Archive for the ‘Dog Nutrition’ Category

Grading Commerical Dog Foods

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Here is a list of dog foods graded by Boston Terrier Hub .  To learn how they determined their grading system and to grade your own dog food visit them at  How to Grade Your Dog Food.

Dog Food Name Total Points Dog Food Rating
Acana Premium Adult 102 A+
Alpo Prime Cuts 81 C
Artemis Large/Medium Breed Puppy 114 A+
Authority Harvest Baked 116 A+
Authority Harvest Baked Less Active 93 B
Beowulf Back to Basics 101 A+
Bil-Jac Select 68 F
Blackwood 3000 Lamb and Rice 83 C
Blue Buffalo Chicken and Rice 106 A+
Burns Chicken and Brown Rice 107 A+
Canidae 112 A+
Chicken Soup

Senior

115 A+
Diamond Maintenance 64 F
Diamond Lamb Meal & Rice 92 B
Diamond Large Breed 60+ Formula 99 A
Diamond Performance 85 C
Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance Ultra Premium 122 A+
Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance Potato and Duck 106 A+
Dick Van Patten Natural Balance Venison and Brown Rice 106 A+
EaglePack Holistic 102 A+
Eukanuba Adult 81 C
Eukanuba Puppy 79 C
Flint River Senior 101 A+
Foundations 106 A+
Hund-n-Flocken Adult Dog (lamb) by Solid Gold 93 B
Iams Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Premium 73 D
Innova Dog 114 A+
Innova EVO 114 A+
Innova Large Breed Puppy 122 A+
Kirkland Signature Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables 110 A+
Member’s Mark Chicken and Rice 84 C
Merrick Wilderness Blend 127 A+
Nature’s Recipe 100 A
Nature’s Recipe Healthy Skin Venison and Rice 116 A+
Nature’s Variety Raw Instinct 122 A+
Nutra Nuggets Super Premium Lamb Meal and Rice 81 C
Nutrience Junior Medium Breed Puppy 101 A+
Nutrisource Lamb and Rice 87 B
Nutro Max Adult 93 B
Nutro Natural Choice Oatmeal 101 A+
Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice 98 A
Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy 87 B
Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Lamb and Rice Puppy 98 A
Nutro Natural Choice Puppy Wheat Free 86 B
Nutro Natural Choice Senior 95 A
Nutro Ultra Adult 104 A+
Orijen Adult 109 A+
Pet Gold Adult with Lamb & Rice 23 F
Premium Edge Chicken, Rice and Vegetables Adult Dry 109 A+
Pro Nature Puppy 80 C
ProPlan Natural Turkey & Barley 103 A+
Pro Plan Sensitive Stomach 94 A
Purina Beneful 17 F
Purina Dog 62 F
Purina Come-n-Get It 16 F
Purina One Large Breed Puppy 62 F
Red Flannel Adult Formula 83 C
Royal Canin Boxer 103 A+
Royal Canin Bulldog 100 A+
Royal Canin Natural Blend Adult 106 A+
Science Diet Small Puppy Bites 68 F
Science Diet Advanced Protein Senior 7+ 63 F
Science Diet for Large Breed Puppies 69 F
Sensible Choice Chicken and Rice 97 A
Solid Gold 99 A
Summit 99 A
Timberwolf Dog Food Wild & Natural 120 A+
Wellness Super5Mix Chicken 110 A+
Wolfking Adult Dog (bison) by Solid Gold 97 A

What’s really in dog food

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

If you are concerned about the healthy of your dog as I am, here is a link to an article that you should read.

What’s Really in Pet Food

After reading that, if you are ready to feed a raw diet to your dog, here is a article written by an Australian Vet on the subject.  More information is available at Tom Longsdale’s website Raw Meaty Bones.

Diet guide for domestic dogs and cats

Dingoes and feral cats keep themselves healthy by eating whole carcasses of prey animals. Ideally we should feed our pets in the same manner. Until a dependable source of whole carcasses becomes available, pet owners need a satisfactory alternative. The following recommendations, based on raw meaty bones, have been adopted by thousands of pet owners with excellent results.
The diet is easy to follow and cheap, and pets enjoy it.
• Fresh water constantly available.
• Raw meaty bones (or carcasses if available) should form the bulk of the diet.
• Table scraps both cooked and raw (grate or liquidise vegetables, discard cooked bones).
Puppies and kittens
From about three weeks of age puppies and kittens start to take an interest in what their mother is eating. By six weeks of age they can eat chicken carcasses, rabbits and fish.
During the brief interval between three and six weeks of age it is advisable to provide minced chicken, chicken carcasses or similar for young animals (as well as access to larger pieces that encourage ripping and tearing). This is akin to the part-digested food regurgitated by wild carnivore mothers. Large litters will need more supplementary feeding than small litters. (The meat and bone should be minced together. Meat off the bone can be fed, but only for a short time, until the young animals can eat meat and bone together — usually about six weeks of age.)
Between four and six months of age puppies and kittens cut their permanent teeth and grow rapidly. At this time they need a plentiful supply of carcasses or raw meaty bones of suitable size.
Puppies and kittens tend not to overeat natural food. Food can be continuously available.
Natural foods suitable for pet carnivores
Raw meaty bones
• Chicken and turkey carcasses, after the meat has been removed for human consumption, are suitable for dogs and cats.
• Poultry by-products include: heads, feet, necks and wings.
• Whole fish and fish heads.
• Goat, sheep, calf, deer and kangaroo carcasses can be sawn into large pieces of meat and bone.
• Other by-products include: pigs’ trotters, pigs’ heads, sheep heads, brisket, tail bones, rib bones.
Whole carcasses
• Rats, mice, rabbits, fish, chickens, quail, hens.
Offal
• Liver, lungs, trachea, hearts, omasums (stomach of ruminants), tripe.
Quality — Quantity — Frequency
Healthy animals living and breeding in the wild depend on the correct quality of food in the right quantity at a correct frequency. They thereby gain an appropriate nutrient intake plus the correct amount of teeth cleaning — animals, unlike humans, ‘brush’ and ‘floss’ as they eat.
Quality
Low-fat game animals and fish and birds provide the best source of food for pet carnivores. If using meat from farm animals (cattle, sheep and pigs) avoid excessive fat, or bones that are too large to be eaten.

Raw food for cats should always be fresh. Dogs can consume ‘ripe’ food and will sometimes bury bones for later consumption.
Quantity
Establishing the quantity to feed pets is more an art than a science. Parents, when feeding a human family, manage this task without the aid of food consumption charts. You can achieve the same good results for your pet by paying attention to activity levels, appetite and body condition.
High activity and big appetite indicate a need for increased food, and vice versa.
Body condition depends on a number of factors. The overall body shape — is it athletic or rotund — and the lustre of the hair coat provide clues. Use your finger tips to assess the elasticity of the skin. Does it have an elastic feel and move readily over the muscles? Do the muscles feel well toned? And how much coverage of the ribs do you detect? This is the best place to check whether your pet is too thin or too fat. By comparing your own rib cage with that of your pet you can obtain a good idea of body condition — both your own and that of your pet.
An approximate food consumption guide, based on raw meaty bones, for the average pet cat or dog is 15 to 20 percent of body weight in one week or 2 to 3 percent per day. On that basis a 25 kilo dog requires up to five kilos of carcasses or raw meaty bones weekly. Cats weighing five kilos require about one kilo of chicken necks, fish, rabbit or similar each week. Table scraps should be fed as an extra component of the diet. Please note that these figures are only a guide and relate to adult pets in a domestic environment.
Pregnant or lactating females and growing puppies and kittens may need much more food than adult animals of similar body weight.
Wherever possible, feed the meat and bone ration in one large piece requiring much ripping, tearing and gnawing. This makes for contented pets with clean teeth.
Frequency
Wild carnivores feed at irregular intervals. In a domestic setting regularity works best and accordingly I suggest that you feed adult dogs and cats once daily. If you live in a hot climate I recommend that you feed pets in the evening to avoid attracting flies.
I suggest that on one or two days each week your dog may be fasted — just like animals in the wild.
On occasions you may run out of natural food. Don’t be tempted to buy artificial food, fast your dog and stock up with natural food the next day.
Puppies, cats, ferrets, sick or underweight dogs should not be fasted (unless on veterinary advice).
Table scraps
Wild carnivores eat small amounts of omnivore food, part-digested in liquid form, when they eat the intestines of their prey. Our table scraps, and some fruit and vegetable peelings, are omnivore food which has not been ingested. Providing scraps do not form too great a proportion of the diet they appear to do no harm and may do some good. I advise an upper limit of one-third scraps for dogs and rather less for cats. Liquidising scraps, both cooked and raw, in the kitchen mixer may help to increase their digestibility.
Things to avoid
•Excessive meat off the bone — not balanced.
•Excessive vegetables — not balanced.
•Small pieces of bone — can be swallowed whole and get stuck.
•Cooked bones — get stuck.
•Mineral and vitamin additives — create imbalance.
•Processed food — leads to dental and other diseases.
•Excessive starchy food — associated with bloat.
•Onions, garlic and chocolate — toxic to pets.
•Grapes, raisins, sultanas, currants — toxic to pets.