What do we feed our Rottweilers at Barclay Farms?
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What sort of diet do I feed my Rottweilers?
Why do I have my rottweilers on this diet?
I suppose I should answer the second Rottweiler diet question first.
I have run the
whole gamut of commercial dog foods. I have used both the most
expensive commercial kibbles and the cheapies. I have supplemented with
canned dog food, cooked meat and raw meat. All of my Rottweilers did
best when
supplemented with meat and a variety of fresh squeezed juices, mostly
carrot or wheat grass juice.
So why bother to move towards a grain free raw diet?
My daughter, Barb Darbey, went to a fresh raw diet for her dogs before I did. She did this after the first really big case of dog food poisoning. We both lost some wonderful dogs to aflatoxins in the dog food we were both using at the time. As more and more bad commercial kibbles appeared on the market and everyone was pulling all the dog foods from the store shelves, Barb would just yawn and say, "They can't get my Rottweilers this time!"
I, however, was worried sick all the time. Switching from food to food hoping this brand or that one was not amoung the ones that were currently poisoning dogs like there was no tomorrow.
Then Magnum started licking the pads on his front feet, nothing and I mean nothing helped. I went from a corn based diet to a rice based diet for Magnum, it helped a little but not much. Then he started pooping green! uh-oh! Trouble again! Rumors that the dog food I was giving him was killing many dogs. What? I was paying $50 for a 30 pound bag of food for him and it was bad?!
I can't stand the way those big companies do business, they only want to make dog food the cheapest way possible, lie about the quality of the ingredients and don't give a hoot about the consequences to the dogs or the emotional toll this takes on the families of these pets.
After a little research I have come to the conclusion that if you only knew how it was made you wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. Chicken heads, feet, offal or should I say awful?, feathers, bones and skins, along with sick and diseased chickens is called chicken meal, the first ingredient in many commercial kibbles. According to dog food manufactuers feathers contribute protein, HUH? Feathers are not digestible!
I can tell you about that end of the deal, my stomach was in a knot everytime there was another round of spoiled kibble being pulled from the shelves.
Then I tried a grain free commercial kibble.
Within a week Magnum no longer had itchy pads, and hey!, the whites of his eyes looked clearer or something. In 2 weeks time I noticed that his coat was looking much better. Then I found that there is more sweet potato in this kibble than meat. :(
I found out by feeding it to a nursing female and the babies got a really runny stool. DARN! Just when I thought I had found the perfect solution to all my feeding problems.
Well, it might work for most of my dogs but not at all good for nursing females. After some thought along this line I decided that this should not be used for pregnant females either. All the sweet potato would not be good for gestating babies. Too much Vitamin A is not good during pregnancy and since sweet potato is loaded with vitamin A ................................. DARN IT! NOW WHAT?
I bought an electric grinder and went the same road as my daughter Barb did several years before.
Fresh raw chicken, skin pulled off and thrown away, bone in. Poultry skin is indigestible to dogs, it will over work the pancreas and can lead to diabetes. Do not feed grocery store ground chicken to dogs, it may or may not contain the skins and they aren't going to tell you.
Just shove the raw chicken through the grinder using the smallest holed plate, bone and all, every pound add a slice of carrot and a slice of apple or whatever other veggie is in season and compatible with a dogs system. They only need a tablespoonful or so of veggies a day.
NO NO's
NO onions, no grapes or raisins, no poultry skins, no mushrooms, I also do not use garlic. Why? If onions are toxic to dogs and garlic is also a member of the allium family, well, I figure garlic can't be too good for your canine either.
I buy fresh chicken in bulk and have found that in the long run this diet is less expensive than a medium priced commercial kibble.
What a great bonus to feeding your Rottweiler a natural healthy diet!
I feed most of my dogs about a pound or two of this everyday and about 2 cups of a grain free commercial kibble. Pregnant females and nursing females get just the chicken, no commercial kibble at all.
Why do I still include some commercial kibble in their diet even if it is grain free?
If they go to a new home their new owner might not want to make their own diet. This way they are already used to some commercial kibble and won't have any digestive problems that can come with changing diets.
It is also a convenience for the very busy days when I have vet appointments, lots of visitors or puppy pick up day. Sort of the best of both worlds, mostly homemade but a day now and then on the grain free commercial kibble won't hurt.
Have I seen any sort of results from this homemade diet?
2 weeks on 1 1/2 pounds of this and 3 cups of the commercial grain free diet and Magnum, who was getting prematurely gray around the muzzle ........................ the gray is almost all gone. His coat re-shed and came back in out of this world! At 6 years old Magnum is acting like my little puppy again!
What about the others? The ones that had to be fed 9-12 cups of commercial grain based kibble just to keep them decently fleshed out gained weight rapidly on the ground chicken and grain free commercial diet. The ones that were too fat? They lost the fat and built muscle. Coats are gleaming, teeth are cleaner and whiter. My retiree's are acting like pups again and .......... no more ear infections.
Who would have ever thought that the grain in the commercial kibble is the root cause of ear infections in dogs? Hot spots are also caused by a poor kibble, I had hot spots just one time in 14 years of Rottweilers, two of my girls got them at the same time, this was when I was switching around with dog foods trying to avoid poisoning everyone.
Before I went to this diet I had a few dogs that went from a normal stool to a runny stool several times a week, now, just unbelieveable results.
Now this might sound funny to you but when you have a kennel one of the most important things to do is daily stool checks when cleaning the pens. I haven't seen a sloppy bowel movement since I started with the raw ground chicken and veggies.
My oldest daughter has two rotties and since she added raw meat to their diets, the stools are great.
I just wish I had started feeding this way much sooner.
Yes, I still wean my puppies on commercial kibble, Innova Large Breed Puppy Food. I realize not everyone wants to or has the time to grind chicken everyday.. But I also add some of the chicken and veggie mix to the puppy food so when you pick up your Rottweiler puppy you will be able to go either with diet for them. I do double grind the chicken for my Rottweiler puppies to be sure the bones are really fine..
I searched long and hard to find a good commercial puppy food. Innova Large Breed Puppy Food is the very best I have found for large breed puppies. Rottweiler puppies are large breed.
There may be a better commercial dog food for large breed puppies but I can't find it if there is. Calcium level is .90% maximum, protein and fat levels are right in the ball park. Yes, it does contain grain but I believe this company can be trusted not to use moldy grains and spoiled fats and proteins in the mix.
Should you decide to make your own raw diet, If you grind a lot on one day and freeze it in small portions, it will be almost no work at all to feed your Rottweiler a natural healthy diet.
If you do prefreeze this diet I do not recommend thawing in the microwave, all bones even ground finely should be served to your Rottweiler raw.
Raw bones do not hurt the digestive tract, I would never recommend feeding your Rottweiler anything with cooked or heated bone of any size.
I know some people just feed the necks and backs and don't grind them at all but I grind them. I have heard of cases of raw poultry bones damageing the gut, mostly long leg bones and long wing bones as from a goose or turkey, but chicken drumstick bones could do this too.
Better safe than sorry, grind them bones!
If you have any questions about your rottweiler's diet you may email or call me, 330-898-8387.
So why bother to move towards a grain free raw diet?
My daughter, Barb Darbey, went to a fresh raw diet for her dogs before I did. She did this after the first really big case of dog food poisoning. We both lost some wonderful dogs to aflatoxins in the dog food we were both using at the time. As more and more bad commercial kibbles appeared on the market and everyone was pulling all the dog foods from the store shelves, Barb would just yawn and say, "They can't get my Rottweilers this time!"
I, however, was worried sick all the time. Switching from food to food hoping this brand or that one was not amoung the ones that were currently poisoning dogs like there was no tomorrow.
Then Magnum started licking the pads on his front feet, nothing and I mean nothing helped. I went from a corn based diet to a rice based diet for Magnum, it helped a little but not much. Then he started pooping green! uh-oh! Trouble again! Rumors that the dog food I was giving him was killing many dogs. What? I was paying $50 for a 30 pound bag of food for him and it was bad?!
I can't stand the way those big companies do business, they only want to make dog food the cheapest way possible, lie about the quality of the ingredients and don't give a hoot about the consequences to the dogs or the emotional toll this takes on the families of these pets.
After a little research I have come to the conclusion that if you only knew how it was made you wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. Chicken heads, feet, offal or should I say awful?, feathers, bones and skins, along with sick and diseased chickens is called chicken meal, the first ingredient in many commercial kibbles. According to dog food manufactuers feathers contribute protein, HUH? Feathers are not digestible!
I can tell you about that end of the deal, my stomach was in a knot everytime there was another round of spoiled kibble being pulled from the shelves.
Then I tried a grain free commercial kibble.
Within a week Magnum no longer had itchy pads, and hey!, the whites of his eyes looked clearer or something. In 2 weeks time I noticed that his coat was looking much better. Then I found that there is more sweet potato in this kibble than meat. :(
I found out by feeding it to a nursing female and the babies got a really runny stool. DARN! Just when I thought I had found the perfect solution to all my feeding problems.
Well, it might work for most of my dogs but not at all good for nursing females. After some thought along this line I decided that this should not be used for pregnant females either. All the sweet potato would not be good for gestating babies. Too much Vitamin A is not good during pregnancy and since sweet potato is loaded with vitamin A ................................. DARN IT! NOW WHAT?
I bought an electric grinder and went the same road as my daughter Barb did several years before.
And this brings us
to answering the first question.
Fresh raw chicken, skin pulled off and thrown away, bone in. Poultry skin is indigestible to dogs, it will over work the pancreas and can lead to diabetes. Do not feed grocery store ground chicken to dogs, it may or may not contain the skins and they aren't going to tell you.
Just shove the raw chicken through the grinder using the smallest holed plate, bone and all, every pound add a slice of carrot and a slice of apple or whatever other veggie is in season and compatible with a dogs system. They only need a tablespoonful or so of veggies a day.
NO NO's
NO onions, no grapes or raisins, no poultry skins, no mushrooms, I also do not use garlic. Why? If onions are toxic to dogs and garlic is also a member of the allium family, well, I figure garlic can't be too good for your canine either.
I buy fresh chicken in bulk and have found that in the long run this diet is less expensive than a medium priced commercial kibble.
What a great bonus to feeding your Rottweiler a natural healthy diet!
I feed most of my dogs about a pound or two of this everyday and about 2 cups of a grain free commercial kibble. Pregnant females and nursing females get just the chicken, no commercial kibble at all.
Why do I still include some commercial kibble in their diet even if it is grain free?
If they go to a new home their new owner might not want to make their own diet. This way they are already used to some commercial kibble and won't have any digestive problems that can come with changing diets.
It is also a convenience for the very busy days when I have vet appointments, lots of visitors or puppy pick up day. Sort of the best of both worlds, mostly homemade but a day now and then on the grain free commercial kibble won't hurt.
Have I seen any sort of results from this homemade diet?
2 weeks on 1 1/2 pounds of this and 3 cups of the commercial grain free diet and Magnum, who was getting prematurely gray around the muzzle ........................ the gray is almost all gone. His coat re-shed and came back in out of this world! At 6 years old Magnum is acting like my little puppy again!
What about the others? The ones that had to be fed 9-12 cups of commercial grain based kibble just to keep them decently fleshed out gained weight rapidly on the ground chicken and grain free commercial diet. The ones that were too fat? They lost the fat and built muscle. Coats are gleaming, teeth are cleaner and whiter. My retiree's are acting like pups again and .......... no more ear infections.
Who would have ever thought that the grain in the commercial kibble is the root cause of ear infections in dogs? Hot spots are also caused by a poor kibble, I had hot spots just one time in 14 years of Rottweilers, two of my girls got them at the same time, this was when I was switching around with dog foods trying to avoid poisoning everyone.
Before I went to this diet I had a few dogs that went from a normal stool to a runny stool several times a week, now, just unbelieveable results.
Now this might sound funny to you but when you have a kennel one of the most important things to do is daily stool checks when cleaning the pens. I haven't seen a sloppy bowel movement since I started with the raw ground chicken and veggies.
My oldest daughter has two rotties and since she added raw meat to their diets, the stools are great.
I just wish I had started feeding this way much sooner.
Yes, I still wean my puppies on commercial kibble, Innova Large Breed Puppy Food. I realize not everyone wants to or has the time to grind chicken everyday.. But I also add some of the chicken and veggie mix to the puppy food so when you pick up your Rottweiler puppy you will be able to go either with diet for them. I do double grind the chicken for my Rottweiler puppies to be sure the bones are really fine..
I searched long and hard to find a good commercial puppy food. Innova Large Breed Puppy Food is the very best I have found for large breed puppies. Rottweiler puppies are large breed.
There may be a better commercial dog food for large breed puppies but I can't find it if there is. Calcium level is .90% maximum, protein and fat levels are right in the ball park. Yes, it does contain grain but I believe this company can be trusted not to use moldy grains and spoiled fats and proteins in the mix.
Should you decide to make your own raw diet, If you grind a lot on one day and freeze it in small portions, it will be almost no work at all to feed your Rottweiler a natural healthy diet.
If you do prefreeze this diet I do not recommend thawing in the microwave, all bones even ground finely should be served to your Rottweiler raw.
Raw bones do not hurt the digestive tract, I would never recommend feeding your Rottweiler anything with cooked or heated bone of any size.
I know some people just feed the necks and backs and don't grind them at all but I grind them. I have heard of cases of raw poultry bones damageing the gut, mostly long leg bones and long wing bones as from a goose or turkey, but chicken drumstick bones could do this too.
Better safe than sorry, grind them bones!
If you have any questions about your rottweiler's diet you may email or call me, 330-898-8387.
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