The whole picture - what do you feed?

I can't help but notice that no one feeds chicken soup dog food.. Could some one tell me why.Is there something i don't know?

My problem is that it just isn't calorie dense enough for most of my dogs. It takes cups and cups to fulfill their energy requirements, and they poop a TON on it. Not a bad food, just not enough bang for my buck (even though technically it isn't as expensive as the kibbles I like).

Several of my dogs eat different things, so its easier just to talk about what's in my rotation in general.

For my kibble dogs:

1. What kibble do you feed

Canidae ALS, Timberwolf Organics Ocean Blue, California Natural Lamb & Rice, and Eagle Pack Holistic - both Duck and Fish formulas.

2. What "extras" or human food do you feed and how often

Cottage cheese, RMB's, canned foods, yogurt, pumpkin, eggs, green tripe, green beans, and canned fish such as jack mackeral, wild alaskan salmon, and sardines. Sometimes they get an additive every day, sometimes not. Depends on the day and what we're doing.


3. What supplements do you give (and why?)

Glucosamine / Chondroitin for the older dogs (and the working ones, excluding the puppy), fish oil, vit. e.

For my Raw fed dog:

1. What kibble do you feed

No kibble for Ginger. Just raw - RMB's, muscle meats, organ meats, and veggie mush. Also gets eggs, fish, and green tripe.

2. What "extras" or human food do you feed and how often

Sometimes she gets boiled, mashed yucca.

3. What supplements do you give (and why?)

Ginger gets glucosamine/chondroitin/msm/ester-c/yucca supplement, vit. E, Wild Salmon oil, sometimes Vit. C, and sometimes knox nutra-joint. She has arthritis.

ORIGINAL: alisiaj78

I have a question... does everyone who feeds a mix of kibble and other foods limit the amount of kibble to compensate for the other food? 

 
I do. I don't count treats toward their overall diet, but other than that, yes.
 
My akita needs a total of 4 cups of kibble a day, if that's all he's eating. I'm transitioning him to raw, so he's getting RMB's with alot of his meals. Right now, he gets 2 cups of kibble a day, and half a cup of canned. Then he gets half a cup of brown rice mixed into that. That leaves me with 1 cup left. Usually I don't measure that very carefully, but I give it to his as a RMB- a chicken leg quarter, a couple of turkey necks, a chicken back, whatever I have on hand. It probably averages out to a little over a cup, but he's not overweight. It's still pretty close to 4 cups total a day. He also gets a stuffed bone once a day and a raw egg. Those don't really add up to much though.
 
My bulldog has alot of allergies *and* jaw problems so he can't handle much besides his kibble. He's getting older and is pretty much the least active dog ever, so he seems to do very well on just 2 cups a day. He gets a cup and a half  of kibble, 1/4 of a cup canned, and 1/4 of a cup rice.
 
My little chihuahua has a REALLY fast metabolism and is extremely active. He eats ALOT for his size. He's on raw so I don't measure his food in cups, but he actually eats about a pound of food a day. Granted, he's big for a chi (10 pounds) but he's got such a fast metabolism that anything less and he starts to look like a skeleton. He gets several small meals over the course of the day, and if he gets anything other than his raw diet, yes, I take that into consideration when feeding him. []

ORIGINAL: alisiaj78

I have a question... does everyone who feeds a mix of kibble and other foods limit the amount of kibble to compensate for the other food?  Scout's getting more and more trustworthy unsupervised in the kitchen when we are home, so we'll probably start easing her into free reign of the kitchen when we aren't home soon.  I want to buy a few more kongs and put a variety of stuff in them to keep her busy while we're gone, but I'm worried about over feeding.  If kibble is fed as the main meals, how do you balance that out with other food?  Also, when I feed chew treats like bully sticks and rawhide, do I need to take that into consideration as part of her daily feed?  Right now she's getting 4 cups dry and 1/3 can wet as her main meal, a half-cup under the recommended amount, plus the other stuff we feed her (yougurt, carrots, chew treats), and her weight is fine.

we do adjust their kibble amount based on other things we feed them to a point. if we are just giving them a random treat or something, then no we dont adjust the kibble.

i think we try to worry more about does their weight seem to be good (not too fat or too thin) and adjust their overall food intake based on that, rather than worry about adjusting food intakes on a daily basis.

Kibble: One of my dogs never gets kibble, only raw, and the other three only get kibble occasionally..maybe 5-10% of their meals are in kibble. They are mostly fed raw. I always keep a bag of kibble in the house in case I forget to defrost something..tournament weekend, or once in a while one of the kids feeds the dogs and I prefer them to give kibble. I believe in variety so I always buy something different. I rotate with Innova, TWO, Natural Balance, FirstMate, Natures Variety, Evo, Fromm, Evangers and sometimes Canine Caviar. Once in a great while I grab a bag of Canidae. The shop I work at carries Wellness as well..but I don't feed it, my dogs don't seem to care for it and I think it stinks. We just started carrying Natures Logic and I've tried the cat food..but not the dog food yet. I prefer to keep grain to a minimum in my dogs diet so usually a food without grains will be preferred.
 
* The raw I feed is full of variety too. I buy some of the prepared commercial diets, Primal, Natures Variety, Northwest Naturals and sometimes Natural Balance. Mostly I buy Columbia River because there is a wide selection of protiens to choose from, it comes with and without veggies and organ meats so I can use those as I want. I also like it because it is lightly ground..so they get chunks of meat and bone rather than a mush. I feed chicken backs, necks, turkey necks, fish, pieces of rabbit..things like that as well. And of course raw bones.
 
I use supplements lightly and generally when I see a specific need. I always use yogurt or enzyme and probiotic powder on kibbled food. My dogs will get gas on kibbled food without it. I also use pumpkin sometimes in kibbled food for them.
 
 
Extras: Fruits, veggies, yogurt, whole eggs on occasion, frozen cranberries or blueberries. They get "people food" on occasion as long as it's healthy stuff..not just the fat off my steak type people food. My husband does give the dogs candy on occasion..and probably more than I know about..bad husband!
 
Treats: I really like fish treats, jerky type treats that are all natural and all meat..like Dogswell, Quackers, Real Meat. They like Wet Noses biscuit treats, but aren't all that crazy about biscuits generally. Sweet Potato chunks by Snooks, Zukes Z-Filets, Beef tendons, Ostrich tendons, Pizzles, and Plato salmon strips are some of their faves.

I have a question... does everyone who feeds a mix of kibble and other foods limit the amount of kibble to compensate for the other food

 
  You have to consider all the calories from the foods given to the dog; if you're giving her some canned food then you need to feed her less kibble to keep her from gaining weight. Treats should also be taken into account; for example, if Jessie gets a raw beef rib with some meat on it to clean her teeth she will get less kibble that day.

1. I feed Nature's Logic Venison or Lamb kibble in the morning and at night.

2. I don't feed human food, but I do feed Nature's Variety raw diet madallions every other day as Joey's afternoon snack.  On the other days he gets a marrow bone filled with canned food and frozen.  And sometimes a chewy (Zukes Dental bones, really big biscuit, or a bully stick).

3. No suppliments.  Haven't had the need for any with Joey.  Now, Brutis, my male cat, gets Tinkle Tonic for UTI problems and Herbal anxiety stuff when I leave for long periods of time other wise he pees on our carpet.  We also have Feliway, cause this cat is such a freak.

Nature's Logic recommends that Joey should eat 1 cup of dry dog food a day.  I feed 2/3 because he gets a big, healthy afternoon snack.

1. What kibble do you feed

None.

2. What "extras" or human food do you feed and how often

I'm off to pick up about 400 pounds of meat and such for them for the next couple months.  They are getting:

Chicken leg quarts
Chicken backs
Chicken necks with skin
Whole Talapia (with heads)
Pork Rib Tips
Beef Heart
Lamb (or more pork - I've forgotten what I ordered)
Green Tripe

They also get eggs (raw) and anything that we bought for ourselves but went past it's 'date' - like the cottage cheese they had for dinner last night.

For breakfast this morning they had pork rib tips and crepes (leftover batter).

Neke gets canned pumpkin with every meal to help with her stools (getting bad due to her age and health issues).

3. What supplements do you give (and why?)

Everyone gets Salmon oil for the Omega 3s but each dog gets a different amount.  Neke gets the most - it also helps with arthritis.