opinions if I'm feeding my dogs properly

[mrgrimm]

I read through a lot of the posts in the several diet topics in this section, and it seems like most people are either completely BARF or are doing a good quality dry kibble, or a mix of kibble and moist. I'm not big on the completely raw diet, for one my pitbull WILL NOT eat raw meat! My rottie does but is messy with it (drops some pieces all over the floor, slobbering and licking at them) so I have been cooking the meat to a medium rare for them. They both seem to love it like this and chomp it down. I buy the stuff in the "green bin" that is coming up on the sell by date and get tons of good chicken and beef cuts for 1/2 price. It's afordable enough, and what I have been doing is dicing a mix of potatoes, broccoli, carrots, peas, etc. and stir frying that with the chicken, beef, a little liver, some gizzards here and there, ground turkey from the same local farm I get my chicken/turkey heads and legs from etc. I do not trim any fat off the meat either. I top it off with a little plain oats and some cheese a few days of the week as well. Every night I give them each a raw frozen turkey leg or a head and they completely destroy that as well. I cut the nails off and I cut beaks off but thats it. What do you guys, should I still give them a decent dry food to go along with this, or should I be adding a supplement? Both dogs run with me or my girlfriend a total of about 3-4 miles a day 7 days a week so they are getting pretty good exercise as well. I just want to make sure I'm giving them the best I can, because they look a little bit skinnier to me than they did a few weeks ago beofre I started this diet, but they are acting fine. Thanks!

[FransterDoo]

Got any photos? Asking since you say they are gettign skinnier.

At first glance this seems decent though your lack of paragraphs does make it hard to read.

What exactly is in your veggie mix?

[mrgrimm]

Sorry about that...I'm not seeing an edit button or I would go back and change it.

I can get some photos later tonight, I should have stated that I did weigh them last night and they are both down about 4 lbs in 3 weeks. I don't think they are at an unhealthy skinny yet, I just don't want this weight loss to continue much more and for them to be losing muscle mass as well. My girlfriend metioned it to me that they look slimmer so it just got me thinking.

Veggie mix mainly consists of broccoli, peas, carrots, green beans, spinach leaves, and potato, all cooked in a stir fry on stove top with a little cooking oil and water, no salt or anything like that.

[jamielvsaustin]

I thought vegetables were give to dogs as a weight loss option. Empty calories so to speak because their bodies couldn't break them down fast enough to get anything from them. I thought that the only way a dog could get any nutrition from a veggie was if it was put through a food processor. And the thinking behind this is that when dogs were wild they would eat meat and bones-no veggies, but sometimes the animals they ate had eaten veggies and had started to break down in the animal's stomach. If the dog ate the stomach of the animal they killed then they received nutrients.

[FransterDoo]

Tonight, when you are making dinner, weigh out what they get of eat thing (meat, veggie, etc) so you know how much they are getting of what. Without that, we'll have to make some assumptions.

I ask about photos because, honestly, the majority of people who join asking about their dogs getting skinny, had dog carrying too much weight in the beginning. BUT that could not be the case in your situation.

That being said, it is conventional wisdom that you need to food process veggies and fruits in order for a dog to get anything from the veggies. I do grind my veggies and such.

[mrgrimm]

gotcha, I did not know about mixing the veggies in a processor!! Thats got to be it then, makes sense now, I just still have a lot to learn but thats why I'm here. As far as weighing the food goes, I need to get a small accurate scale to size the protions properly, as it's just too hard to get an accurate reading while standing on my bathrrom scale with the pan of food, then just the pan, etc...not very accurate .

I feed them in the morning and in the evening, with about 1 lb of meat per meal for each dog, and 1/2 or 1lb. of veggies and stuff mixed in. No way to be sure though until I get the scale. I got the pics taken, now just give me a minute and I'll get them posted.

[mrgrimm]

Well heres the pics I said I would get, they are a little blurry must have had the camera on the wrong setting. My pit Rocko just looks thin to me, my Rottie Debo looks pretty good, but has lost several pounds lately. I'm going to scale back on the veggies until I get a processor.


DSC05349 by mrgrimm1, on Flickr


DSC05345 by mrgrimm1, on Flickr


DSC05351 by mrgrimm1, on Flickr


DSC05350 by mrgrimm1, on Flickr

[FransterDoo]

Well heres the pics I said I would get, they are a little blurry must have had the camera on the wrong setting. My pit Rocko just looks thin to me, my Rottie Debo looks pretty good, but has lost several pounds lately. I'm going to scale back on the veggies until I get a processor.

They looks fine to me. Most people haven't seen a really in-shape dog.

I would suggest grinding up your veggies and sticking to deep colors (red, green, orange, etc) so staying away from white potatoes and such.

Also give them a measure. but a pound of meat is fairly typical for a pit bull sized dog.

For comparison, here's my male pit bull at Christmas time. He's about 19" tall and 50 pounds. He eats around a pound a day.


snuggles by silly_wicket, on Flickr

[mrgrimm]

Allright, thanks for the reply! Just what I needed to hear and I will take your advice on the diet. Your dog looks great and the pic you posted to compare really helps out.

[Timas Mom]

Im not seeing any info on what bones you are giving.
If you are cooking the meat then it cant have bone in it.
For every lb of meat you need a min of 800mg elemental calcium. So 2 tbsp ground bone or 1/2tsp ground eggshell.

[pblove]

Well heres the pics I said I would get, they are a little blurry must have had the camera on the wrong setting. My pit Rocko just looks thin to me, my Rottie Debo looks pretty good, but has lost several pounds lately. I'm going to scale back on the veggies until I get a processor.

They looks fine to me. Most people haven't seen a really in-shape dog.

I would suggest grinding up your veggies and sticking to deep colors (red, green, orange, etc) so staying away from white potatoes and such.

Also give them a measure. but a pound of meat is fairly typical for a pit bull sized dog.

For comparison, here's my male pit bull at Christmas time. He's about 19" tall and 50 pounds. He eats around a pound a day.


snuggles by silly_wicket, on Flickr

he is beautifuol and perfect weight imo

[FBODGRL]

Im not seeing any info on what bones you are giving. If you are cooking the meat then it cant have bone in it. For every lb of meat you need a min of 800mg elemental calcium. So 2 tbsp ground bone or 1/2tsp ground eggshell.

^ This. Feeding cooked bone would be quite dangerous...so hope you are not.

[FBODGRL]

forgot to add...you may want to do some reading up on home prepared diets. I am not sure if it is like raw in the sense of varying proteins,red meat,etc. Maybe someone here knows.

[mrgrimm]

been busy for a while so havent been on the forum. To clear things up I was giving raw turkey bones, but have since stopped because they started puking some of the skin and stuff that was attached to the bone back up.

I have also quit cooking on stove top, and have moved onto boiling chicken, rice and lean ground beef and straining it good to rid it of most of the fatty oils/etc. I was battling some very watery diarrhea so I followed the Vet's advice and started boiling the above 3 I mentioned and everything cleared up in a matter of days. I mix 1 cup of Evo turkey and veggie blend and 1 cup of the boiled chicken/beef/rice per meal, per dog twice a day for now and it seems like it's doing good for the dogs.

I may up the amount to get some weight back on them as with that little spell with the runs they both lost some weight.