Good morning and Happy Holidays to all!
I would like input/suggestions on adding a vitamin/mineral supplement to my dogs raw dog food diet. What works for you?
Thanks in advance.
Marti
Right. now I’m using Nutri-Vet
Senior V/m. Chewy has it.
We also supplement her semi-raw meats w/ eggs, canned salmon, canned mackeral, tuna,
and a variety of human grade meat from the grocer.
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Both of our GSDs are on platinum CJ (going on 6 years) because I’ve seen such great results on the horses with it.
Nupro has a good all-around supplement. When we made our own raw that was one we added. Now we buy it premade as a complete diet, which is quite a bit easier!
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Thanks for the response!
Thank you!
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Thank you for your response!
That is what I do. Its too much work to weigh; bone, organ, some plant based carbs, the add vits and minerals. Which food do you feed? I like to swap and mix K9 Naturals and Primal.
If you are in Canada, Thrive.
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Right now we are feeding our cats Steve’s, which I really like. It is suitable for dogs and cats. Primal is always great, but there are a lot of good options out there that have complete diets. None of our four dogs is on raw right now, but when we have fed raw in the past we were using a local company. Right now he is just doing bones, though, due to problems with the place that processed and packed his food. If we have any dogs on raw in the future I will probably start with Steve’s and see how they do.
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I love Steve’s! I had my cat on that too. My dogs are 100 lbs and a growing lab cross pup.
When I had one dog on Steve’s it was manageable cost wise. (a 65lb boxer cross)
I should pull Steve’s back into the mix.
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I’ve been using Steve’s since I got my tiny rescue last year. Very affordable on a 7 lb. dog, but it really is a bit less expensive than others per pound. I never add vitamins to the mix, just supplements. Unlike other brands that add synthetic vitamins, Steve’s food is balanced and complete from its ingredients.
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Yeah, we have four dogs right now, one of which is a 9 month old puppy who is 60+lbs right now. The others are 55, 70, and 80lbs. They are all doing really well on a few different varieties of Nutrisource grain free kibble (we switch up with Zignature now and then), so my wallet thinks better of this option than all raw.
I’d rather feed all raw, but it gets too spendy. One needs to feed a lot less with grain free (kibble and raw), but four dogs is still four dogs! Plus, one of our older guys, also a Boxer cross(!), won’t eat raw, and the other one has such a tricky stomach we have to stick to what he does well on. They are both teenagers, and I’ve decided that when they pass (hopefully not for a long time!) we will probably put the younger ones on raw.
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You could always add raw toppers onto the kibble. It’ll improve the quality quite a bit. I think Primal makes them, probably a few others too.
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I live 1 1/2 hrs. from Big Dan’s trucking in Altura Mn. They are a small family owned business that process downed dairy cows from local farms. A couple times a year I make the trip and load up my freezers.Price wise it’s cheaper for me to feed raw then kibble. The sneaky dog food manufactures shrunk the bag size from 30# to 28# and raised the price as well.
Thank for all your input!
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Yes on downsizing packages,
it’s called “Shrinkflation.”
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I feed a variety of cooked and finely chopped veggies and some fruits for vitamins/minerals as well as farm fresh eggs with shells (unwashed), whole sardines, green tripe and a rotation of proteins and meaty bones. I do cook my eggs as my girl prefers them cooked. I do grind up the egg shells so they are fine and make sure to keep the membrane, where some goodies come from.
Spinach, kale, broccoli, carrots, green beans, cranberries, and blueberries are great additions that I put on rotation as well, so they get the right requirements (along with a protein of 80/10/10) and I add a few tablespoons of my veggie mixture (about 10% of a meal) for my 110lb girl, twice a day.
I’m in Canada, so as others have suggested, Thrive also has some great supplements, though a tad pricey, by Big Country Raw (my dog was bred by Big Country Kennels, they started the raw food company when they were breeding their pups as they noticed such great benefits when fed, so they started the business and it grew!). They also have a pre mixed veggie and fruit mixture that I have bought in the past (frozen) that can be added. Its much cheaper to do on your own of course, but takes a bit of time to cook and then blend the mixture. Big Country Kennels sold the raw food part several years ago as they were too busy, and I actually don’t feed this brand (even though I get 15% off for life since I bought a pup from them) as I find the quality not as good as some other private places I get my blends from - thats my own opinion of course!
I also add green lipped muscle, mushroom caps (for defense of sickness etc), probiotics, ascorbic acid, mad barns E3 oil and kelp as supplements daily. I do add bovine colostrum (from my feed store as its much cheaper) during tick season to help boost her immune system. My girl is almost 2 years old, but I like to help her joints as much as I can for now.
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That all sounds delicious!
Mango, strawberries, apples, pineapple, sweet potatoes, squashes, and broccoli, are also on my dog’s list of rotated fruits and veg or better known as…“what is going to spoil in my fridge that I can feed the dogs”
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