Grain Free Dog Food/ Heart Problems

[dla4567]

Our dogs eat raw meat with different additives such as vegetables. Not sure what all is added to it as my wife handles this. One dog is allergic to beef, the raw meat is a variety of deer, rabbit, goat, turkey...
I’m no expert but they do get excited at feeding time.

 

[biomedtechguy]

they don’t seem to care for tomatoes.

Ripe tomatoes are ok. Green tomatoes and the stems and leaves contain a chemical that is not good for them.

 

[biomedtechguy]

Also garlic and onions are toxic to dogs!
THAT really caught me by surprise.

 

[dla4567]

One of our dogs eats tomatoes and strawberries from the garden. One day she ate all the peppers, that was a rough night for all of us.

 

[Budnicks]

All my dogs have been raised on puppy formula
Purina 'Pro Plan', then Shredded adult versions
Savor is Elvis's favorite, Lamb & rice
(I do avoid foods with 'corn or it by products, as it's base ingredient)
Barron (black lab) & Flash (yellow lab) made it to 15+,
The Duke was 14+, Lord Budnicks was 16+, when they passed
Elvis is 3.5 now & healthy as a horse,
none of them were or are fat
all of them were/are very active, very playful

I tried a couple of the 'designer' grain-free foods
to see if the dog (Elvis) would quit chewing & liking on his feet
made it worse, he grew out of what ever it was
they were sort of pricey (I don't care about price really)
he didn't like it at all

All my dogs have table scraps too
as much as the local vet (& my sister a Vet, says he's in perfect health)
says it's not right, but I always have done it
they pretty much eat what I eat, with few exceptions
& she (my vet) does it too
& they only live once, I want them happy...

My dogs has Milkbone's 'the little ones' multiple flavors
they all get/got one after going outside,
he gets 1 Pup-peroni meat sticks treats nightly
(I call training treats)
I've done it with all my dogs
each of them are/were free-fed too,
they always had/have food in the bowl
none of them were ever fat, what so ever
they all have eaten "about 3 cups of food a day average"
for 95#'s-105-110#'s dogs that's a reasonable amount of food

I do feed my dogs raw meat sometimes
but not that often

The one thing I don't do is give any of them 'raw bones' at all
'only cooked bones & large beef leg bones chunks',
he can't swallow, extremely hard to get splinter off them...

I know all the arguments about 'well Canis Lupus/wolves eat it' etc.
well; a domestic dog isn't a wolf & they live a lot longer than a wolf too
I'll stick with what works for me for 50 years now thank you...

I know people that do it differently too,
if it works for you 'well fine', I ain't doing it...

We had problems with our dogs choking
or stomach or intestines issues
when I was a little kid, it happened a couple times
& it stuck with me...
We had one Lab (Flash IIRC) that had to have a sharp splintered bone,
that it poked a hole in & it had to be removed from his intestines
some really scary **** he almost died from it...
Had a Sheppard that did the same thing, in her colon...
I swore I won't ever do that, with any of my dogs...

I use to give my dogs horse hoof trimmings too
when we'd shoe Lisa's & the kids horses
also fed them cooked pigs ears, when I had/raised both...
I no longer do either of them things...

IMO changing a dogs diet
as long as they are doing well on what they have
keep doing it...
IMO just don't feed them cheap *** Chinese made ****
seems to me or it's a coincidence maybe (?),
it always seem to mess them up, in some way or other...

sorry for the short book
I'm passionate about the subject,
I follow some simple rules, that work...
& I won't & don't be conned easily either,
by the newest/latest fads BS...