Dog Community

Introductions!

Posted : 4/22/2006 7:00:36 PM

Hello All,

I'm new to the board, but I've been lurking for a couple weeks now. I'd like to get to know everyone and introduce myself, so I figured this would be as good of a way as any!

So! How many/What kinds of dogs do you all have and what do you feed? What other critters do you have? What skeletons do you have in your closet that you've fed you're pups in the past?

I consider myself to have 4 dogs. My parents (whose house I spend a lot of time at) have a 6 year old Rat Terrier and a 1 1/2 year old Chihuahua who was a gift to me two Christmas' ago, but she grew so attached to the Rat while I was still living with them, that I couldn't bear to take her with me when I moved out. They eat Nutro Max, which is actually progress that I've made in getting my mother to feed them a slightly higher-grade kibble than Purina One, lol. But while I still had the Chi, she ate Raw as a puppy until she was about 5 months old and when I couldn't do that anymore she was on EVO and at one point was on Solid Gold Wee Bit.

My fiance' and I have our two big babies. A 6 year old German Shepherd and a 4 year old Siberian Husky. They are both incredible dogs, I love them to death. When my fiance' and I first met the Shepherd was eating Pedigree because he claimed he was very picky. Once I felt we had been dating long enough and established a certain comfort level, I took right over his feeding regiment.

He has been on everything from Nutro (Large Breed Adult), Wellness (Chicken and Fish & Sweet Potato), Solid Gold (Hunden Flocken, Mmillenia, Wolfking) Timberwolf Organics (Black Forest), Eagle Pack(Holistic Duck & Oatmeal) and Innova (Large Breed).
The only ones that really didn't work for him was the Wellness Fish which gave him severe diarrhea and the SG Hundenflocken which he just didnt like at all. Oh at one point I also tried Wellness Simple Solutions Venison and he thought he had died and gone to Hell. He absolutely hated it.

The Husky is fairly new to us, and when he came into the rotation he was eating Iams and I switched him cold turkey to SG Mmillenia (That's what the Shepherd happened to be eating at the time), because I refused to buy an 8lb bag of Iams that I wouldn't even use half of. He did fine. He has a pretty tough tummy. He's eaten the Mmillenia and Eagle Pack and now they are both currently on Innova EVO, which they will stay on long term. I think I may start supplementing one of their meals per day with pre-made frozen raw in the near future.

I also have one very spoiled cat who isn't picky per-say but absolutely refuses to eat anything that doesn't resemble cat food so she was just switched from Solid Gold Katz n Flocken to Innova EVO, which she loves, and she also gets Wellness canned food.

I also have a horse, who is the love of my life! (Shh.. don't tell the fiance';) He eats Purina, go figure. I think their forte is really more appropriate to livestock feeding.

glenmar

Posted : 4/22/2006 7:08:16 PM

Hi, welcome to idog. I have german 6 shepherds ranging in age from 9 months to almost four years. Three are failed fosters....they know a sucker when they see one, these rescues do!

The worst I've ever fed was Purina as far as I can recall...but I'm old so might be forgetting something. My crew eats Innova in the morning and homecooked or raw at nite.

I also have four highly spoiled cats who won't TOUCH the better cat foods. The best I've convinced them to eat is Chicken Soup, but they prefer the Walmart brand topped with homecooked. Go figure.

sooner

Posted : 4/22/2006 7:21:01 PM

Hi! Welcome - glad to have you here.

I'm Kelly, my babies are Shy the 12 year old sheltie mix, Rotten the 9 year old rottweiler and Boomer the 8 month old pit bull. The two older girls had been on Purina One Sensitive Systems for years before I found this forum. Since being here I've tried Innova, Canidae, California Natural, Timberwolf, and most recently Eagle Pack.

I'm kind of on a neverending quest to find the food that they do best on as a group. It's been a harder mission than I thought and I'm tired of stressing over it. We've pretty well decided that we like the results from Canidae the best and we're sticking with it. So they get Canidae All Life Stages mixed with Canidae Platinum canned and Nature's Variety raw medallions as treats. We like EVO treats and IFEX Snackfish too.

No other critters, but not by my choice [

] BF has to put his foot down frequently.

thedoc617

Posted : 4/22/2006 7:21:52 PM

Hi Britney,
Again- welcome to I-dog. Your "admission" to this forum is to post your pics of your babies under the "Photos for Sharing Section." We (at least I) LOVE seeing doggie pictures![sm=biggrin.gif]

I have one very spoiled Shih Tzu named Daisy. She has a wide slew of food and environmental allergies. She currently gets fed Dick Von Patten's Natural Balance Duck and Potato. Both canned and kibble.

Oscar (the mutt in the middle) is my room-mate's dog. We think he's a basset/schnauzer mix, but for some reason he has wolfhound eyes. Anyway, he is being fed Innova. (which is awesome- I converted her mom, since he used to eat Kibbles N Bits)

Probably the worst thing I've ever fed my dog was Old Roy Moist and Meaty. (The dog was my bridge-girl, Candy) In her old age, she lost most of her teeth, and canned food made her have horrible diarrhea, so the soft-ish food she could chew pretty well. This of course was Pre I-dog, so I really didn't know much about food! Candy was also on Kibbles N Bits, Pedegree, and Cycle. I guess it still was gross in the early 90's, but I really don't know since I was just a kid.

Sarah

Posted : 4/22/2006 7:59:51 PM

Hi Britney! Welcome to i-dog. I have a 2 year old Miniature Pinscher named Penny. I feed her Innova EVO. She used to eat Nutro Natural Choice before I learned about dog nutrition. I would like to feed her a completely raw diet, but unfortunately, my parents disagree.[:@] So, hopefully in a few years, when I move out, I will start her on raw asap. Unless we move, because where we *may* be moving to only has grocery store brands. They have no such thing as "pet stores" there. So I told my parents if we move there, I MUST be able to feed Penny raw, because there's no way we could bring a life supply of Innova EVO with us on the plane in our suit cases and there is no way I'am feeding her Alpo or Iams.[8|] Oh and as for other critters, I also have a male Betta named Splash.[

] And, yeah, enough of my blabbering on. Welcome!

kennel_keeper

Posted : 4/22/2006 8:45:00 PM

Welcome from my gang!

The beagles: Roxie, Blue, Sadie, Tick, Dixie, Belle, & Maggie.
Mutt-Brothers: Bruiser and Oakie
Pit Puppy: Thor
The Chihuahua's: Milo and Happy

The Chihuahua's and Roxie are on Eagle Pack Holistic Ancovy, Sardine, and Salmon and Innova Evo. They also get some fresh fruits, veggies and some raw rec. bones.

The rest of my gang gets EP Original and some get the EP Power formula when competing.

When I adopted the Chi's, they were being fed Joy dog food (ewwww!), and my beagles had been fed Diamond at one time (way before the scandal).

Other "critters" are:
Monte the 4' ball python
Yago and Basil the ferrets
Frick and Frack the Borque Parakeets and Baby the Cockatiel
Priss Puss - Her highness, the house cat.
Squeky, One-eyed Jack and Grumpy the farm cats.
Three rabbits, several chickens, and Lady bug the pygmy goat.

I also do wildlife rehab, and at this time I have to release a chipmunk (Chip) and a Flying squirrel (Zippy). But have had at one time, 8 squirrels, 10 deer fawns, 3 opposums, and 6 bunnies for rehab.
Least I forget, Calvin and Savik, my foster, lion cubs.
Talk about CRAZY!!!! Don't know what possesses me to do this! My hubby has tried to put his foot down, lol.

dyan

Posted : 4/22/2006 9:33:08 PM

Hi Britney!
Welcome!
I'm Dyan and I have a harlequin Great Dane, in my avatar..her name is Bubblegum. She eats Eagle Pack Holistic Chicken and also Eagle Pack Natural. My other two dogs I had years ago,,,,well, the Dane/Shepard named Cindy ate Biljac frozen..and my pitty Sammy ate any kind of moist/dry food (Gainsburgers, Moist and Meaty, Kibbles and Bits,,,etc etc etc) that I had a coupon for. BUT, they lived long healthy lives. Hopefully Bubblegum does too!

papillon806

Posted : 4/22/2006 9:44:33 PM

Hey!
I have one papillon puppy (named Wolfie) who currently gets EVO or Solid Gold canned in the morning, and Timberwolf Organics Wild and Natural dry offered all day (although he usually only eats at night).
The breeder I purchased him from fed Science Diet (yuck!) so I immediatley switched him to Wellness Puppy (the original). When they changed the formula, he got very bad GI issues, so I switched to Solid Gold puppy. He quickly decided he didn't like the taste and refused to eat it. After a little more in-depth research and discussion with my nutrition professors (I am currently a grad student studying animal nutrition), I decided a grain-free diet was the way to go for my pup. I switched to EVO dry which he liked, then when a pet store near me started carrying Timberwolf Organics (which I always wanted to try) I bought the Wild and Natural which I switched him to when I finished the bag of EVO. I now plan on rotating TO wild and natural, TO ocean blue, and EVO. He has done well on these, so I'm very happy with it. [

]
Other critters of mine:
-1 horse named Forrest (thoroughbred)--see horse haven forum for pictures
-3 mischevious ferrets (Rink, Dink, and Bart)
-2 kenyan sand boas (Sandy and Kenny--how original, lol)
-1 grey banded kingsnake (Rex)
-1 leopard gecko (Snoop)--had to recently put his buddy to sleep (Bandit) [

]
-1 ancient betta fish in a ridiculously large tank (Homer)

Welcome to the forums!!

danehaven

Posted : 4/23/2006 7:41:41 AM

Danes here. Roscoe, Saber and Captain. We worked our way up to Eagle Pack.
I also have 2 horses, Tonto and Jet. You can see them over in Horse Haven too.

schlep

Posted : 4/23/2006 5:20:26 PM

I've got a golden retriever who's 19 weeks old today. He started out eating Purina Pro Plan at the breeder's, and when I brought him home I had him on Purina Puppy Chow for the first week. I didn't have any idea on nutrition. I took him to the vet to get his first round of shots, and he had an allergic reaction. He went on Purina's canned sensitive stomach prescription stuff for 3 or 4 days, during which I started reading a lot on nutrition. As soon as he was done with that, he started eating Solid Gold Wolfcub. Since then I've changed it up a little to where he eats a cup of FarMore Raw Buffalo diet in the morning, 1 3/4 cups Wolfcub in the afternoon, and 1 1/4 cups at night. I usually mix Seameal in with his morning and night meals.

All of this has been pretty fun to research, and has caused me to go into business with my neighbor delivering premium/holistic foods (Solid Gold, Eagle Pack Holistic Select, Fromm Four-Star, Nature's Variety Prairie, and Prism). Also fun running into vets who have no idea about nutrition. [sm=biggrin.gif]

bluelighting

Posted : 4/23/2006 5:32:02 PM

Welcome to the board!

I have Blue who is a german shepherd husky mix that is 2 yr. old right now. I also own a cat that is a mixture of 3 cats he is 11 or 12 yr.old and then there is Tigger my chinchilla who is 6 I believe.

The worst food I ever fed Blue is Old roy and I tried to fight tooth and nail to see that he would never be put on that food. Lets just say it wasn't one of my mom's brightest ideas. He is now on Canidae.

I also live with my mom for now until I can save the cash for my own house so I have to deal with Eli her cat that 2 yr. old he is also called the monkey for many reasons.

miranadobe

Posted : 4/25/2006 1:59:06 PM

I'm new, too, so thanks for initiating the intros. [

]
I have a nearly 3 year old Doberman who started on Abady at the rescue, then Canidae, then Wellness. After Wellness changed their formula, we tried out several(Fromm, Chicken Soup, Innova Evo) to find one that works. She is currently on Solid Gold Wolf King - the first dog food she's ever ripped into the bag to get at! The worst I fed was Iams lamb & rice while we tried to settle her stomach after Wellness' change in formula.

I also have a cat, and like "glenmar", the cat actually prefers (and is in better condition) on Purina Cat Chow! When he's not trying to scarf food from the dog's bowl...

tiffy

Posted : 4/25/2006 3:22:00 PM

Hi! I have three dogs, Dingo the heeler, Sammy the min.pin., Tootsie the corgi and Peaches the cat. All the dogs eat EP Holistic Lamb and Rice, but they were getting bored so I switched to EP Holistic Fish and Oatmeal. Peaches eats Meow Mix. I've tried giving her better food, but she likes crap.I used to feed Beneful before I- Dog.