Dog Food

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BrianGSDTexoma

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Aug 1, 2018
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Gretchen been getting picky about eating kibble. She just turned 11 which is pretty old for a GSD. She is hungry but does not want it. Having to add stuff and that working good now. The last food got was Rachael Ray. I am thinking of trying ORIJEN Senior Grain Free High Protein Fresh & Raw Animal Ingredients Dry Dog Food. Pricy buy if works I don't mind. Any suggestions would be welcome.
 
Gretchen been getting picky about eating kibble. She just turned 11 which is pretty old for a GSD. She is hungry but does not want it. Having to add stuff and that working good now. The last food got was Rachael Ray. I am thinking of trying ORIJEN Senior Grain Free High Protein Fresh & Raw Animal Ingredients Dry Dog Food. Pricy buy if works I don't mind. Any suggestions would be welcome.

My oldest lab Hooper has allergies pretty bad. Started feeding her the Canadian geese mixed with sweet potatoes, rice, and sometimes blueberries. Been about a year and it’s helping.

This year I plan on harvesting 3-4 whitetails and feeding her that all year on top of the geese, ducks, and cow livers I get from the farm.

This is cheaper than feeding her the high end food they sell and advertise on tv. Plus I know 100% what’s in her food.

11 is a good run. Feed her whatever she wants to eat.

Good luck,
Scott
 
My oldest lab Hooper has allergies pretty bad. Started feeding her the Canadian geese mixed with sweet potatoes, rice, and sometimes blueberries. Been about a year and it’s helping.

This year I plan on harvesting 3-4 whitetails and feeding her that all year on top of the geese, ducks, and cow livers I get from the farm.

This is cheaper than feeding her the high end food they sell and advertise on tv. Plus I know 100% what’s in her food.

11 is a good run. Feed her whatever she wants to eat.

Good luck,
Scott

Forgot to add we also feed her chicken breasts and thighs as they go on sale.
 
As Winterrider Winterrider said, her teeth may be getting sensitive or even has lost a bunch. My oldest dog is a Cocker and he's almost 9. Earlier this year he got where he wouldn't eat much so I carried him to my vet for a checkup. The vet said he had some bad teeth and pulled them. WOW, what a difference that made in him and his whole demeanor. He was almost like a puppy again. Years ago I had a dog who had lost many of her teeth so I supplemented her dry food with a quality canned food. I would always wet her dry food with water or broth and allow it to get soft before feeding her. A little bacon grease on their food also will help them with their appetite as long as there's nothing else going on.

Buying quality canned food started me down a path towards making my own for 2 reasons. One was, as hillbillyrkstr hillbillyrkstr said, I know what's in it and the other was to save money. I still make my own "wet" dogfood and have been for maybe 10 years. My recipe makes about 10 quarts, lasts me about 6 weeks, and it works for my current dogs as well as past dogs, they've all seemed to like it.

Edit to add that I'm very particular about the dogfood that I feed my dogs. My resource for dogfood recommendations is Dogfoodadvisor.com. It's very informative and may surprise some folks with the recommendations on what many think is "good" dogfood. BrianGSDTexoma BrianGSDTexoma , a quick check and Orijen Senior has a 5 star rating, their highest rating...
 
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Almost from very beginning we feed our two beagles (9.5 & 7.5 years old) with homemade food only - cooked chicken breast mixed with a little of beef liver, yam, string beans. Definitely with multivitamins and Omega 3 supplements. This is getting a little pricy with the prices going up and up lately... I don't mind to spend some extra money for my little ones.... Also, after our last vet appointment 6 month ago, when vet had to extract two teeth form younger one - we started brushing both dogs teeth weekly or twice a week....
I told my wife:" What the heck, you used to be a registered dental assistant for 20 years so start using your experience now!!" :emoji_laughing:
 
I bought a bag of Orijen Senior. After this either canned of home made I guess. She had teeth cleaned not to long ago. The good enough for pig ears anyway.
 
Like said by others. Her teeth are good . so maybe just getting bored and picky. We have always made our own food for all our Girls.
We make a boiled chicken stew so to speak. That way we know what we are feeding them . With the stew for each meal we also add some Royal Canin kibble
Chicken, veggy pasta celery, carrots and rice , every thing cooked in the chicken pot of juice after the chicken is done. All chopped small. No spice at all.

Our girls compared to Gretchen , big difference in size. We make enough for about 4 weeks. Ours even get tired of it same as we would same thing every day. We just change it up flavor wise with a little juice of what we might be having. Ours 99% of the time no tabl food as they know they will get a treat after we eat. We also just treat them with pieces of boiled chicken that we make and bag up every couple weeks

Hope you find what she will like and help her to keep eating well

Good luck Brian

David
 
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We feed our collie chicken usually with rice or pasta, we buy a lot of day old rotisserie chickens at Walmart , they mark them down and put in refrigerated section when there not available we buy whole legs and thighs to cook , ginger is three. This year , we had a collie mix we fed before that passed away at 15 years , here is a pic of ginger , I hope Gretchen perks back up dogs are wonderful company and loyal to a fault ,
 

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We have had 5 GSDs over 20 + years and tired all different foods. The one consistent thing we did is add a little baked chicken, or ground turkey right on top. Currently, our 14 month old is on Fromms and Farmina. We tend to mix kibbles because like us, I think they get bored with food. They are amazing dogs, and we are happy to live in their world.
 
Our vet said the grain free food can lead to heart disease . hope you find a good solution . we feed our lab Purina pure instinct turkey and venison with good results . we were paying up to $70 a bag for the grain free till the Vet talked some sense into the wife lol
 
Our vet said the grain free food can lead to heart disease . hope you find a good solution . we feed our lab Purina pure instinct turkey and venison with good results . we were paying up to $70 a bag for the grain free till the Vet talked some sense into the wife lol
Here's an article that talks about grain free and the heart problem called dilated cardiomyopathy, or DCM.
 
Our vet said the grain free food can lead to heart disease . hope you find a good solution . we feed our lab Purina pure instinct turkey and venison with good results . we were paying up to $70 a bag for the grain free till the Vet talked some sense into the wife lol
I have a very allergic dog so went the grain free route. This has been one of the most expensive dogs! At one time my vet felt sorry for me and gave me some grant money.
 
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BrianGSDTexoma BrianGSDTexoma I've not dedicated any time to deer hunting this year but if I or my brother get a few I can save you the all the processing scraps.
The scraps are about 50/50 meat and skin tissue that we humans don't want to eat but apparently the dogs of a guy we know loves it. We gave him at least 40 pounds of the stuff and threw out probably another 60 pounds. Normally we take like 9-14 deer a year off of MLD regulated properties doing meat hunts (anyone unfamiliar with Texas MLD properties know it's all legal so no panic).

If we get into some deer this year and you are interested I'm sure I can save you plenty of scraps to freeze and use.
 
3 year old Shepard and we experienced the same.
We suspected bad food because that happens often.
The red flag was our straight razor totin’, rat sluggin’ cat would balk at first take if he had bad food.

We switched to Science Diet for the dog mixed with a teaspoon of melted butter coating it and a tablespoon of bacon bits did the trick.
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