Quote: William Dutton

Thank you all for your comments/suggestions, I am looking into my options. My current dog (a female boxer) is on dry kibble and on occasion I add canned Merrick foods. I am getting a Malinois pup in a week and the breeder told me he's been giving the pups a RMB diet. That is what has developed my intrigue in the topic. I'll be honest, I don't think I'm headed to a RMB diet, but I'd like to include as much non-processed foods as possible if it is the best for the dogs. Anyone with any recipe ideas, I'd love to try them. Thanks again!

Merrick has too many problems for me to want to see anyone buy it.

But the suggestion to try THK with RMBs might be exactly what you will like..... a midway-between-raw-and-commercial kind of feeding.

If you do go with kibble, though, I would definitely agree with you on enhancing the diet with fresh food.

You can't add substantial amounts of boneless meats (cooked or raw) without throwing off the calcium-phosphorous ratio. You can, however, do a meal of RMBs. You can also add good yogurt (no sugar, no flavoring, and with live active cultures) and it will come with enough calcium of its own to make it safe to add in amounts even as high as 25% of the diet (which I doubt that anyone does). You can give eggs with the shells. You can give unseasoned leftover green vegetables from the people-dinner, and any leftover meat or fish in smallish amounts (no cooked bones).

Canned mackerel and sardines are terrific, and they have their bones.

You can give low-sugar fruits in small amounts (no grapes), such as blueberries and melon.

Of at least equal importance, you can buy more than one recipe of kibble -- either in the same line or not. Some people alternate poultry with fish, for example.

 Quote: william dutton

I'm not sold on the bones idea. I've read numerous articles about the RMB and BARF diets and I do believe that the "right" bones can truely be benifical to a dog, but I am heistant about them being 100% safe for consumption. That doesn't mean I am against the raw meats or vegetables, but a 100% RMB diet, I'm still researching it and maybe the more I read, learn, and see, I'll be on board, but I gotta get some more reading done before I feel comfortable with the diet.

Thats cool.

Any diet has risk. Dogs can choke to death on kibble, canned food, toys, etc. A dog is more likely to be injured by a swallowed stick or rock than a completely digestible bone.

Here's a few things to look at while you're reading.

http://www.rawfeddogs.net/
http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.html
http://www.rawmeatybones.com/
http://www.leerburg.com/articles.htm#feed

For me, switching to raw chicken with bones the first time was a bit like jumping off the high dive - you just got to do it to relax about it.
I knew that everythign I read said it was completely digestible, I knew people that did it, I read about the benefits, I knew all this but I still was out there at 5am poking at the first bowel movement after the switch with stick checking for those horrible chicken bones that I was still worried about. After the dog didn't become horribly sick I started to relax.
It's one thing to read from everyone else that it is safe, and another thing entirely to actually do it when the rest of the dog world tells you it's bad.
If you are thinking about switching, just remember before there was kibble, dogs ate leftovers and raw meat, as well as RMB. It didn't kill them then, and it won't do it now either.

For me, it was sink or swim, and this was WAY before the internet. There was maybe one book.

But I had an adoptee who was so allergic (33 allergies, the skin tests eventually showed) that she had zero quality of life: stinky from yeast, couldn't sleep from itching, bloody from scratching herself raw, on daily steroids for years , deaf from repeated ear infections ... the whole thing. She needed fresh food -- it was really obvious.

I had to just do it.

Her second half of life was pretty darned good, and even though I did many things to help, like desensitizing injections after the skin tests, it was getting her off grain-based kibble and giving her fresh food plus fish oil and E that made the biggest and most immediate difference.

Connie: You mentioned Merrick Dog Food has to many problems??
I do not use Merrick anymore since I emailed Ed over a problem I had with my GSD pup who simply refused to eat and we changed our feeding program. However I used to refer my customers to it plus it's the food my Vet promotes. I am aware that Vets are not experts in feeding and often have personal interests in promoting a brand but
We used Merrick for years with little if any problems. Please advise me of the problems so I can pass it on. Thanks Tom

 Quote: Tom Lasko

Please advise me of the problems so I can pass it on. Thanks Tom

Cameron posted a few links about Merrick problems in this link to another thread.

 Quote: Cameron Feathers

http://www.leerburg.com/forums/ubbthread...true#Post196185
Merrick has had a lot of quality control issues and recalls, as well as different problems along the years. I didn't want to type all the links again, so here is a link to the post where they are.