Adding MEAT?

[Brutus112]

Obviously Boxers like all dogs are carnivours. On dogfoodanalysis.com it says that the Blue Buffalo food that Im feeding my 4 year old brindle lacks meat and if it could be added to his food would be greatly beneficial for him....so my question is ...if I were to add meat to his dry kibble, what meat should it be? raw or cooked? and how much meat per portion (1 3/4 cups 2 times a day) should I add to his food???

 

[gmacleod]

If you're adding meat to his dry food (as opposed to giving it as a separate meal), then it should be cooked. Feeding both raw and dry is OK, but they should be fed in separate meals (to avoid problems with bacteria).

As for how much - well, you can choose really. I'd say anything up to about 1/2 lb would be a very nice addition to his diet And it can be a variety of meats (beef, chicken, turkey, pork, lamb, etc) - doesn't have to be the same one all the time. Only thing to note is that if you DO feed in the region of 1/2lb daily, then you should also add a calcium source (1 tsp of crushed eggshell per 1/2 lb of meat is an appropriate ratio).

Depending on how much though, you should also reduce the amount of kibble you feed to compensate. The average boxer fed on raw food consumes around 2lb daily. So just figure what fraction of that you're feeding, and reduce the kibble by the same fraction. For example, if you were to add about 1/4 lb of meat per day, that is about 1/8 of a daily allowance - so you should reduce the kibble by 1/8 also.

 

[Brutus112]

Raw or Cooked Meats?

As for how much - well, you can choose really. I'd say anything up to about 1/2 lb would be a very nice addition to his diet And it can be a variety of meats (beef, chicken, turkey, pork, lamb, etc) - doesn't have to be the same one all the time. Only thing to note is that if you DO feed in the region of 1/2lb daily, then you should also add a calcium source (1 tsp of crushed eggshell per 1/2 lb of meat is an appropriate ratio).

Now if I fee seperately should I feed raw or cooked meats...as mentioned above? what is a good and in-expensive "beef" product to feed?
And Eggshell is a good source of calcium?? how often would you feed crushed eggshell?

 

[gmacleod]

Well, you could even use lean hamburger, or any other ground meat you come across. Other than that, whatever the cheapest cut you can find in supermarket or from butcher.

Eggshell is an excellent calcium source - almost pure calcium. That's why you need only a little bit (1 tsp per 500g of meat). It's easy to save, store and later crush eggshells. Even better, give the dog the egg as well as the shell.

If you feed the meat separately, I'd just go with raw (in this instance, you might feed the bones as well - thus eliminating the need for eggshell). Raw is easier, faster, and generally a bit better than cooked.

 

[JayDub]

Would they have the same issues with salmonella and the like that humans have? I realize they evolved to eat raw meat, but things like ground beef could still be an issue that they'd never have in the wild...

 

[gmacleod]

No, they don't have the same issues with salmonella as humans. That is to say, dogs are a great deal less vulnerable to bacteria than humans (not that it's impossible for dogs to get salmonella poisoning).

The reasons dogs are less vulnerable relate to their physiology: dogs (like other carnivores) have extremely short digestive tracts that are designed to deal with raw meat and bones rapidly. Contrast that to herbivores - which have extremely long digestive tracts (in some cases, multiple stomachs) that are designed to slowly break down difficult plant matter. Or even with humans (a true omnivore) that has a medium length digestive tract that will deal with a range of plants as well as meat with relative efficiency.

The point of the short digestive tract, naturally, is that food does not spend a great deal of time there - and hence bacteria have little opportunity to colonise (very much less opportunity than it does in the human digestive tract).

The second defense that dogs have against bacteria is extremely strong digestive acids. Much stronger than ours - and which serves the two-fold purpose of (a) killing off most bacteria, and (b) aiding the rapid digestion of food.

End result - a healthy dog will not get salmonella from consuming raw meat (assuming that meat to be in decent condition, of course - not talking rotting stuff pulled out the trash, though it's fair to say that most actually WILL deal with that without a problem).

However, this is actually the very reason why raw meat and kibble should not be fed together in the same meal. Dogs - per the above - have a physiology that is uniquely designed to deal with RAW food. Not with grains and carbs that are in such abundance in kibble. Those sorts of carb-laden foods actually place extreme demands on the short digestive system of a dog, and tie up the digestive acids for hours longer than would be the case with raw meat/bones. If fed together then, the raw won't be digested in such a quick timeframe and can leave the dog vulnerable to the bacteria (or put another way, if you feed the two types of food together, you effectively nulify one of the dog's primary defenses against bacteria). Still probably not an issue if fed good meat (heck, even people eat raw or very nearly raw meat regularly - and have no problems as long as it's fresh). But not a sensible way to feed all the same.

And hence the standard caution remains - feeding raw is fine, feeding raw and kibble is also fine. But feed them in separate meals

 

[gmacleod]

Possibly - though I don't recall ever hearing of a dog suffering high cholesterol (which in turn probably isn't surprising - it's not exactly a routine test in canine health exams ).

With eggs, the general guideline is that about 2 per week is about as much as a dog should have. That is partly driven by adavin in the egg white though... How many do you think yours actually get?