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Rethink Dog Food

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Rethink Dog Food is part of the RenChenZa® learning network, Making the World a Better Place Through the Human / Dog Experience
dog food 30 billion dollar industry
dog food companies good or bad
 Dog food balance

Dogfood will be digested a little differently on this site than most dog nutrition sites. We will have content from a perspective that may be at odds with contemporary dog food theories. At least we will be different than your average dog food site. I plan on adding my commentary to the dog food debates and hopefully help people and their pets along the way.

Dog food Topics will include Super premium dog food, commercial grade dog foods, custom dog foods, low grade dog foods and the companies that make them. I also plan to even talk a little about the food wild dogs eat. To make sense of the whole dog food puzzle I will be adding personal stories to clarify my points and I hopefully can provide at least some entertainment. I feel that we can learn a lot about ourselves by understanding how we interact with our dogs.

Dog Food Recipes

Dogfood recipes from my friends at myspace. I have had these dog food recipes on my myspace page since Menu Foods mass poisoned pets in North America with bad Chinese food additives. There are good commercial dog foods, however in the big money arena of pet dog food the quality dog food brands change owners quicker than big business gets bailout money from the government. While the brands may change quickly we will explore commercial dogfood in the coming months.


Pet dog food recall information and list of recalled foods links will be added soon

Dog food recipes and what to feed our dogs during the dog food recall crisis

From Beaglemom
I have just been cooking my boys rice w/ frozen peas and carrots, ground turkey and some sodium free chicken broth. They love it.

From MY BEST FRIEND AND ME
Hi Rc. my master is making home made food for me , she gets chicken brest boils it makes the rice and then gets cottage cheese and mixes it all together and yummy, also some beef stew meat you boil that to and you can mix it, and its safe and good no wheat gluten in it and now Im more perky then ever I was on pedagree and the cans have wheat gluten can you amagine pedagree still has there cans on the market, and wheat glutin is wheat gluten cant understand it at all, called petco they said wheat gluten was different in the can of pedagree I dont think so, wheat gluten is wheat glutin , no more chances I like to live and if this is what my master has to do its ok with me, So you take care Rc We all love you and were all fighting about this pretty mad too and about humans lets see who dies, hu. HANG IN THERE,CHAMP AND EVON.

From chiquita's mom
hi ,chiquita's mom here,I went by my vet today and asked what I should feed that's safe,they said keep feeding Innova (dry) and that the Paul Newman brand organic canned has not been recalled and so far is safe,as long as the stuff has no wheat gluetin or any kind of wheat products at all even goodies and dog bones...I was going to make my own food and they said I shouldn't because it doesn't have all the vitimans and nutrients in the right amounts even if you add a multi vitiman...so I don't know I guess I'll do that ,but it is very scary ,they recalled a bunch of dog bones yesterday,Wal-mart brand and others.
From new page Nila Ru & Sir Diezel
A yummy large breakfast meal

Ingredients
3 Eggs
1/2 C Skim milk
1 Cooked chicken breast
1 C Light cream
1 C Uncooked broccoli
1/2 C Uncooked parlsey
1 C Uncooked oatmeal
Small portion cheese (optional)
Directions
This is for one large dog. Rearrange the measurments according to your dog's size and food needs.

1. Crack eggs and pour them into a container (keep shells for later). Pour the 1/2 cup of skim milk in with the eggs. Beat the eggs and milk together with a fork until the mixture foams.

2. Collect the cooked chicken breast (remove bones if it isn't boneless), the brocolli, the parsley, the oatmeal and the cream, and the egg shells and put them in the blender. Blend well.

3. Put the chicken mixture in a bowl and put in the microwave for 40 seconds.

4. While the chciken mixture is in the microwave, put the egg mixture in a frying pan. Fry and stir constantly until cooked.

5. Take the chicken mixture out of the microwave and stir. Put it back in for another 20-30 seconds.

6. Put the scrambled eggs in a bowl. Let the chicken mixture cool, and then pour it on top of the eggs. Cover with more fresh parsley and a very small portion of shredded cheese (cheddar is best) for flavour.

7. Serve to your pooch and watch him/her gobble it up!

NOTE: This recipe is not intended for the only meal of the day. It does not have all of the necessary requirements for a healthy dog. It needs to be supplemented with other meals at other times of the day. This meal should also not be given to an overweight dog, as it will not help in the losing of weight

From new page Nila Ru & Sir Diezel
Bones and raw food diet. This is a raw, healthy, delicious chicken dinner for dogs.

Ingredients
Raw chicken wings
1 Scoop cottage cheese
Grated carrot
Directions
Toss this in the chow bowl and watch your dog get healthy!!!

Never cook any meats or veggies or fruits that you feed your dog.

Get the book called..."GIVE YOUR DOG A BONE"...

And for those of you that believe the myths about dogs and food poisoning....get over it!!!

A big, raw, meaty bone is served later. This is the dogs tooth brush. Never feed a cooked bone...they splinter...then your baby is in trouble!

Some dried kelp can be sprinkled on top...just a little bit!!!

From Kristen & The Muttley Crew
I make my animals their food. When I first started I used recipes but I dont really anymore. Occasionally I cook them something but mostly I raw feed. Chicken necks & backs. Turkey necks for dogs. Beef & chicken livers, beef hearts. Ground beef & turkey. Big hunks of meat (any kind really) that they can rip & tear before eating. Cornish game hens fed whole. I give veggies maybe twice a week or so in the ground meat. Either canned veg-all or raw veggies blended in blender to a pulp. They love it all. And sometimes canned fish, usually mackeral. It's really quite easy to feed this way. All the poisoned pet food is really scary isnt it? Well I like your page & I hope this helps. -Kristen
Manhattan Aquarium Co.

From Carrie
I feed my dogs "Eagle Pack Holistic Select". Other foods that do not contain Wheat Gluten that are all Super Premium foods are. "Azmira", "Wellness", "Canidae", "Inova", "Merrick's", "Advanced Pet Diet's (APD)", I believe all these foods are all made in the United States only and NO ingredients are shipped from other countries. All of these foods can be found at most specialty pet food stores. You cannot find them a Petco or Petsmart. All these foods are sold at the pet store I work at and they are the top selling foods over Nutro, Science Diet, Eukanuba, and Iams. Before the recall all the foods on the recall list have always expired on the shelf because hardly anyone buys these foods where I work. "Eagle Pack" is the #1 food that sells out where I work.

From Sarah
Hi Andrew, I feed my dog what ever I am eating. If I make chicken, or meatloaf, or even take out. I share with my dog and he loves it.
Sarah and
Chewbackah.

From GOT ASSphalt????
WELL...I feed my dogs everything I eat....mostly chicken, rice, and vegtables. They love it, and if it can keep me going for 100 years, It must not be that awful! I fed my amstaff table scraps until his he passed @ 19 years old! I had never bought one bag or can of DOG FOOD his entire life! Yet he was the healthiest dog I ever OWNED!

From Kim
Our vet told us to feed our puppy rice, chicken and cheese. So now we just keep it stocked in the fridge. She also eats science diet dry food. It is not on either of the recall lists. I was also wondering what other people are feeding their dogs so a bulletin giving suggestions would be awsome! :)
From Agility 1
There are many ultra premium foods available on the market. My dogs eat Innova Evo and C & P Organix. Neither
The T's Have It!
I Shop at specialty shops, boutiques. Typically run by Rescues or Non Profit Organizations. They only purchase foods that are organic, holisitic and natural.

Raw food diet is also a wonderful, easy way to get your pets all the nutrients that need without needing kibble. 90% protien, 5%vegtables, 5%vitamins (as close as I can recall right now) :) This is great for folks who need an alternative to cooking. From freezer to frige to thaw and feed..that simple!
From Missy from Raven Tattoo Care
This is so sad, like it will never end. I am going back to giving my pets raw meat diets, home made.
A comment about Royal Canine
(Just to clarify RC Dog is not named after this food)
From Whiskey Kennels
Date: Apr 21, 2007 7:17 AM Hi, I noitced that the puppy 32 and the German Shepherd mixes were not listed as part of the recall.. BUT just to be sure I called and talked to a representitive and was assured that neither of these products was part of the recall as they do NOT contain the rice.. So anyone feeding either of these from Royal Canine are safe to continue to use.. (till the next recall??) I am having little faith in any dog food at the moment! :( Anyway, thought I would let you know.. in case you wanted to pass it on.. Sherri.
Low Protein Recipes

From Rachel
But as far as I can remember what they need is meat (raw is best because it contains fresh enzymes, but my dog won't eat it unless it's cooked. And you can freeze it first if you are afraid of bacteria but it may kill some of the enzymes too, not sure). Fresh vegetables, lightly cooked (no corn - difficult to digest, my dog likes chopped carrots and green beans), and then some kind of grain like rice or couscous is great! I also throw in a tablespoon of uncooked oatmeal occasionally. It seems to keep her regular, and her stool from getting too runny. As far as low protein I would imagine white meat chicken would be the best. The ingredient that dogs need that is NOT in people food is bone meal. Which is why I still have her on a very good dry food as well. But I believe egg shells can be used as a substitute for that. To save time I usually make a large batch and freeze it in serving size baggies. Suppertime I pull a baggy out heat it up and go. Makes it
easier in case someone else has to feed her for me too. Either way, I'm not a vet, nor am I a doctor... So these are just suggestions. I would recommend picking up a few books on the subject first. Good luck! ...Rachel

From Ms. Sheela Storm
was actually reading some online recipes that consisted of basically just rice and ground beef with a little cheese and baking meatballs out of them.
From Dakota
i found castor and pollux to be a wonderful organic food, although pricey. for most dogs, the best thing is raw hamburger, raw veggies and if you want to add grains, cooked brown rice. raw bones and meat are better on their system than cooked foods. my dog is Dalmatian so i have to avoid high purine foods like organ meats and poultry is best for her. ground turkey, turkey necks, raw eggs, veggies.. all good for dogs!
From Jack The ManDog
This is the restricted protein diet from Hill's. I'm cooking it now for a dog who was on Hill's k/d prior to the food recall. The vet. gave it to me after he sent all of his dog food back to the company. It's very simple.

1/4 lb. ground beef (do not use lean round chuck) 2 cups cooked long grain white rice without salt 1 hard cooked egg, finely chopped 3 slices of crumbled white bread 1 t (5g) calcium carbonate (may substitute 7 Tums EX tablets)

Also add one vitamin/mineral tab such as a Pet Tab.

Cook beef in skillet, stirring until lightly browned. Stir in remaining ingredients and mix well. Keep covered in refrigerator. Yield 1 1/4 pounds.

Protein 6.9% Fat 5.5% Carbohydrate 21.1% Moisture 65.5% Metabolizable Energy 750 Kcal/lb

This diet supplies 17% protein calories, 30% fat calories, and 53% carbohydrate calories.

Feed sufficient amount to maintain normal body weight.

I also have Hill's Canine Ultra-Low Protein Diet which supplies 8% protein calories.

Another source for home cooked diets including reduced protein diets etc. is Donald Strombeck DVM's book Home-Prepared Dog and Cat Diets The Healthful Alternative
Doggy Birthday cake recipes from Piggles Bulletin Message: PIGGLES Doggy Birthday cake recipes from Piggles

Jerky Cake for Pups

Here's a make-at-home beef-flavored dog cake recipe from Bullwrinkle.com. They have many treat and cake recipes listed on their website. Click on their SITE SEARCH button and type in the word, cakes.
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup soft butter
• 1/2 cup corn oil
• 1 jar strained beef baby food
• 4 eggs
• 2-3 strips of beef jerky
Preheat oven to 325°. Grease and flour an 8x5x3 inch loaf pan. Cream butter until smooth. Add corn oil, baby food, and eggs. Mix until smooth.

Mix dry ingredients into beef mixture until batter is smooth. Crumble beef jerky and fold into batter. Pour batter into loaf pan. Bake 1 hour and 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack 15 minutes. Frost with plain yogurt, cream cheese or cottage cheese. Crumble another strip of beef jerky and sprinkle on top of icing. Store in refrigerator.

Dog food balance

Food is the energy that drives our bio engines. I have heard that a famous dog trainer talks a lot about energy and how it affects dogs. I also know many trainers in the behavioral analysis camp talk about how the energy theory of dog training is just a bunch of baloney. The interesting thing is that almost all the behavioral kind of trainers base most of their training on using highly condensed energy as a main component of their training. One thing I have learned over the years is that in the dog industry there is an awful lot of nonsense i.e. baloney.

The point is that we want to give our furry kids a good enough source of energy to keep those bio engines running at their best. The food we feed out dogs makes a difference in their health. I feel that within reason, the kind of food a dog eats does affect how long they live and how healthy they are. I am not a food fanatic but I do watch what I eat and try to avoid certain ingredients. It makes sense that we should do the same for our dogs.

Now I don’t think eating a few cookies or having some ice cream is going to be too terribly bad for me. Even eating baloney would probably be okay. Although I have to say baloney is on my Do Not Eat list.

Hear is some information about boloney from Wikipedia Bologna sausage is generally made from low quality scraps of meat cuts. Such may be the origin of the slang word baloney, meaning "nonsense.”

While baloney would not be a bad lunch once in a while I would not want to eat boloney three times a day 365 days a year for years on end. Nor would I recommend it for others. I do believe a boloney diet would affect an individual’s health. Sure the Government regulates what meats and byproducts can be legally included in bologna just like they do with dog food, but I don’t think that means I should go on the boloney diet.

You can probably see that boloney and dog food have a few things in common.

While the pet industry is a 30 billion dollar a year industry only a small amount of that goes to service providers like dog trainers and pet sitters/dog walkers. Even services have become institutionalized with big companies like petsmart and petco taking an increasingly lager percentage of the pie. As big companies take over more and more of the pet industry, pets are treated more and more like just another market.

I remember when the first local petsmart opened and I went in to talk to the manager about doing some dog training for the new store. It turns out she used to manage and offices supply store. I found out she did not know a whole lot about pets. That might be a bit unfair let me clarify she didn’t know much about dogs. We didn’t talk about other pets. I remember thinking I didn’t want an office supply manager telling me how I should deal with dogs. Ever since a young age I was the one managing the business, or at least I had the authority to make sure on the spot necessities were cared for.

The majority of that 30 billion dollars I mention earlier goes to dog food manufacturers. You can guess with that much money on the table there is bound to be a little scrappen. Nothing like making money from food to bring out the aggression in big companies. Big companies are very protective of their big food profits and will do almost anything to protect those profits. Dog trainers call that resource guarding. Unfortunately it’s often consumers and pets that bear the burden of warring pet food companies.

I have recently been reading articles from the early 2000s about how many companies complain that Iams owned by Procter & Gamble, is recommending feeding less of their food to dogs so they can say it costs less to feed Iams than there brand rival.

Advertising is often the art of deception. Big companies if you are listing, that is why people no longer believe adverting and it cost more to reach consumers.

Now here is an interesting word consumer. I don’t rally like the word consumer and I have been looking for a good replacement. I am thinking about user. Even user doesn’t feel quite right. Maybe supporter, as in someone who believes in and supports a cause or product. I also like the word fan. Over that last few moths I am moving toward fan as my preferred word for loyal users.

I am not totally against big corporations. Although there is an inherent problem related to how corporations are structured that make them act in what I classify as an evil way. Individuals act this way too. Its just that individuals are accountable for their actions and to a large degree big corporations with deep, deep pockets are not.

The financial melt down of 2007 – 2009 is a good example. If I caused the world to go into recession there would be no forgiving me. But since big companies did it we reward them by paying their debt and giving them a few extra billion dollars for executive bonuses. If big business executives can make money at the expense of you and me they get rewarded even if that profit is from ruining the lives of billions of people. Now imagine if they don’t care about their country or the world do you think they care about your pet?

I don’t think big business is all bad. In fact I don’t think they are good or bad, it is a big business’s purpose to make money, that’s what they are committed to. They only act evil because that is how the rules they live under evolved. There are several things that can help big businesses become good citizens. The internet will help, but ultimately it will be the rule makers, the government that needs to insure it’s not profitable to harm others.

Like all businesses I need to make a living and pay my bills.

I have approached dog food companies about writing for them and no one has accepted so I am going to carve out of a niche of my own in a dog eat dog world of dog food websites.

Andrew Ledford
The Dog Saint
Caretaker of RenChenZa®


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Dog food has changes since my grandpa’s time