Job Discussion Forums

[Guy Courchesne]

Here's what a can of pedigree says. This is a US product, imported to Mexico.

"Pedigree, with chopped beef - is made with real beef and formulated to retain the moisture content of the ingredients..."

The ingredients...

1. Sufficient water for processing (?)
2. Chicken by-products
3. Pork Meat by-products
4. Chicken
5. Beef
6. Fish
7. Citrus Pectin
8-16 are chemicals or minerals
17. Dried Yam
18. Onion and spices
19. Garlic (explains dog breath)
20+ preservatives

I wonder what a chicken by-product is if chicken is mentioned again. Then again, maybe I don't want to know.

[Fatcat]

As with children, everyone raises their own pets differently and has their own opinions. Of course, NEVER give a cat or dog chocolate. I kicked someone out of a party out once because of this. However, my cat did accidentally get into quite a bit of chocolate this Christmas, wrappers and all, and it didn't seem to bother him inthe least. I think it's more lethal for doggies.

I don't give my dogs chicken or turkey bones because they splinter. We do give them rib bones and those big, round, beef bones used for soups. Frozen or cooked. They love 'em!

I've also been told that when choosing dry food for either feline or canine it's a good idea if the first 3 ingredients are real meats, not processed stuff. This can get expensive, but it's easy to see why. I also give my cat wet food on occassion because my vet told me it's good to lube up the urinary tract. And, I'll admit, I do give him milk, but hey, it's the Fat Free kind.

Speaking of milk, is there Fat Free, Reduced Fat, Whole, etc. available in Mexico or is just leche?

Fatcat

[FoxandMe]

[Guy Courchesne]

[Cdaniels]

Here's a list of ingredient for many dog foods.
Although corn is more common than soybeans, rice is more common than either.
http://www.iei.net/~ebreeden/kibble.html
Do I detect a socio-political slant on your views about pet food companies Foxandme?
Yeah, there's deceptive advertising in the industry, but its in the best interest of these companies to maintain pets' health. Even more so the vets that recommend certain brands of food.
I would be afraid of bacterial diseases in Raw Meat, not just common parasites. Its going to be hard to convince me that raw meat is better than premium dog food.
BTW ordinary canned tuna drains vitamins from cats. Tuna cat food contains taurine and extra vitamin E, and less unsaturated fat to make it suitable for repeated consumption. If pet food companies were unconcerned about pets' health, I think they wouldn't go to such lengths to make tuna safe for cats.

[snorklequeen]

my female German shepherd got a huge bladder stone -- not a gall stone, not a kidney stone -- a bladder stone. who wudda thunk it? hers weighed 12 oz. -- it's unusual for a dog to have only one, and usually there are a bunch of them. it had the texture of coral -- yikes! the vet showed it to me after the surgery -- just a little smaller than a brick, and white

i did some online research to find out what causes them -- there are a variety of types. the one she had was caused by her blood being too alkaline. my vet suggested giving her something to acidify her blood -- so i now give both my dogs a couple of ounces of cranberry juice each day in their dinner. if you guys can't get cranberries there, you might not have access to the juice; in that case, you could try OJ or grapefruit juice

it's esp. important for female dogs to drink a lot of liquids, and you can add fruit juice to the dog's diet to increase their liquids intake, or a combo of fruit juice and milk; my first golden retriever was crazy about OJ + milk

the bladder stones tend to recur, in most cases, my vet said; she recommended buying a very expensive specialized dry dog food to keep it from coming back but another vet told me they often recur even if you pay $40 a bag for a 40 lb. bag of that dry dog food; the cranberry juice is much cheaper. online, it also said that it was important for those dogs with this kind of stone to have more protein, so i added that, too; it's been 2-1/2 years and no stones have returned! hooray!

i've paid the vet about $125-150 to cure a bladder infection in a female dog; that was in 1984 US dollars and includes 2 vet visits and all the meds; the total cost for removing the bladder stone [including all office visits, all meds, all lab tests and x-rays -- which did NOT include a CT scan -- and the surgery] was about $1,000 US

i'm glad you guys are enjoying this thread! i was truly surprised to see it had gone to 2 pages so fast; i didn't know so many of you had pets


Queenie

[bryan_s]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned it along with the discussion about fruit; citrus is bad for dogs. My beagle would turn-up her nose at it. As for chocolate, it is the number 1 poison in dog deaths (google it compas). Regarding the raw vs. cooked meat idea, if dogs had opposible thumbs, they would BBQ their kill first. Yes, it has less vitamins, but also has no live bacteria.

Live bacteria = bad (except in yogurt???).

[Guy Courchesne]

[Cdaniels]

"Cats fed a diet containing excessive amounts of tuna can develop steatitis, also known as yellow fat disease...
Tuna fish, and many other fish species, contain relatively large amounts of unsaturated fats. Although health-minded people eat fish to decrease their consumption of saturated fats, the excessive unsaturated fat in a cat�s diet may be harmful." http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=450509
The real problem is when people try to feed their cats tuna only. An occasional can won't hurt cats, and much less likely dogs. In the wild, cats eat live mice, eggs and small, freshwater fish. (not milk or cream, which can also bad for their health) Dogs in the wild eat just about anything they come across.

[Elise9]

OK - lots of contradicting info here...
so I'll just add to the confusion I guess by telling you all that I have a VERY healthy dog who eats mostly raw meat and bones, with a little bit of kibble, though only "premium" sorts. By very healthy I mean sh'es never been to the vet for anything except injuring her tail while swimming, and getting porcupine quills stuck in her nose.
She eats gound beef, raw eggs, soup bones, rice, veggies, liver, kidney, yoghurt... and much more. We don't give her raw chicken for the same reason people don't eat raw chicken, I think that's a given.
She has clean teeth with no effort, no "doggie smell", no bad breath (hard to believe but true), and is in excellent physical shape even though I'll admit she doesn't get as much exercise as a dog her size might like.
I also wanted to add... Did any of you know that you don't need to give a dog the rabies vaccine every year? It's been proven that one vaccine can last years, and giving them too much can ultimately cause other health problems. All you have to do is ask the vet for a blood test to find out how many antibodies there still are in the blood, and you can prove that you don't need to vaccinate your dog. My dog is nearly five and has only had one vaccination for rabies. just FYI

[FoxandMe]

[FoxandMe]

[Cdaniels]

Oh-oh, now its time for me to rant. You may be right in presuming raw meat is good or perhaps ideal for dogs, Foxandme! As I see it, it's the raising and processing and packaging of meat in the US (North America?) that leaves them more germy than freshly butchered, free range chicken. (apologies to squeamish vegetarians) Factory farming sucks. I worry about Salmonella in chicken and eggs, and with pork, Trichinosis. In the vast majority of cases, I think cold/flu symptoms or digestive discomfort would be the worst effect for your dog. Its also quite natural for dogs to eat their own vomit and waste products. Sometimes people think their puppies are constipated when really they are secretly eating the, er, evidence. Your dog's eating other dog's waste products should be avoided because parasites and worms are spread this way.
You're right about dogs needing to chew, Foxandme. I tried to provide my dog (and my pig) with rawhide chews. I sometimes unravelled the knots in rawhide bones by boiling them first. Small knots can choke a dog.
If your dog is doing fine on raw poultry, you might as well continue! I'm overeducated and neurotic about my pets, and sometimes that sounds like I know what I'm talking about!

[Guy Courchesne]

Just think...for those of you with dogs out there. They lick your face when you're asleep.

[Elise9]