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I feed 2 cups of Brothers Complete and and one cup of raw to Micah. And Gideon gets 1 1/2 cups Brothers and 3/4 cup raw. Angel, the 14lbs JRT, gets 1/2 cup Brothers and 1/4 cup raw.

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Nessie's around 15 months, 37 pounds and 21.5" at the withers. I'm feeding 2-2.5 cups a day of Acana Wild Prairie, Acana Burbank Potato and Chicken and Acana Grasslands sort of mixed evenly. I've been mixing in cocunut oil for the last couple of weeks - about a tablespoon at dinnertime. I tend to break her meals up into two feedings per day. So far so good - nice coat, breath and teeth and the trains are running on time. I like to give raw marrow bones (bison femurs, knuckles) in addition to her dry food every other day. I was feeding Orijen before, which is a more premium brand by the same company that makes Acana, but I kept getting grossness if you catch my drift.

 

-Rich

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I feed grain-free kibble - topped with ~ 1/2 cup of reconstituted Honest Kitchen. I often change brands, and have successfully used Wellness, TOTW, Blue Buffalo, Solid Gold, Canine Caviar, Orijen and Fromm's (and maybe one or two other brands I can not remember). My dogs seem to have done well on all of them with the exception of Orijen - or I should say, they seemed fine, but their "output" smelled noxious and was much larger than usual, so I will not be using Orijen again.

 

Jovi

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Mine eat the Volhard Natural Diet Foundation A.M. and P.M. It's a freeze-dried mix you add yogurt and veggies to in the a.m. and raw meat to in the p.m. Tucker (40#) gets the amount for the 50# dog. Ezra (Mini Aussie at 15#) gets the amount for the 10# dog. They are both doing great and have super nice coats.

 

Leslie

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Quigley 43# gets 1 3/4 cups of Taste of the Wild pacific wild stream puppy formula twice a day. She also gets a number of training treats and PB in her Kong when she going to be in the Crate for a while. She's growing well 7 1/2 months old with a nice shiny smooth coat. No gas and nice solid easy to pick up stools.

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Truly my highly active, hard to keep weight on 30lb Border collie is on NutriSource Performance food 2 1/2c per day mixed with Honest Kitchen 1/2 cup per day as a topper, although I'm lucky if she will eat half of what I offer this seems to be working well for her and she eats it better then most things I've tried. My older less active Border collie and Cattle dog are currently on Nutrisource grain free seafood selects which I like alot, and they seem too also. Before that they were on Earthborn Holistic Ocean Fusion which I also liked. I switch back and forth between three or four brands and get a different brand with each bag, I spoke with a friend/vet who in conversation mentioned if you were going to feed baged dog food it is good to rotate a few brands of high quality dog food just in case one brand maybe lacking certain nutrients, the next brand would probably cover it. It made sence to me, so thats what I do. So far so good with no issues switching brands etc.

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From the middle-of-the-raod set here, my dogs get Diamond Naturals chicken and rice, or the Southern States or Costco/Kirkland equivalent (all basically the same price and ingredients), at least most of them do. One older dog is on TOTW Pacific Stream (because of apparent allergies) and the two geriatrics are one Purina ONE matuire something or other because that's what they'll eat. Right now Lark and the puppies are on Eukanuba large breed puppy food, though I don't normally feed puppy food. Except for Lark and the puppies. no one gets more than 2 cups/day. Some are fed once a day (my preference) and some are fed twice a day (those who won't eat all they need in one meal, the epi dog because there's some belief that keeping blood sugar levels constant is better for such dogs), and Lark and the pups are eating three times a day.

 

So, you will find that what you feed, how much, and how often depends on your individual dog. You can get ideas from other folks, but there really is no substitute for trying foods you like that fit within your budget and then letting your dog tell you if the food is a good choice (by the dog's condition on that food). As Jovi pointed out, some dogs just won't do satisfactorily even on some premium foods and others will. I had a dog who lost weight on Timberwolf Organics, so even though I liked the ingredients, I stopped feeding it to him because it didn't suit him.

 

I try to aim for a 3:2 protein ti fat ratio in whatever I'm feeding, but I also add fish oil or coconut oil. At one time I tried using some of the foods formulated for very active/athlete dogs but never could get my dogs to adjust fully (diarrhea), so stopped trying to use those.

 

I also add stuff to my dogs' kibble. Sometimes canned food topper, sometimes canned fish, often eggs (because I raise chickens for eggs and so have plenty for the dogs to eat), lamb or chicken I've raised, venison, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc.

 

They also get raw meaty bones every week or two for their pleasure and to help keep their teeth cleaner.

 

Some of my dogs are retirees, others are actiive working dogs, and still others are youngsters/pups.

J.

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Mine get about 1 -1/2 cups of Fromm Gold and then 1/2 can of Dave's whatever sounds good. They love the canned food and it smells so good when I open it up.

 

My guys are both about 36 pounds and they look really good. Zeke's black fur is so shiny.

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Mine get middle of the road food too. the black dogs get Chickensoup, 2+/- cups in the am. I went to once a day feeding for the old girl because she was having accidents all over the house. With one feeding a day there are way less whoops.

Poor old girl is not doing it on purpose, She's losing the feeling in her rear end. Some days are better than others. But she stands up and things fall out. We are blessed that it's not her bladder at the moment.

 

But I really need to feed 2 others 2x's per day. Mick can't hold weight and that's all I can get in him at one time and Faye is a bean pole due to her puppyness and growth. I feed her about 21/2 cups a day and can almost count ribs.

 

The new LGD 4 month old pup is getting MFA brand 27% protein adult dog food. If I could afford her to eat better I would. Not sure she'll stay on that as I think the 27% is high even for an active LGD puppy. That's what the breeder was feeding and I've only had her a week.

 

Dew got spayed last year (she's 6) I got "spayed" a few years ago. We both can gain weight by just looking at food! So she gets the least and same with me except I cheat more than her! WE are both extra fluffy! ;)

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With my female, Senneca, having a wheat allergy, I usually feed grain free. Right now it's the Kirkland (Costco) Salmon formula. She's about 42lbs and gets 1 1/2 cups a day, supplemented with a daily fish oil capsule. My fosters generally get the same, but if they don't like the current kibble, I will get whatever they need to thrive -- e.g. a recent foster was getting Orijen Poultry formula (that's 4x the price of the Kirland). I feed twice a day.

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I used to feed Fromm's, about 2 1/4 cup a day + treats for training. Now I feed raw only. Mostly whatever I can get free or cheap. Yesterday he had a pork heart, today a bone-in turkey thigh and tomorrow is venison. I also feed tongue, liver, kidney, eggs from our chickens, whole chickens I whack into quarters and fish oil. He eats once per day since that makes more sense and is easier (who wants to cut a heart in half? :mellow: ) and gets about 16-18 ounces/day. He is a lean and muscular 44 lbs.

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Quigley 43# gets 1 3/4 cups of Taste of the Wild pacific wild stream puppy formula twice a day. She also gets a number of training treats and PB in her Kong when she going to be in the Crate for a while. She's growing well 7 1/2 months old with a nice shiny smooth coat. No gas and nice solid easy to pick up stools.

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At 7 1/2 months, Quigley is too old for puppy food. Most BC owners will switch to adult food anywhere between 4-6 months of age, and some will start with adult food earlier. Since puppy food is higher calorie and promotes growth, we don't want to see our pups grow too fast or become roly-poly. The breeder of my dog said that it is not unusual for a teenage BC to look like a Biafran dog - maybe a bit of an extreme term, but it got the idea across.

 

Jovi

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I feed All Life Stages food for my dogs entire life, which is the same thing as feeding puppy food. I am very careful to feed correct amounts so I don't need to reduce calories at any particular age. I have seen that typically adult foods also reduce protein levels and some are sloppy on balancing the mineral levels. I don't see any reason to do this to my dogs. The only differences in a wild pups diet and an adults is the fact that mom and/or dad ate it first so it has digestive enzymes and such added, but that is not usually the case with kibble. Adult kibble does usually have a lower calorie content, but that does not necessarily make it better. Some foods that are labeled Adult are still ALS foods and therefore formulated to meet AAFCO standards for growth.

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At 7 1/2 months, Quigley is too old for puppy food. Most BC owners will switch to adult food anywhere between 4-6 months of age, and some will start with adult food earlier. Since puppy food is higher calorie and promotes growth, we don't want to see our pups grow too fast or become roly-poly. The breeder of my dog said that it is not unusual for a teenage BC to look like a Biafran dog - maybe a bit of an extreme term, but it got the idea across.

 

Jovi

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Dr. Matt,

I believe it's a reference to the famine that plagued Biafra (a short-lived independent--secessionist--country that has since reunited with Nigeria, decades ago). The point is that young, growing border collies may look quite thin, but they will be healthy, so don't fall into the trap of creating a roly poly puppy by overfeeding, especially if feeding puppy food. Fat puppies = joint stress, which can lead to orthopedic health issues on down the line.

 

J.

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J.

 

So it's not just dog I don't know much about, it's also nation states in Africa. If Jovi would have said Kwashiorkor I would have know what she was talking about.

 

Quigley still looks thin and I know she should. She had hook and tape worms when she came to is 2.5 months ago. They were treated immediately, but we had a recurrence of the tape worm. She's been free of the tape worms for at least 1 month. We are watching her size closely. The next bag will be the adult formula.

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Murray is now 48#. He's getting 2-1/2 cups of kibble a day plus a ton of grain-free training treats. We're giving him a mix of Authority Grain-Free Puppy (I hate shopping at PetSmart for this stuff) and Fromm's Grain Free Wild Game Bird. He's getting big but not rolly polly, just the fully long (VERY shiny and beautiful) coat which fills him out. We'll be 100% Fromm in the next month or so.

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Julie - good explanation.

 

Dr. Matt - Biafran teenage BC - "good" Kwashiorkor BC - not good (if I am remembering correctly, distended belly due to limited calories with a high carb/low protein ratio?)

 

Sometimes it makes more sense to me to describe a condition using commonly understood terms, rather than more scientific terms. I had a large animal vet who did a similar thing, but it really made it easy for her patients to understand her. For example, if she was on a phone consult with a client, she would ask "What is coming out of its nose? Is it snot or is it watery?" :P rather than "Is the nasal discharge full of mucous?" Most clients immediately understood the difference between snot and water, but the term mucous was not as well known. (She also had very descriptive terms for the different types of diarrhea. Maybe a little unusual, but it made communication very clear.)

 

Jovi

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One thing I think people should consider when choosing foods is that if you start with the foods that are considered novel proteins and your dog later develops allergies then you have fewer choices of other novel proteins to turn to. Just something to think about. For example, for my dog with what seems to be allergies, I switched her to fish-based foods. In the past she has eaten chicken, lamb, and beef-based foods. Should her problems re-occur on the fish-based food, I still have choices to turn to (the so-called novel proteins: duck, bison, rabbit, etc.), which wouldn't be the case if I had started her on those proteins as a youngster.

 

J.

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Gem gets Orijen 6 fish and raw

Baby dog gets PC Grain free Salmon and Potato

 

everyone else:

-100% raw at home

-kibble/canned for meals they eat work, but we sell food at the kennel, when we get damaged bags/cans or bags that are just past date, we don't bother sending it back for a 50% refund..we just use it for our personal dogs lol. we are all dog food geeks in management however, so the "random" foods are nothing but high quality, mostly grain free lol

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I am a kibble feeder, I used to feed TOTW and I am new working my way through a variety of different mid to top end foods. Orijen is not in my budget, TOTW is. What I have found is that my dog/fussy eater really does like some foods better than others. We will be ordering Fromms Duck again but not the wilderness lamb/oatmeal he is currently eating.

Like Julie he gets extras as well, eggs, hamburger etc. He also gets fish oil and coconut oil.

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"Sometimes it makes more sense to me to describe a condition using commonly understood terms, rather than more scientific terms. "

 

I completely agree. Patients and families are much more likely to understand terms like ear infection than acute supportive otitis media. But sometimes the big words are fun to say.

 

Matt

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