Feeding

When I first got into dogs I fed what everyone else did...kibble, because that is what is best right? Everything is balanced with the perfect vitamins, minerals and protein and fat levels.......right? Well, I started to do some research on dog nutrition and found this wasn't really the case. I began to look more into the idea of feeding a raw diet, a much more natural diet for my dogs without the preservatives, fillers and all the nutrition cooked out of it.

My original breed was German Shorthaired Pointers and they got to be my guinea pigs. I couldn't believe the changes in them! One of the biggest differences was the amount of stool I was picking up....it was literally half the amount, and about a quarter of the smell! The ate their meals with gusto, and the feel of their bodies changed a great deal. Kibble fed dogs tend to have a much softer feel while dogs on a raw diet have a lovely hard, fit and lean feel to them. Their teeth were also very white...no dental visits for this crew!

Fast forward to the Doberman years...I started them on raw as well, again with the same wonderful results. I had a great, very economical meat source so everything was going along well. When I lost the meat source and started having to pay a great deal more for the food as well as had a few more dogs to feed I decided that I would try going back to the kibble. The dogs did ok on it, and it wasn't awful but nothing compares to a raw fed dog. I am now very happy to have found a good source for the raw, both economically and with lots of variation. The dogs are happily eating it with great gusto and the change in stool amount happens overnight. I still feed some kibble, usually when I am traveling as it is just so much easier than trying to pack raw food around with you, but for the most part my dogs are raw fed again and I couldn't be happier.