Dog food

[davidg1!]

I am thinking of changing dog feed, looking to see what the hunters are feeding. Thinks David

[FullCryHounds]

Dogs are meat eaters. Hounds especially need a high protein diet, not corn. You don't see mushers or any other hard working dogs feeding corn based feed to their dogs. You can get meat free. It just takes a bit more effort to prepare it. The only reason guys are feeding dry food to their dogs is because it's easy and doesn't take any effort.
Do your dogs a favor and feed them what they were meant to eat, meat.

[JTG]

[FullCryHounds]

I've received a couple PMs asking how I get FREE meat. It's simple. If it's legal in your state, road kill is everywhere. I get most of my meat from two buddies that butcher cows and bison. They save the scraps which is about 40 lbs from one steer. You can also get free horses that are going to be put down anyway. Talk to your local guy that picks up dead horses, he'll be glad to drop one off for you. Horse meat is by far the best meat you can get for your dogs. A horse will feed four dogs for over a year. It takes a day to butcher up a horse, grind it and bag it. But you just saved yourself over $1000 in a years worth of dry food. You will need a large chest freezer. I keep one full of nothing but dog food.
The best thing about feeding meat is how much healthier your dogs will be. Especially in the long run. I have a dog that is over twelve years old. I checked his GPS collar recently after a long run. He went 34 miles one day. He still acts like a young dog. He's never been to the vet. I can honestly say I've never had a dog to the vets in over 20 years for any type of health problem, only injuries. How have most of your older dogs die. Typically it's some type of organ failure. That's because they've been eating corn type foods their whole life. Dogs were never meant to eat corn. Every dog today is a descendent of the wolf. Have you ever seen a wolf grazing out in a corn field?
Look at how mushers feed their dogs that put on dozens of miles every day, they feed meat!
Do yourself and your dogs a favor and feed them what they were meant to eat.
I've been running hounds for 36 years and feeding meat for about 20 years. The difference in your dogs health is amazing.

[rockytrails]

A lot of info out there on dog nutrition. I feed Purina pro plan sport with good results. Wild dogs eat more than meat. First they eat the entrails, including stomach content, gives them some veggies. Starches can be broke down for digestion by proper cooking. Lot's of coyote scat has berry seeds in it in the fall, just an e.g. each there own.

[JTG]

Years ago, Mr. Cameron had a line of bluetick hounds that he was losing to bloat, so he, move on, latter to find it was dog food. Like most things related to hounds, Mr. Cameron is smart and fast to learn, so when I lost two hounds over the same. I asked, him and he told me the problem and he was correct. So, I did my own research and it agreed with his. The other thing, I found that is very important to space meals on adult hounds, at least 8.5 hours apart, because it takes that long for a hound to digest food and it will make them overall healthier, with a longer lifespan. I agree that it best to feed hounds more than raw meat. The secret is not to combine, certain ingredients, especially two types of starches at the same time. The digestive process consumes a lot of energy. The chemical reaction, by mixing certain ingredients will increase fermentation and blood acidity. On hounds over two, on the day, that I do not hunt them, I fast them once a month and it cleans out their digestive system and boost their immune system.

Coyotes eat anything from fish, rough silage, insects, fruit, fresh meat of all kinds to tainted meat and God knows what else. Since the average coyote lives two years, it’s hard to compare them to a domestic hound, although I agree with feeding them grains and vegetables in addition to meat.

[david]

There was a legendary cat hunter named Butch. I was shocked when he told me the age of some of his older dogs because they looked and acted/hunted so much younger. So many bobcat hunters are thinking in terms of replacement when a dog reaches 7. He had hard hunting, hard going dogs over 10 years old. I never would have guessed their ages correctly. I asked him what in the world he was doing. He said first of all, he does not poison his dogs with chemicals and anti-biotics (translation: anti-life) like everyone else does.

He also made his own dog food. He had an arrangement with the grocery store in his town, and EVERY DAY he picked up all the meat scraps and outdated vegetables etc. They left it out for him, and depended on him to pick it up. (Don't try to do this unless they can rely on you. You will lose favor quickly.)

But the foundation for his home made dogfood was dried peas. He bought it in large bulk and was feeding 18 dogs. He cooked the grocery store rejects in with the peas. The peas are high in protein. He also fed raw meat whenever he could get it. And my job during my visit was cutting servings of raw meat off road kill deer for them. He never would buy commercial dog feed. He fed the peas even when he had fresh meat.

Like was mentioned, this all takes a lot of time and effort. But he treated it like a part time job. And if a penny saved is a penny earned, and if a dog year saved is a dog year earned, he earned plenty in this "part time job".

[Nicole Stark]

David, you really are a gifted writer and I always enjoy reading your posts.

Separately, there's been a lot of interesting dialogue on this topic - much of which I follow myself, from fasting and feeding wild sourced proteins (fish and moose for example), to adjusted vaccination protocols, and a loose program based upon prey model structure, etc.

Somethings mentioned I never found to materialize into something meaningful like the relationship to bloat and feeding/exercise. That said, no matter what I am always appreciative of an exchange of ideas when it comes to options, considerations, and the overall care/investment we may offer to our dogs.

As for the OP, I hope you were provided with some ideas to your question. If not, perhaps offer up some parameters to see if you can get something closer to what you were looking for. As for me balance (variety) over time is key, no matter what one's philosophy and priorities happen to be.

[NCDOGMAN]

My uncle has had most of his dogs live to be 10-13 years old and hunt till they die. His best dog was an English hound that was a freak. By the time he died he was 70% blind and 100% deaf. He was still hunting strong. He was a pain in the ass to catch after the hunt because he couldn’t hear you call em but he was still a fast dog. He lived and hunted until a month before he died at 15 years old.

My uncle has always fed ol Roy high performance in the Camo bag.........I don’t understand how they get away with living that long. They never have problems with arthritis. They stay in excellent shape and he hunts them 200 days a year.

[Mike Leonard]

I agree with the heavy meat diet and we feed our dogs a combination of meats including elk, deer, lion, and beef. Horsemeat is also an excellent idea .

Our dogs are extremely healthy and as many of you know I just had one bluetick cross hound that just passed away at 17 years and 2 months old. He would still trail and tree and was a tough old bird, but he was pretty dang deaf and shock collars never did bother him much so he was a pain to get in. Heck my labs live to be around 15 and that is pretty old for most labs. We take quite a few elk each year for hunters so we end up with a lot of elk scraps and these dogs love it and contrary to some beliefs they don't seem to run elk any harder than other people's hounds. LOL!

[rum3002576]

With feeding raw do you need to worry about worms or anything else?

[Mike Leonard]

We only feed raw meat when it has been frozen or freezing outside. With fresh meat you won't have a worm problem but any questionable meat should be cooked.

Unless you have a ton of dogs to feed a Presto pressure cooker can be used and run thru on 35 minute cycle and you can bag it up ahead of time and keep it in the fridge or freezer.

We at times buy those great big bags of chicken quarters when they run a super sale on them, and stock up and if you watch the papers you can hit some real deals. Throw them in a freezer and thaw out a couple and cook them ahead of time. It isn't as cheap as road kill but it works out pretty well and you feed bones and all. You can supplement some good filler food with this and your dogs will do great.

a regular worming program should still be a part of everybody's canine maintenance plan.

[JTG]

I also buy the big bags of chicken, but don't cook it and never had a problem with worms. I have never fed road kill and don't plan on it, unless, I hit one.
When coyotes are in pens, they will almost kill themselves on horse meat. They will hardly eat beef liver, but will catch pig liver mid-air.

[johnadamhunter]

[macedonia mule man]

I've sold manufactured dog food for 35 yrs, most all the major brands that are offered in the Southeast. What one man is using and wouldn't use anything else, another man swears his dogs are starving to death on. Don't ask me to explain why. I've sold a lot of brands starting with Jazz dog food in 1983 costing 4.75 for 21/8 50# bag. Today sportmix products ranging from 21.00-45.00 per bag. Throughout those years selling all these different brands the same discussion is going on today as it was in 1983. Iv fed dogs commercial dog since the early 50s. The first I can remember was Jim Dandy ration, I believe it was around 1.75 for 50#. I feed the Sportmix black bag now. From the early 50s up until now I've seen dogs go off there feed from time to time, upset stomach and just look puny for some reason. The first thing I do is disinfect the water source and that usually clears things up.Keep the paracites under control and have a reasonably clean pen and the dog troubles usually disappear.