LET'S AIM AT SOMETHING!
The first thing I want to discuss with you are the goals or objectives of feeding your adult dog. They are pretty simple really.
GOAL NUMBER ONE is brilliant health ... both short and long term.
Short term, no dental problems, no skin problems, no ear problems, no eye problems, no bowel problems, in fact no health problems of any description plus a dog that is full of energy, bright, alert, active etc..
Long term, this healthy state should continue into advanced old age without any major disease problems. That is, no heart disease, no kidney disease, no diabetes or arthritis etc.. Dental health should also continue into old age. Poor dental health goes hand in hand with poor general health.
GOAL NUMBER TWO is that your dog should maintain a steady weight, throughout it's life. That is, it's ideal weight. This will be achieved through a combination of eating and exercise.
Those Aims are Achievable.
To maximize your dog's health, including dental health, to prolong it's active healthy life, to maintain ideal body weight and minimize health problems including the degenerative disease processes of old age, your dog should be fed a diet based on raw meaty bones, the way it always has been for dogs.... until recently.
In addition, you should consider the addition of extra vitamins, particularly the anti-oxidant vitamins A, C and E, together with B complex, particularly B1, B5 and B6.
FEEDING DOGS IS SO EASY!
As I stated in the introduction, this book should consist of about three lines. Those lines would read as follows.............
"If you feed your dog on a diet consisting of about 60% raw meaty bones, with the rest being made up of good quality human food scraps... you will have a healthy trouble free dog."
Those few words embody all of the principles I have outlined earlier in the book. That is......
Principle Number One
The bulk of your dog's diet should be raw meaty bones.
Those raw bones with meat supply the bulk of your dog's dietary needs, including it's energy requirements, it's protein requirements, it's mineral requirements [and that includes all the calcium it needs], and if the meat and bones are derived from chickens, most of it's essential fatty acid requirements. Great stuff!
Bones have many other benefits of course, including most importantly dental health.
Principle Number Two
Feed your dog a wide variety of foods, based on the type and quantity of foods a wild dog would eat.
That is, lots of green vegetables [to mimic stomach contents of prey, some offer, [liver, kidneys etc.], meat, eggs, milk brewer's yeast, yogurt and small amounts of grains and legumes... etc..
The important point to remember is that apart from raw meaty bones, no other single food item should ever become the main part of your dog's diet.
Principle Number Three
Most of your dog's food should be raw.
Principle Number Four
Your dog should have a balanced diet over all, but not every meal needs to be balanced. Balance is better achieved over time, during the consumption of lots of different meals.
Principle Number Five
Watch your dog and vary it's diet accordingly.
This mostly refers to it's weight. If your dog is becoming too heavy, you must feed it less food, less energy-rich food and you must feed it less frequently. It also refers to more subtle indicators of health such as the state of the coat. For example a dry lusterless coat would indicate that not enough essential fatty acids were being fed, and you would increase eggs or chicken or oil etc. accordingly.
The above information is from Dr. Ian Billinghurst's book
GIVE YOUR DOG A BONE
Copyright © Ian Billinghurst 1993