Dog Food
 

Just curious about the group on dog food and supplements, (I have no connections to any dog food or supplement companies).
I feed my two Brittany Spaniels:
Morning
1. 1/2 slice of cheese (use this to hide medication if any)
2. Large Milk Bone

Evening
1. Nutro Beef or Chicken dry dog food
2.Tea spoon of Dynamite supplement mixed with dry dog food
3. Table spoon of virgin olive oil
4. Then little warm our cold water depending on the weather (just to enough to soften the dry dog food)

I avoid table scraps if at all possible for my dogs.

I would appreciate your thoughts and ideas on dog food.

For my 3-year old setter I keep it simple: two-cups of Natural Balance (salmon and sweet potato) in the morning and two-cups in the evening and a McDonald’s double cheeseburger for the Sunday afternoon trek back home.

I gave up on Purina, Eukunaba, and other big name foods years ago. Too much junk and fillers. Since then nothing but lean, high energy, allergy-free dogs and cleaning up the back yard is like picking up stale Tootsie Rolls. Only single-protein, grain-free foods for us.

I feed my dogs Solid Gold, the Leaping Waters version made with fish, grain free. Due to my Labrador’s bad seasonal allergies my vet has me add coconut oil or olive oil and some wet canned food for extra fats to cut down on the inflammation and it has worked wonders. My cocker just gets the Solid Gold and a little wet food. I also give them a spoonful of canned pumpkin for the fiber and as a vegetable.
Tim

It is pretty interesting how dog food has changed in the past 10-20 years. I can’t believe how much better all of my dogs have responded to being on single-protein grain-free food. I have tried the single protein food from CostCo which has about the same % of the same ingredients as Natural Balance but with a slightly higher % of fat and is ~ half the cost of NB.

Purina Pro Plan High Protein . Cup in the AM. Cup at 5PM exactly - she tells me it's time

I feed Pro Plan performance to my Labs. My two year old Nellie who hunting 3 to 4 days per week gets 5 cups per day and will still barely maintains her weight of 53 lbs. My10 year old less active gets 2 cups per day.

All of my setters have done well for years and have lived long healthy lives on Purina Pro Plan Performance 30/20. They get all they will eat free choice. Most of the time I wish they would eat more. During a hard running season they loose weight. They just do not eat much. Seems the harder they run the less they eat.

Ditto John Dallas. Purina Pro-Plan 1 cup 6 a.m. and 1 cup at 5 p.m.

She gets an extra cup at noon on hard-hunting days.

Costco’s dog food nearly killed her 3 years ago. It was fine for her first 2 years but unbeknownst to their customers they changed their supplier to a source in China. She lost 10 lbs. in as many weeks even though we increased her intake.

Be smart guys - I am now.





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We have used ProPlan for many years with good results. Some of our dogs have had allergies (Gordons are prone to them) and we've used the sensitive skin/stomach version. We've moved to night feeding to help prevent any gut-torsion issues. Elaine sometimes doctors up the food with something to get them eating when they balk and are tired of the same thing (she does that with me, too, but I seldom balk at eating...unfortunately).

I had allergy issues with the last two english setters using Pro-Plan

the breeder we got Tweed (our new setter) from recommended we try this brand,

https://muenstermilling.com/products...erfect-balance


both dogs are on it and seem to be doing very well

Thanks, Rick, we'll check this out.

I feed Pro Plan Performance. I used to feed Eukanuba but got tired of the recalls.

Purina Pro Plan Performance during the season and PPP Savor the rest of the year. While hunting I give a can of sardines in oil to each dog fed at night after an hour of no activity and immediately after the hunt a supplement called Glyco-charge. Both labs are about 11 years old and just came back from 5 days of chasing ducks and roosters in SD. They held up very well and showed no worse for wear and tear. Labs are just tough.

My 5 year old setter eats 1x/day in evening, 1/2 can Purina Focus (wet) mixed with 1 full cup Purina Sport Performance 30/20. During hunting season he'll get an extra 1/2 to 1 cup of dry at meal time. Never feed my dog in morning of a hunt or during field trial training.

For those that feed their dogs grain free you may want to read this article - https://todaysveterinarypractice.com...l%20PLOS%20ONE.

Recent article on feeding your working Dog....

https://www.gundogmag.com/editorial/...un-dogs/377392

My Vet also says the recent grain free trend is mostly BS.....

Working Dogs run on extra fat when they are ground pounding....The sled Dog people figured this out a long time ago....

Addition: During hunting season it is extra: raw eggs, olive oil, cheese, peanut butter, regular butter...Mine has no problem with milk, so often that gets added for protein and fat....If I could get that salmon fish slurry the sled people use, I would be on it...

I think a lot of times our Dogs come in and are more interested in rest than eating...Make the evening meal more than enough and irresistible....Kibble and a little water doesn't cut it....

https://iditarod.com/edu/food/


https://wildernessclassroom.org/feeding-the-sled-dogs/

Another:

https://www.grayssportingjournal.com...-unique-needs/

Here's another good source of dog health and nutrition and a well moderarted site for bird hunters.

https://uplandjournal.ipbhost.com/fo...-bird-hunting/

Great forum...unfortunately Brad “post holed” me..

Well moderated to an extreme..I lost it when a member accused a sporting clay shooter I know of cheating. You couldn’t make this individual cheat.

I go there often to look...well worth ones time..and some of the Dog pics are extremely well done. Those boys love their Foxes.

Addition: I would love to pick Greg Hartman’s mind on cameras....his pics are spectacular..

I don't recall the thread about cheating but Irish Whistler's post are alway's well photographed.

Best that it be forgotten....and I could/should have handled it differently....

And yes, Irish Whistler also posts amazing pics.

We give our brittany 1.5 cups of victor performance dry dog food in the morning with 1/2 cup of drained green beans. At night 1.25 cups of victor again with the other 1/2 cup of green beans. Cash is a large brittany, in the hunting season he is really quite thin, if cash runs 10 miles in a hunt, I give him a little extra at night. During the offseason he gains a couple of pounds. My wife or I run him literally every day for a half hour to an hour in the off season. We try to feed him early so he will have a couple hours before we run or hunt him.

Our breeder lives right down the road from us. He gives his brittanies 2 cups of purina pro plan a day early in the morning. If the dogs are hunting hard, he would give them a little more. He helped us with cash, when we first got cash, he weighed 69 pounds. The breeder thought he should get down to 42 pounds originally. When cash was 47 pounds, our breeder said he was at the perfect weight, when I told him cash weighed 47 pounds, he really could hardly believe that. Our dogs weight will vary between 46 to 48 pounds during the season. Off season he will get up to 50 pounds. My other friend that has 2 brittanies said his dogs are right around 50 pounds during the hunting season, they are not as tall as cash, but very stocky. He hunts those dogs almost every day during the season, and he runs them often during the off season.

Green beans?

John,
Several people told us to use green beans from a can to help our dog feel full. He literally acts like we are starving him at both feedings. Our dog food company said we should be feeding him 3 cups daily at his weight. We tried to go between what dog food company said and what the breeder uses. Cash is about 22 inches high. The only thing that dog likes as much as finding birds is eating. He is doing well at both.

I guess it's better than kale or Okra. :rotf:

Try canned pumpkin, not pumpkin pie mix. Dogs love it, it's great for digestion and if your dog has loose stools it will firm them up.

I have a friend who hunts English Pointers and he swears by the half can of Green Beans, both of his is dogs hunt between 35-45 days a year in Montana or Arizona.

I've utilized a tablespoon of canned pumpkin during season to keep weight on my Brittanies.

Thanks to all of you for your sharing of information.

Currently feeding Inuckshuk, dogs eat it well.

My vet recommended the same thing. Great filler, low calories.