who feeds veggies?

k_dawg

I know all the arguments for and against feeding veggies; all I need to know are what are good veggies to use and how can I make this diet into a balanced diet?

I use bags of frozen peas and carrots, lightly thawed.  I blend them in an 8 cup food processor from Walmart that only cost me about $30, works fine.  I use low sodium beef broth to puree them into a milkshake consistency.  My dogs seem to process this fine, nothing showing up out the other end in the same condition it went in.     No recommendation on the balancing.  I had my dogs' diets developed by a veterinary nutritionist who did all the work and I use a powdered canine supplement from BalanceIT.com and OTC calcium to her specifications.

k_dawg

 I have a coffee grinder so I could grind the shells up and mix them right in.

I did this when I first started, seemed to work fine, but calculating the correct amount needed might be difficult.  My nutritionist had a hard time analyzing the calcium content in egg shells when she analyzed what I had been feeding.

k_dawg

 

She has hip dysplasia so I'd prefer a supplement with glucosamine and chondroitin in it so I don't have to buy that separately. I've fed Missing Link and I've looked into Nupro but I'm sure there are more out there that might be worth considering. I'll appreciate any advice anyone can give me..... Thanks guys!

I add that separately with a liquid human supplement from Costco.  I've also found adding ginger and turmeric to be very helpful for my dog who had symptoms of arthritis when I got him.

HTH! Good luck!  Others will be along shortly to tell you about Monica Segal and other places online where you can get a consultation.  I just preferred to use a veterinarian, each person does what they're comfortable with. 

  I had my dogs' diets developed by a veterinary nutritionist who did all the work

That's a great idea.  Balancing yourself can be tricky.  If there's no vet near you who does this, you may be able to get some help here, and not as expensive as you might think - my clients who have used her were very satisfied: 

http://www.betterdogcare.com/ 

Sabine is very knowledgeable and was a member here for a long time (code name was Lilian Galier, if you want to check the archives).  She's the creator of The Dog Food Project, too.  Worth keeping up with for any changes to manufacturer's ingredient lists, etc. 

Code name - how hilarious!  I never knew.  I'll have to look that up.

I've been working with her now for several months.  Before I had her help I had a friend who got research materials for me and we ran to odd thing through another mutual friend who was a nutritionist.  I've had a long journey, mostly driven by my Ben dog and it's still not over!

The information you can get through k9kitchen at yahoogroups is incredible.  Theres files in the archives that will get you started both in the mechanics of figuring a balanced diet (model spreadsheets and some slightly outdated nutritional figures), and also some of the logistics (tools, how to include veggies and grains if you want them, when to do raw versus cooked).

Monica Segal, the owner of that forum (and she is there all the time answering questions), has written two guides to doing custom diets yourself.

Consultations piggy back on these resources as a way to troubleshoot issues, address really specific challenges, or offer reassurance to the nervous nelly feeder (like me).

I've had direct experience with Monica Segal and Mordanna (betterdogcare.com) - Mordanna particularly.  If you to that site there's another forum with really friendly people who are also eager to help - whether you homecook, go all raw, or do combinations like I do.

Most of my dogs are on a carb/protein combo diet.  The simplest is the girls who just eat baked white potatoes with a smidge of baked sweet potato, plus egg, parsley, jicama, canned fish (thinking of switching to fresh baked if I can get a freezer soon), heart meat (raw), kidney (raw), and raw meaty bones, mostly chicken.  They get a supplement blend with this which I calculate and mix myself - it's super easy and cheap.

The boys all eat the same as above but with a higher percentage of sweet potato, and the addition of zucchini, and more pork and lamb raw meaty bones.   Plus they get a good bit of their calories from oatmeal, both for the fiber benefit, and also for the excellent source of energy when they work.

Lynn is on a sensitive stomach diet.  She used to blap and get the runs like clockwork.  Now it's so rare that I'm startled to see it when she does the "summer blap" thing - drink a bunch of water after play and then blap it up again.  Her diet has the potatoes, no sweet potatoes, the herb, the beef heart and kidney, chicken and pork, but also turkey as a second poultry calorie source, and a couple extra eggs.  Carrots provide the vitamins that sweet potatoes would have offered.  Her main carb is plain white rice, also.

Ben is my problem child.  He's now on a modified version of Monica Segal's GARD.  He's on baked fish (wild caught cold water only), sweet and white potato, zucchini, and I'll watch his stool and add green beans if he seems to be having problems with constipation.  This is a 100% cooked diet.

Common factors in all these diets.  I steam or bake  the veggies in largish chunks and then use a food processor to create a homogenous blend (I used to have a grinder but I lost the cutting blade ).  Lots of water needs to be used to get it really smooth, but that's great.  My dogs don't drink water - we've only got, for seven house dogs, about 4 gallons of fresh water out per day and I only refill it on hot days.

I figure the diets by week, not by day.  The information on the K9Kitchen site tells you how to do that.  Once you set it up, it is not hard, and it's actually kind of fun.  I added a new dog when Min was recovering from her spay, and that was great fun balancing her needs since they were so different from the BCs.   When I get a sale on something, I can bring it home and put it in the next round of diets - just pop it into the spreadsheet and away we go!

I love taking these diets to the vet and having her discuss them with me like I'm a real person and not someone trying to put one over on her ("well, I read on the internet" or, "I got this off the internet" - they must get SO tired of hearing that!).  I like that the consultants can work directly with the vet if there is a problem.

I had to wait in a queue for our initial consultations but I can e-mail anytime with a quick question or a problem.  That sure was handy this weekend! 

It can be as simple or as complicated as you choose to make it, or if your dog has health issues, it can get more difficult.  But for the average pet owner, wanting to make a change, this site is pretty great.  www.BalanceIT.com 

For $20 you can develop one recipe and two for $30.  It will let you choose a protein source and a vegetable, then it offers you a bunch of different recipes to choose from.  The recipes will tell you how much of their supplement to add to the recipe and they also provide an alternative where you use human vitamins you can buy over the counter at your drug store.  If your dog won't eat the recipe or it doesn't agree with them, you contact them and they'll give you credit to try a new recipe without additional charge.  I used it to develop 2 recipes for Woobie prior to having the nutritionist work something out for him that matched what I was feeding Indie already for convenience so I was making the same things for both of them.   The company is developed and run by vets from UC Davis, so it's pretty reputable and well-researched.

Good luck!

***Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with the above company and don't get any compensation for recommending it.  I've just used it as a customer and found it to be very good.***