Any advice on feeding a renal diet for my nearly 13-year-old dog (for early stages kidney failure – that shows in blood, but not behaviour)?
Fat content of prescription diet seems high (22%). For the price I could feed pre-prepared raw (presumably more balanced than I could prepare myself), or other good protein food, but how to lower phosphorous levels?
Happy to research but don't know where to start! It doesn't have to be raw, I am opening my mind to any helpful food.
Any clues please?
Tamsin, by email
Dear Dogs Today Team, Having experienced excellent results feeding my current adult dog a BARF diet for the past two years, I am keen to start my next puppy on a raw food diet. However, I would like to incorporate the puppies daily food allowance into reward based training and would appreciate advice on how I can do this using raw food.All the literature I have read regarding reward based training uses kibble which I would rather avoid. I have considered using a combination of ORIJEN (an organic kibble) with raw food for the first year, gradually phasing into a complete raw diet. Many thanks Bev Lewis, by email
I would really like to try feeding my dog – a six-year-old female, spayed, rescue collie cross - a raw diet but my husband is opposed, worrying about salmonella and other infections that might be picked up. We used to feed her on a well-known but not high-quality canned food, with a handful of the same brand dried mixer added in, until I read in Dogs Today that diet can affect scratching. She used to scratch a lot and since switching to sometimes Natures Menu, sometimes Arden Grange canned food, with some Orijen dried food too, she doesn’t scratch so much anymore. On a Sunday she has roast dinner instead, and she is very partial to carrots! Her breath could be nicer too! Is salmonella something to be concerned about? What are the facts when it come to raw food? Is there a good way to introduce the diet? And how can I convince my husband?! Shelia March, Farnham, Surrey
I’m sending this as a last resort really, I’m not sure there is an ideal answer, but all suggestions welcome! I currently have two dogs, Louis and Maisie, both large crossbreeds. I have owned dogs for over twenty years and passionately believe that a natural, raw diet is best. This has posed a few problems in the past when we have been on holiday, but we have always either gone self-catering and taken our dogs with us or left them with my sister, who has raw-fed dogs of her own.
This year my husband has given me a wonderful surprise birthday gift – a trip to Australia! I admit, yes, it is a very special birthday, and half our family lives “down under”. Problem is, my sister is coming too, which is really lovely, but does leave us without an experienced dog-sitter. The dogs have never been in kennels, and I don’t want to go that route.
A friend has said she is very happy to have the dogs for the six weeks. My dogs know her well, she has a lovely Labrador of her own and we walk together every couple of weeks. I’m more than happy to entrust my beloved dogs to her care; the problem is that she is not prepared to feed raw. She has no experience of this way of feeding – though believe me, I have tried many times to win her over – and the idea of handling raw meat, offal and bones horrifies her. I think the whole idea of feeding bones worries her, which I do understand, and anyway, she doesn’t have a huge freezer, and lives twenty miles away from us.
What would be easy for her to feed, doesn’t require much freezer space, and is as close to natural as possible? Should I choose a grain-free kibble, or a canned feed? It all somehow seems second-best. Help!
Barbara Clements, Brighton, East Sussex
Dogs Today’s Christine Bailey says...
I feel like Superman! I believe I have the ideal solution.
For the past few weeks I’ve been trialling a new dog food on my little dog Pandy. This food has only recently been introduced into the UK, it needs no refrigeration, it’s lightweight, has a long use-by date, and it’s RAW!
This miracle food is called K9 Natural, and the secret is that it is freeze-dried. It’s made by some clever bods in New Zealand, and is to our knowledge unique – as far as we know there is no other freeze-dried raw dog food on the market. It’s made with 85% lamb meat, offal, blood and bone. The balance is fresh fruit and veg, eggs, and a little garlic and cod liver oil. It contains nothing unnatural, nothing cooked, and absolutely no grain. It’s lightweight because it contains no moisture, you add that back just before feeding. Simply weigh out the K9 Natural into your dog’s bowl, add warm water, allow to stand for a few minutes and serve. It is pleasant to handle and doesn’t have a strong smell. Although the manufacturers suggest adding in bones, this is purely for the dog’s enjoyment, the food itself contains all the calcium he needs.
The food comes in 500g and 4kg packs, which make up into four times that weight of food when you add in the water. You don’t say how much your dogs weigh, but if they are, say, 25kg, and you normally feed about 500gm per dog per day, this would be just 125gm of the food as it comes out of the pack. A 4kg pack makes up into 16kg of food, which, if my abacus is in good working order, would feed two 25 kg dogs for 16 days. So three packs weighing just 12kg would be all your friend would need to store to keep the dogs going for the six weeks. She might even be persuaded to switch her Lab over!
Check out all the scientific info at www.k9natural.co.uk
The world once more saved. Please just don’t make me wear the outfit….
