Go Back   Pet forum for dogs cats and humans - Pets.ca > Discussion Groups - mainly cats and dogs > Dog food forum > Feeding raw food to dogs & cats - B.A.R.F - RMB - Homecooked diet

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old September 1st, 2012, 05:13 PM
Myka's Avatar
Myka Myka is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Saskatoon, SK.
Posts: 945
Mountain Dog Food - Comments?

Roxy suffers from skin/ear/butt troubles and my new vet who practices traditional therapies as well as holistic alternatives said the processed food has to go. I know it's one of the cheaper pre-made raw diets out there, and you likely get what you pay for. I've heard the bone chunks are a bit large (not sure what size "large" is). This is for Roxy, so she's a big girl. I've also heard the bone content seems to be a bit high. I don't mind combing through the food with a fork to remove any particularly large chunks of bone. Roxy is a big girl, so she eats a lot making the cost of going raw significant. The Mountain Dog Food is cheaper than I can buy chickens and grind them myself.

I plan to make the Mountain Dog Food bone-in ground meats about 50% of Roxy's diet. The other parts will be made of veggies/fruit and green lentils for low glycemic carbs. I plan to switch back and forth between chicken and turkey and might see if Roxy tolerates the beef. I also use Platinum Performance as a whole health supplement which provides omegas, vitamins, and minerals.
__________________
Ella - Jun '20 - Reg AmStaff
Squeak - '15/16? - Tabby cat (adopted Nov '18)
Streak - '18 - Black cat (adopted Nov '18)
Peewee - Jan '06 - 6.5 lb Chi (adopted May '09)
--------------------
Roxy - Feb '05 to May '20 AmStaff (adopted Jul '11)
Myka - Nov '98 to Jan '10 - APBT X
Lacy - Sep '92 to Jul '03 - Sheltie
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old September 1st, 2012, 07:01 PM
Myka's Avatar
Myka Myka is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Saskatoon, SK.
Posts: 945
Oops...replied wrong thread!
__________________
Ella - Jun '20 - Reg AmStaff
Squeak - '15/16? - Tabby cat (adopted Nov '18)
Streak - '18 - Black cat (adopted Nov '18)
Peewee - Jan '06 - 6.5 lb Chi (adopted May '09)
--------------------
Roxy - Feb '05 to May '20 AmStaff (adopted Jul '11)
Myka - Nov '98 to Jan '10 - APBT X
Lacy - Sep '92 to Jul '03 - Sheltie
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old September 2nd, 2012, 10:37 AM
Myka's Avatar
Myka Myka is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Saskatoon, SK.
Posts: 945
Well I bought a box of the bone-in chicken. It was $20.25 for 19.2 lbs (4 sealed packs in it). I dug around in it and the biggest bone chunks I could find were around 1/2" which I can't see being a problem, at least not for a 75 lb American Staffordshire Terrier. I saw also when I was there that Mountain Dog Food also puts out a "small dog blend" which I assume is ground finer.

My biggest complaint about the food so far is that it seems to have quite a lot of fat/skin. Turkey is a much leaner bird though, so maybe their turkey product has a lower fat content.

Mountain Dog Food bone-in chicken 14% protein, 18% fat, calcium 1.4%
Carnivora bone-in chicken patties 16.6% protein, 19.3% fat, calcium 0.9%
Pets Go Raw bone-in chicken sausages 15.26% protein, 7% fat, calcium 1.3%
Nature's Variety chicken (with fruits and veg) 13% protein, 6% fat, calcium 0.32%

Hard to compare the Nature's Variety though because they don't offer a product that is just chicken and bone. I notice a big difference in the amount of calcium which should be a fairly good indicator of the amount of bone in the product.
__________________
Ella - Jun '20 - Reg AmStaff
Squeak - '15/16? - Tabby cat (adopted Nov '18)
Streak - '18 - Black cat (adopted Nov '18)
Peewee - Jan '06 - 6.5 lb Chi (adopted May '09)
--------------------
Roxy - Feb '05 to May '20 AmStaff (adopted Jul '11)
Myka - Nov '98 to Jan '10 - APBT X
Lacy - Sep '92 to Jul '03 - Sheltie

Last edited by Myka; September 3rd, 2012 at 10:51 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old September 2nd, 2012, 11:28 AM
Choochi Choochi is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Toronto
Posts: 304
I know people who feed it and are very happy with it.

If you can get it for about a buck a pound, which is certainly dirt cheap compared to some of the other pre made raw diets, and you're concerned about the ingredients, I see no reason why you can't source your own chicken for the same price or less. I can get chicken for about a buck a pound in Toronto at Chinese supermarkets. I know I can get it for less if I order in bulk from a supplier. Provided you have a freezer and can order in bulk I'm sure you should be able to find a source. Check with any local suppliers, butchers, processing plants, farmers.

Do you need to have the chicken ground? Is there a reason for that? When I started my guys out on raw we started with ground but now they get whole chickens or whole chicken parts depending on what I buy. Even when they get a whole chicken, they do a great job of crunching every thing up and the process is great for their teeth and jaw muscles plus it's an enjoyable activity for them.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old September 2nd, 2012, 12:40 PM
Myka's Avatar
Myka Myka is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Saskatoon, SK.
Posts: 945
Thanks for your response Choochi.

The only time I am about to get any poultry for $1/lb is at Easter and Christmas when the turkeys go on sale, except then I have to go to every store and buy one turkey since there is usually a 1 turkey limit. It costs another $0.99/lb to get them ground up, so now that's sitting at $2 per lb. I haven't been able to find farmers or Hutterites that sell their utility grade chickens or turkeys anywhere near this price...$2/lb is more typical. I have been poking around trying to find decent priced meat since I ran out of the turkey meat after Easter.

I do prefer to have the meat ground up. I fed a previous dog a raw diet with meat chunks/whole pieces. I had to grind the food at first to transition that dog to the whole pieces. I found this method of feeding to be very messy. The dog always smelled bad because she would have the meat juice all over her front paws and legs and half her face (haha) and then that meat juice would go rancid during the day no matter how much she licked her feet off or if I wiped her down. I had to soap her feet off after each meal to keep her smelling ok which dried her feet out. I eventually gave up on the raw diet with that dog and she did very well on Orijen. I'm not interested in feeding meat pieces like that again.


I finally found the full analysis on the Mountain Dog website (hard to find)...

Mountain Dog Food bone-in turkey 17% protein, 12% fat, 1.8% calcium
Mountain Dog Food bone-in chicken 14% protein, 18% fat, 1.4% calcium
__________________
Ella - Jun '20 - Reg AmStaff
Squeak - '15/16? - Tabby cat (adopted Nov '18)
Streak - '18 - Black cat (adopted Nov '18)
Peewee - Jan '06 - 6.5 lb Chi (adopted May '09)
--------------------
Roxy - Feb '05 to May '20 AmStaff (adopted Jul '11)
Myka - Nov '98 to Jan '10 - APBT X
Lacy - Sep '92 to Jul '03 - Sheltie

Last edited by Myka; September 2nd, 2012 at 12:53 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old September 2nd, 2012, 08:58 PM
Choochi Choochi is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Toronto
Posts: 304
Do you have any Chinese markets around?

You won't find this type of price in the usual run of the mill grocery chains unless like you said there is some sort of a blow out sale. Are there any raw feeding co-ops around? There has to be some way for you to get in touch with some sort of a supplier or whole saler. Chicken and Turkey shouldn't be this expensive unless you live some where very remote in which case maybe you can have a supplier send you shipments directly. Buy in bulk and share with any other local raw feeders?
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old September 3rd, 2012, 10:50 AM
Myka's Avatar
Myka Myka is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Saskatoon, SK.
Posts: 945
Either way it still costs $1/lb to get it ground up at the butcher, so even if I get the poultry at $1/lb I am still double the cost of the Mountain Dog. I will buy the MD turkey on the next go and see how that stuff looks. I can always supplement with other brands. I think I saw one at the dog food store that didn't have bone in it.
__________________
Ella - Jun '20 - Reg AmStaff
Squeak - '15/16? - Tabby cat (adopted Nov '18)
Streak - '18 - Black cat (adopted Nov '18)
Peewee - Jan '06 - 6.5 lb Chi (adopted May '09)
--------------------
Roxy - Feb '05 to May '20 AmStaff (adopted Jul '11)
Myka - Nov '98 to Jan '10 - APBT X
Lacy - Sep '92 to Jul '03 - Sheltie
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off


Forum Terms of Use

  • All Bulletin Board Posts are for personal/non-commercial use only.
  • Self-promotion and/or promotion in general is prohibited.
  • Debate is healthy but profane and deliberately rude posts will be deleted.
  • Posters not following the rules will be banned at the Admins' discretion.
  • Read the Full Forum Rules

Forum Details

  • Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8
    Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
    vBulletin Optimisation by vB Optimise (Reduced on this page: MySQL 0%).
  • All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:27 AM.