[Dailydrool] Dog Food revisted

[Basset911 at aol.com]

Alas.
6 years of rehabilitating hounds here at Daphneyland, day in and day  out.  
That's a lot of hounds!!
When we started this whole concept 6 years ago (Anniversary date: July 20)  - 
I was in a quandary - what to feed to hounds?? My hounds were at that time,  
and still continue to be fed a home cooked diet - however in the best 
interests  of a rescued hound, it would not do them well to be detoxed from commercial 
 grades of food - and fed a healthy diet - only to have an adoptive family 
revert  to a lesser grade commercial food.  What should we do?  In those days  
Nutro was still a fairly good product, and shelter hounds eat what is referred  
to as the $9.00 box O 'wonder - which is basically overfill of various brands 
 sold for $9.00 in tubs of 100 pounds.
Hounds arriving from shelters commonly have ear infections, yeast  
infections, and hot spots among the problems rescue groups have to clear before  a hound 
can be rehabilitated for adoption.
 
After a load of research, we began by mixing Canidae down with Nutro - less  
of a system shock if we decreased the higher quality of Canidae with the 
lesser  quality Nutro.   3 years ago we went to straight Canidae and have  
maintained that ever since.  Canidae has done a remarkable job with the  hounds - 
which average daily 100 here - until last week.
 
Daphneyland in conjunction with the assistance from Marilyn Bickell, Sandy  
Gaston and various other hound friends is currently reviewing all commercial  
grades of food for the following factors:
 
1.    What is the top quality food available today?  (There have been many 
manufacturing changes in the last 6 months - your  veterinarians are not canine 
nutritionists - they do not actually know the best  foods out there, why they 
don't tell you that is beyond me.)
2.    What will we do about the Canidae recipe and  manufacturing plant 
changes? - can we continue to feed Canidae?  Can  we find a better quality food 
that is affordable to feed to 100 hounds  daily?
 
Canidae has up until now been AMAZING to us.  Great quality, great  
information and good friends - we may end up finding that Canidae is still the  food we 
recommend, we may not.  I am however extremely disappointed that  Canidae 
made a recipe change AND manufacturing location change without advance  warning 
to their customers - and at 4000 pounds (-2- Pallets) a month of  kibble, and 
15 - 20 cases of canned monthly, I would think we are a fairly  good customer 
to put it mildly.
 
For anyone feeding Canidae - a word of caution.....
The new recipe absorbs water to 5 times its dry size.  In our breed  this is 
a drastic increase in the risk of bloat (gastric torsion).  PLEASE  SOAK THE 
KIBBLE WELL BEFORE FEEDING!!  You want that expansion to  occur OUTSIDE THE 
STOMACH - not inside.  You will also want to add pumpkin  to their food thru the 
change, as I can firmly attest - 100 hounds with runny  stool is one very 
yucky week.
 
Continuing on the quest for food education - the never ending battle
Dawn of the West
Foodslave of Daphneyland
_www.barniatdaphneyland.org_ (http://www.barniatdaphneyland.org/) 




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