Cheese?

[TracyCT]

I've got a 5 month old mini and a 5 y/o cocker/beagle. When I put the food down in 2 separate dishes (one is puppy food and the other is adult food) I have to stand there and watch them to make sure that they eat their own food, otherwise, the baby will eat the adult food and the adult will eat everything in sight. Sometimes I sit on the floor with the baby and pretend that I'm eating her food as she'll eat anything that goes into my mouth! I've taken to sprinkling a teeny bit of grated cheese onto both of their meals and they gobble it right up. It's maybe 1/4 teaspoon is all, just enough to make them think there's something good in the food. Anyway, is this going to harm the baby in anyway? The regular dog food is IAMS that the vet recommended to me.

[Heather]

Hi Tracy,

I often use grated cheese as an enhancer to my dogs' food. My youngest is a finicky eater, and he is on the thin side, so I need to entice him to eat.

My vet recomended parmesean cheese, garlic powder, cottage cheese, and yogurt.

Imagine if you ate the same thing your whole life, it gets a little boring.

Sometimes, on the weekends, I give a tablespoon of canned food in addition to the dry food, just to spice things up for them. I try to do it on days where they have had additional exercise so the extra calories won't effect their wasteline.

Also note that many people added soft vegetables, either steamed or low sodium canned to meals. I used green beans to help my oldest loose some weight.

Heather

[Shaggy&WilliesMommie]

Hi Tracy,
I have 2 4 month old minis (Willie -- Male short hair) and Shaggy (male long hair) and they can be rather picky as well, especially Willie. I don't think the cheese will hurt anything since it's a generally recommended treat and it has protein which they need. Somewhere in this board someone suggested adding a little Extra Virgin Olive oil to the food occasionally. Since my smooth had a tendency toward dry skin, the vet ok'd this. I don't have a regular schedule, but a few times a week, I'll put a tablespoon of it on the food (they share the bowl, so it's for double the food). They LOVE it. They do seem to be more interested in their meals than before. I've been surprised that they are not the "pigs" that I've heard dachsies can be. They often times leave food in the bowl and don't graze during the day. Good Luck.

Shag & Wills Mom

P.S. As a side note, Both my vet and trainer have cautioned against Iams and Science Diet since they have both "gone national" which means you can find the food every where including grocery and discount stores. This generally gives them license to alter the recipes from the original version to add more fillers to keep the cost down. My vet recommends Eukanuba, which is the higher-end Iams product. Take this for what it's worth. It's all just information...My trainer also recommended a few others including, Excel, Precise, and Sensible Choice. I have been using Excel, but mixed in a little of the Eukanuba when the vet gave me some samples, and they liked that much better. I believe I'm going to make the switch.

[TracyCT]

I made a mistake - It IS Eukanuba not IAMS that I'm feeding the dogs. And I'm glad to hear that the grated parmesan's ok. I felt like a fool sitting on the floor pretending to eat the kibbles.

[Krista]

I too think a bit of cheese for a dog at a healthy (or underweight) weight is fine.

As for foods, well after doing quite a bit of research about what is actually in dog food, there are a LOT of so-called "premium" foods that I won't even consider feeding now.

As for Eukanuba, well it too is made by the Iams company, which was bought out by proctor and gamble back in 1999. P&G has been know for extensive animal testing for one, which I try to avoid. My vet and many others also feel that Eukanuba (not just iams) has gone down in quality since the buyout. She no longer reccomends it, nor does my breeder, though she used to feed it.

Everyone has to make their own decisions about what to feed their dog, and no food no matter how wonderful will be right for every dog, but I feel this should be an informed decision. Most vet schools have very little curriculum on nutrition and often the classes and seminars are sponsored by the major food makers. Just because your vet promotes a food does not make it a high quality food (they usually make money off the foods they sell too).

I avoid these ingredients:

Byproducts -poor quality, may come from animals that were found dead, diseased, dying...sometimes euthanized pets may be included in animal byproducts

Chemical preservatives: Ethoxyquin, BHA, BHT -these are severely limited or not permitted in human food because of their linkage to cancer (and we wonder why our pets are getting cancer more, they may eat this stuff everyday) I also avoid Propylene Glycol and Propyl Gallate (they are in my shampoo, why would I want my dogs to eat them?)

Added sugars: corn syrup, molasses, sorghum...etc. (dogs don't need these)

Corn or corn products high on the ingredient lists -may be very poor quality, dogs were not made to eat corn, it is high on the likely allergen list for dogs, inferior proteins to animal sources...The food should have meat/poulty/fish as the first ingredient at least, more is better, eggs are good too. corn is not easliy digestible, your dog will not get all the protein out of it and will poop more too on a diet high in corn.

I don't want artificial flavors or colors in my dog food either.

When you feed a higher quality food, the dogs will need to eat less of it, will generally poop less and will be better off overall.

There are a lot of great foods out there. Research, read your labels. Some off the top of my head are:

Flint River Ranch
Pinnacle
Canidae
Innova
California Natural
Healthwise
Sensible Choice
Solid Gold
Wysong Synorgen
Natural Blend
Neura Wellness
Eagle Pack Premium Select
Eagle Pack Holistic Select
Avo-Derm
Premium Edge
Nutro Natural Choice
Petsmart Oven baked Premiere

there are plenty more too...

[Frzframe]

I just want to add that a person shouldn't feel bad if they can't feed their dog(s) the foods Krista mentioned. I know I did for awhile but because of where we live these aren't available and I don't like the idea of having to order it off the web. What I did was to find the best of what was offered and it's been okay for us.

~Shonda & Mitzi Moo