Raw or Kibble - what do you feed and why?

[Lisa]

In an effort to put information out to our members on BOTH sides of the issue, I am going to attempt to start a thread here. We ALL believe we are feeding our beloved pets the best, and it IS the best for our individual situations, financial, environmental or just comfort level.

There are some ground rules

1) You can only state what you feed and why

2) No commenting on the other side of the argument. Even if you completely disagree with a statement made -- BITE YOUR TONGUE! If you do not, your post may be modified or moved from the topic altogether.

3) Here is a link to dogaware (http://dogaware.com/) which lists the top canned and kibble foods. It has lots of information if you wish to further research specific diets.

DISCLAIMER: Remember different dogs have different needs! Your dog could have an allergy or food sensitivity or a specific medical condition - liver, kidney troubles etc. This is just information on what our members feed and why. If your vet has recommended a specific food, do not change your pets food without consulting your vet.

[Lisa]

I'll go first :)

We feed Nature's Variety Raw Medallions (http://www.naturesvariety.com/content.lasso?page=1308&-session=naturesvariety:63F487F50a6d32A392nOJx53CE8 7) and Healthy Paws Complete Patties (available only in Canada) the reason I chose these products is because Pogo had serious tummy issues that turned out to be a grain sensitivity. I did try him on a grain-free kibble, but it was too rich for him.

Rafi was REALLY skeptical about making the switch to Raw. First, I tried to make my own but it was a huge disaster, I joined the raw-weenies board and found lots of useful information, but the boys constantly had loose poop, and wouldn't eat what I made. I was grossed out handling the raw meat as I am a germaphobe plus we live in Canada. This made it tough to feed outside (the Canada part) and inside (the germaphobe part). Another member had switched to the medallions and had lots of positive feedback, so I switched the boys when Rafi was out of town one weekend. Once he and saw them, read the information on them, saw how the dogs loved them, he was convinced too.

Some benefits we have found.
- no more barfies (yay!)
- Pogo has lost lots of weight, he has now lost a total of 5 pounds.
- Pixel LOVES his food, he used to be so fussy.
- No stinky gas
- Poops goes hard and white within 24 hours which makes it easy to pick up.
- Pogo's anal glands are better - Not 100% but better
- Amazing soft coats
- Great variety of protein, they get duck, lamb, chicken & turkey, quail, salmon, bison, rabbit, venison etc. etc.
- no measuring - just pop the medallion(s) in the bowl and go.
- they are getting fruits, vegetable, meat, organs and bone. Don't know if dogs need all that or not, but I like that they are getting it.
- Energy - WOW, it is amazing. It could be because they are not carrying the extra pounds but they have a lot more energy now.
- It is super easy to give the dogs any meds -- just pop them in the medallions and they are gone.

Downsides
- I do brush their teeth regularly still as they do not get the teeth cleaning benefits of raw bones.
- Cost, it's not cheap to feed. If they were bigger dogs or I had a lot more of them, it might be an issue for us.
- It is raw meat, we don't have kids but I might be more concerned about salmonella and them giving kisses if we did (the germaphobe thing!)
- Traveling feeding medallions is not easy! It's okay for short trips with a small cooler, but longer trips the freeze dry is super expensive and the boys don't seem to like it as much.
- Availability - we used to travel 40 minutes to buy their food, there is now a place within 20 minutes that sells it, but it's not super easy to purchase.
- Storage - we only have one freezer on top of our fridge and that's it. So it pretty much is dog food, ice and frozen pizza :)

[Jen]

Tasha gets Evo kibble at breakfast (she cannot tolerate corn or wheat) and Nature's Variety at dinner. She is thriving, shiny, and full of energy.

Pros

-she loves it
--no barfies
--firm poops
-great coat

Cons

-both pricey and not easy to find
-raw hard for travel though we've tried freeze dried
--must remember to defrost every day as smells bad to microwave defrost raw patties

[Red Haired Girl]

Low-la and Mitch get NV medallions. I tried all different types of kibbles but Mitch would turn his nose up or there would be an allergy issue. We would beg him to eat. I finally bought 2 bags of the medallions. I never discussed it with DH I just stuck it in their bowls. Mitch loved it! DH said he didn't care what it was or what it cost as long as Mitch would eat.

It has been 2 months, with no problems. Both dogs are slowly losing weight thank doG! and looking great. I'll never feed anything but raw again.

I keep 2 seperate plastic bowls with lids for the food. I defrost 4 or 5 days worth at a time and keep it in the fridge. When I am down to 1 day of thawed left, I pour more medallions into the other bowl and put it in the frdge to defrost. Rafi told me this trick - thanks Rafi!

[jenfer]

Solid Gold "Just a wee bit"

Easy to feed and store
Gigi loves it
I put 1/2 of her morning portion in her treat toy... so she doesn't need to eat too much treats and can stay slim
Reasonable price
Firm poop the majority of the time
No barfie
Great coat

[lizzieb38]

Kibble only. Having worked for a vet, had several patients come in with splintered chicken bones in their intestines. Was horrible for the patient, and very icky surgeries, had an effect on me. Sorry only kibble here.

[Frzframe]

Kibble here. I feed Natural Balance and the gang has done wonderful on it. I have to travel 30 miles to get it one way so it makes it hard with my work schedule some times this is why I can't at this time feed raw. My work is so crazy that I cannot even seriously think of switching them over.

NB pros:
great coats
small firm poop


cons:
I cannot buy it in town
They cannot have over 2/3rds a cup a day so they are always hungery

[JanUet]

I feed Casey and Sophie the Nature's Variety Medallions.
They really :love5: the Chicken/Turkey & Beef. They didn't like Rabbit and Venison, but they ate it.

They love them! :cheer2:
Like Lisa I tried to go the whole "raw" way and make it myself, but it was a disaster and too time consuming for me.
At one point I was giving them Liver & Chicken Giblets. Their stools turned black :shocked: I pm'd with Courtney ALOT that day!!! *you can stop laughing now Courtney!"

We :love5: NV medallions.
I thaw out about 12 medallions in the fridge (enuff for 3 days -- they get 2 each a day) plus I add more veggies and a tablespoon of cottage cheese or non fat yogurt. Yup! They are SPOILED!

I spoke with Lisa a few days ago and we are going to try the Healthy Paws Medallions. They come in a wider variety of flavoUrs.

I have cut out most of their treats..... Licorice, Candy Apples, Milk Shakes, Whip Cream from a can, Jello, etc :lol:

[akiss]

I rotate. Both of my guys eat NV raw ( I am buying the chubbs since they are cheeper and bought a scale to weigh them) For kibble there are a couple of brands I buy.. Merrick, Innova small bites and Wellness. And the wet canned food Merrick.

My puppers eat it all. But I love that with raw the poops are so small and do not smell as much. My guys also dont have tarter on there teeth.

We are lucky in Seattle ( I am in Kirkland 20 min away) that there are so many "specialty dog places) that I will never have to drive very far for the food!!!

[K2]

Pippit gets raw chicken(I usually buy a big bag of whole legs and cut them into portion sized servings and re-bag and freeze them), beef bones, veggies, cottage cheese, pumpkin and yogurt(he may not get all of these at once! :) I also have some NV Medalions that I alternate with(I will not shop at the local store that carries these, so have to travel about 40 miles to get them)

Pros~he loves it
he no longer inhales his food
more energy
firmer and less poop
no gas
soft coat(no more dandruff)
he has learned to stay on his mat to eat
when he stays late at my parents, they can just take a chicken leg out
of the freezer for him

Cons~remembering to take them out of the freezer
traveling can be tough
I still have to wear rubber gloves when touching the chicken:vomit:

[Wiener Mom]

Xena, Oskar and Schatzi get fed Solid Gold Holistique Blendz. They like it, because the kibble are small. I like it cause its lower in fat (6%) and it is a good nutritional food for weight control.

Used to feed Natural Balance Duck and Potato, but Oskar suddenly took a dislike to it. So, switched to Solid Gold & everyone seems healthy and happy.

[JuneyTrixie]

I got introduced to raw food from my friend. I was hesitant to feed my dogs raw food, but they seemed to like it alot. Also, at that time, my 14 year old dog, Cooler had been diagnosed with cancer. The vets told me that they didn't expect Cooler to live much longer and I expected to have to put him to sleep within a few weeks. I started giving him the raw food, and he got so much better, that he lived for another 7 months! He was bouncy and like a puppy. I was really pleased with the results. Later, when both Bunny and Cooler had passed away, I tried to feed kibble to Juney and Trixie. They both started itching majorly until I put them on raw food again. I feed them Nature's Variety.

I got this pamphlet from "Aunt Jeni's Home Made" dog food company that talks about canine cancer patients. In her pamphlet, she said:

Quote:
...that grains metabolize directly into glucose, which feeds cancer cells, contributing to a condition called cachexia. Therefore, grains in the diet of a pet with cancer are deadly. That is why people refer to a raw, grainless diet as a "cancer-starving" diet.

[quavec]

Natural Balance kibble and Newman's Own Organic Peanut Butter dog treats with the occasional piece of cheese or baby carrot :D

We started out on Iam's then switched to Nutro. Cricket's anal glands were awful and his poo was RANK and runny. His coat was shiny but he chewed his nails and he got fat - quick.

We then switched to NB really because it was the only other brand that my local pet store sold.

Cricket's coat became super shiny, the vet began to tell me that his anal glands were no longer full each time I took him in and he stopped chewing his nails. He has also dropped about 4lbs since I switched - this has been over 2 years ago. He is super regular now too and his poos are firm and the cleanup is easy :D

The Newman's Own treats have no wheat and he loves them. They also don't seem to put much weight on him as far as treats go, but we really don't give him 'treats' that often.

[Barb]

I feed Solid Gold. Rudy eats kibble - Hundenflocken and Brandy eats canned (she has lost a lot of teeth and doesn't like kibble). Both of mine love it.

I also feed the Seameal w/flaxseed and Yucca for joints.

http://www.solidgoldhealth.com/

[HotDogMama]

Kibble here, Chicken Soup.

Tried the NV medallions, but they broke her ears out (she got some kind of yeasty swollen around the edges thing) :confused: Tried everything, but stopped giving her those, and they cleared up in a week. Still don't know why. The only con I can come up with giving her Chicken Soup kibble is that there is only 1 store around here that sells it about 30 min away. But I get the big bag and it last a few months. Same thing with the medallions, had to go to a health food store and they didn't always have them.

She has been on the Chicken Soup since last summer, and is doing well on it.

[dachiehome]

our babys eat canidae kibble mixed with home cooking. max a standard dach and matilda a basset x beagle bouth had chronic ear problems, always getting stuff from vet, all cleared up on this diet.

[Wiener Mom]

I feed Oksar Solid Gold Seameal as well, for his skin and coat, along with Omega 3-6-9 and Xena & Schatzi get Vetri-Disc for their backs.

[areese]

I have been feeding Chicken Soup for a year and a half I think. I started out with plain old Diamond cuz Laika's breeder fed that but Laika has issues with corn and also lamb so lamb and rice was out and then did the rate your dog food thing anyway and decided to try the Chicken Soup.
Dogs do well on it...no weight issues, coats look nice, energy is good.
Now I'm getting paranoid about any dog food....
Don't want to do raw for various reasons although I am still thinking on it and investigating ways I could do it....can't buy the medallions near her cuz of living in the boonies and I don't want to depend on mail-order anything to feed my dogs...
So at the moment I am cooking and mixing their food. This morning they had eggs...they have been eating a ground mixture of meat (i've used liver, chicken and roast beef so far) brown rice, salmon oil, a carrot and a few fresh beans. Laika will eat the veggies if they are ground up. I am not mixing the meats-jsut making seperate batches and freezing it. I'm hoping the variety will be good for them. Also have ordered some bone meal for calcium/phosphorus. I have no idea if I am doing the right thing but I'm confident it's ok for now....I know it's early to tell anything but their poops are small and firm so far :) And they are very excited at meal time...

[JanUet]

I still have to wear rubber gloves when touching the chicken:vomit:

:ignore: :rotfl:

I can do THAT...Can't I?

[Anatresia]

I feed Nutro kibble. The lamb and rice allergy formula, which is the only one that Butters doesn't break out in a rash from and will actually eat (he hates 99% of what we've tried.)

Someday I would like to feed raw or cooked- just haven't gotten to that place yet.

[K2]

:ignore: :rotfl:

I can do THAT...Can't I?

Yes, you can. I think Pippit secretly does, too! :)

[Michelle]

Heidi and Princess get a variety of premium Kibble and raw. Not fed at the same time of course.

The kibble I feed is mostly is
1.Natural Balance
2.Timberwolf Organics
3.Nature's Variety Raw Instinct Kibble

They also get a variety of raw, NV frozen Medallions, chicken thighs, beef ribs and pork ribs,

The supplements I give them are,
Brewers Yeast
Solid Gold Seameal
Fish Oil gel tabs

Their poops are always firm and small unless they happen to get a raw marrow bone to chew on and then the marrow can give them looser poop for a day, but they don't get to eat all the marrow very often.

Their chew treats are only
Smoked Bully sticks which do not have the stink like the other ones do.
Beef Achilles Tendons
Beef Knee Caps

I do not give them any rawhide at all.

[Rae]

Duchie gets Chicken Soup (Senior)
She used to get Diamond regular cuase that's what we feed the big dogs, but as she is special and since Mommy found DLC I did some research and switched her.

In addition to her 1/3 cup twice a day, she gets a glucosamine/chondroitin supplement. I have started soaking her kibble once a day in sodium free chicken broth so she'll be more hydrated.

We don't do a lot of treats, and usually if HRH gets a treat it's cheese.

Pros:
Easy access (they sell it at the farm store in the town where our corp office is)
Nutritious (rates high in the "grade your dog food" poll)
She acts younger than her age - has a pep in her step!
Shiney coat
Affordable
Low maintenance
Firm poops, no gas

Cons:
can't think of any.

[Kerie]

Oscar gets kibble but we have also tried freeze dried raw steaks and chicken.

His tummy troubles are a lot better since we found a kibble that agrees with him.

Now that I am pregnant, I would not be able to tolerate watching him eat raw but I would do it if I felt strongly about feeding him raw. I would also be afraid that the food is less consistent and I would be afraid for his tummy. He'd probably enjoy a raw meal so much.

[LexieLuvr]

I've always fed all of my furkids kibble, mostly for the convenience. Since learning how unhealthy regular Science Diet is, and after consulting with Rena (my guru on all things dachsie), I opted for Natural Balance Reduced Calorie. I like the ease and convenience, primarily, and the furkids gobble it up. I still have to do the monthly (more or less) anal gland thing at the groomers, but they are healthy, have beautiful coats and a TON of energy. They may need more RMB's or brushing, because of tartar build-up on Jack's teeth. After all the scary recalls, and then with the recent news about chickens being fed tainted food, my thoughts about feeding raw and/or home cooking have been put on the back burner, at least for now. I am inclined to think that raw is REALLY the healthiest way to go for them, all things considered, but I'm not ready to leap yet. For treats, they usually get chicken jerky or things I occasionally bake for them at home, along with infrequent raw veggies and fruit, all in moderation.

[Bella's Mom]

We feed our two kibble. Eagle Pack Holistic formula. Our breeder feeds her furkids Eagle Pack and gave us alot of information and we decided to continue. Bella has always been on Eagle Pack and Coop was transitioned as soon as he came home with us.

Pros
They love it.
Eagle Pack has their own plant and everything is made there.
Minimal filler ingredients
Poopies are like clock-work and firm.
Their coats are soft and shiny.
Eyes bright.
Purchase it at the pet food store a mile away. :banana:

Cons
None that I've encountered.