Am I Killing My Pets?

[107barney]

I read the disclaimer on page one and decided to dismiss the book in its entirety. Sorry, but I have no use for non vet nutritionist advice. Home cooker x 13 years and RC kibble. Satisfied with my choices and sleep very well at night. Everyone else should too.

[pstinard]

Originally Posted by 107barney

I read the disclaimer on page one and decided to dismiss the book in its entirety. Sorry, but I have no use for non vet nutritionist advice. Home cooker x 13 years and RC kibble. Satisfied with my choices and sleep very well at night. Everyone else should too.

I think he has good information by and large, but he IS trying to sell his book. His main thing is home cooked foods, and his main book is a recipe book for nutritional home cooked meals that he compiled with the help of veterinary nutritionists. I think he had to provide the disclaimer because he is not a vet or a nutritionist himself, and he wants to absolve himself of legal responsibility if someone's dog gets ill from following his advice. I'll take his advice into consideration, and reread the ingredient lists for my dog foods, but I'm not ready or competent enough to try home cooking.

[107barney]

Originally Posted by pstinard

I think he has good information by and large, but he IS trying to sell his book. His main thing is home cooked foods, and his main book is a recipe book for nutritional home cooked meals that he compiled with the help of veterinary nutritionists. I think he had to provide the disclaimer because he is not a vet or a nutritionist himself, and he wants to absolve himself of legal responsibility if someone's dog gets ill from following his advice. I'll take his advice into consideration, and reread the ingredient lists for my dog foods, but I'm not ready or competent enough to try home cooking.

LOL. Fair enough. But, cooking really is pretty easy. It's hard to do it ALL the time. I did that for about 5 years. I don't think anyone needs a book to home cook, they can order balanceit and download free recipes.

[gemy]

6yrs into home cooking, and I don't need to worry about dog kibble recalls. Although I always feed a bit of kibble, in case we get stuck when we are camping. Or travelling across the border.

For Yorkies given the amount they eat a day, it is so very easy. The big ones are another matter. We usually spend about 4hrs every 2 wks to cook up the homemade for 2wks of feeding. We then freeze it.

We do organic ingredients, as that is what we as humans do as well for our own food.

I used to feed raw, but when Zoey got sick, I needed to switch to cooked food, so I did, and just have not gone back to raw.

I do notice it is a little harder to keep teeth clean, and their breath has a very very slight smell, where there was none before.

[Mistymillar]

Originally Posted by CouversMom

But he is claiming they should live even longer. He said something about 27 years!

Have you ever heard of a 27 year old dog? I just don't have any faith in these type of infomercials, if I did I would look 23 ( I am 47) I would be 112lbs(I am 140) and I would be the most confident, inspirational, motivational, successfully rich yet humanitarian person you could meet (I am not) and I would be able to do all this by working from home, earning a fortune with little or no effort at all and spending the majority of my life doing the things I like to do best (I wish)
Sorry but not buoying this.

[CouversMom]

Originally Posted by Mistymillar

Have you ever heard of a 27 year old dog? I just don't have any faith in these type of infomercials, if I did I would look 23 ( I am 47) I would be 112lbs(I am 140) and I would be the most confident, inspirational, motivational, successfully rich yet humanitarian person you could meet (I am not) and I would be able to do all this by working from home, earning a fortune with little or no effort at all and spending the majority of my life doing the things I like to do best (I wish)
Sorry but not buoying this.

Um, yep!

List of oldest dogs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I know it's an informercial, but it is still very interesting. I think it's important to know what we are feeding our pets and he has many valid points.

I think to dismiss everything he says would be pretty ignorant.

[ShowGirlLola]

All 4 of my dogs ate poor diets and lived to be pretty old.

The first 2, a yorkie (5lbs) and a mutt (around 40lbs) ate kibbles 'n bits or other similar dry foods all day and got half a can of mighty dog at night. They also got dog treats like puperoni and some people food.
-The yorkie lived to be 18, as a puppy he had a liver problem and the last year or so he had Alzheimer's.
-The mutt lived to be 17, she had some fatty tumors, other than that she was healthy.

They died in the early 2000's, so the ingredients might have been different than they are now.

The second 2, were poodles, litter mates, and around 12lbs. They were from a back yard breeder . Their diet was very similar the first two, but they also got half a piece of american cheese every morning.
-One poodle had epilepsy and a slight heart murmur most of her life, the last year and a half she had CHF and leukemia. She lived to be 15 1/2.
The last year her diet was truly terrible; it was very hard to get her to eat so we gave her whatever she wanted (pizza, ice cream, etc). The vet was amazed that she lived as long as she did.

-The other poodle had some fatty tumors, we aren't sure why she died, neither is the vet. She lived to be 14 1/2.



I know these are just anecdotes, and I wouldn't recommend this type of diet.

I'm trying to feed Lola better food.
I'm more worried about the recalls than anything else.

[pstinard]

Originally Posted by CouversMom

Um, yep!

List of oldest dogs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I know it's an informercial, but it is still very interesting. I think it's important to know what we are feeding our pets and he has many valid points.

I think to dismiss everything he says would be pretty ignorant.

The oldest dog in the world, Max, a terrier cross, died just a few months short of his 30th birthday in May of this year. Here is an article about him at his 26th birthday:

Max the terrier becomes 'world's oldest dog' as he celebrates 26th birthday | Mail Online

[Ellie May]

For me, there is enough evident misinformation here to write this person off as another trying to get money from a book sale. If they are going to be referencing studies in their infomercial, then they need to provide the title. But that would be rather difficult to do because information seems to be taken out of context.

Yes, pentobarb was found in pet food.
No, it was NOT from euthanized dogs and cats.
PENTOBARBITAL IN DOG FOOD

Further, to my knowledge there are no major studies on home cooked food because putting money into such a study would not result in large profits. An anecdotal report of some large breed dogs living to be 15 and thus having a lifespan increase of 134% is not a controlled scientific study. It is simply an observation by a few people and does not take into account many other aspects of a dog's life.

Using words like "proven" and stating emphatically that dog food X caused death (unless said food was beimg investigated for a problem) is stretching reality at best. There are many reasons why a 4 year old dog could die of kidney failure. How does one prove that the dog didn't eat grapes a couple weeks prior?

I won't say that dog food is the best way to feed a dog. My personal philosophy is that in most cases there is a better option. My feeling is that chemical covered, dried meat that sits in a bag for six months is not optimal in most cases. However, some companies do better than others and it is still far better than feeding a homecooked diet from a random book. There are balanced recipes created by veterinary nutritionists on the internet. I see no use for this book. In fact, I have heard enough already and would not pay for or pay attention to this person's literature.

After reading the list of nine acceptable foods I am just left to shake my head. i wouldn't feed any of this undertested stuff to my dogs. There is only one food listed that I woud ever even consder at this point, and still they lack credentials to be creating pet food, research to further the field, and an openness about their production process.

Please save your money.

[tem_sat]

Originally Posted by Ellie May

Yes, pentobarb was found in pet food.
No, it was NOT from euthanized dogs and cats.
PENTOBARBITAL IN DOG FOOD

I am not one to take as gospel anything written by the FDA, but it's sad that somehow cattle and horses are "acceptable" sources of small amounts of pentobarbital, but dogs and cats are not? I suppose that rendering is rendering, and you get what you pay for. I guess it all depends on what you test, and where you test it. No idea.

Thank goodness for home cooking, or home made, as the case may be.

[ladyjane]

I have done consults with Dr. Bauer at Texas A&M and Dr. Catherine Lenox at Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists and I feed my pups what some people on this forum consider less than optimal. I don't care what the dog food advisor says....I listen to vet nutritionists about what to feed them; and as 107barney said, I sleep well at night. I don't gasp every time another recall comes out. Not saying it will never happen to me but I do believe it is less likely with the foods from the companies I have chosen to use. I also do home cook for three of my pups with medical issues. (one is a foster pup)

[Britster]

Meh... I could barely get through the first 3 mins of the video. It's just typical infomercial stuff. They are trying to sell a book. And I googled the list of recommended foods. Ha. Wouldn't touch a few of them.

I am pretty passionate about the health of our dogs, and have researched quite a bit... but I really don't believe what this person is saying has much merit.

[Verbena]

I read his list. I feel that he is missing a lot. Also do they still make Gravy Train?

[Patti]

Growing up we fed our dogs Gaines burgers and Alpo they lived to be 13 years old and were mid size dogs. I wouldn't of course feed mine like that now. I am using Weruva canned food. You can see it is chicken and peas and sweet potatoes. You can go nuts trying to figure out what's best for them.

[ironmike86]

I agree I think its infomercial stuff for his book . But what he say makes sense. At least he's promoting better foods for you pup. Some people just feed crap imo. I feed Fromms mixed with homeade. Just because I want my dog to eat kibble in a pinch or when we travel. But I don't see kibble being a better protein then "fresh " or at least fresher then the kibble. Then boiled meat or bake Salmon/ Fish. I know how fresh the fish is. Veggies from my garden. Kibble to me would be like eating toast all the time with Vits on it. And Purina from along time ago isn't the same as it is now. JMO