Fruit, veg and suppliments

What do you add to your dogs raw diet?
I am thinking of adding in some veg, Cookie is having reduced exercise because of his health problems so I would love to keep him occupied with kongs and other toys to keep him entertained, but don't want him getting fat. He isn't fussy at all but has food allergies.
Also on the baft sticky it talks about turamac and apple cider vinegar. Does anyone use these? I used to add them into his meals, but can't remember when or why I stopped, but looking at the quantities of 1 cap full of vinegar and 1 tbsp of turmeric mixed in with all those veggies I do wonder if I was giving him too much anyway.
I want to start giving him more nuts too, he really likes nuts but I never thought to blend them before, he will eat them whole.

So what do people give there dogs? In what amounts? How do you prepare it? I'm thinking of starting with some mashed (and cooked) sweet potatoes, mixed with some salmon oil stuffed in a kong.

Pereg always has vegetables mixed with her first "wet" meal, which has all her supplements and vitamins added, as she only has 40-50g of meat - the vegetables bulk it out. I either dice fresh vegetables [whatever is available], blanch and then open freeze so I can pack in bags and just take out what is needed, adding finely chopped raw vegetables.

In emergencies I use bags of ready frozen vegetables, usually mixed but also sometimes cut green and yellow beans. I do not give her nuts.

Turmeric - just under 1/8th of a teaspoon, and a couple of shakes of apple cider vinegar mixed with each wet meal.

Her second meal is always a raw bone one, either half a chicken back or half a turkey neck, straight from the freezer. She is not interested in Kongs - to her, food must be Food with a capital "F"!

if you are concerned about his weight I would avoid nuts and to be fair prob the salmon oil as well and find a good all round supplement instead to provide the amino acids/omegas etc. What are you supplementing for? Turmeric/Cider vinegar = anti inflammatory (amongst a few other things)

Also if you are giving turmeric you are supposed to feed it with a couple of grinds of fresh pepper as there is something in the pepper that helps the action bit of the turmeric be absorbed (piperzine (sp?)/curcumin methinks) also you need to use a good quality pref organic turmeric / CV

what do you feed as part of his raw diet? If its chicken make sure the skin is removed as that will aid weight gain

Thank you for your replies
Malka, Pereg is such a lucky girl, I hope she knows that.
Cookie is very unfussy about his food going in, it's allergies and what comes out and which way that is the problem.
Thanks for the amounts of the turamac and apple cider vinegar. I shall buy some decent stuff online and start adding it to his food.

He's not overweight at the moment but I don't want to be giving him extra meat to keep him entertained as then he will put on weight.
It's not just salmon oil, its that yumega plus stuff. He's also on Yumove. He has arthritis in his hips and spine, which is why he's on reduced exercise. More than 10-15 mins twice a day and he's really really stiff and in a lot of pain. He can't deal well with medication like metacam. I won't give visuals, lets just say it's not pretty!
He's also recently had a lung lobe removed and chemo to treat lung cancer. He's doing pretty well at the moment though, but due for another check up any time soon.

Pepper as in a bell pepper, or pepper like black pepper?
Only the best for my Cookie Dog! If there is a brand/specific one you recommend please let me know.
He can't have chicken due to his allergies. He had an allergy test done in which more stuff came back as an allergic response than not. So he's having pork, pheasant, rabbit, duck, lamb (including lamb tripe) and turkey as these are the only things I could find that he isn't allergic to. If you know where I could get some other meat that would be great, goat ect. He can't have venison though. And I think buffalo might be too close to cow???

just your common or garden black pepper the key is it must be freshly ground you can buy turmeric with the pepper thing in it as a supplement (i used it recently for the boys dodgy shoulder)

have you tried magnets? theres a brand called Back on track and they do coats etc that have a special heat reflecting coating which are supposed to be good for stiffness/recovery from injury? i also had a bio flow collar for my boy (till he chewed through it grrr!!) my friend bought me magnet pads that velcro (supposed to be for under horse rugs) and i stick one on the inside of my boys equafleece just over his didgy should area and i feel that it helps

http://www.backontrack.com/uk/products/dog/



he takes forever to recover from his pulled shoulders (hes previously had an arthroscopy as it was taking so long last year which showed no arthritis just inflammed ligament/tendons) and i have recently been looking at Recovery SA which is a supplement (US) that has lots of good stuff in it. havent yet completed my investigations into it (ie is there a uk product that contains all the same stuff or could i buy the elements seperately)

would swimming be too much for his wee joints? x

Do you remember which supplement you used? Name or brand or anything?

I've used magnets with him and myself before, didn't seem to help him too much and I didn't like him having to wear a coat all the time, he got too hot inside.

If you do find anything of use please let me know. I would be very greatful.

He used to go to hydrotherapy on a treadmill but there is no where local that are properly qualified. I did take him to visit one that had a pool but she wasn't very confident in letting him swim with all of this health problems and basically told the our vet that from the time she spent with him (nearly 2 hours) that she thought he had something serious going on with him. Something along the lines that she was worried that he could become paraplegic... I have no idea but it sent up red flags for myself and the vet regarding him going there. (The vet did thoroughly examine him and ran some tests just incase she had missed something)
We can't go too far as he gets travel sick and sitting in the car hurts his joints and he won't lay down unless he's tired. So by the time we get anywhere he's nauseous, grumpy because of the pain or ready for bed.

Dobermonkey - I have never heard of adding black pepper to turmeric, which is a very commonly used spice here - just about everyone uses it and it is added to things like soup powder to give it the yellow colour. It is also used by many people to add to white rice, also to give the yellow colour.

BoT do a mesh rug or (thinkig of his spine) a 'back wrap' just thinking that heat should give him some relief. I havent used BoT products yet but they were recommended to me by someone who has.

got mine form amazon if you google 'Curcumin and Bioperine' (the action bits of turmeric and pepper) theres lots to choose from. Also Boswelia is reputedly a good anti inflamm.

Malka - Bioperine the concentrated extract from Piperine (from black pepper) its supposed to help with the absorbsion of many nutrients (from what I have read)

Feeding dogs a combination of conservatively cooked foods(suitable for dogs of course) and raw foods(again, for dogs) sounds like an awesome idea to me.

I would like for my Dad to feed his dog this diet. But he doesn't agree with me on most things. So I will just keep my mouth shut.