Hi all So i wanted to ask if you think this looks healthy or not , my moms lab is healthy and happy and enjoys his meals but the vet said the foid is not good? She feeds a varaity to him so that he never gets bored. He has a mix of pure dog food, home cooked meals and natures menu country hunter tins. Below ill write out the plan. Monday Am- pure dog dog chunky chicken with added kale and blueberries and crushed ( almost like powder) egg shells. Pm- Salmon , veg , butternut squash. Tuesday Am- pure dog beef with added fruit and crushed egg shells Pm- lamb , sweet potato, vegtabels, bone powder Wednesday Am- natures menu country hunter duck Pm-sardines , veg, bone powder, pumpkin Thursday Am- pure dog food beef with added fruit and crushed egg shell Pm- Venision , butternut squash , veg, beef liver Friday Am- pure dog food chunky chicken with added fruit and egg shells crushed. Pm-Salmon , pumpkin, veg , bone powder Saturday Am- bone broth with chicken pieces and veg or he has eggs , egg shells crushed , blueberries and veg Pm-Steak ( beef) , sweet potato , veg , beef kidney or liver. Sunday Am- dog friendly fry up , 2 beef sausages , 1 slice of beef bacon , eggs , mushrooms, spinach. Pm- sunday lunch ( without yorkshire puds and with homade dog friendly gravy) Is this ok?
My mom would like to change the pure dog food , only becaue t comes out at £104 a month. The natures menu tins he seems to love more but he ONLY ever eats the duck the other flavours he wont touch. Shes not sure if she should try a good dry like natures menu raw boost dry, Eden, wolfworthy ect or try another good wet food. He doesnt eat all the pure dog either.
Just to update shes decided to do his morning meals herself as her lical butcher has said he will give her a good deal on the meat he already has so for pure dog food he was having chicken and beef and the natures menu was duck well the butcher said he'll offer her a good deal on beef, chicken and duck chunks.
Well it certainly looks delicious and varied and you say your dog is happy and healthy so my entirely uneducated opinion is it's probably fine. My reason for preferring a raw diet over a home cooked one is the question of bone. Dogs need bone for calcium and I don't know how well egg shells supplement for this. Bones are also really good for cleaning teeth and keeping dogs entertained. I feed a variety of things such as lamb and venison ribs, pheasant,rabbit and chicken carcasses, to a total bone content of around 10% . I also feed a lot of raw oily fish, mostly whole sardines, these area good complete food and contain bone and offal at the recommended 80 10 10 ratios Idon't think there's been enough research in the area of raw and homemade diets to say anything with 100% confidence but certainly in the case of raw there are many thousands of people feeding their dogs this way with no problems and I have found this very reassuring. T other advantage of raw feeding is tripe, a really important part of dogs diets, packed full of nutrients, friendly bacteria and enzymes that you are missing out on if you only feed cooked food. With regards to the expensive nature's menu tins the butcher's offer of meaty chunks sounds great. If you want affordable tins check out the website Zooplus (if you are UK based) they do a huge variety, I used to use Rocco which work out cheap and have reassuring chunks of real meat like whole chicken hearts. I also liked Hermann organic tins of pure meat.
