777

I was just curious as to what kind of food you give to your own dog and/or cat. We occationally give him table scraps (like pizza crusts), but his diet consists of half can food and half dry food.

If you don't mind me asking, what do you feed your pet?

__________________
"I don't know that I ever wanted greatness, on its own. It seems rather like wanting to be an engineer, rather than wanting to design something - or wanting to be a writer, rather than wanting to write. It should be a by-product, not a thing in itself. Otherwise, it's just an ego trip."

Roger Zelazny

sillygirl

Ours get something called Solid Gold. They've seemed to really enjoy it, it's human grade food, and it's amazingi that our Dane is not so gassy when he's eating it.

__________________

Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly-Rose Franken
....absence makes me miss him more...

jorgelito

Nutro for my little SweetPea. I think she really likes it. I add glucosamine to it sometimes. Supplemental food includes eggs, cheese, peanut butter, treats, Greenies, bullies, and chicken.

ryfo

Dry food for doggies and a mixture of pouch/dry for kitty. The dogs end up getting table scraps(or something deliberatly 'left' for them. Dry food make doggy-doo patrol much easier and hardly any gas problems!

Lady Sage

My babies get unlimited dry food and I use the canned food as a treat about once a week or so.

__________________
If only closed minds came with closed mouths.
Minds are like parachutes, they function best when open.
It`s Easier to Change a Condom Than a Diaper
Yes, the rumors are true... I actually AM a Witch.

newtx

Pedigree works for me. Not too expensive and still has enough protein for my 2 Labs. They do get some scraps but usually not more than once a week.

vanblah

My cats are on Feline c/d to control magnesium levels. We've already had one cat with FUS and we don't need to go through that again.

The dog eats about anything we give her. Currently she's eating Nutro lamb & rice.

Glory's Sun

Dry food diet. Eukanuba only. I'll give them table scraps but it's very rare.

Oh yeah, I also give them daily coat pills and weekly vitamins..they act like they enjoy them so it's easy

snowy

The dog only eats canned food from Costco. It's all he will eat--unless it's cat food or people food. He occasionally gets table scraps. When he was a puppy he would refuse to eat his food unless you mixed people food in with it. People act horrified when we tell them that he ate a lot of table scraps in his early life, but he's still acting like a puppy at 8 and has the shiniest coat you've ever seen.

The cats eat canned food and have dry food out away somewhere high where the dog can't get to it. Otherwise he gobbles their food right up. Guess cat food is tasty.

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Sultana

Bullies...is that beef?

*hopes it really is bullies, being ground up and added to pet food*

We get...something in a big blue bag for all our cats. Dry food. Not a one of them likes canned food. very occasionally I'll dole out a tidbit of roasted chicken meat (they'll condescend to eat a few bites--mostly they just want to see what we're eating). One cat goes mad for a few bites of deli ham...but that's it. I've never seen such non-food-motivated animals in my life. Makes it hard to make anything a treat.

__________________
"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.
At night, the ice weasels come." -

Matt Groening

My goal? To fulfill my potential.

DaElf

Half a cup of purina and half a can of alpo twice a day.

jorgelito

Ha haha sultana, that's a good idea! Canned Bullies. No, bullies is slang for bully sticks. Apparently they are bull penises. They're chewey and nutritious and make a good snack for doggies. Not sure about cats though, I think they are more picky.

*edit* Oh wait, to answer your question, yeah, I guess that would make it beef then.

Lady Sage

Hahahahaha! Bull penises? *snort* Oh tell me youre kidding! They actually MAKE those?????

Tell me im not the only one laughing too....

__________________
If only closed minds came with closed mouths.
Minds are like parachutes, they function best when open.
It`s Easier to Change a Condom Than a Diaper
Yes, the rumors are true... I actually AM a Witch.

jorgelito

Er, yes they are available. I don't really think that anyone "makes a bull penis", they're sort of just....born that way? I mean, you know...it's natural....as in a penis is natural. Er, a natural bull penis, which would make it beef? *starting to turn red*.......

Eh....I think the only "treatment" is the drying and draining of fluid from the actual bull penis (again, naturally "made") in preparation for it as a dietary supplement for your pet and as a delicious treat.

Um...I guess if you stare at it long enough, you can see the penile origins of the final..."product", that is, the dried and drained all natural beef bull penis, also known as "bullies".

*runs away in embarrassment*

*starts laughing because Lady Sage is laughing*

Sweetpea

I use mostly dried food. however, it's organic and it has a high moisture content, which should help with an contispation/tummy upset issues that happens commonly with dry goods only diets.


sweetpea

__________________
Having a Pet Will Change Your Life!
Looking for a great pet?! Click Here!
"I am the Type of Person Who Can Get Away With A lot, Simply Because I Don't Ask Permission for the Privilege of Being Myself"

james t kirk

Wanna kill your cat or dog?

Just feed it cat or dog food.

So far, I am the lone vote for making my own cat food.

I can not stress enough how bad processed animal food is for your cat or dog, especially the dry stuff. I know I used to feed my cat Eukanuba Diet cat food. She never lost an ounce. By fluke, I had her blood tested revealing that she had kidney problems. Long story short, I took her to see a natural vet (a certified vet, but one who doesn't believe in selling you "vet pet food" or narcs) after her regular vet told me she'd be dead in a year, but that I had to give her two different kinds of narcs and some vet sold KD diet cat food (KD = Kidney disease)

She (the natural vet) told me that ALL pet food, regardless of how they dress up the bag, is poisonous for our four footed friends. It's all crap, made from crap, made to be convienient for humans. Imagine food that doesn't rot - how's that possible?

Anyway, she had a convincing arguement - that vets make more money selling food and narcs than they do being vets. Hardly unbiased. We use pet foods to get rid of the bottom of the barrel rotting food, mix it with anything to fill the animal up and package it to be convienient to the human owners.

My cat was supposed to be dead a year ago. I have been making her chicken and veggies, or fish and veggies for 2 years now and she has lost weight (holding at 9 pounds) and is asleep right now in the other room.

The multi billion dollar pet food industry would like you to believe that pets somehow require some secret food that only they can make. Nothng could be a bigger pile of steaming horseshit. Well, your animal would probably be better off eating fresh horseshit than it would be eating anything by IAMS or Eukanuba (Proctor and Gamble and Colgate Palmolive)

Believe me, I am not a birkenstock wearing tree hugging hippie, but I do work in the corporate world and I know how they operate. If they could sell us cotton dipped in chocolate and get us to eat it for lunch, they would. Animals can't voice their concerns. So just ask yourself - Would you want to eat what you are feeding your cat or dog?

If the answser is no, then your cat or dog probably feels the same way. How'd you like to eat cheerios every day, three times a day, for the rest of your life?

snowy

Well, given that all of my animals have lived happy, healthy, long lives with regular dog/cat food, I'm going to have to disagree.

Some pets just have health problems, and some of them are sensitive to some foods, just like humans are. Some, like my animals, did just fine on Friskies and canned dog food from Costco.

So I'll keep on feeding my pets regular food, thanks...

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

warrrreagl

All dry food. We have one cat that never seems to shake her urinary tract infection, so she's required to eat Feline CD from Science Diet. Since there's no practical way of feeding one cat one thing and the other three cats something much more tasty, they're ALL on the CD diet now.

__________________
Living is easy with eyes closed.

JustJess

All dry food, cafeteria-style. We tend to mix up types, so there's no real imbalances in nutrients. I have tried to get the cats to eat turkey, or cheese, or anything other than just cat food. They don't like wet food, and they only like smelling human food.... except for Punkin and his lettuce fetish! That cat gets SO EXCITED when you open a bag of salad, holy cow... he loves lettuce. Yep. Weirdo.

And yes, JamesTKirk - it would be nice to feed them something a bit more like real food. But they don't like regular food. And no, it's not cost efficient. And I have had pets my whole life, and my mom for her whole life, and we have never once had any trouble with feeding them dry food. I'm sorry you had such a rough time, though, and I'm glad that she's doing so well now.

__________________
My heart knows me better than I know myself, so I'm gonna let it do all the talkin'.

Chamaeleontidae

All dry food, no table scraps. They apparently have allergies to the common dry foods, but we found one that doesn't cause them to be constantly scratching, so we're sticking to that... They also get treats, mostly liver based or peanut butter in their kongs... (Peanut butter in a kong, with a liver treat hidden inside, then frozen... Good for hours of licking, and LOTs of tail wagging... )

__________________
"Reality is just a crutch for people who can't cope with drugs."
Robin Williams.

sapiens

We feed our dog dry food. Very occasionally, we will give him a very small amount of meat table scraps, but only in his bowl and only after we have eaten and left the kitchen.

james t kirk

It's actually not that much more expensive to feed your cat human food.

For example a can of cat food in my grocery store is 49 cents. The same sized can of tuna is 99 cents.

I have never met a cat that didn't like Tuna.

Here's an interesting link to the pet food industry...

http://www.messybeast.com/cat-food-industry.htm

You may be disturbed, as I was, to find that you may be feeding your pet road kill, euthanized dogs, and chicken feet, even if you are spending $40 a bag on "premium" food.

The pet food industry has many dark secrets hidden behind the colorful bags and sentimental slogans. Most pet food companies are actually garbage bins for other companies owned by huge corporations. In those kibbles there's a truth that's not so appetizing.

To me, the biggest injustice is that there are pet owners out there who think they're doing the best for their dogs. I found out I was feeding my dog from one of the worst companies out there. You owe it to yourself and your animals to find out what you're really feeding them.

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spri...d/Contents.htm

Keep telling yourselves that your pet is being well fed. And yes, I am selling a bridge in Brooklyn if anyone is interested.

cheers

Don't be duped by huge corporations.

BTW, there is no quality control, no testing, no government standards for pet food.

ShaniFaye

my cat cant eat seafood....real or "seafood flavored" cat food....she throws up every single time

Dry food (non fish flavored) works just fine for her

__________________
I want the diabetic plan that comes with rollover carbs. I dont like the unused one expiring at midnite!!

jorgelito

Ok James, you have my attention. I went to the sites you linked, but I didn't see my brand listed. Looking at the ingredients list on the bag, everything seems to be fine.

I guess the moral of the story os to be diligent and use common sense.

Lady Sage

Tuna depletes vitamins out of a cat if fed too often. Tuna is a very rare treat for my girls (and boy but he has no boy parts so is he a girl now too?) *End attempt at humor*

__________________
If only closed minds came with closed mouths.
Minds are like parachutes, they function best when open.
It`s Easier to Change a Condom Than a Diaper
Yes, the rumors are true... I actually AM a Witch.

Meditrina

Simba gets dry food. I am not really sure why, it has just always been that way. I give him Iams Indoor, older cat food.

__________________
"Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles." ~Alex Karras

*Nikki*

All 5 cats eat Feline C/D Science Diet Dry and have their entire lives. Looking at about 7 plus years now on that diet and I couldn't be happier with it.

james t kirk

Hence the need to mix the tuna or chicken with veggies.

My natural vet told me that cats are pure carnivores, however, they do need vitamins and minerals. Apparently, the ratio is 80% meat to 20% veggies with absolutely no carbs or rice.

The veggies contain the vitamins and minerals that a cat needs. They also need chlorophyl, which is why you will see them eating grass from time to time. The vet recommended wheat grass, or dandelions, or simply parsley. I also add calcium citrate and potassium to their veggie pulp.



I guess I am not saying this loud enough - NEVER FEED A CAT DRY CAT FOOD, YOU ARE KILLING YOUR CAT IT'S CONVIENIENT CHEAP FOOD IS ALL


BTW, As I said, I don't vote for the NDP, I don't own birkenstocks, I don't believe in the welfare state, in fact I am an Engineer dammit, I know corporate bullshit when I see it.


I was doing some googling on cat diets and found a very interesting site by a vet in the states.

He too strongly recommends against EVER feeding a cat dry (human convienience) food. Here's an excerpt..


We Are Feeding Cats Too Many Carbohydrates

In their natural setting, cats—whose unique biology makes them true carnivores--would not consume the high level of carbohydrates (grains) that are in the dry foods that we routinely feed them. You would never see a wild cat chasing down a herd of biscuits running across the plains of Africa or dehydrating her mouse and topping it off with corn meal gluten souffle! In the wild, your cat would be eating a high protein, high-moisture content, meat-based diet, with a moderate level of fat and with only ~6-9% of her diet consisting of carbohydrates. The average dry food contains 35-50% carbohydrates. Some of the cheaper dry foods contain even higher levels. This is NOT the diet that Mother Nature intended for your cat to eat! A high quality canned food, on the other hand, contains ~3-6% carbohydrates. Cats have a physiological decrease in the ability to utilize carbohydrates due to the lack of specific enzymatic pathways that are present in other mammals, and the lack a salivary enzyme called amylase. Cats not only have no dietary need for carbohydrates, but too many carbohydrates can actually be detrimental to their health, as outlined below. With this in mind, it would be as illogical to feed a carnivore a steady diet of meat-flavored cereals as it would be to feed meat to a vegetarian like a horse or a cow, right? So why are we continuing to feed our carnivores like herbivores? Why are we feeding such a species-inappropriate diet? The answers are simple. Grains are cheap. Dry food is convenient. Affordability and convenience sells. But is a carbohydrate-laden, plant-based, water-depleted dry food the best diet for our cats? Absolutely not. They are designed to eat meat – not grains.

Cats Need Plenty of Water With Their Food

Another extremely important nutrient with respect to overall health is water. It is very important for a cat to ingest water with its food, as the cat does not have a very strong thirst drive. This is a critical point. This lack of a strong thirst drive leads to low-level, chronic dehydration when dry food makes up the bulk of their diet. Cats are designed to obtain most of their water with their diet since their normal prey contains ~70% water. Dry foods only contain ~10% water whereas canned foods contain ~78% water. Canned foods therefore more closely approximate the natural diet of the cat and are better suited to meet the cat's water needs. A cat consuming a predominantly dry-food diet does drink more water than a cat consuming a canned food diet, but in the end, when water from all sources is added together (what's in their diet plus what they drink), the cat on dry food consumes approximately HALF the amount of water compared with a cat eating canned foods. This is a crucial point when one considers how common kidney and bladder problems are in the cat.

Link to rest...

http://www.homevet.com/petcare/feedingyourcat.html

My cat has kidney problems from eating dry cat food. End of story.\

If you have to feed your cat processed cat food, at least feed it the turd from the can, and not the turd from the bag. At the very least.

Lady Sage

Oh my..... such violence.

I never thought I would see the day in a pet thread. I was incorrect.

__________________
If only closed minds came with closed mouths.
Minds are like parachutes, they function best when open.
It`s Easier to Change a Condom Than a Diaper
Yes, the rumors are true... I actually AM a Witch.

james t kirk

Not violence. I just love animals.

I am merely pointing out the fact that so many people have been duped for so long by huge corporations that they aren't using that thing on top of their shoulders.

You've been sold a bill of goods people that simply isn't true.

I even thought about the cost angle, and yes, it is more expensive to make your own cat food, but then I thought, "well, how much does it cost when you have to take your cat to the vet for chronic renal problems"?

A lot more than if you just fed it properly in the first place.

Like the old saying, pay me now, or pay me later.

Lady Sage

Ok, I am a bad mom in your eyes cause I feed my kids dry food more than wet. Got it. My pets however dont agree. Never had urinary or kidney probs out of any of my pets. See not all vets agree on everything and not all owners agree on everything. Thats the beauty of free choice. I am exercising one of mine right now. Good day.

__________________
If only closed minds came with closed mouths.
Minds are like parachutes, they function best when open.
It`s Easier to Change a Condom Than a Diaper
Yes, the rumors are true... I actually AM a Witch.

Charlatan

I agree with JTK (though perhaps without all the shouting )

Commercial pet foods are terrible for your pets. The industry is completely without regulation.

Some of the contents of pet food include:

euthanized pets
meat from the supermarket that has passed it's best before date (they don't take the time to remove the styrofoam and cellophane)
horses that have been "put to sleep" (it isn't glue factory that gets them these days)
Farm animals that are not safe enough for the human food supply (i.e. a sick cow -- including all of the medicine that was in their system)

etc.

It really is crap.

I started looking into this years ago when I got my dog. He is a Dane/Lab cross. Dane are known for their short life span -- 9 years on average. The stats show that this is only true in North America. In Europe where there is more of a tradition of feeding table scraps the Danes were living to 15 on average.

Further tests were done and it was discovered that diet had everything to do with it.

My dog eats only table scaps or Organic dry food (HundenFlocken or Fromms are the two we suppliment with they are made from human grade food). The dog eats better than I do.

The result is amazing. I have never had a dog with whiter teeth (the vet frequently comments with surprise that he doesn't need scalling) and better coat.

He is going on eight-years-old and while he getting older he is still quite youthful and vigourous.


As for cat food... most is high in ash. I had to put two cats to sleep before I learned that lesson. High ash = bladder problems.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Elphaba

Errrm...my new pup has to be brought down to dig out the big hunk of pet hair she finds somewhere outdoors. I have no idea what the attraction to that gunk is, but she keeps finding it.

Lady Sage

Processed food is one thing but Tiffany my eldest feline (8) has this thing for eating toilet paper.

__________________
If only closed minds came with closed mouths.
Minds are like parachutes, they function best when open.
It`s Easier to Change a Condom Than a Diaper
Yes, the rumors are true... I actually AM a Witch.

zed wolf

My dog Natasha, an 8yr old Siberian Husky is feed dry kibble only. specifically Pedigree Small Crunchy Bites. She is fed about 3-4 cups once a day and has one opportunity to eat. if she dose not want to eat the food is removed until the next day. I never give her any human food, I think that is a bad training habit that should be avoided. my last husky, Tovarisch, was raised by me from a pup the same way and I could leave his sitting on the couch with my dinner on a plate next to him while I left the room without fear that he would eat it. All this was achieved through positive reenforcement and talking to him in his language. I firmly believe that if you want your dogs to really understand you and do what you ask them to do you must speak to them in dog.

pocon1

nothing to say

Warlock!

100# of dry dog food for two dogs. Cheap stuff, but they love it. Sure, they love steak more, but I ain't shellin' out $600 worth of steak for dogs/month.

Intense1

Thelma Lou (half pug, half mini-doberman) likes Mighty Dog Lamb with Rice dinner (the type that is like pate), but it must be cut into bite size slices. She also likes Gravy train dry.

But she mostly likes whatever me or my mom are eating - and darned it all, if we don't fall for her cute little brown begging eyes, especially if we are having maccaroni andff cheese.....

Now THAT she loves.

She's also about 5 lbs overweight, so we need to wean her off the mac n cheese.

It's tough to do, as my mom wants to give her anything she wants.

__________________
(none yet, still thinkin')

Acetylene

Hi Kirk,

Some would say this is a little extreme but in a lot of ways it is true, especially for cats. Dogs are essentially omnivores, able to survive on all kinds of junk, but cats are true carnivores. They would naturally eat the ENTIRE animal including stomach contents, which the animal had digested for them. They are not able to synthesize vitamins the way mice (for example) are able to do, nor are their systems equipped to digest startches properly on their own. A cat would never, ever eat grain in its natural state.

This being said, all extruded dry kibble must be at least 40% starch for the machine to be able to make it (some baked "fancy" foods have more meat), which means it is 40% unsuitable for cats. We, as humans, should not fall into the trap of thinking that what is healthy for us is also healthy for our cats: No matter how proudly a pet food will say it has "healthful whole grains" no grain is healthful for a cat.

When meat is cooked until it turns brown and dry, the most delicate of the amino acids are denatured. This results in chronic amino acid imbalance which can cause degenerative disease later in life. This shows up as kidney failure sometimes and afflicted one of my cats, too.

Other organ failure is caused by vitamin deficiency. Antioxidant vitamins are volatile and easily destroyed in cooking and processing; Vitamin C in particular is not present in high enough levels in processed cat foods. Cats normally consume vitamin C "factories" in the mice they catch and eat (most rodents produce their own vitamin c) and consequently require quite a bit of the vitamin. This can only be supplied by fresh foods and organ meats.

All of this is true for dogs as well, but to a lesser extent because of their omnivorous nature. All the same, it is undeniable the improvement in coat, energy, and longevity that one will see in a dog given liberal supplements of "real" food. My last dog survived autoimmune disorders and eventual kidney failure for 5 years because of the special food I made for her every day.

Table scraps have a bad name for dogs because they are usually exactly that--the "scraps" that humans did not want to eat. This is meat gristle, bones, crusts, skin. What they need is meat, organs (can't over-emphasize the necessity of organ meats!), and, believe it or not, vegetables. Dogs graze on leaves and grass and love vegetables when given a chance. My dog picks cherry tomatoes off my vines and eats them with great gusto, and I did not teach her to do it--it was a natural and healthy impulse. Dogs DO NOT neet more fat and starch added to their diet because kibbles already have plenty!

I give my dog some kibble, because I do not have faith in my ability to properly balance her vitamins, but I also supplement her diet extensively with chicken giblets, beef liver, and vegetables. She eats some of my lunch and dinner every day--not the scraps, but the healthy stuff. Every week I buy a cheap roast (she doesn't mind if it's tough), slice it, and fry it really rare--just barely enough to kill the germs--and give her one of these a day.

To expect a dog to live off of nothing but kibble is like to expect a human to live off of nothing but jerky, bread, and vitamin pills: you can SURVIVE on it, but no one would say it was ideal!

And don't get me started on dog "treats"--those chicken-flavored wheat biscuits devoid of nutrition! Just give your dog what he REALLY wants as a treat: MEAT!

__________________
There's no justice. There's just us.

james t kirk

Cats are true carnivores, yes, however, they do eat grass for chlorophyl. You let your cat out and you will see them eating grass, sometimes they throw up as a result, but what they are after is the cholorphyl.

I feed my 2 cats mainly chicken, sometimes liver, sometimes tuna. Mixed with 20% veggies or so (green beans, yellow beans, brocoli, cauliflower, peas and carrots and parsley)

They have done very well by it and their weight is under control now.