IME with a lot of dogs over a lot of years as well as other peoples many dogs----the cheaper commercial diets can cause problems for some dogs. Although many survive very well on them. The better quality diets sort out a lot of the same problems that raw feeding seems to. Difference is price---raw feeding is cheaper than complete.

I did work it out but I wouldn't feed bones except for the larger marrow ones and I don't have freezer room. So I use Burns or fish4dogs.

Personal choice is a wonderful thing---especially when it is informed by information gathered and personal experience.

rune

To be honest I've found new owners take very little notice of food advice you give them as a breeder. I can't count the number of calls I've had from worried owners because the puppy has a stomach upset & when you ask if theyare still feeding as per the instructions in their pack there is always an excuse why the answer is no. With my last litter back in the 90's, (sadly I'm too disabled now to continue breeding) I fed my puppies on everything, raw, homemade cooked, all in one, tinned meat & meal, puppy porridge, human cerials, you name it they had it. They are the only litter I never had any phone calls about & when I visited them at 14 to 15 months as I used to do not one had had problems with their stomachs as a puppy & only one had found a food that didn't agree with their dog & that was the well known tins of dog food she had won with him at championship shows.

But it goes to a deeper issue which is: who actually owns the dog?

I support raw feeding. But for argument's sake: if I go to a breeder and purchase a dog, then from the moment I take that dog home, he is mine.

Breeders who insist on a specific eating regime are a bit like someone selling a house, and insisting that the new owners don't alter the decor!

Yes, of course it's different as dogs are living creatures but no ONE way of feeding suits ALL dogs and for any breeder to try and dictate what a new owner does AFTER they take the dog home, is IMHO, absurd.

My puppies would not be suitable for "pet"homes so anyone who wanted a"pet"& to feed it commercial food wouldn't be considered in the first place.

Anyone who feeds a commercial diet wouldn't IMHO bean excellent home anyway.

A friend who has Beardies & occasionally breeds the odd litter, will not sell to non raw feeders & she has no problems finding "excellent"homes with like minded owners.

No it's not, a house isn't a living animal for a start

I state in that post that it's different because a dog is a living creature.



But the principal remains the same, surely? Once you purchase something - whatever it is - it is yours. Thus you, and only you, get to make decisions about it. That holds true regardless of whether the 'it' in question is a dog, a cat, a horse, a car.

Living or non living, if you buy it, surely it is yours???

I agree Tabitha. As others have said, a breeder can state what they want but enforcing it is entirely different. As you said in you first post - how would they even know? If you particularly wanted that PWD, there is nothing to stop you saying you will feed it raw, what is the breeder going to do - stalk you for the rest of your life, following you round supermarkets and pet stores and going through your rubbish to see what you are feeding

I can just picture it, being stalked through Sainsburys!

I'm imagining being followed around by a private detective in a trench coat and dark glasses, with a radio link up back to the breeder 'It's ok, she's putting chicken wings in the trolley, but wait a minute, is that a box of Bakers complete going in there too?.......'

STEP AWAY FROM THE PET FOOD AISLE!

echoes across the supermarket from the tannoy linked to the "eye in the sky" cameras above.....................