Surplus eggs: dog food

[Glutton4...]

Well, having fed 'spare' hard-boiled eggs to my Dawg, and the two dog-lodgers, this weekend - I can honestly recommend NOT doing it! Their wind was truly awful. Mine almost never suffers from wind, but jeeeeeezus! *holds nose

Incidentally, what TS said above, about commercial dog food, is completely correct. My two lodgers are fed supermarket own-brand dry food, and each one does twice as much poo as mine does. It doesn't degrade in the sun/rain, and it even looks inorganic by the colour! Gawd knows what goes in to it!

I have also noticed that my chap is far more food-orientated since having the snip, as he's not thinking about $€x all the time! So, I'm cutting his meal size, and I don't have to keep giving him extras throughout the day to try and get some weight on him. That means I can probably afford to keep two...

[Two_Sheds]

My two lodgers are fed supermarket own-brand dry food, and each one does twice as much poo as mine does.

Yep, the dog I walk for an old man does massive soft sloppy poops that are bright orange ~ horrible to try and pick up. It seems to pain him to pass them too

My own doggie's poops are positively nice in comparison: small, firm, dark brown (or white if she's had bone) and not smelly

[Feral007]

Two sheds, I missed that comment about the kelpie's not putting 2 and 2 together if they didn't see me getting the eggs. If we were talking about Just your average kelpie, I'd agree. The Vegetarian dog now, she's a smart little cookie, and anything, anything! relating mildly to food and she's on it. So I'll not be giving her raw eggs.

When we've got surplus eggs I'm cooking them and feeding them back to the chooks.

[Scarlet]

My surplus eggs get frozen ready for the season when the chickens are not laying. So I never have any spare for the dog!

G4 - my collie had the snip (age 11- he had a few men's problems!) he'd always been on the "very thin side" and as soon as he was done he slowed right down and put on 3kg!!

[Two_Sheds]

If anyone's more interested in raw meat diet for dogs, here's my experience:

I was v.concerned to give my dog (a tiny French Bulldog) the right mix of nutrients etc. I read all I could on the Net, and a couple of books, and spoke to other owners too. It was my vet who persuaded me to go from 50% raw to 100% raw. In his opinion, dogs are carnivores who will eat vegetables ~ they'll eat anything, inc. socks and cat poop ~ but aren't designed to. Indeed, any veg I give her (peas, carrots etc) tend to pass through her undigested.


I started off by feeding her raw chicken wings (the bones are particularly soft & bendy). At first she struggled to break the bones with her babby teef, so I held on one end with pliers or a rubber glove while she chewed.
Now, she is strong enough to break all the bones inside, then she swallows the wing in a one-er, like a snake, in less than 2 mins. She's never choked, but I always watch her while she eats, just in case.
I say never: she did once have a bit of squareish lamb bone, which I was watching and just about to remove from her, but she was a split-second ahead of me and gulped it down: it got stuck, her eyes bulged, she couldn't breathe. I put my fingers down her little throat, pushed the bone down her gullet and all was fine. I don't give her such wide bones now, just the chick wings.

I usually buy from the butcher, who sells "dog meat" (basically bits of gristle & fat and hearts which don't sell well to humans). £2 a kg.
Or A5da last thing at night, where large joints of beef go for £2.36 (reduced from £10). Fish is often also reduced, but that's still dear so it's a once-a-month treat. Whole sardines etc, about 80p at end-of-day. I cut the fins & backbone off, but she eats the heads (ack) and a few soft bones no problem.

I chop it all into takeaway boxes and freeze until needed. She has 150g (2% of her bodyweight, ish) of meat a day, which works out about 40p a day or less.

I would thoroughly recommend it. Her coat is shiny, her poops are smaller, less frequent & not so smelly (because her body's using most of what I give her, instead of pooping half of it out undigested), her farts are greatly reduced and her breath improved. Oh, and her teeth no longer have tartar on them. I'm a vegetarian but I'm happy to cut up raw hearts for my little carnivore.

This is the plan that I follow and now recommend: Raw Fed Dogs - Natural Prey Model Rawfeeding Diet

Thru trial & error I've found she's allergic to turkey (but not chicken) and doesn't tolerate pork so well (she does sicky burps after both), but beef & chicken have been fine, fish too.
She also sicks up any wheat I give her, inc dog biscuits. Milk makes her sick but she can tolerate cheese (loves cheese but it's fattening) and a bit of raw natural yogurt now & again.
She used to love boiled eggs, but now they give her diarrhoea.

You'll read all kinds of urban myths on forums that people have heard, half understood and passed on as gospel (much like gardening lore), and you'll find others that discredit them, eg pork & fish has worms in it, beef should be frozen, bones will choke them. Most of it rubbish, just take it slow & steady and observe your dogs.
I think: what would a dog eat in the wild? Raw everything, not frozen, not jointed, not skinned.
One dog I know eats whole rabbits, fur and all (ack).

Best of luck, it's great.

Raw Food Diet for dogs - YouTube

[petal]

thanks for this 2 sheds - I have a friend who breeds and shows Borzois who has passed on her recipe for a weekly cook up of bones, cheap meat and veg. As a step away from bagged dog food I am going to try that, then see how we go.