feeding

15 years ago, I didn't think too much about dog food.  I fed the best dog food available at the local seed and feed store, which was dry Purina Pro Plan.  To this, I added a small amount of vegetables and fruit, and big raw meaty bones from the local butcher shop.  Lately, I decided to re-visit the subject of dog food.  

If you think there is a lot of controversy about how you "should" train your dog (and there is), wait until you 'wade in the water' of what you "should" feed your dog!   After a pretty exhaustive (and exhausting) period of research, I can tell you the conclusions I have reached:

Feed the best quality food you can find--within your budget.  I started out with an all-natural homemade diet.  I followed the recommendations in the  book, Dr. Becker's Real Food for Healthy Dogs & Cats. Simple Homemade Food, 4th Edition, 2017, at least, at first.  It is an interesting, informative read, BUT . . . 

I didn't find it all that "Simple"!  I went out and bought a vitamin, mineral and supplement grinder and all of the recommended ingredients to make my own vitamin supplements.  It wasn't cheap!  Then, I stocked my refrigerator and freezers with as many of the recommended food ingredients as I could find.

There's the first difficulty:  I could not find turkey necks, hearts or livers.  Also missing:  Beef Hearts, and chicken necks.   90% Lean Ground Beef was hard to find, and ridiculously expensive, in my humble opinion.  Chicken hearts, livers and gizzards were easier--until the Covid-19 Pandemic hit, then it was nigh-on-to-impossible to acquire these ingredients.  At the beginning of the pandemic, I could get a 16 oz container of chicken livers for $1.29.  Then this product disappeared and, when it could be found (occasionally) again, months later, it was double the price!  I can only assume that people facing rising meat prices, found this to be a good cheap meat--for themselves.

When all is said and done, and assuming I could find every ingredient to satisfy the suggested rotational diet in the book, my food bill--just for a pack of three dogs--would be in the neighborhood of $500 PER DOG Per Month!  ($1500).  As my total monthly expenditure for groceries, cleaning products, toiletries, paper products, etc--for myself--is only $500-$600 per month--$1500 for dog food was a bit of a shocker.  But, oh well, I persevered . . . BUT, 

Then, we were "snowed in" for several weeks!  I couldn't get to any store to buy any of the suggested ingredients--at any price!  This included the varieties of vegetables and fruits that are also supposed to be in this homemade recipe plan.  About the time the ice and snow cleared, I was scraping bottom in my freezers for something to feed my dogs.  Not good.

I decided to re-think this homemade plan.  Guess what?!  There are several companies who sell fresh, frozen and freeze-dried products that (supposedly) mimic the ingredients suggested by Dr. Becker's book!  They even deliver!  Guess what else?  They are twice ($3000 per month) to three times ($4500 per month) as expensive as doing it the homemade way!  

I was forced to go back to the drawing board.  

It was time (for me) to re-consider dry dog food.  The advantages to dry food are, of course, is that 

1.  It can be stored dry and in bulk--I would (likely) never again face running out of food.  

2.  The better brands include the vitamins, minerals and supplements I was spending hours measuring out and grinding down.  

3.  While not "perfect" in terms of a balanced diet of proteins, fats, and carbs, I didn't see any rule preventing me from adding in more proteins and fats, from those fresh or frozen foods that I could find in the supermarket or at the butcher's shop.   

4.  Even the most expensive dry food was far less expensive than the all-homemade plan.  

I now spend roughly $165 (for two 33 pound bags) of dry food (Inukshuk)--for all three of my dogs, and another $135 per month for the ingredients I add in to bring up the protein and fat content of the food--for all three dogs.  So, $300 per month ($100 per dog) versus $1500.  Quite a difference. 

But, which dry food?  I consulted a website called "Dog Food Advisor".  From the information contained therein, I decided that:

      a.  the food I chose would have to be one that had Never been recalled;

      b.  the food would have all of its ingredients Sourced in North America;

      c.  I didn't want any soy, corn, or white potatoes in my dogs' food; 

      d.  I didn't want any "by-products, artificial preservatives or colours" in my dogs' food.  

These caveats reduced my choices a great deal!  

My number one choice right now is:  Inukshuk Marine 25.  Running a close second is Annamaet.  I say, "right now" because finding and keeping a particular food forever has been, in my opinion, sort of like a "Shell Game".  You know, the game where the "pea" could be under a different walnut shell each time the shells are moved?   You may think you have found a good brand.  But, what if (for example) that brand is sold to another company?  What will the new company put in (or take out of) your dog's food?  Not to say that this will ever happen, but I am alert to the possibility.  

I like Inukshuk's Marine 25 for the fact that it is concentrated.  I feed less, there is less waste, I see no stomach upset, and I really can notice an increase in energy!  

By the way, I do not "transition" the food by adding a small amount of a "new" food to the food that I have fed the month before.  The only thing that seems to cause an upset stomach in my dogs is giving raw (rather than cooked) egg, but only with one of my dogs.  Other than that, a little more fruit or vegetable than they are accustomed to, can cause looser bowels. 

To the dry food, I add Beef Livers or Chicken Livers or Chicken Gizzards, and if fish is not already in the food, I add sardines or another cold water fish (cooked).  I also add an egg or two (shells included), one orange vegetable (pumpkin, or carrots, or squash or sweet potatoes), one green vegetable (broccoli, or spinach, or celery, or zucchini), and 2 fruits from my list of cranberries, blueberries, apple, raspberries, strawberries, melon and/or pineapple--in small amounts.

To compensate for the low moisture content of dry food and to make the food a bit more palatable and digestible, I add boiling hot water to the dry mix and let it sit and puff up while it cools.  Better to expand in the bowl--than in the stomach--is my theory.  

Although the dog is a descendant of an Ancient Wolf (Not the Grey Wolf), and we don't know exactly of what that creature's diet consisted, we can speculate that it was 65% to 80% muscle, bone and organ meats from prey animals.  And, the balance made up of a variety of different sources, such as insects, plants, berries, tubers, and so on.  It is likely that the (wolf) dog has always been an omnivore to some extent, and, sharing a table with humans for 10s of thousands of years, made him even more inclined to include non-meat foods in his diet.  In fact, when dogs followed humans into an agrarian life, some developed a gene allowing them consume and digest grains.  

That said, a proper "ancestral" diet was probably 49-50 percent protein, 44 percent fat and roughly 6 percent carbohydrates.   Most commercial dry foods are 25% protein 32% fats, and 43% carbohydrates.   Clearly, the carbs can be reduced whilst increasing the proteins and fats.

My additives are to supplement proteins and fats.  I start with a food that is as low as possible in carbohydrates.  

In addition to the ingredients listed above, I also add:  cinnamon, flax seed, chia seed, a couple of tablespoons of plain low-fat yoghurt, glucosamine chrondrotin and MSN (if not in the dry food), milk thistle and dandelion greens (for liver health), and a couple of large, raw, meaty beef rib bones per week--as bone is, in my opinion, important for your dog's health, and chewing helps teeth stay shiny, white, clean and sharp!  (Always RAW bones--Never Feed Cooked Bones!).  

Treats?  I don't buy anyone's idea of commercial dog treats.  They are ridiculously expensive and often contain ingredients that are either useless or actually harmful to your dog!  (Like "gasp" High Fructose Corn Syrup!).  Instead, I hand her or him a raw piece of carrot, or an apple slice on occasion.  

Loose bowels?  I cook up a pot of rice (plain white, no salt) and another pot of chicken quarters in my pressure cooker.  I remove ALL of the cooked bones (NEVER Give Your Dog Cooked Bones!)  and replace some, but not all, of the dry (moistened) dog food with a 50/50 mixture of rice and chicken.  A few days of this diet--reducing the chicken/rice mixture each day, usually results in firm bowels, and weight gain.  If the problem is re-occurring, try to discover why your dog is getting diarrhea in the first place.  It could be that they are eating something untoward whilst you are not looking.  Puppies, especially, put everything in their mouths!  If all else fails, and this is a re-occurring problem, you may want to see your vet and/or change dog foods.  If the reverse happens and the dog is constipated--try upping the vegetable/fruit content of their food (a little bit) for a few days to see if that helps.    

When, How Much and How Often?   I feed my dogs twice per day.  Once after exercise and training sessions in the a.m.--usually around 10 a.m., and once after evening exercise at around 8 p.m.   As the days shorten, the feeding times tend to move a bit closer together.  I always wait at least 30 minutes after exercise before feeding.  

Another note on the "When":  I am NOT punctual!   I try to keep my pack a bit "off-balance" on the timing of meals.  If it is 10 a.m. today, I might wait until 10:30 a.m. or even 11:00 a.m. tomorrow, and around 9:30 a.m. the day after tomorrow.  Why?  Dogs get a bit "robotized" to an exact time and tend to get "worked up" in anticipation of meal time, and this sometimes leads to an over-production of bile.  And too much bile leads to vomiting bile.  Which is not fun to clean up!   My dogs know absolutely that the food is coming--they just don't know precisely When it is coming.  Thus, they remain calm.  

How much?  The side of the bag will tell you how much to feed based either on the weight of the dog, or the Goal Weight of the dog.  You can start with that, but puppies generally eat a bit more--afterall, they are growing fast!  Reduce the number of cups of dry food by the amount you are feeding in raw and/or fresh ingredients.  The best way to gauge whether to increase or decrease the amount you feed is by LOOKING at the dog--not the bag!   

My meats, vegetables and fruits mix is approximately 1/4th to 1/3rd of the food served.  For example, if the instructions state to feed the dog 2 cups dry per day, I will reduce this by one-half cup and add in 1/2 cup of fresh/canned/frozen mixture.  If feeding 1/3rd raw, and the instructions call for 3 cups per day, reduce dry to 2 cups and feed 1 cup of raw--dividing the portions by the number of feedings per day.    

If your dog is beginning to lose that trim waist, and is turning into a "sausage" shape, reduce the dry food, until they are back "in trim".  Sometime between 18 months and 24 months your dog, or bitch, will have reached his or her height and "goal weight".  After that, it is just a matter of maintenance--which is greatly affected by the amount of exercise and/or Work the dog does in a day!  Keep your dog well-fed, but Never Over-fed!  On a Malinois, it is okay if you can see a rib or two, but it is NOT okay to see backbones and hip bones!  It is also NOT okay if you cannot feel the ribs!  

Overfeeding a puppy can result in poor joint and bone development!!!  Please don't do it!  Overfeeding is really a form of abuse and neglect!  It can result in a lifetime of SUFFERING and ill-health for your Dog!  It may make YOU feel good to overfeed your dog (perhaps to compensate for the things you are NOT giving them, like a suitable amount of exercise), but no matter how much they beg--you are NOT doing them any favours by giving in!  Don't believe me?   Ask your dog's Veterinarian!  

Since I am not a zoologist with a gigantic budget, I have had to decide what I think is a reasonably good diet--which is also available and affordable.  The 'purists' out there are probably groaning and rolling their eyes.  And that's fine.  But, I say "the proof is in the pudding"  --so to speak.  In my many years of dog ownership, all of my canines have lived long and reasonably healthy, happy lives.  My last Belgian Malinois, Remes, was fed (primarily) Purina Pro Plan (of which I am no longer a fan) and lived 14 years and 3 months.  I did supplement his diet with some of the ingredients mentioned above.  I now believe that, with a slightly better nutritional plan, my dogs MAY live 15-18 years.  Time will tell!  

So far, my canines gobble up what I put in front of them.  They positively glow with good health and high energy.  So for now, I am sticking with the diet outlined above.  

The above information is based on my own research, the ages, sizes, conditions of my dogs, what is (and isn't) available in my area, my budget, and other considerations--such as how much time and energy I can afford to expend in finding and preparing foods.  Do your own research, make your own comparisons and decisions, based on what You think is best for You--and YOUR dog!   

Dog Food companies are beginning to realize that Owners are getting wise as to what is, and is not, a good food to feed their dogs, and are trying to adjust to our expectations.  For example, cooking at too high a temperature creates "ash".  The better brands are now labeling the amount of "ash" in their foods, and some are looking for ways to cook food that produces less ash.