Hiya, I havnt been on here for a while but just need some advice on food please. One of my dads friends has had to have his german shepherd put down due to a twisted gut from dry dog food, the vet that dealt with this case said he is starting to see this happen more in dogs. I just wondered what you fed your dogs on and if anyone heard about this also?

I feed raw - I haven't heard of anyone's dogs who feed raw dying of bloat, not to say it hasn't happened. It's important to keep dogs (particularly large and deep chested breeds) quiet for at least 1 hour before and after feeding. I'm sorry to hear about the family friend's shep

There are many different qualities of dry and wet food. You should look for grain free foods with an actual meat listed as the first ingredient. Stay away from anything that says "cereals" or "meat and animal derivatives".

The worry of bloat is one of the main reasons I feed raw - the risk is greatly reduced with a raw diet.

I have large and deep chested dogs - it's something that worries me sick, especially with my Mastiff and Bernese so I always take all possible precautions - not allowing much activity before or after feeding, not letting them gulp huge amounts of water etc, and of course feeding them a raw diet, and two smaller meals a day rather than a large amount of food in one go.

I think large meals of plain dry kibble is a major contributor - if feeding dry food, it should ideally be soaked or fed alongside wet food, or if you really want to feed it completely dry, it should be fed from a fast-eaters bowl or food dispensing toy to ensure it isn't bolted down, and in small regular meals rather than 1 large one a day.

Really sorry to hear about your friends dog

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''Dogs are like chocolates, you can never have just one!''

This is something that I have been looking into alot lately...all our dogs have been fed dry kibble over the years but we have just switched our new pup onto nature diet wet food and removed kibble from her diet (although we use bits of kibble for training treats etc to use up the bag!!).

I would eventually like to switch to raw but I dont have enough freezer space at the moment to do it properly and so the next best thing for us was a decent wet food. We currently feed Nature Diet but I would also feed wainwrights trays and depending on the outcome of my complaint to ND of rancid food I might well switch to WW instead.

So sorry about your friends dog

elsewhere on this site there is brilliant information on raw diets.

wet and dry foods implies cheap ingredient man made concoctions that have nothing to do with what a dog in the wild would eat.

Read what is in meat and compare that to what is stuffed into manufactured dog food and you will be a convert.

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I'm so sorry for your friend's Dad, what a terrible thing to have happen when he must have felt like he was feeding his dog good food that was meant for it. Trouble is it's not and people have been brainwashed just as they are buying all kinds of convenience or pre-prepared foods for their kids and themselves.

I've felt like such a bad dogmum/failure as our Biscuit just won't eat raw food. I tried every brand available, made it up myself, did prey model and still couldn't get her to eat it unless she was starving and had gone days without eating (and going for grass and throwing up from an empty stomach). And she's the ONLY dog I know or have met that hasn't taken to it wholeheartedly when it's been offered. 9.9 dogs out of 10 take to it and it is the best thing for them. I'd say the next best thing is wet food and that's what we have Biscuit on now - BUT it is 95% meat and organ meat and 5% veg and vitamins with no grains at all. And far more expensive than raw to boot, but at least she'll eat it and enjoys her meals now. I used to give her kibble for treats, but since I've given up on the raw I'm afraid to give her dry as it takes so long to digest in the very short digestive system of a dog that it often came out sloppy and smelling horrible - and that's the grain free as well. She's already gassier now and her breath is starting to smell. I feel really badly about it, but don't know what else to do - at least with my human children I can explain about why we need to eat fresh vegetables instead of french fries.

Raw doesn't have to take up all your freezer room either, if you have a good supplier you can buy as needed.

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Not all wet and dry food implies inferior quality.

There are plenty of wet and dry goods out there that are made with high quality ingredients. Any good quality wet will have around 70% meat. And there are kibble a made up of 80% meat. All human grade stuff.

Yes there are crap commercial foods. But don't put them all in the same catagory.

I feed raw by the way

Back to the op. between wet and dry, I's go with wet food personally

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You'll find an lot of raw feeders are probably answering as we tend to look at the Health and Nutrition section more than a lot of other people.

When I did a poll recently it seemed most people actually give both wet and dry, either together or dry for one meal, wet for another. This is actually what we were feeding before we switched to raw.

You may like to look at the following threads if you haven't already:
The Wet Dog Food Index
The Dry Dog Food Index

The main thing to obviously look out for is the ingredients. Dogs do not need carbohydrates and the high percentage in dry food is mainly there to serve as a filler and also because it is needed to make the "shape" of kibble. Given the choice I would feed wet rather than dry but budget may come into play.

Sorry to hear about the loss of the dog. There is a thread about bloat (Bloat some information) which I feel everyone should read.

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I also raw feed (new convert so not very long ) but before that kiva was fed wet and dry, sometimes together sometimes seperate, and she was not walked/excersized within an hour before or after feeding (still isn't)

Sorry to hear about your friends dog

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I had a dog bloat
You will perhaps already know that mixing both RAW (barf) TOGETHER is a big no no and dry does increase the risk of bloat.

I feed nature diet myself, have done for years, but we do use good quality dry but sparingly. Also the dog that suffered bloat we were told NEVER to feed her dry EVER.

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