I happened upon an outline of a early working dog's diet and thought that some board members might get a kick out of it. The text is taken from a Prussian officer's letters to his father in 1883. His father kept hunting dogs and his son was remarking on how the local working dogs (probably herding dogs or farm dogs similar to the early GSD) subsist and thrive on a diet of scraps and very little meat. Whereas his father's hunting dogs devoured piles of meat every day and were expensive to keep in good shape.


Here's the diet of the average working dog kept by rural people.


Morning meal- Whatever gruel or cerial is leftover from the morning meal mixed with the grease from the frypan.

Evening meal- Table scraps from the day's meals that are unfit for the pigs. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

Once a week, or twice a week for growing dogs or bitches in whelp- a large handfull ration of horseflesh, or shavings from the week's butchering of edible animals.






How about that for a natural diet? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Not to mention the occasional barn rat, rabbit, chicken egg <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />, topped of with a nice helping of pig/cow/horse $#!+. Life is good! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />