Pictoral Explanation of Diet Choices

    • Gold Top Dog

    Pictoral Explanation of Diet Choices

     I've talked a lot about my disatisfaction with "random food events" and that how my diet choices affected my working dogs, was what drove my move to spreadsheets, becoming educated about nutrient balances, and using a nutrition expert, etc. I was organizing my hard drive for archiving onto an external drive, and realized I've got a really vivid pictoral sequence of what I mean.

    Here's a couple pictures I took at the beginning of the adventure to show Ted's condition. He was slightly over a year old, and I was feeding "prey model" raw - true prey model in fact, since I had access to whole carcasses of ducks, chickens, and lamb. But the bulk of his calories had to come from chicken, turkey, and duck since these were cheapest and he ate a LOT. Big Smile

    He was perfectly healthy - just had a complete physical.

      

      

    This was after the switch to balanced home prepared a year ago, last spring. I added carb sources, fruits and veggies, and supplements.

    This was after his potassium levels were adjusted by a nutrition expert, and in fact I'd switched to Orijen and raw bones combined right before this. But this was how he looked after the adjustment - there was no change between that and the Orijen.


      

    • Gold Top Dog

    His coat definitely became shinier after adding carbs, fruits, etc

    Rivers is built identical to that, in terms of the ultra skinny look, with the twiggy legs.

    Great looking dog, how old is he? 

    So, are you planning to permenantly stay on the combo of Orijen and raw meaty bones?

    Can I ask how much he weighs, and how much Orijen are you feeding him?

    I was feeding Rivers right at 2cps a day, IIRC

    • Gold Top Dog

     Ted weighs 35 pounds and eats (gulp) just shy of three cups of Orijen Puppy (I'm probably going to switch to the red meat version when K9 Cuisine starts carrying it). Plus something like a pork neck, meaty beef rib, pork rib, or a chicken quarter, each day. 

    He'll be three at the end of July - the last two pictures were taken a couple of months ago. He works and trains about one hour total per day, plays or walks with us about two hours a day (he runs while we walk! Big Smile ), and crashes the rest of the day. Life with BCs Confused

    • Gold Top Dog
    Thansk for sharing the pictorial! I have experienced similar results by doing kibble + raw or cooked, but doing at least 1 rmb per week. They get kibble as a base and then a meat/veg/egg mixture on their am meal and a T of kefir or yogurt on their pm meal. Their coats have really perked up, after being on cooked meat + sojos premix.
    • Gold Top Dog

     I need to get some good ones of Em on Z/D. Of course, she's perked up quite a bit, since I put on the matress cover, changed out the pillows, and started showering at night, but the low protein kibble has her not at her best. I can't wait to see her looking fabulous in six months.

     

    She is getting 2 1/2 cups (635 kcal) plus a 5.5 oz can (152 kcal), plus some beef (for six days, with NO REACTION YAY!). That's 800ish kcals a day. And she's a house dog, UGH!