What do you feed your four legged friends? Low carb?

[sallyseachange]

Just wondering what people feed their cats and dogs... Do you go low carb for them, and if so, what are the results?
I'm wondering whether to try raw food for my doggies and veer towards lowering the carbs.

[OzLover]

Re: What do you feed your four legged friends? Low carb?

My son feeds his dogs a raw food diet with great success. One dog in particular loves sweet potato!

I tried my cats on a low carb cat food but stopped as the older cat couldn't tolerate it. To much for her digestive system. The brand of food is called Innova. I now feed them California Natural food which has no fillers or additives. It is chicken & brown rice mixture. Again recommended by their vet.

[sallyseachange]

Re: What do you feed your four legged friends? Low carb?

Wow! Sounds like you have far more choice in commercial pet foods there. How cool! Interesting that your son finds the raw food good.
Somehow, low carb and raw seems more natural for dogs to me...so seriously thinking of taking the plunge. Maybe they need a slow transfer though...

[Barb1965]

Re: What do you feed your four legged friends? Low carb?

I don't feed any particular diet, but my 4 month old puppy loves it whenever I'm eating. She has eggs and bacon for breakfast, and buger and salad for lunch and sometimes a shrimp or two. She knows who eats good here and follows me around every time I have a plate of food, lol.

[sallyseachange]

Re: What do you feed your four legged friends? Low carb?

I don't feed any particular diet, but my 4 month old puppy loves it whenever I'm eating. She has eggs and bacon for breakfast, and buger and salad for lunch and sometimes a shrimp or two. She knows who eats good here and follows me around every time I have a plate of food, lol.

Sounds like one happy pup...on Atkins too, as long as you are!

[blueberrylady]

Re: What do you feed your four legged friends? Low carb?

I'm not sure I would want to do low carb for my pets. I feed the dogs a mix of commercial canned and dry and they thrive on it with rice substituted once a week for the dry food. I would worry about them missing essential vitamins but I could be wrong on this.

As for my cat, I have no choice in it because she eats one thing and one thing only, Meow Mix's Seafood Medley. If I don't have it, she won't eat! She has never eaten any food like even tuna which most cats love.

Now my parrot eats whatever we eat and it's so neat to watch him. Did you know that peas have skin on them? He bites them open then scoops the inside out. He does the same thing with M&M's!

[sallyseachange]

Re: What do you feed your four legged friends? Low carb?

I'm not sure I would want to do low carb for my pets. I feed the dogs a mix of commercial canned and dry and they thrive on it with rice substituted once a week for the dry food. I would worry about them missing essential vitamins but I could be wrong on this.

As for my cat, I have no choice in it because she eats one thing and one thing only, Meow Mix's Seafood Medley. If I don't have it, she won't eat! She has never eaten any food like even tuna which most cats love.

Now my parrot eats whatever we eat and it's so neat to watch him. Did you know that peas have skin on them? He bites them open then scoops the inside out. He does the same thing with M&M's!

I have a cat like that too... won't eat anything but Friskies! Love the sound of your pea splitting parrot!

[sadie147]

Re: What do you feed your four legged friends? Low carb?

Sally try googling the BARF diet..lol sounds gross, it stands for Bones And Raw Food, it's an actual eating plan for dogs, people do it with much success, dogs thrive on it. We used to have a member here, Deiselbud who if i remember fed this to her dog with amazing results... apparently even their poop is totally different and almost odourless.

I think though you should run it past your vet first, and i'd definately ease into it slowly.

I feed my dog commercial food, I looked into it and it seemed like it was pricey and seemed like a bit of work :-(

I saw a documentary on pet food recently called Petfood: A Dogs breakfast which was really eye opening. apparently commercial foods are all basically the same, no matter what you pay or what they claim. They did also recommend supplimenting regular commercial foods with unprocessed human foods like lean meats and veggies.

here's a link to the documentary brief
A Dog's Breakfast : Doc Zone : CBC-TV

[sallyseachange]

Re: What do you feed your four legged friends? Low carb?

Thanks so much Sadie... for the pointer to BARF (lol!!) and the interesting link.
I've heard lots about the iniquities of the pet food industry, and can believe companies in this sector are not as transparent as they would like us to believe. They can get away with it, sadly.

I've just gotten two new (old) doggies from the abandoned dog shelter. One of them has quite a serious illness (leishmaniasis) and am having to give him injections twice a day for two months. Big expense, but he's worth every penny... a beautiful old Griffon Bleu de Gascogne, with the sweetest nature imaginable. First time I've had any dog other than mongrels... always rescue dogs though.

I'm hoping that after six years in a cage, I can get him well again and give him (and the little female I got too) a happy last few years... and that includes feeding both dogs as well as I can. At the moment, Ubaldo, the Griffon, looks like something out of Belsen.

[sallyseachange]

Re: What do you feed your four legged friends? Low carb?

i feed my rabbit with carrot and cauliflower flower

How sweet! I'd love a rabbit! I feed my goats carrots too... they love them!

[Aprile]

Re: What do you feed your four legged friends? Low carb?

My dog and Cat eat low carb. I feed Blue Buffalo wilderness and supplement with raw veggies and meat. I have dealt with alot of allergies in my pets and found that by going grain free they have no allergies. I also have one really fat cat and once I dropped his carbs he started losing weight.

Dogs and Cats are not meant to eat alot of carbs. You never see them eating it in the wild. They will eat grasses and raw veggies in the wild.

[sallyseachange]

Re: What do you feed your four legged friends? Low carb?

My dog and Cat eat low carb. I feed Blue Buffalo wilderness and supplement with raw veggies and meat. I have dealt with alot of allergies in my pets and found that by going grain free they have no allergies. I also have one really fat cat and once I dropped his carbs he started losing weight.

Dogs and Cats are not meant to eat alot of carbs. You never see them eating it in the wild. They will eat grasses and raw veggies in the wild.

I agree.
I'd like to feed my dogs a mixture of low carb with some raw... but it would be hellishly expensive here (Italy)... I've certainly already lowered their amount of carby commercial foods and upped the fresh meat and veg considerably. They're doing well.