Sweet potato or regular potato?

You can dry sweet potato slices into "chips" in the oven. My dogs are HUGE fans of them, as treats. I brush them with a small amount of oil, and add cinnamon. Emma adores cinnamon. She'll eat ANYTHING with cinnamon on it, LOL. She's a silly little thing....

Anyhow, I just do them on 250° for 5 or 6 hours. It makes a really good treat. 

 And for corn.... Honestly, at this point, I've decided that it depends on the dog. When I got Ena, she was on Nutro Ultra. Her owner had tried Blue, but it gave E a rash. I put her on Innova with only so so results, then switched her to raw after 6ish weeks. She just never put on weight right. A week ago, I had a gut feeling, so I followed it. She's now eating crappy frozen Bil Jac. I think they sprinkle magic fairy dust on it, because she looks *incredible*. It has "cereal food fines" on the list, which surely includes corn. Her skin and hair are better than they have been, in months. She's finally got some meat on her bones! NO hips and spine poking out. She looks great. Emma, on the other hand, would literally die if I fed her that food....

 I have been told to try Bil Jac with Lillie. Guess Im going to have to break down and get a bag. Nothing else is working.

Thanks for the sweet potato dried up as a treat idea!! I know what I'll be doing tomorrow. 

It grows coat like crazy, too. I hate, hate, hate even saying it, but.... magic fairy dust. 

 I want more coat!!!! I have been putting this MTG stuff on her that a few people on here have suggested. It smells a little yucky. Just waiting to see if it works.

I will order some Bil Jac Friday.  

I haven't used the kibble, but the frozen stuff is working incredibly well. It's kind of expensive (I'm paying 5.50 for a 5 lb bag of junk food), but... she weighs all of 9 lbs, LOL.  

I will pay anything at this point if it puts something on her hips!! Im tired of people thinking she's starved. And really I hate seeing her hip points sticking out like they do. Plus I have found a club near me that has classes for conformation that I would like to get her in.  

Several show folks have recommended it to me. They say it puts weight and coat on anything. I'm sure you've heard similar. I just never really believed it because the ingredients are so, unbelievably bad. The label looks awful but the results that Ena is getting are amazing. We've not even made it through the first bag, yet, and dang.... She's getting close to fat enough to show. Her socks have gotten longer, too. She's eating less than she was on any other food. I'm feeding her probiotics and enzymes, and of course, tidbits of things, but mostly the Bil Jac.
 

jennie_c_d

Several show folks have recommended it to me. They say it puts weight and coat on anything. I'm sure you've heard similar. I just never really believed it because the ingredients are so, unbelievably bad. The label looks awful but the results that Ena is getting are amazing. We've not even made it through the first bag, yet, and dang.... She's getting close to fat enough to show. Her socks have gotten longer, too. She's eating less than she was on any other food. I'm feeding her probiotics and enzymes, and of course, tidbits of things, but mostly the Bil Jac.
 

But that's just it...Ena is doing amazing on Bil Jac frozen because it has lots of MEAT!  It has nothing to do with corn or cereal food fines, this food has much, much more meat protein that dogs need, and fewer carbs, than other foods.`

Carbs are not awful things.  And, not to re-open the can of worms, but dogs are oportunist carvnivores, not obligate carnivores like cats.  Whole grains contribute excellent nutrients, fruits and veggies provide vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and I'd sure rather see my dogs getting those things from a natural source than from a vitamin pill.

ON topic, I prefer sweet taters to white simply because they do have so many more good things in them than does the white.  The starches in white and sweet are also metabolised differently.  I use no grains in my homecooked so their carbs need to come from healthy veggies.

Off topic again, what the heck is "cereal food fines"?????

Jenns, I was feeding RAW and Ena was super thin. It's the carbs (or the magic fairy dust) in Bil Jac that are making her look so awesome. My other dog eats Bravo raw. Very, very little vegetable matter. Adding carbs to good raw didn't work for Ena. This crap-tastic Bil Jac is working.

And Glenda, your guess is as good as mine, LOL. I'm thinking it's what they sweep off of the floor at the flour mill?

jennie_c_d

And Glenda, your guess is as good as mine, LOL. I'm thinking it's what they sweep off of the floor at the flour mill?

Here ya go, just cuz I was curious, too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cereal_food_fines

FWIW, I rotate three varieties of NB allergy kibble...two use sweet potatoes and one uses white.  He seems to do just fine on all three.  You can get dried sweet potato chips at the grocery store.  Not like potato chips, but more like dried apple slices.  I haven't checked the ingredients, tho, and it's probably cheaper to make them yourself.  I'll have to try making some.  I bet Harry will love them.  How long do they keep?

I recently brought home another cat.....yeah, I know someone PLEASE tighten my loose screws.  My cats eat Blue Wilderness which is high protein and low carb....forty five percent protein and the only grain is a bit of oatmeal.  I've had to add kitten food to her diet, which is certainly lower protein,but she needed the carbs to put on some badly needed weight.  She was slightly under five pounds and is NOT a kitten.  She's four years old.  She's been in rescue for almost a year, and her foster home has over a dozen other cats and several dogs.  The foster mom is a wonderful and devoted gal, but, I think she bite off a bit more than she could chew with so darned many critters and care was suffering a bit.  So, she's here.  Most of her anyway.  She's missing a good deal of her right ear.

I'm really surprised to hear GOOD things about BilJac.  The ingredients look horrible.

My sweet potato chips have kept for as long as 3 weeks, in the fridge, if I get them fairly dry. They usually don't last that long, though If you make a big batch, it's probably a good idea to stick some in the freezer.

The ingredients are truly terrible, on paper, Glenda. I'm shocked, myself. A show friend suggested it, so I energy tested it. NOTHING has tested that good, for this brat. Innova didn't work. Blue didn't work. Nutro Ultra didn't work. Raw, Emma style, didn't work. I was beginning to give up on the poor puppy. Food where the first three ingredients are "beef, meat by-products, cereal food fines" isn't even something I'd consider, normally. She's looking amazing, though. All the dogs I've known who ate Bil Jac looked incredible. I don't know WHY. I don't understand it. It just is. 

 Wow, I didn't know the frozen Bil-Jac was that . . yukky.   I thought it was just sort of the same as the Select in the bags, but not kibbled.  Check out the Select kibble puppy, Jennie.  The ingredients are much less scary.  They do use an "iffy" preservative but it's human approved - it's not the horrible BHT or ethoxyquin (not even hidden since there's no fish ingredients in it).

Fines are what sifts down during the process of manufacturing "cereal" products - any processed grain like breakfast cereal (I know, duh), nutritional bars, cookies, etc.  It's not literally swept off the floor - there's a process to catch it because it's used in many ways.  It's also a main component of livestock feed.  For sheep, it's a good ingredient.  lol

Here's the ingredients for the dry Bil-Jac - I fed it for a while and have nothing but good things to say about it.  It was just pricey, but it was great for my performance dogs.

Chicken, Chicken By-Products (Organs only, Including Chicken Liver), Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Dried Beet Pulp, Brewers Dried Yeast, Cane Molasses, Egg Product, Salt, Sodium Propionate (a preservative), DL-Methionine, L-Lysine, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Niacin, Biotin, Choline Chloride, Folic Acid, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin B12 Supplement, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Manganous Oxide, Inositol, BHA (a preservative), Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Cobalt Carbonate, Potassium Iodine, Sodium Selenite.

The only grain is whole corn.  There's no added fat yet the fat content is really high - that's because there's SO much meat in it.  The dogs go bonkers for the molasses taste.  The heavy duty preservatives are a tradeoff for the high meat content - I'd prefer that to rancid meat, honestly.  The beet pulp is a prebiotic - a precursor to probiotic activity.

My dogs did so well on it I used the general ingredient composition as a model for my performance diet.  The working dogs get one grain carb source, a prebiotic, plus limited protein sources that are as easy to digest as possible, plus egg and a little bit of molasses.  I skip the BHA and sodium propionate of course. 

Jennie if Ena really does well on the Bil-Jac, and you get her where you want her, you might want to consider a consult with Monica or Mordanna.  If Ena is anything like Zhi, she might just be particularly sensitive to imbalances (ie, low nutrient reserve).  Zhi looked terrible on raw, and I've always had trouble with her coat, until I ran the numbers on her diet and got her minerals in particular balanced up.  Now her furnishings are growing great!  I'm having to get her groomed once a month now because she's got so much hair it gets out of shape in my inexpert hands.  I could get away with just shaving off the short, slow-growing stuff before.