I worked in a pet store when the food scares where happening.. people were still buying or looking for the SAME foods, despite the recalls for the exact same food they were feeding. About 50% did not care and either had not heard prior to being told when they asked why we were out of the food they wanted, or thought it too inconvenient to change their dog's diet.

About 10% went to raw, at my suggestion heh (bad me not selling my stores products!)

The remaining 40% I saw and had contact with at the store I worked at switched to higher quality kibbles at my suggestion, generally Innova, Chicken Soup, Wellness, Canidae, or Evo.

The natural foods store where I get my dogs' food (at their butcher department) --- the butcher told me during the height of that mess that he had tripled the number of people buying dog meat and bones from him.

Also, in our club, everyone is careful now about asking where ingredients come from if they consider a commercial food switch. Of course, they can be lied to..... but they do ask whether all ingredients come from the U.S. (Well, it might be partly because I am in the club..... but there are many of us on this board who are in positions of influence in the dog world.)

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

The natural foods store where I get my dogs' food (at their butcher department) --- the butcher told me during the height of that mess that he had tripled the number of people buying dog meat and bones from him.

But the flip side of that is people who started feeding their dogs a completely unbalanced raw diet or cooked up a homemade dog stew that they thought was okay. I overheard a few conversations where the one customer was recommending a diet of mostly ground meat with pretty much nothing else. I work in a PetSmart and every chance I get when people ask me about food I teach them to compare the ingredients. There are some pretty decent diets that won't cost a lot for a small dog owner. Large dog owners generally take a big hit to their wallet to give their dog a better food. I think I convinced a lot of small dog owners to switch food but the large dog owners tended to just keep buying what they always do because of the price of feeding the premium diets.

 Quote: cathy goessman

But the flip side of that is people who started feeding their dogs a completely unbalanced raw diet or cooked up a homemade dog stew that they thought was okay. I overheard a few conversations where the one customer was recommending a diet of mostly ground meat with pretty much nothing else.

That scares me, too. Muscle meat with no bone is obviously NOT an appropriate diet.

But when I hear the butcher tell me that he has customers buying whole organic chickens, ground up bones and all, then I know someone may be nervous about raw, but they're doing OK, in my book.

I think the thing to recommend is a book or an authoritative web site.

This site, NJ Boxers..... MANY great sites with detailed diet info. And this site alone sells 7 (maybe more) excellent raw feeding books, from the "why" straight to the simplest "how."

LB sends out these cool green flyers (with your orders) with their info on tabs you can rip them off.....I cut them up and hand them out with my business cards when I am at trainings and such.

I do not just hang them around since I would be afraid all kinds of goofballs that don't even have dogs would join the board and cause chaos for the mods.
But I do make sure to promote to the serious dog people.

The owner of the litter came by the school where I work today to pick up some puppy supplies from me since we are not breeding any more. He said that one of the pups died this morning from no apparent cause and another was not doing well. I gave him Nutri-stat, a gram scale, a preemie bottle and Ed's recipe for bottle feeding pups. He had not taken the litter to the vet so I advised him to take the pups and mom to make sure no infections, parasites, etc. Of course, he did not take her to the same idiot who told them to feed the dog Purina puppy chow and vanilla ice cream. The new vet determined that mom did not have enough milk for the babies so even though they could never prove it, the moron vet's advice could have had serious consequences. This is why I always tell anyone who is contemplating breeding not to do anything without researching the heck out of it and that includes buying Ed's Whelping video. It was invaluable to us when we started out. It just pisses me off that these pups could have died because mom wasn't getting the proper nutrition. This was the owners' first litter and they took the vet's word believing, as most people do, that vets know what they are talking about in regards to nutrition. It is unfortunate that they had to learn the hard way.

I sure hope he composes himself and then calls the first vet to say that one of the pups died from lack of mother's milk.... and thanks for the nutrition info. :>(

Really. Lay on the guilt.

I am beginning to think I might have to go to vet school so I know there is another vet out there who is willing to put aside pride and advertising and do what is best for the dogs rather than regurgitate bad information.

Speaking of which, how do these people get in to vet school? It is so competitive that you would think they would get better critical thinkers than that.

(And not all vets are so bad. My vet is wonderful. Of course I went through about five before finding him.)

 Quote: Leah Christian

Speaking of which, how do these people get in to vet school? It is so competitive that you would think they would get better critical thinkers than that.

Nope. I just barely graduated from a decent university with exactly the same degree (and most of the recommended courses) that most of the pre-med and pre-vet students received. Most of the skill required was an insane ability for short-term memorization. Critical thinking was only really required in my introductory physics classes (didn't require Calculus, just Trigonometry) and my one genetics class.

The really scary part, IMO, was that on average I thought the pre-vets were much more interested in learning and down to earth than the pre-meds.

My husband is a physics grad-student who has TA'd classes with mostly pre-meds and he's just about convinced that the physics requirements are the only things keeping the complete morons from getting medical degrees.

BTW, I have known good doctors and vets too, and they are worth their weight in gold.