Job Discussion Forums

[snorklequeen]

for all you dog lovers there in Mexico,

Ben and others mentioned that dog food is expensive there

i've been getting my dogs ready for Mexico by cutting back on their dog food and instead feeding them some rice, beans, and tortillas -- human foods that are probably cheap there and filling. also, i found that my poochies eat banana peels, watermelon rinds, cantaloupe rinds, apple cores, the ends of the celery, broccoli ends, etc. they love it! they love salsa and guacamole; they love soups. they won't eat orange peels, of course, but they do like the fuzzy kiwi peels; they'll eat the tops cut off of fresh strawberries; they'd probably eat raw potatoes -- haven't tried that; they love cooked spinach; but they won't eat salad unless it has dressing! they love bread, too. they won't eat cauliflower unless it's cooked

my vet said that it's good to give dogs fresh fruit and fresh vegetables, or canned is okay; he tells all his dog owners to feed their pets some canned green beans each day, unless they want to feed a variety of fresh things like i do

they may even be healthier than when they just ate dog food; i had their nails trimmed at a PetsMart store a few months ago, and the woman there said my dogs have the healthiest looking nails she'd ever seen

if you look at all the un-spoiled food things you may throw away in a week or a month and offer them to your dog instead, you might find some treats for your fur-kid, and that adds a new joy to their lives

who wants to eat the same old boring dog-food-thing day in and day out??? gag!



Queenie

[Guy Courchesne]

I've been told it's quite common in Mexico for people to feed their dogs chicken, rice, vegetables, beans, etc. Lots of fresh stuff. It is pretty cheap to buy chicken at a local market and not overly time consuming to boil and debone it.

I buy 25 kg bags of Pedigree dry food and a package of the wet food cans at Costco. Otherwise, yes, it is expensive anywhere else. For dry dog food, there is a variety of brands available, but I've never seen anything but Pedigree for wet food. 20 pesos per large can.

The dry stuff I leave out all day and the wet stuff is for when I'm too lazy to make anything else for them. Otherwise, they get all sorts of fruit and veggies. Each dog has different tastes when it comes to fruit. The both love apples, neither likes kiwis, and one likes papaya where the other doesn't. They both adore tacos.

One had the habit of trying to snatch away my plain nacho chips as I ate them until the one day he got one that was laden with a very hot salsa. He doesn't try to take snatch em away any more.

[Ben Round de Bloc]

Along with a constant supply of dry cat food (Whiskas or Purina,) I keep a few cans of Pedigree dog food on hand for my cats for times when there are no table scraps to give them. Canned cat food is way too expensive. Along with Pedigree, the local supermarket carries a brand of canned dog food called Pal. I have no idea what's in it, but even the stray cats in the neighborhood that usually stop by to eat here won't touch it. Anything they won't eat has got to be pretty bad.

[Guy Courchesne]

Speaking of dog lovers...this is something I whipped up in honour of my dogs.

http://www.innovative-english.com/bizou.htm

Been goofing around learning to make flash animations. If you go to that link turn the volume up. It takes time to load. Don't bother if you are on dialup...it will take forever to load.

[FoxandMe]

I have done some research about what's a good diet for dogs. When I first got my guy, I automatically just gave him dog food- purina, which is crap. After speaking with my dog trainer a great deal and reading up on the issue, I've found raw meat to be the best diet there is for a dog. That's raw meat with bones in. That should comprise about 60% of the diet. Chicken, Beef, Turkey, and fish heads are the staples that I use. The only meats to stay away from are Deer and Rabbit. For other foods, you can give organ meets (liver, kindney...) and muscle meat (beef, for example), if you'd like. As far as fruits and vegetables, I've done

Dog's are carnviores, omnivores, scavengers. One thing I've learned to do is think about what dogs would eat if they were in the wild. They'd take down some animal. They would eat the outside meat, the organs, and the bones with those sharp canine teeth. And you wouldn't find them eating vegetables on the ground necessarily. They would eat the stomach contents of the prey, which is why vegetables and grains are such a small portion of their diet.

It took me awhile to get used to this, but after doing it for 7 months, I'm convinced it's the way. My dog is in tremendous shape. By the way, I would never give him chips or salsa or anything else or cooked meat or anything else that he wouldn't find in nature.

What does cheap raw meat- like what's used for soup- run in Mexico???

[Guy Courchesne]

I've always been told by vets that chicken bone is not a good thing to give dogs because it splinters into sharp needles.

Raw meat, when you don't particularly care which part of the animal you're getting, is quite cheap here.

[FoxandMe]

When cooked, bones splinter. As long as they're entirely raw, bones are fine.

[ls650]

[MELEE]

My dogs eat things no stray dog would eat! Like old dried up tortillas. The strays leave those when they sack the neighbor's garbage, then my poochies come along and gobble those up! We've always feed our dogs in the US lots of table scraps. And we had two who lived to be 17 and always had really shinny coats. I don't know where a lot of people in the US got the idea that table scraps were bad for dogs. In my town, chicken heads are usually sold as dog food. ----eeeewwww. I used to live across the street from the taco stand, and I would always buy my doggies a taco and the guy would laugh at me! In the past I have heard concern about the quality of the dry dog food in Mexico, specifically directed at Pedigree, apparently a lot of it is contaminated!

[FoxandMe]

Again, bones splinter when cooked.

They're are parasites in raw meat, but dogs digestive systems are differently built than ours. They can handle it. Plus, the benefits of raw meat, i.e. the nutrients in raw meat, are destroyed by heat. There's a really good book on the subject called Give Your Dog a Bone, but I can't remember the name of the author. I'll have to check.

I've read some good books also on the pitfalls of giving your dog (and cat) commercial pet food. Have you ever looked at the ingredients on the bag? I hadn't until then (of course, I haven't always done so for myself either). Simple logic, though. If companies are selling big bags of pet food for, say, $15, what's going into it? And it can't possibly be good for the dog... how much is lacking in their nutritional intake if that's all they eat? Or, if the pet food tries to cram in all these nutrients into every meal, how can that be good either? Imagine if we ate not just a balanced meal every meal, but a comprehensive one, every time we ate...

[FoxandMe]

[Ben Round de Bloc]

[MELEE]

[Cdaniels]

I love this subject! I heard a vet say he had to remove bone splinters from a dog's anus- that thought convinced me never to feed my dog cooked bone, or scraps of meat that might have bone (I did feed her table scraps on occasion )
I used to feed my cats only dry food- partly for healthy teeth, but then I found out that the lower carbohydrate content of canned food helps cats keep weight off. As carnivores, "Atkin's" diet principles work for cats, while its more questionable for humans. Humans, have digestive systems built more for scavenging than hunting. Dogs are also scavengers, rather than strictly carnivorous.
I beleive that the warnings about table scraps for dogs results from your average American's terrible diet rather than the scraps themselves. If you are eating healthy, than its likely that the dog will eat healthy too!
I've also heard that Chocolate stays in a dogs system for a long time, so while small amounts seem to be harmless, much chocolate over a period of time can be fatal. Many dogs die from chocolate poisoning after Halloween in the States.
BTW Dogs and cats do not crave variety in their diet as humans do. It is usually not good for pets to change their diet suddenly. They are perfectly happy to get the same food day after day. People are likely to compensate for missed nutrients by eating a wide variety of food- your pet doesn't, which is why "pet food" works and works well for animals. I could go on forever about this. Damn, I miss my dog.

[Cdaniels]