love to take pics of my babies. Of course, they often appear to have white or green glowing eyes. And red eye removal doesn't work for the dogs. Bummer. When I figure out how to do it, I'll post a couple here.
Do you know anything about raw feeding cats who have HIV? A friend of mine has a cat with feline HIV and I had told her about raw feeding -- but I didn't feel comfortable pushing the raw thing once I heard that, since I don't know much about feeding raw.
Thanks for any info. --Sue

If you want know how to post a photo, PM me and I'll tell you how to do it.

Raw and FIV (HIV is Human Immunodeficiency Virus, FIV is Feline Immunodeficiency Virus) are controversial. There are two schools of thought on this particular issue. The first being that since the cats are immune compromised, they will be more likely to get sick if exposed to something in the meat that would normally pass unnoticed. The second school of thought is that since raw feeding is overall much healthier for the cat, that their overall health will be better and their immune system will not decline as quickly. Both schools of thought have very valid points.

Since you're a longtime rawfeeder, you must already know that the vets and vet universities are overall pretty negative towards raw feeding in general (especially in the US), and all their advice about feeding a FIV+ cat follows similar thinking. I think that I would continue to feed my cats raw if they were FIV+, but I would be very careful about what I fed them. I'd completely avoid all ground meats, and any sort of beef or chicken. I'd probably stick to things like rabbits and quails, and if I lived in the US, I'd probably be a frequent customer of rodentpro.com.

Your friend probably isn't likely to want to switch to raw. When you're dealing with a sick pet, you don't want to take any chances, and if she isn't familiar with raw and the myths surrounding raw feeding, then she'll probably figure it isn't worth it. I've done a ton of reading on it, and so I'm pretty confident about what to do and what not to do, but I wouldn't recommend feeding a FIV+ cat a raw diet unless the owner was also willing to do similar reading.

BP

i would not recommend a raw diet for FIV cats (fyi..its not HIV..simialar but different disease). FIV cats. like HIV humans, are immunocompromised...therefore they are more susceptable to diseases. Raw diets can have issues to them..and therefore may increase the risk to the animals health. I am one of those vets who aren't yet sold of raws diets, at least for sick animals). I think for any animal that is immuncompromised...you are taking a chance in having the animal obtain something that it may not be able to handle. I'm not dismissing it 100% for other animals..but not for those with severe issues like FIV.

fyi bopeep...you'd be surprised...greyhounds don't need a lot of running room. Most greyhounds that get adopted out become very big couch potatoes after leaving the track. I know many greyhounds that live in apartments and/or houses without a yard. I love greyhounds..that will be my next dog when its time to get another dog.

gatorgal - I know about Greyhounds being 60 mile an hour couch potatoes I can't have any dogs right now because my landlord forbids it and because my mother would get one if I did - she's got an established habit of getting pets then getting rid of them when they become inconvenient. I love her, but she's not a responsible pet owner

And raw feeding a FIV+ cat is very controversial! No ifs ands or buts about it! No studies have been done to prove weather it is safe or harmful, and since quality control for a raw diet test is impossible, a study would not be worth the paper it was written on. I know of two FIV+ cats that have seen an improvement in their health since switching and I also know of another cat that declined and died. There's no way of knowing if the diet harmed or helped for the cats I know - the dead one did not have a necroscopy, so immediate cause of death was not determined, and the living ones might have seen an improvement in their health anyway. Their virus loads have not been closely followed because that's expensive testing here and few can afford it. So - no way to tell. I would not recommend it for most people (a raw diet needs to be fed properly, and for an immunocompromised animal, that can be a bit trickier), but I would support it if the owner was feeding properly and avoiding meats that *might* be more risky. As I said, I'd probably feed that way if I had a FIV+ cat, but I'd have to see what the cat was like and be willing to be flexible. If the cat were in the subclinical stage, I would do it without hesitation, but if the cat were in the chronic stage, I'd get back to being flexible. Fortunately that isn't a decision I have to make right now, but I expect it to come up at some point since I mostly adopt cats with cerebellar hypoplasia, and most of those are born to feral mothers - and feral communities have more FIV...

BP