Brown Rice and Oven baked Chicken Breasts

[2.5pi]

...are what we feed one elderly retriever after she had a near death experience , our other dog now looks at her hills salmon and potato dry food in a manner reminiscent of a VW Golf driver pulling up next to a Bugatti Veyron at the lights.

..so my question for the PH Pet massive is should both dogs have hand cooked meals from now on , or are there some 'secret' components of dry food that make it preferable ?

Over to the panel

[Mubby]

awwwww I wouldn't be able to help myself and give them both the nice chicken! but that doesn't mean its the best way, im just too soft!!

mind you this is coming from someone who rarely gets her dinner to herself as the cat sits and looks pitifully at my plate

[Use Psychology]

i thik i'd quite like to eat the brown rice and oven cooked chicken tbh

[Jasandjules]

Give them raw chicken, not cooked. Brown rice is fine cooked, but less carbs the better for dogs, they are not designed to eat much in the way of carbs. So more meat, less potatoe/rice......

You can get chicken and tripe and similar from on-line retailers.

[HarryW]

second raw meat diet, bulk it out with cooked rice and grated raw carrot.

[HarryW]

A minor factoid is raw chicken bones are good for them too, they love raw wings. I snip them off our chicken before cooking, better than any man made treat. Same goes for raw whole carrots, mine love them, along with quartered apples.

Warning.... never give a dog cooked chicken bone though, cooking makes them brittle and dangerous.

[rasputin]

Rice and chicken is pretty much all they need, and even if you believe they're missing some vitamins it's fine for a few months at least as a recovery diet.

But - very bad for their teeth! Yes raw chicken bones can help keep their teeth clean (clean as in - not rotting, of course they will be swarming in bacteria that dogs can cope with but not necessarily the humans they come into contact with).
Dry food is almost as good. Our German Shepherd ate dry food her whole life apart from a few bouts of rice & chicken when ill (probably twice a year for a few weeks at a time). She's nearly 14 now and only in the last year her teeth have started to look a bit dirty - for 13 years they were sparkling white with no brushing or special treatment.

[2.5pi]

They also get a raw carrot each every day , I'm curious as to raw v cooked , both dogs are elderly 12 and 14 respectively if that makes a difference

Thanks for all the responses , much appreciated

2.5 pi

[highflyer]

rasputin gota say you should NEVER give a dog chicken bones of any kind raw or cooked, my vet told me recently you shouldnt give a dog any type of bone, yet many years ago we used to give our dogs beef knuckle bones from the butcher.
having said that I gave our girl a lamb bone a few years ago and it splintered inside her, we nearly lost her but after 3 days we got her back and she was on chicken and rice for a week, only to loose her 2 years later in an RTA.

[Jasandjules]

highflyer said:

rasputin gota say you should NEVER give a dog chicken bones of any kind raw or cooked, my vet told me recently you shouldnt give a dog any type of bone,

Change vet to one who knows what they are talking about then.

RAW bones are fine. Pretty much what dogs have lived off for thousands of years.

[bexVN]

Jasandjules said:

highflyer said:

rasputin gota say you should NEVER give a dog chicken bones of any kind raw or cooked, my vet told me recently you shouldnt give a dog any type of bone,

Change vet to one who knows what they are talking about then.

RAW bones are fine. Pretty much what dogs have lived off for thousands of years.

I'd say the vet has seen the negative side of feeding bones and is playing safe. Could just imagine the uproar of ok'ing bones only for the above to happen!! So no need to change vet unless other reasons to be concerned.

[balders118]

bexVN said:

Jasandjules said:

highflyer said:

rasputin gota say you should NEVER give a dog chicken bones of any kind raw or cooked, my vet told me recently you shouldnt give a dog any type of bone,

Change vet to one who knows what they are talking about then.

RAW bones are fine. Pretty much what dogs have lived off for thousands of years.

I'd say the vet has seen the negative side of feeding bones and is playing safe. Could just imagine the uproar of ok'ing bones only for the above to happen!! So no need to change vet unless other reasons to be concerned.

My OH is a vet nurse and she has seen dogs coming in after eating raw bones that have wound up killing the dog as they've got stuck/done damage (I don't know the detals). Obviously many dogs eat many bones all of the time, but the worst can happen.

A really sad storey a few weeks ago: An owner of a spaniel bought their dog a bone as a birthday present (I think he or she was middle aged, 6 ish (not sure) as a special treat. The next few days the dog wasn't quite right so they took it to the vet, it went downhill very fast and they lost their dog. Obviously very very rare, but it can happen - because of this we don't give mable any bone at all. I guess it's like being a doctor; if you see the rare but possible eventualities, you worry about things that will probably be fine but play safe anyway.

[highflyer]

It happened to us with Scamp, as I said we nearly lost her, so now we always play on the cautious side, it was a ham bone, I suggest if you are a loving caring person towards your pet and only want the best then you should always be on the cautious side as well, no need to change vets as I have every confidence and trust in ours, and they seem to care about our dogs and not just how much they can milk out of us.
However have been told beef knuckle bones are the ones to go for, but NEVER chicken.

[bexVN]

You couldn't get much more caring re their pets than Jasandjules. They are passionate advocates of the raw diet. This does include raw chicken bones. I still couldn't bring myself to feed it to my dog probably because of the negative side I have seen.

I also think they were wrong to suggest changing vets!

[mickk]

bexVN said:

You couldn't get much more caring re their pets than Jasandjules. They are passionate advocates of the raw diet. This does include raw chicken bones. I still couldn't bring myself to feed it to my dog probably because of the negative side I have seen.

I also think they were wrong to suggest changing vets!

Could you please let us know about the 'Negative side.' My friend is constantly banging on about how good it is for his dogs.

I'd just like a balanced view before I try it.

I know I could google it, but it's nice to hear it from someone on here

[Jasandjules]

bexVN said:

I also think they were wrong to suggest changing vets!

I was perhaps overreacting, but I hear all too often that vets don't think that dogs and cats should eat what they have eaten for thousands upon thousands of years.

As for info, there is loads out there, including:

http://blog.petmeds.com/ask-the-vet/raw-bones-safe...
www.naturalrearing.com
http://rawmeatybones.com/diet/exp-diet-guide.pdf
http://vetmedicine.about.com/od/nutritioninformati...