Pet Nutrition Vent

WD

WD

Cathlete
I spend a lot of time reading my pet food labels. What is up with dog treats with sugar alcohols in them?? I have a dane who gets an upset stomach very easily. I was buying premium dog food avoiding corn meal and a lot of allergins and never noticed the treats till recently. Specifically some of those chewy beef and turkey jerky typs of treats. All of the garbage makes me mad x(

http://wd.1ww.us
http://1ww.us/logo2.gif
 
A great natural treat is raw chicken necks. Turkey necks too.

Jeanine



We find beauty in the most incomprehensible places and the otherwise homely faces. It is our gift to see beyond the dirt, terror, sadness and defeat and find the true soul that lies within. We are Rescue.
www.cfgdr.org
 
You don't worry about the bones?? I have always removed bones from chicken and turkey when I used it for a treat? I see you deal with great danes. Do you have an opinion on doing the ears? We did not have ours done. She flaps those things around all of the time. Had a terrible gash in one for awhile. Took a lot of neosporin and trying to keep her and our other dog (part lab) from playing rough.
Our vet said he would not do it and most would not do it here in Oklahoma. I did read a lot about problems. BTW you have a nice informative website. Fortunately for us our Dane 107# 17 month female was raised from a tiny puppy with my grandchildren around all of the time. She is good with children. We love her so much.

http://wd.1ww.us
http://1ww.us/logo2.gif
 
Raw bones are very very good for dogs...cats too. They are carnivores, after all. The website is in the midst of an overhaul, but there should stil be links about raw feeding.

I like the look of natural ears a lot better than cropped. It's also a collosal pain in the butt to get cropped ears to stand, if they ever do - and let's face it - it's pain for the dog for purely cosmetic reasons.

I have come to find that most danes are good with kids, some are just too young and playful (read: clumsy) for littler kids. I started fostering when my daughter was 3, and we have had a boatload through here - all kid-lovers.


Jeanine

We find beauty in the most incomprehensible places and the otherwise homely faces. It is our gift to see beyond the dirt, terror, sadness and defeat and find the true soul that lies within. We are Rescue.
www.cfgdr.org
 
I have mixed feelings on bones. First, I have to say they are excellent for dogs. We give our Great Danes bones on a regular basis - however they are large joint bones. We don't feed anything smaller and usually take away the bones when they get too small. I am terrified of them choking on them.

As for other dog treats, yes, it is very difficult to find ones without a ton of junk in them. We usually make our own. Below are a couple of recipes. If you google dog treat recipes, you will come up with a ton of them.

Jeanine - kudos to you on your participation in rescue! We have three Great Danes - all from rescue. We also have a black lab that we got from the humain society. They were advertising him as a great dane - he's so not even close! Anyway, we have great respect for people who donate their time, money and often their sanity to help this beautiful bread! And if our house wasn't at capacity, I would adopt Maya in a heartbeat. She is absolutely gorgeous!

Here are the recipes:

Lincoln's Liver Logs
**these are messy to make but OMG do my dogs love them!

1 lb. liver
1 egg
2 cups whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix liver and egg in food processor until smooth - liver will look like baby food. Stir in flour a little at a time, until you have a thick but pourable batter. Spread into a greased 8"x8" pan. Bake until dry, approx. 30 minutes. Cut into 1/2" squares. Freeze and use as needed. No need to thaw.

Peanut Butter Dog Bones
**we use a dog bone shaped cookie cutter

1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup applesauce
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup peanut butter
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup regular flour
1 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup oats

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix liquid ingredients together well. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients bowl and mix thoroughly until smooth. Roll into a ball; place ball on floured surface. Roll out to 1/2" thickness. Cut into desired shapes. Place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 20 minutes; turn off the oven and leave the biscuits in there for one hour to harden.
 
I know what you mean about the treats. I usually get chicken jerky strips made by waggin train however, I just noticed recently they are a product of China. Although they are supposed to be pure chicken I can't help but wonder what else could be on them. I buy beef liver at the store and boil it and then cut it into cubes about 1/2 inch and that is what I use for a treat for my two shih tzu. I don't give them much only three or four a day and at least I know there arn't any additives.

Susan
 
My understanding is raw bones are OK, cooked bones are where you can get into trouble with the splintering and such.

I give my lab raw beef bones to chew on.

Susan L.G.
 
I feed my german shepherd a raw diet by Aunt Jeni's. You can go to www.auntjeni.com. I used to make him my own raw diet that consisted of a few pureed veggies and chicken necks or chicken thighs (bones too :)or raw ground beef. It began taking alot of time so I started feeding the Aunt Jeni's - comes prepared frozen. He thrives off this diet. Clean ears, super coat and skin.

Susan L.G. your understanding is right that cooked bones splinter. If you take a raw chicken drumstick the bone will bend.

I also just come across some excellent treats yesterday at PetCo- I was sssooo excited: Castor & Pollux Organic Chicken dog cookies. No corn, wheat or by-products. No salt, sugar or artificial preservatives. Here are the ingredients: organic chicken, organic barley, organic peas, organic brown rice, organic oats, organic fat preserved w/mixed tocopherols, herring meal, organic flaxseed and natural chicken liver flavor! This company also has dry dog food and an "Excellent" shampoo!

Sorry I went on a tyrant but when it comes to "dog stuff" I go overboard....ask my dear hubby! :7
 
I wanted to thank all of you for your responses. Kelly thanks for the recipes. I really need to do something like that for my kitchen treats. We have three treat jars. Two are by each dogs sleeping areas and one is in the kitchen just for fun and training.

Jeanene, I thought I prefer the big floppy ears myself. DH kind of wanted to do it. I did some research and talked to the vet. I just felt bad because she had a split in her ear and kept shaking her head and hitting it and it would split back open. I kept thinking maybe she needed a hat:) I do know what you mean about clumsy. We have a new grandchild that will be born this month and I know this will be a trial. She steps on my feet and bumps into me sometimes. I do daycare for my grandchildren, ages 7-11, so next year when my dd is back teaching I will have the new baby here all of the time. We will work through it though:)

Susan, I know what you mean about worrying some about them being from China. I was in a building supply store that sells pet feed for all different varieties of animals. Thought the dogfood might be good. When I came home and researched it they had recalls for salmonella.

SusanLG, I had no clue about raw being better. My part lab eats the Nylabones unless they are very thick and rounded.I always worry about her eating something she shouldn't. She cannot have rawhide as even the large bones just disappear.


http://wd.1ww.us
http://1ww.us/logo2.gif
 
One more note on the split ear...we've had our fair share from the dogs playing too hard and of course from being clumsy. This is what our vet told us: take a tampon (no joke), hold it at the bottom of the ear and "roll it up". Then use an ace bandage to hold the ear in place. It's not pretty but it works. It takes a couple of days to get a good scab formed. I got REALLY tired of cleaning up blood splattered walls. (BTW - Magic Erasers work REALLY well for that!!)

Cropping the dogs ears, in my opinion, is just mean. And from what I've been told, it's a lot of work to make them stand up. Our oldest dane has cropped ears and the former owners did a terrible job of taking care of them. They only stand up straight when he is really alert. Most of the time they stick straight out like airplane wings.
 
Rawhide bones can cause diarrhea in doggies, so should be given sparingly. It's just as well you don't offer them to your pups at all! :)

Susan L.G.
 
Kelly, that sounds like a good idea for the ears. I thought of some things but not sure the other dog will leave it in place. She may though if I tell her no a couple of times. She hurt her chin on something the other day when our son and his wife came in. She was wearing her scrubs from the drs office and had blood on her leg. I said something and it was our Dane's chin. Not sure what she hit it on.

Susan LG, I have not purchased any more rawhide treats. It seems really mean to tell the second dog no. She sees me and drops it on command. I know she would love to chew on it. Makes me feel guilty letting one chew on it and not the other. I look for anything for heavy chewers. Even then I do not leave my puppies alone with chewing items.

http://wd.1ww.us
http://1ww.us/logo2.gif
 
The lab mix chews things up quicker than the dane. But I will say the Kongs hold up better than nylabones if they are large enough. Once we start finding pieces coming off they go in the trash.
I have not found the perfect chew item. Bought some bones at Petsmart once thinking they would be good and they were all over the floor in a very short time. Not sure what they did to those bones.

http://wd.1ww.us
http://1ww.us/logo2.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top