What to feed
We recommend feeding your dog a very high quality
diet. Generally, a grocery store brand of food is not going to provide your dog with quality ingredients needed for optimum
health. We highly recommend the following foods for your dog, regardless of breed.
We personally do not feed a dry food to our dogs,
but feed a raw diet. This diet is sometimes referred to as BARF (bones and raw food). Our dogs will be fed approximately 3%
of their adult body weight. A normal meal will consist of the following meats:
Most of the time, chicken leg quarters are fed
and we will add the other muscle and organ meats when we have them available. We have found through investigative research
on our own part, that this diet is the best for our dogs. Every foster dog that comes into our own home is put on this diet
as well. Dogs have come into our home with tartar-covered teeth in terrible condition, within a weeks time of being on raw,
they are clean and white. It adds weight gently and slowly and the dog is getting the absolute most nutrition out of their
food with very little waste. The clean up in the yard will be a testimony to this.
We will offer a number of links that have a great
amoung of information on this type of diet and the benefits of it. We don't insist that everyone feed their dog this diet
as that is a personal preference. But we will let you make that decision once you have seen the information regarding it and
the sense it makes. Many resources are listed here to educate yourself on a proper diet for your dog. Please take advantage
of them.
We also like to treat our dogs to Bravo raw food
products. They make great mixes and have quite an extensive list of ingredients. The dogs love them and their vegetable blends
make adding green foods to your dogs diet easy and convenient.
You can view their website at www.bravorawdiet.com
You can contact Bridget Moran at bissrottie@sbcglobal.net for your purchase of Bravo Raw Foods in the southeastern Wisconsin and northeastern
Illinois area. Please tell her you saw her on the AllSaints Saint Bernard Rescue website.
The following is a personal testimony from a
woman who had adopted a dog fostered through us. We explained the raw diet to her and she has been having a great success
with it ever since.
Our adopted Saint Bernard, Daisy,
came to us eating raw. I had never heard of this type of feeding before and was floored to discover how unhealthy the expensie
food we were currently feeding our golden retriever was. Our golden, Jasper, continually developed hot spots, chewing himself
raw, with each spot costing almost $70.00 at the vet's office and (obviously) causing Jasper pain. While adopting Daisy we
decided to try the raw feeding. Jasper took to it quickly. While somewhat intimidating at first, websites and Daisy's foster
family helped us know the proper raw diet. After raw feeding for 6 months, not only do our dogs have the most beautiful white
teeth, but they are healthy, fit and hot spot free. While we spend a little more time preparing food than simply scooping
dry, we are paid back by healthier dogs, fewer vet trips, less time cleaning up after the dogs in the yard and knowing that
we are doing everything we can for our dogs.
We personally started feeding raw over two years
ago. I was always concerned about feeding my pets something good for them and I thought I was doing so by feeding a popular
bagged food that you can buy at pet supply stores. We had adopted a cocker spaniel from rescue and before she came to us,
her foster home was feeding her raw also. I had heard of the diet, but wasn't really interested in feeding it myself. I thought
it was too much work. We had taken her home and within a few weeks of being back on a "scientific" dry food, she came down
with really bad skin allergies and smelled terrible. She also came down with a bilateral ear infection (infections in both
ears) and we seriously thought she had had a stroke and were sadly prepared to have her put down. I contacted her foster home
and they suggested putting her back on a raw diet, so we did. I picked up a book called "Give Your Dog a Bone" by Ian Billinghurst,
and did a lot of research myself. As of January 1, 2003, all of our dogs went onto raw foods and we've been passionate about
it ever since. My cocker no longer has any of the skin/ear problems that she did while on bagged food, and my Saint Bernards
stopped gettng hot spots and smelling "doggy". All of our fosters go onto this diet immediately after coming into our home.
It is a very good way to detox their systems after being fed a poor quality dry food in their past homes. We take our animals
health seriously and it starts with proper nutrition.
For those who have never heard of raw feeding
or didn't think they'd have the time/patience/money for it, it's definitely worth a look. It's simple to do, best for your
dog and much more economical to feed than buying bags and bags of store bought dry foods.
