My little learning curve started when I started eating Atkins type foods and felt
immensely better. Then I got asthma and tested out allergic to wheat and corn.
pffft. Then I inherited my mothers dog HoneyChild who was allergic to everything
except the fish and potato dog food. Then Harry P our springer was flaking, itching
and getting hot spots on purina. HoneyChild developed congestive heart disease from
lousy crudded up teeth and 1500 bucks later we took home a half dead dog and put her
on "heart" and "kidney" diet which she was allergic to. She was harking nearly all
the time, she lost almost all her fur and what was left was like straw. and they gave
her 6 mo- 1 year (this was May of last year)
I said this is total bullshit and decided to go to a species appropriate diet for all
the dogs. Honey gets raw whole fish, the rest get raw meaty bone whatever is
cheapest and on sale at a local discount grocery. Harry recovered, Honey recovered
and has a soft as silk thick coat again, no harking and if she drops dead tomorrow
she will have had quality of life. No more foul breath or gummed up and loose teeth
in my dogs. http://weloveteaching.com/mutts/mutts.htm

While signed up with the raw feeding list I did some quick calculations on the price
of regular dog food and raw meat. It is hard to know how much of regular dog food is
corn or wheat or other cheap fillers, but plain old corn is really cheap and dog food
really isnt. So I give Harry 1lb of meat, usually between 29-69 cents a pound. When
stuff is on sale we buy 20-30 lbs at a time and toss it in the freezer. We also ask
people on local list if they are emptying out their freeze burned meat to drop it
off, likewise with venison, likewise people who fish.

This also got me to thinking about ferrets and how our ferrets never lived much
beyond 4 years which broke my heart, and I finally found a site where the guy started
feeding his ferrets species appropriate foods, rabbits, and the ferrets started
living well beyond 10 years.

I started feeding my koi high quality food before the light bulb above went off, but
since then I have learned that koi digest proteins and fats, and not carbohydrates.
that they have pretty short intestines and that too much food at once just passes
thru them cause they dont have a stomach. the bulkier and drier the food the less
chance it will get digested too. soon after I started feeding them better food they
quit whacking my water lilly. I only clean the mulm out of my veggie filter once a
year in fall when I put the pond to bed. 4 feet down on the bottom of my pond I can
still see the white tag that fell off the lily pot.

so I guess I would rather pay for krill and fish meal and feed small amounts rather
than pay a lot for large amounts of corn.
Ingrid

"G Pearce" wrote:
- my cat had to go in for a operation and the vet gave us some "high
end" food for her recovery - 3 days later we called him as she was passing
almost no waste compared to before and we were worried something was wrong -
he said the food we were feeding her before was loaded with filler and less
nutrients that she could use - it was not medicated, just more expensive
food because of less filler, ergo less waste to pass - I went to better food
for the pond and now clean my upflow filter once a season rather than 3 to 4
times / season with same amount of food (my choice - I spoil my pets when
they beg :~) )


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