[HarleyTheGermanShepherd]

I am currently feeding my dogs Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream, and I know it's not the best dry food out there, but it's still good in my opinion. I give them an all-in-one supplement in powder form and a joint supplement, but I plan on adding more meat, veggies, and fruits. I'll be adding canned salmon, as well as raw green beans, broccoli, carrots, and apples to start. My question is, how much and how often should I add these things to their kibble?

 

[mmags]

Its all personal preference based on what you thing is nutritious for you dog. That being said, I like to add canned Sardines, small amount of cottage cheese, whole raw eggs, berries, bone broth, chicken feet/back/legs or neck. For supplements I like Nupro Gold, Annamaet Impact, Natures logic food fortifier. I rotate each day adding something different.

 

[Malibu]

Ditto !!!

 

[HarleyTheGermanShepherd]

Its all personal preference based on what you thing is nutritious for you dog. That being said, I like to add canned Sardines, small amount of cottage cheese, whole raw eggs, berries, bone broth, chicken feet/back/legs or neck. For supplements I like Nupro Gold, Annamaet Impact, Natures logic food fortifier. I rotate each day adding something different.

Thank you for your input. I plan on alternating what I put in their food as well, but I'm still not sure about portion sizes and times per week to add one thing. The canned salmon, for example. I know it's high in sodium (200 mg), so I am just going to start at 1/4 cup once a week. But I don't know whether that is too much, or not enough for them to actually benefit from it.
The reason for me using canned salmon instead of cooking fresh, is due to my work schedule. I can work anywhere from 40 hours to 76 hours per week, and I never know for sure what it's going to be. I love my dogs but I don't have time for that.

 

[Momto2GSDs]

I give them an all-in-one supplement in powder form and a joint supplement,

Make sure you check to see where the ingredients are "sourced" from in the products you are using.

Also, what type of testing has been done on them.

A LOT of "dog supplements" contain cheap non-tested ingredients and could contain contaminants and/or heavy metals. Some testing of products done by a well know lab, showed little to no Glucosamine/Chondrotin in a joint supplement!!!

There isn't stringent "regulations" on pet products.



Beware of "3rd party sellers" for ALL pet products!
EXAMPLE: "Nutramax, the maker of popular nutritional supplements for pets, says counterfeiters are selling fraudulent products online under the company’s name. Nutramax Laboratories and Nutramax Laboratories Veterinary Sciences filed a lawsuit in federal court on July 20, 2018 seeking damages and injunctive relief. It names more than a dozen individuals and companies as defendants and calls the knock-off drugs a serious threat.

A spokesperson for Nutramax said the affected products are Cosequin, Dasuquin and Proviable DC, all of which were being sold by unauthorized third parties under names including Pegato Big Save and Pets Care Center on the retail website Amazon."



NASC (National Animal Supplement Council) Certification is a good seal to look for on pet supplements. "earning their seal demonstrates a manufacturer is reputable and committed to the highest level of quality in the industry"



Moms

 

[GSDchoice]

Actually salmon is fast & easy!

Turn oven to broil, put tray in top rack.
While it's getting hot in there, brush salmon fillets with a bit of olive oil on both sides. (For humans I add salt & stuff, but of course if for a dog, don't put anything on)
Broil for about 7 minutes should do it!
And even if it's a little on the raw side in the middle...that won't hurt a dog I think... (people can eat it raw too...if it's good quality salmon)

( Ha ha sorry I sound like a Martha Stewart, I am far from Martha Stewart in real life.
I guess my dog does think I'm Martha Stewart though - he apparently thinks anything I make is absolutely delicious! )

 

[Sabis mom]

I haunt grocery stores for "past fresh" berries, fruits and veggies, on sale cottage cheese and yogurt. Cheap eggs are tough around here but I like those to.

I reduce the kibble by about third and she gets a raw egg for breakfast, a couple of spoonfuls of yogurt and a handful of blueberries or chopped apple and a couple of chicken livers for dinner. I will give her a chicken leg in place of half her dinner or a chicken quarter in place of all of it and a slightly reduced breakfast.

With previous dogs I fed more fresh food, and less kibble but since each dog is different you need to experiment with what works. Remember that fresh food will digest faster then kibble, so if you have a dog that needs to have food in it's stomach, like mine, you may need to play with mealtimes.

I would steer clear of canned salmon. If you want to feed salmon just feed it raw. Sardines are cheap and easy and you can often buy bags of frozen smelts really cheap. Pretty much any meat I feed is raw, unless she is getting roasted turkey or chicken leftovers. I don't like salt so I have no worries there.

 

[McGloomy]

Since you're feeding TOTW already, I don't think you need to supplement with fruits and berries since blueberries and raspberries is already included in the ingredients. Just my personal opinion.

I do add 'supplement' too. I feed Victor. All the supplements I add are natural. 'Supplement' 1: 1 Raw egg, 1 tbs olive oil. 2: 100g fresh chicken liver. And I feed him 100g of whole yoghurt everyday. Sometimes cheese.

Truthfully speaking, one of the reasons I why I started to add things to my dog's dry food diet is because he has become ultimately picky. If I can go back to JUST feeding dry food, I'd pay a million dollars for that.

 

[HarleyTheGermanShepherd]

I give them an all-in-one supplement in powder form and a joint supplement,

Make sure you check to see where the ingredients are "sourced" from in the products you are using.

Also, what type of testing has been done on them.

A LOT of "dog supplements" contain cheap non-tested ingredients and could contain contaminants and/or heavy metals. Some testing of products done by a well know lab, showed little to no Glucosamine/Chondrotin in a joint supplement!!!

There isn't stringent "regulations" on pet products.



Beware of "3rd party sellers" for ALL pet products!
EXAMPLE: "Nutramax, the maker of popular nutritional supplements for pets, says counterfeiters are selling fraudulent products online under the company’s name. Nutramax Laboratories and Nutramax Laboratories Veterinary Sciences filed a lawsuit in federal court on July 20, 2018 seeking damages and injunctive relief. It names more than a dozen individuals and companies as defendants and calls the knock-off drugs a serious threat.

A spokesperson for Nutramax said the affected products are Cosequin, Dasuquin and Proviable DC, all of which were being sold by unauthorized third parties under names including Pegato Big Save and Pets Care Center on the retail website Amazon."



NASC (National Animal Supplement Council) Certification is a good seal to look for on pet supplements. "earning their seal demonstrates a manufacturer is reputable and committed to the highest level of quality in the industry"



Moms /forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

The all-in-one supplement is called Wholistic Pet Organics: Canine Complete. But I do give them Cosequin. I honestly don't know where the ingredients are sourced from, or what type of testing has been done on them. How can I find that out? Would I have to go to the website? The ingredients list for the joint supplement does contain Glucosamine, according to the bottle. But I do get both of the supplements on a website called Chewy. Would this be safer? I'm glad that you brought all of this to my attention, I was completely unaware. I found a NASC seal on the organic supplement, but not on the Cosequin. I would appreciate any feedback you may have, and thank you for the information.

 

[HarleyTheGermanShepherd]

Actually salmon is fast & easy!

Turn oven to broil, put tray in top rack.
While it's getting hot in there, brush salmon fillets with a bit of olive oil on both sides. (For humans I add salt & stuff, but of course if for a dog, don't put anything on)
Broil for about 7 minutes should do it!
And even if it's a little on the raw side in the middle...that won't hurt a dog I think... (people can eat it raw too...if it's good quality salmon)

( Ha ha sorry I sound like a Martha Stewart, I am far from Martha Stewart in real life.
I guess my dog does think I'm Martha Stewart though - he apparently thinks anything I make is absolutely delicious! )

I appreciate your advice greatly. In the future, when my work schedule is more predictable, I will try this.
Haha you definitely seem to know what you're talking about!

 

[Suzy25]

I love supplementing and have a wild variety that I kind of filter through depending on what I have at that time. I don't use many store bought supplements just because of not knowing where stuff comes from etc.. I make my own, most I got from https://www.karmavorenutrition.com/articles 's blog, If you were interested in doing some homemade ones.

As for how often, depending on how many I have in rotation, I give each different supplement/ extra food (like eggs, veggies etc..) every 2-3 days to give time between each and not overload on supplements or too many extra things in each meal

 

[Momto2GSDs]

The all-in-one supplement is called Wholistic Pet Organics: Canine Complete. But I do give them Cosequin. I honestly don't know where the ingredients are sourced from, or what type of testing has been done on them. How can I find that out? Would I have to go to the website? The ingredients list for the joint supplement does contain Glucosamine, according to the bottle. But I do get both of the supplements on a website called Chewy. Would this be safer? I'm glad that you brought all of this to my attention, I was completely unaware. I found a NASC seal on the organic supplement, but not on the Cosequin. I would appreciate any feedback you may have, and thank you for the information.

You won't find the NASC seal on many pet supplements. I use a few that I trust that use "human grade" ingredients, but if I decide to add something to our dogs raw diet I usually choose to use human supplements.


Wholistic Pet Organic's is a good, reliable company for supplements.

I personally, would not use Cosequin due to some of the ingredients such as "Yellow #5 or Sodium Lauryl Sulfate" in several of their products.

A couple of raw chicken feet a few times per week should do the trick for natural Chondrotin/Glucosamine! You can order frozen chicken feet from here: https://www.mypetcarnivore.com/?s=chicken+feet&post_type=product

or

here: https://hare-today.com/search (they have ground and whole)


If you prefer a joint supplement this is a good one that I've used for my dogs and myself! http://www.bluebonnetnutrition.com/product/241/Glucosamine_Chondroitin_Plus_MSM_Vcaps

-"Today, Bluebonnet has earned GMP Registration from NSF International, the world’s leading public health and safety organization. This prestigious certification – developed in accordance with the FDA – verifies that Bluebonnet Nutrition has the proper manufacturing procedures, testing methods, equipment, facilities, and controls in place for meeting or exceeding the most rigorous quality standards for producing natural nutritional supplements."


I feed sardines or salmon 3 times per week and raw eggs 3 times per week. My raw meat mix contains a percentage of raw/pulverized vegetables.

Vegetables and fruits should be pulverized in a blender to break them down for absorption/digestion, otherwise you'll probably see most of them come out whole in their stool! (you'll need to add some purified water for mixing)
An easy way is to make up a batch, put your mix in ice cube trays and freeze. You can use one or two cube's per meal, but, always begin with small amounts, taking a few day's to see how these new additions will effect their gut. If stool gets loose, go back to previous amount fed (where stool was solid) and hold at that amount for a few days until his gut gets use to it. Then increase again. This is called "bowel tolerance".


Note that green beans, need to be "blanched" or slightly cooked before pulverizing/feeding. Also, not too much higher sugar content veg & fruit's such as carrots/apples. I use dark green lettuce and other colorful vegetables.


Rotation of supplements and vegetables are key!


Moms

 

[HarleyTheGermanShepherd]

I would steer clear of canned salmon. If you want to feed salmon just feed it raw. Sardines are cheap and easy and you can often buy bags of frozen smelts really cheap. Pretty much any meat I feed is raw, unless she is getting roasted turkey or chicken leftovers. I don't like salt so I have no worries there.

Thanks for the advice, I will try raw salmon vs. canned. I did look into this, and discovered that dogs can get potentially life threatening parasites from eating certain raw fish, also salmon poisoning. But I did find that if you freeze the fish it will kill any existing parasites, which is a simple fix.

 

[HarleyTheGermanShepherd]

You won't find the NASC seal on many pet supplements. I use a few that I trust that use "human grade" ingredients, but if I decide to add something to our dogs raw diet I usually choose to use human supplements.


Wholistic Pet Organic's is a good, reliable company for supplements.

I personally, would not use Cosequin due to some of the ingredients such as "Yellow #5 or Sodium Lauryl Sulfate" in several of their products.

A couple of raw chicken feet a few times per week should do the trick for natural Chondrotin/Glucosamine! You can order frozen chicken feet from here: https://www.mypetcarnivore.com/?s=chicken+feet&post_type=product

or

here: https://hare-today.com/search (they have ground and whole)


If you prefer a joint supplement this is a good one that I've used for my dogs and myself! http://www.bluebonnetnutrition.com/product/241/Glucosamine_Chondroitin_Plus_MSM_Vcaps

-"Today, Bluebonnet has earned GMP Registration from NSF International, the world’s leading public health and safety organization. This prestigious certification – developed in accordance with the FDA – verifies that Bluebonnet Nutrition has the proper manufacturing procedures, testing methods, equipment, facilities, and controls in place for meeting or exceeding the most rigorous quality standards for producing natural nutritional supplements."


I feed sardines or salmon 3 times per week and raw eggs 3 times per week. My raw meat mix contains a percentage of raw/pulverized vegetables.

Vegetables and fruits should be pulverized in a blender to break them down for absorption/digestion, otherwise you'll probably see most of them come out whole in their stool! (you'll need to add some purified water for mixing)
An easy way is to make up a batch, put your mix in ice cube trays and freeze. You can use one or two cube's per meal, but, always begin with small amounts, taking a few day's to see how these new additions will effect their gut. If stool gets loose, go back to previous amount fed (where stool was solid) and hold at that amount for a few days until his gut gets use to it. Then increase again. This is called "bowel tolerance".


Note that green beans, need to be "blanched" or slightly cooked before pulverizing/feeding. Also, not too much higher sugar content veg & fruit's such as carrots/apples. I use dark green lettuce and other colorful vegetables.


Rotation of supplements and vegetables are key!


Moms /forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

Thank you! I did just buy a new container of Cosequin, which contains 250 tablets, but I will get the one from the link you added when that is all out. Would this help a senior dog with mild arthritis?
I was hoping that I could just chop the veggies up into little pieces, would this not be enough to help them digest it?
I'll be careful about adding sugary veggies and fruit.

I just checked the website for the joint supplement, but I didn't find any prices or ways to purchase the products...will I need to create an account?

 

[Momto2GSDs]

Thank you! I did just buy a new container of Cosequin, which contains 250 tablets, but I will get the one from the link you added when that is all out. Would this help a senior dog with mild arthritis?
I was hoping that I could just chop the veggies up into little pieces, would this not be enough to help them digest it?
I'll be careful about adding sugary veggies and fruit.

I just checked the website for the joint supplement, but I didn't find any prices or ways to purchase the products...will I need to create an account?

Chopping, even grating them is not enough to make them digestible enough to be able to assimilate them.


Here it is on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/BlueBonnet-Glucosamine-Chondroitin-Supplement-Count/dp/B0011FUU3K/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1537633525&sr=8-3&keywords=bluebonnet+chondroitin+glucosamine+msm&th=1



Yes, it could help your senior dog to some extent but if he has pain or a hard time moving try these 2 herbals:
Herbaprin: https://glacierpeakholistics.com/collections/gph-product/products/herbaprin-capsules

Inflapotion: https://glacierpeakholistics.com/collections/gph-product/products/inflapotion-capsules



Moms

 

[HarleyTheGermanShepherd]

Chopping, even grating them is not enough to make them digestible enough to be able to assimilate them.


Here it is on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/BlueBonnet-Glucosamine-Chondroitin-Supplement-Count/dp/B0011FUU3K/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1537633525&sr=8-3&keywords=bluebonnet+chondroitin+glucosamine+msm&th=1



Yes, it could help your senior dog to some extent but if he has pain or a hard time moving try these 2 herbals:
Herbaprin: https://glacierpeakholistics.com/collections/gph-product/products/herbaprin-capsules

Inflapotion: https://glacierpeakholistics.com/collections/gph-product/products/inflapotion-capsules



Moms /forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

Is this true for ALL veggies and fruits? If so, I would have to be as efficient as possible. Would it be safe to add a variety of stuff in there, and make enough to last a week or longer? Of course I would store it in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

My senior dog has mild arthritis (probably, I'm only guessing here). He is still able to run, jump, and play. The only issue I have seen is his slight difficulty standing up from a down position. I tried Ceylon cinnamon for a while, and he did not like the taste, which is why I am trying something different. But I'll give those products a go.
Thank you.

 

[Momto2GSDs]

Is this true for ALL veggies and fruits? If so, I would have to be as efficient as possible. Would it be safe to add a variety of stuff in there, and make enough to last a week or longer? Of course I would store it in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

My senior dog has mild arthritis (probably, I'm only guessing here). He is still able to run, jump, and play. The only issue I have seen is his slight difficulty standing up from a down position. I tried Ceylon cinnamon for a while, and he did not like the taste, which is why I am trying something different. But I'll give those products a go.
Thank you.

Yes, if you are using them for the diet.



Whole pieces are ok for treats.


Yes, that is why I suggested to freeze them in the ice cube trays. You can make enough for a few days without freezing but longer than that the mix may spoil.


Try the Inflapotion first for this and see how he does. Choose the capsules and "pill" him instead of mixing a powder into his food.





Keep us posted!
Moms

 

[HarleyTheGermanShepherd]

Yes, if you are using them for the diet.



Whole pieces are ok for treats.


Yes, that is why I suggested to freeze them in the ice cube trays. You can make enough for a few days without freezing but longer than that the mix may spoil.


Try the Inflapotion first for this and see how he does. Choose the capsules and "pill" him instead of mixing a powder into his food.





Keep us posted!
Moms /forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

Okay, looks like I'll be putting the food processor to use.

Haha oops. I seemed to have ignored that entire section of your previous post. Freezing them in an ice cube tray would definitely make things easier, and more efficient. Would a Ziploc bag work? The only thing I would be concerned about is the mixture freezing together, making it difficult to scoop out. But nothing a smack on the counter can't fix, right?

Okay, I will try this.

Thanks again!

 

[wolfy dog]

Be extremely careful with raw salmon and all their relatives, especially when caught in the Pacific Ocean.
https://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/outreach/Pet-Health-Topics/categories/diseases/salmon-poisoning
Even when dogs are scavenging banks while their owner is fishing, they can get poisoned by a tiny piece of fish they find.
I do give them the skins after the fish has been cooked or barbecued. Besides that I only give them canned fish.

 

[HarleyTheGermanShepherd]

Be extremely careful with raw salmon and all their relatives, especially when caught in the Pacific Ocean.
https://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/outreach/Pet-Health-Topics/categories/diseases/salmon-poisoning
Even when dogs are scavenging banks while their owner is fishing, they can get poisoned by a tiny piece of fish they find.
I do give them the skins after the fish has been cooked or barbecued. Besides that I only give them canned fish.

I read the link you shared, and I noticed it mentioned that the parasite found in salmon can contain a dangerous microorganism, which causes the disease. I read elsewhere that freezing the fish for a week is supposed to kill any existing parasites, but would it kill the microorganism as well? I would think so, but I'm no biologist.