Supplements or not?

I know there's a big fan club here for feeding raw (count me out of that one at present!) but as a newby to the debate do the raw feeders among you use supplements to add to the food you feed to ensure a correct balance of nutrients, or are you happy that your dog gets everything it needs from meat and bones for long term health?

I don`t supplement to *ensure a correct balance of nutrients* I believe the varied diet my dogs are fed is enough to ensure that & they get more than meat & bones

Dogs, like any other animal go thru various stages of life & there are vitamins & minerals that help them deal with those times, thats when I give them supplements

This thread may be of interest to you: http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php...ht=supplements

If you use the search facility for the Diet & Nutrition section you will get quite a few 'hits'

There are 2 camps on this. One says that dogs should be fed supplements and by that it means leafy veg, kelp, and natural supplements. My friends feeds her dogs raw meaty bones and gives no supplements. Every day they are eating rabbits etc., so they are getting supplements there. Every now and again she adds veg etc., but not that often.

I feed my dogs a home prepared cooked diet so I do supplement with leafy veg, veg and additional natural supplements throughout the month. This takes a bit time but it is worth it. My dogs have a fabulous disposition, great coats, no bad breath, no runny poo.

Definitely the best for me but my friends swear by raw. You do what suits really.

Annie

Hmmm well my understanding of supplements is vits & mins added to a diet. Fruit & veg I class as part of the diet. Thats how I class supplements anyway.

So maybe bit of confusion as to what we`re talking about here

Hi Christine

Yes, I agree with you but the raw meaty bones diet says that no supplements whatsoever are required because all the vits and mins are there in the bones and meat.

BARF on the other hand adds fruit, veg etc., and that to me sounds like a much better diet. This is basically what I do but I cook the meat and veg - purely because my oldies just won't eat raw and it makes sense to do it all together because the young ones will eat cooked and raw!!

My friend, who feeds RMB went to a seminar/workshop about it and the expert there was adamant that no supplements were needed. He is the expert I suppose but I just think that our domestic dogs have come a long way etc., and their systems are bound to have changed. I suppose its a bit like saying because we are descended from chimps, we should eat the same diet as a chimp to be healthy. Do you think that's right?

I personally have no preference but I do think that dry food has changed the way we think about feeding our dogs. there is not a lot of thought put into it and we really place our trust in the manufacturers. RMB, BARF or home prepared cooked any of those are fine by me. I would even feed my dogs naturediet and natures menu.

Kind regards
Annie

Thanks for that! Never thought to delve into the archives!

Hi G/A, think it was Tom Lonsdale coined the raw meaty bones diet (it was the name of a book he wrote a few yrs ago) & he recommends fruit, veg & table scraps

Have you read Pitcairns book, think you might like it, although his recipes are for raw meat think they can be modified to cooking it & he also includes just about every food type & gives the nutritional values of them as well

http://www.drpitcairn.com/books/pitcairn_book.html

My dogs never miss the opportunity to do a bit of scavenging be it a bit of scrumping or standing on back legs to get high enough to pull the nectarines off to grazing on new grass shoots like a herd of sheep

My dogs like fruit n veg, I always seem to have too much of both, either raw or cooked so for me its a case of waste not want not & I`d never dream of throwing any leftovers away when my dogs can eat them with relish