[yorkiepuppie]

Originally Posted by PrincessDiana

I think everyone on this board knows I feed prey-model raw and LOVE IT. Here are my thoughts on dog food, ranked in order of preference.

Prey-Model Raw
Pros:
-I feel it is the healthiest and most appropriate diet for my dogs. Scientific evidence proves that dogs are biologically the same as wolves and that they are carnivores and thrive on meat.
-It is cheap! We have a deep freezer and buy in bulk. We typically don't spend more than $40-$50 a month on all 3 dogs. Back when we were feeding kibble we spent around $80 a month.
-My dogs are the healthiest they have ever been. My vet was amazed at Franklin's condition.
-Cleaner teeth, no doggy smell or bad breath, smaller and less smelly poops.
-No need for supplements, raw diets are balanced with fed properly!
-I know exactly what goes into my dog food and where it comes from.
-The dogs are absolutely always excited to eat and enjoy their mealtimes.

Cons:
-There is a tiny risk of bacterial infection but most of the time this can be avoided if the raw is handled properly and the right precautions are taken.
-It can be a little time consuming but nothing outrageous. I'm willing to take the extra time to guarantee my dogs are getting the best diet possible.
-Choking hazard -- while there is a risk of choking with everything, some raw feeders have had issues with their dogs choking. This can be prevented by feeding BIG and carefully supervising all meals.
-There are no current studies that have proved raw is an appropriate diet for dogs. However, the scientific evidence that is there combined with the real-life results are enough to convince me! There are also a number of reasons why there are no studies.

Pre-Made Raw
I don't choose to feed pre-made raw all the time but I do have it on hand.

Pros:
-Already balanced and pre-packaged
-It is especially convenient for traveling and for when I forget to thaw out food.

Cons:
-It is expensive
-It contains a large amount of fruits and vegetables
-There are always concerns with quality control, as with any commercial pet food

Homecooked
Pros:
-I don't know much about homecooked but I would rather homecook than feed kibble.

Cons:
I personally feel like homecooking would take a lot of time and I'd be worried about balancing and making sure I was giving the right supplements. I would prefer to feed food in it's fresh, natural form.


Kibble
-While kibble works for some people, we have found an alternative and will likely never go back. It is the most convenient and probably cheapest, depending on what you buy.

wow, thank you for the info. very helpful. i think part of the reason people might be a little intimidated with the prey model diet is just not knowing enough about it. just like before i started feeding pre-made raw, i thought it was going to be totally disgusting, but after i tried it out, it really was a lot better than i imagined.

prey-model sounds like a good way to go, but i don't feel like i know enough about how to do it correctly, and it feels a little overwhelming. i don't know how to prepare it.

another question regarding prey-model: what if your dogs do not like to eat raw food? what would you do? would you try to force them to eat it? my dogs do not enjoy eating the pre-made raw, and they get pretty skinny when i feed them raw because they both run away from the food when it's time to eat. how would you handle that situation if your dogs acted like that? i thought about locking them in the bathroom(because it's a small room and there is nothing else for them to do in there) and not letting them out till they eat their food, but they just cry and i really dont' want food to be a punishment to them... i guess that's why i put one of the things as consideration is if your dogs enjoy eating the food.

Originally Posted by Ellie May

Just out of curiosity, why don't you feed prey model raw if you don't trust dog food companies and like raw?

We'll just say that I am talking about a normal, healthy Yorkie here because Ellie is an oddball. For one small dog, I like homecooked mostly because I don't like any other choice. I won't do raw and I don't trust any dog food companies entirely (even more so than I don't trust people food companies), so what's left? While all food (dog and people food) is really scary at times, I am more confident with people food than dog food. I look at the lists of things that are in our food and think dog food has to be much worse... And for those who have the time and money, if homecooking you can go to farm stands, buy meat locally, etc. (would also be true for prey model).

There are many things that should be considered though (cost, time, storage, travelling, boarding, how many dogs and what sizes, etc.).
If I had a large dog or 3 or 4 small dogs, I would not homecook. It's just too much.
Also, the most important thing. The recipe has to be balanced preferably by a vet nutritionist. I would not feed a diet long-term that has not been. It's also pretty difficult to meet puppies' needs with this diet.

Kibble, canned, and pre-made raw I'll lump into one. I don't trust the companies. It's really that simple. It is my personal preference to not feed an entirely dry diet. It doesn't make sense to me (just my way of thinking). The canneries seem to always be in question, etc. The smaller, "holistic" companies can't put as much into QC as larger companies can. But hey, if I had a big dog or a bunch of little ones, kibble here we come!!! Unless there was a medical issue involved though, I would not withhold small amounts of people food. I'd give just enough to not throw off the balance of the kibble most likely.

Raw, I think dogs can do great on this (like all other diets). There are health benefits (like clean teeth). There are also things that are perceived as benefits like not much poop. Some may not agree that that is a good thing. The big thing now is the enzymes that it provides. But, I have an extremely reliable source that says the pancreas supplies 70x the enzymes needed to digest food (I think it is). So unless the pancreas is compromised, your dog(s) shouldn't need these. You don't really have to supplement with raw, but have to feed certain % of each thing (muscle, organ). I'm not sure who came up with this system, but??? If dogs are doing well on it, great. It just appears that we aren't using nutritional information based on solid science. Did a PhD come up with this (or maybe MS)? Was it peer reviewed? And if prey model is supposed to model a wolf's diet, does that mean wolves eat certain % of certain things? See, I just think that while this diet may have promise, there are some areas that are very sketchy to say the least. The same can be said about homecooked, but I like to follow AAFCO (or at least NRC) guidelines for that, so I don't feel like there is any risk with balancing if done correctly.

thank you for the info.!
i don't feed pre-model because i don't know much about it. and i am also concerned about the quality/safety of food i get. i think that maybe for human food, they expect you to throughly cook it, it might actually be handled less carefully than the pre-made raw, because with the pre-made raw, they know that dogs are going to be eating it AS IS. so i would imagine there are safety/sanitary procedures. (more so than human food where they don't expect anyone to be eating it raw) i am not sure if this is a legit concern or not?

right now, for home cooking, i just cook the meat and add it to the honest kitchen mix. so that should be a balanced diet for the dogs, and it's really easy to do and the dogs love it. although i can also just add raw to the mix as well.

do you see any disadvantages in my approach of feeding the all three? (pre-made raw, homecooked, and kibble) i just thought this might keep food interesting for my picky dogs, and also i would be able to "diversify" my risks of feeding them something bad.