Let's whip a dead horse

[nywalkers]

you guys that feed a raw diet to your dogs, how much do you give them?

[liontracker]

Dry Dog Food Reviews:

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/dry/

Seems to be an "apples to apples" independent comparison of all the various brands and types.

[JTG]

Dean sure has good advice. Raw meat and raw chicken is one of the best things you can do for a dog, especially there teeth. I was talking with a service dog trainer and a dog show judge. I looked at the dogs teeth and they were white, so I asked, and she told me that she feeds nothing but raw meat. Deer processors are glad to give scraps away. I like the leg bones and the hounds love it.
Can fish is also very good for them and like bags of chickens parts, sometimes less but always better than dog food. Lots of information on the web in regards to this subject.

JTG.

Hopefully everyone is also feeding meat with whatever dry feed you are using. I use a lot of Bison heart and liver only because we have 1200 of them so it's easy and free for me. Horse meat is excellent for dogs. Find your local guy that picks up dead horses and most of those guys are glad to give one away. Road kill is also a good source of free meat if it's legal in your state. My dogs get some type of meat every day. Meat is free, just need to find a source for it. Nothing better for them then what they are supposed to eat.
Another thing to do is to mix two or more different brands of dry food together instead of using only one type. Feeding only dry food, and only one brand every day for years on end isn't the best for any kind of dog.

[rzhounds]

Loyal 24/20 or loyal 31/20, I get it from cal ranch and it's probably the best food I've ever fed for sure.

[Ker_man]

nywalkers, I feed a block of the frozen beef anywhere from the size of a brick, to less. Got to go by the shape of the dog and watch the body weight more or less.I like to feed a bit less and add some( a bit) dog food so they well get some of what ever might me missing with just the meat. The occasional dog will need the dog food to keep the bowels moving well, need to watch this.

[bchoundman]

Unifeed kenel blend all stages. Might just be in Canada. I think another important question is what color is your dogs stool. Should be dark. Light color stool means lack of a nutrient. And I feed horse meat ground up and mixed in cooked rice and sweet feed. Put into about 1-2 lb meatballs. My dogs are 100 lbs in weight.

[B/T]

Hopefully everyone is also feeding meat with whatever dry feed you are using. I use a lot of Bison heart and liver only because we have 1200 of them so it's easy and free for me. Horse meat is excellent for dogs. Find your local guy that picks up dead horses and most of those guys are glad to give one away. Road kill is also a good source of free meat if it's legal in your state. My dogs get some type of meat every day. Meat is free, just need to find a source for it. Nothing better for them then what they are supposed to eat.
Another thing to do is to mix two or more different brands of dry food together instead of using only one type. Feeding only dry food, and only one brand every day for years on end isn't the best for any kind of dog.

I see others are mentioning raw meat on here, I may be wrong but thought on another thread you mentioned that you cook your meat was just wondering which way you do it. cooked or raw and do you grind the meat or just feed chunks.
Thanks

[FullCryHounds]

I cut up livers, hearts and meat into chunks about an inch square. Put them into 5 gal. buckets and take that to the BBQ. I spread them out on a large BBQ and cook them. I then put the cooked meat into large ziplock bags and freeze. In winter, I'll thaw out a bag, add water and heat up. I mix this meat/gravy into some dry food and the dogs get a warm meal twice a day. During the off season, I only add the meat to one meal a day. One advantage is that your food bill will be cut in half when you ad meat to your dogs diet.
If you look at my dogs compared to dogs out of the same liter that are only fed dry dog food, my dogs are larger, more muscular, and they have much better endurance. I actually prefer a smaller dog but not at the expense of a poor diet. You will never get the full potential out of your dogs if they only get dry dog food their whole life. There is plenty of free meat out there, you just need to find a source for it, you'll see a huge improvement in the overall health of your dogs. Dogs can live on dry food alone but they will never have the same bone structure, muscle tone, overall health and longevity as a dog fed a healthy meat diet from puppy stage up through their adult life.

[bchoundman]

My meat is all uncooked just raw ground.

[silentnight]

I feed the loyal brand from calranch as well... And add horse meat in hunting season.

[Ker_man]

I buy the ground beef (and bone) and frozen and feed it that way. No road kill for me.
The frozen meat really keeps the teeth clean.

[Goose]

I feed some stuff called value pack. I believe they are out of Tennessee. It mainly a sheep meat based dry kibble and between me and my father in law and our cow dogs and hog dogs were feeding around twenty head. I love it our dogs get used several times a week all day long this time of year penning cattle and hold up good on it. They maintain almost an ideal working condition. My hogdogs get the fire ran out of them my two weeks home from work. I only feed about two measuring cups per dog . There is hardly ever over two piles of stool in their kennel, most of the time just one. I'm paying right at 20$ per 50lb.