yep I hear ya, went totally organic myself after some educating

Anyone care to explain this lay terms? The only thing I got out of it is the cruelty aspect (thanks Cathy)...I will be the first to admit I am ignorant on this topic...how is feather meal any worse than say bone meal? There are so many additives that I literally only feed mine what I've learned from the people I trust here.

My friends Yorkie was severely attacked by a neighbours GS and as a consequence of surgery stress and infection has lost the ability to absorb protein. Now she has no option but to feed probably similar soy pellets to you. She also requires calcium supplements and vitamins. It's very sad.

Need to ask, why such a hate on for Dr. Karen Becker, as I wouldn't think someone who is looking out for the best health and most natural ways of caring for our pets and animals, would meet with such angst every time she's mentioned.

When you have a normal healthy dog you have loads of options of what to feed your dog. You can feed whatever you see fit.

But when you have a sick dog with severe illnesses/ issues..That is NOT the option. I homecook for Taycie currently right now via a nutrition consultation with BCVN.

Taycie has 2 options at this point in her life. Purina HA or Home cooked. And she is the ripe old age of 3. I don't really have many options.

Food makes her sick. Period. I have tried many. After a $1,400 hospitalization and $2,000 for exploratory surgery and biopsy.. I PROMISE you just want them to live. Not to mention the many sleepless nights that lead up to all of that. The countless trips for vomiting and diaherra.

Ingredients are the least of your worries. I can see the Science behind it. I am thankful for it. Before Taycie's diagnosis of MVD she ate Royal Canin HA and Science Diet ZD. Why did she eat this?? Because she can not tolerate anything. When it comes down to what they can tolerate... You feed what keeps them alive. Plain and simple.

Personally.. I don't care what people feed. But remember to look on both sides.. What one dog will do GREAT dog on.. One will fail. This food is designed for dogs with severe allergies. Not a healthy dog. Many don't even have to worry about this. But I promise you this.. when you see your dog suffer and NOTHING works.. You feed what keeps them alive. Because in the end, that is the most important!

:thankyou2 Great post!!

I hear you. All kinds of food needs to be made since some dogs will no doubt need it and only it. My Jilly was restricted to a single food and anytime I tried to slowly change her to something better, we were back at the vet's office by Day 2 of adding some small amount of the new ingredient. NOTHING else worked for her. Boy was I glad to find something she could eat and stay well on. And she lived to age 13 - a 3 lb. runt with many physical problems so she did pretty good getting by on her one food product.

Alfie,s Doggie Dermatologist put him on Royal Canin Anallergenic and he has done very well on it.
The laws about ingredients lists is I think different here in UK. I have listed them below.

COMPOSITION: maize starch, feather hydrolysate with low molecular weight (source of L amino acids and oligopeptides), copra oil, soya oil, minerals, vegetable fibres, chicory pulp, fructo-oligo-saccharides, fish oil, mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids esterified with citric acid, animal fat, marigold extract (source of lutein). ADDITIVES (per kg): Nutritional additives: Vitamin A: 30600 IU, Vitamin D3: 800 IU, E1 (Iron): 42 mg, E2 (Iodine): 3.7 mg, E4 (Copper): 13 mg, E5 (Manganese): 55 mg, E6 (Zinc): 198 mg, E8 (Selenium): 0.1 mg - Preservatives - Antioxidants. ANALYTICAL CONSTITUENTS: Protein: 18% - Fat content: 16.5% - Crude ash: 8.8% - Crude fibres: 2.2% - Essential fatty acids: 41.8 g/kg.
- See more at: Anallergenic - Royal Canin

Alfie was really miserable before we started on this and he was still very, very young. Before and after pics are below.

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Here he is now
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Obviously there were other treatments involved but this food suits him and he is much healthier and happier so, I am happy too.

Oh and another with his lovely tail
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He looks so much better! And what a relief I am sure you felt! Exactly my point. He needed it. Because it was designed to help dogs like him:)

Well every time I turn around its another food that isn't good for your dog. I don't think anyone is trying to feed their pups bad food as someone insinuated. I for one feed Jess Royal Canin because it was one of the few NOT recalled. Shes never had a problem with it either. So do I switch to blue buffalo until they have a problem, and then to fromms until they have one and then canine caviar until they have one? Then finally have a dog who is so messed up from switching foods so often she ends up on medication?
Home cooking is just not feasible for some of us. I have 4 kids, a husband a house and a business. My hats off to those who can squeeze it in. I just cant. Besides most likely whatever I make will entail supplements that will end up on a recall list sooner or later anyway... :embarasse

I'll bet your would pay any amount of money for that bag of food that he can eat and keeps him from going through all that he went through! That red, hairless skin just hurts me to look at - I can imagine the misery of constant, unremitting itching and how maddening and stressful it was for Alfie. I'm so glad you found something that could help him. A dog's quality of life, to me, is extremely important. Having run into food allergy with Tibbe, I saw the agony food can cause an allergic dog. Dog food that will give a dog the nutrition it needs to live, one with no known health dangers attached to it, and consists of ingredients that a dog can eat that won't make his life miserable, is almost literally worth its weight in gold to me, whatever it is made of. If this RC food in that article can help a dog with food-related issues, when no other food works, then good for the manufacturer for developing and making it.

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As I said, the proof is in the pudding....
I am thrilled for Alfie!!!!

I can only speak for myself.....I dont hate Dr.Becker....I even subscribe to her newsletter. I always try to get all sides of a story or study or thought process.......I question anyone that recommends one thing over another, or if someone starts running down something, I want to know what they have based all their comments on. I have found very few people recommend products of ANY kind, to anyone, with out it being beneficial for them somewhere along the way....I always look for how THEY are benefitting from recommending a particular product. If someone is recommending something, and they have no horse in the race, GREAT!! They have caught my attention!!!.... then the next thing I look for is proof and accuracy of what they are saying. If the advocate has examples of studies where it has been shown that what they are saying is true, I will look closer, deeper. I shake out their "opinion" from actual evidenced based results that prove what they are telling me, is fact. I dont ever take anyones word for anything, unquestioned....I never have, in any area of my life. I guess my parents instilled that in me from a very early age....and anytime they told me something they intended for me to accept as fact, they provided reasons and examples of why what they were saying was indeed, truthful and factual, and not just their opinion.

Alfie makes me smile! This totally warms my heart that there was a plan that worked for him. Owning a dog like this shapes your perspective that only experience can bring! I am glad you didn't swear off the "dreaded feather diet" and cared more about Alfie to trust his vets. They must boast him as a success story! I hope you have many many years with Alfie.

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I see your point, as someone who's seen the results from raw feeding allergic or dogs with health issues, it just makes me question when someone would rather feed food made in a lab, suppose it's because I wouldn't feed it to myself either. So being as I've seen the results I hope you understand my reasoning behind questioning these methods and my cinicism

Yep, it is very expensive but worth it as we use it for his treats too. And yes I wouldn't care if it was made out of centipede testicles and dung beetle larvae as long as Alfie is healthy and happy.

I don't want to outsmart myself. Cookie loves her Royal Canin, and my awesome breeder Deb recommends it for her health, so I gotta go with the expert on my team (especially since I'm not one lol).

Well I will stick to the more natural methods available for feeding my dogs and natural holistic health care if they get ill, rather than something concocted in a lab with chemicals and landfill waste or bugs and maggots.
Seems to me if you feed your dog in the most natural means available from day one the immune system will remain strong then allergies and organ failure will be the least of your worries, whether that be home cooking or raw feeding. I'd like to be in complete control of what goes in my dogs and aware of where the ingredients originated, which I am.

:thumbup::thumbup: Well said, and I totally agree, (I do the same) however, saying that, I am okay with people who have tried to keep their pets healthy... seeing the best vets, specialists etc, and then having to go to a medicinal food for health reasons. Be very selective with your vets... make sure you see a vet that has added nutritional training, regular vet. training spends very little time on nutrition and many more hours on pharmaceuticals and most if not all get bonus' for selling some dog foods in their practice.

Please. I've been there and don't that for 13 years. Spent tens of thousands on this dog too. She can eat soy nuggets or chick peas. That's it. You really don't have a clue what it's like to own a dog that is like this and honestly I hope you never do. I'm doing it right for her, she's about to turn 13 and I've home cooked for her since age 8 weeks old. It doesn't matter in this kind of a dog. Natural selection tried to select against her and with my intervention she's lived a happy full life.

Yes indeed Kathy And I certainly don't slam anyone who has to resort to the means of feeding whatever medical food.

I'm not sure what the big problem is here. I think we would all prefer to feed our dogs foods that we cinsider natural. That is not always possible. Not sure why Rx foods are being supported here but yet it keeps coming up that this shouldn't be fed. Nobody is feeding this to their healthy dog.

I am with you! I'm feeding RC. Bought Blue, Science Diet, and Wellness but my dog doesn't like any of these. Since I am a new Yorkie Owner (2/2013) I pretty much have depended on this site to help me determine the best food for my dog. It has to be something easy for me and also something she likes so she doesn't go hungry. Don't have time to raise my own chickens, ring their necks and cook them up too.

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My goodness wringing chicken necks lol. I would imagine none of us go that far, unless of course we are farmers. You forgot to mention plucking them too.

Alfie was only 3 months when he started losing his hair and developing rashes, I had been feeding him a good quality food (James Wellbeloved) since we got him home he had green beans, tiny pieces of freshly cooked meats, yoghurt to perk his ears up and the very occasional tiny bit of cheese.. He got very seriously allergic very quickly (we still don't know to what exactly as they won't test until he is a year old, he is 11 months now). I am glad you have found the right diet and have the time and knowledge to feed such healthy foods, but the fact is the majority of people believe the commercially available dog foods are specially created and suitable for their dogs, if you pay more you get a better quality but all in all people feed dogs, dog food.

I did forget about plucking them too...ugh! LOL!! Oh well too much work so guess no chickens on my ranch but maybe I could pay my neighbors to do it for me. I would have to find out what they feed them first. Not sure the chicken we buy in stores is good for us humans much less my little girl. Stopped buying hamburger from W_____T (for me) because it smelled like ammonia when I cooked it. Just a little additives...right? On a more serious note I will buy or pay for whatever is good for my little girl. Just still confused on what that should be.