Basenji Feeding

We were in Menard's building and supply store and noticed they are carrying Colorado Naturals Chicken Jerky type treats. We did check the label and it said all USA Chicken Breast. They also had the pork and it was all USA as well. They each sold for $10.99 per bag but we did not pay attention to size of the bag. From what we remember it was pretty good size. So if there is a Menard's near you, you might want to check for this all USA product if you happen to feed these treats. Debra, thanks for the search engine tip. We sorry to hear that you have massive liver damage. We know currently that Byetta used to treat type II diabetics has been named in several law suits. Hopefully you were never on that drug.

Another consideration is that there are more virulent strains of bacteria now, e.g. E coli 0157 H7, which is a very nasty bug. I would never feed a dog raw beef from feedlot cattle for this reason.

I throw away the last 2 inches of bullysticks so they don't swallow them whole, so started buying the 12 inch ones as they last longer and I am throwing away less overall! I like that they can gnaw them for a long time, mine don't really like antlers.

I eat these often. i cook them up in the pan with just a bit of salt and pepper. the meat is very lean, and to get the best flavour out of it, i cook up the lean with some of the fat on a pre-heated pan. afterwards,i lightly season with salt and pepper. almost as good as a real steak!

I don’t make up any recipes myself. I usually take other people’s recipes and modify them to fit what I think is best for my dogs.

The word "Made in China" doesn't appear on any human or dog/cat food that comes into our house. I even question things that say don't say they are "Made in China" but say something like "Distributed by So and So company, anyplace". I need to know the maker of the food is getting the ingredients from North America and that the food is manufactured and packaged in North America. More recently I am not buying other products Made in China (e.g. drinking glasses, plates, coffee cups, food containers, etc.) but this can be way more difficult. :(

And many of the premium canned foods are fine to mix it… I happen to make my own "wet" mix and I always recommend that dry is mixed with something regardless if you make it yourself or use a good canned food.... Cause it gets pretty boring to just eat the same old dry day after day after day (In my opinion)

We switched our 2 boys to raw from kibble about 6 months ago. The switch came because we were simply exhausted from walking them 3 times a day because they had loose stool (we don't have fenced in yard, so we need to walk them to go to the bathroom). Our vet recommended more fiber in their diet to help with loose stool. This intuitively just didn't resonate with us. Basenji are one of the most ancient breeds of dog… why on earth would more fiber be a solution to their problem (I know the theoretical why, but logically it was counter-intuitive)? We read many sources or literature on the raw diet and thought this would be a good switch for them. Again, they are an ancient breed so moving toward raw foods seemed appropriate and logical. It took that about a month for them to get really accustomed to eating raw chicken quarters, rabbit halves or pork shoulders but now they have no problem gulping their meal right down, bone and all (for those of you who don't feed raw, gulping is a normal behavior and bone is an essential part of the diet). Their digestion issues have vanished and we've even seen marked improvement in their destructive behavior. Two super happy boys now, two super happy Basenji owners!!

That is precisely why I didn't feed them together generally– raw was a meal, kibble a meal.

I am a bit confused about raw goat milk in GA. I remember not that many years ago looking into it for making butter and being told it was illegal to buy it. So I went to look and I guess you can buy it for your dog, but I do admit that the issues with raw would have me not thinking any benefits were worth the risk to my bitch. http://www.realmilk.com/milk-laws-1.html#ga http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/consumers/ucm079516.htm

Another interesting…..and scary......development in the food chain is illustrated here: http://www.dailypaul.com/191918/dr-mercola-interviews-dr-huber-about-gmo The implications for animal (and human) health are alarming. My friend who raises goats had been mystified about the causes of a Clostridium outbreak she had in her herd a few years ago. This article cleared up the confusion for her: "For example, toxic botulism is now becoming a more common cause of death in dairy cows whereas such deaths used to be extremely rare. The reason it didn't occur before was because beneficial organisms served as natural controls to keep the Clostridium botulinum in check. Without them, the Clostridium botulinum is allowed to proliferate in the animal's intestines and produce lethal amounts of toxins." Her comment was "it explains why suddenly in 2009 we had problems with clostridium in the goats….when we'd never had trouble before...it was the feed, it was a corn distiller based feed....probably high in GMO corn! " If farmed fish are being fed GMO corn, I know I wouldn't want my dog consuming food containing those fish. Unfortunately, GMO crops are probably present in most animal protein currently being processed into dog food. (and human food, unless you stick to organic!)

I emailed the person listed in the original post to find out if she wrote the first warning. She did write it- here is her reply: But after eating the food…the 6 dogs here got sick, and two died within a week of each other. Different ages and breeds. After putting it out on the internet...3 more dogs have eaten the food and died. Many just got sick. So use your judgement. But the only thing in common seems to be Kirkland Lamb and rice with exp. 2013. We are waiting to hear results on testing...but that takes time. In the meantime...this food has been sold in Nov-Dec. 2011 and is on the shelves in our homes. So to save other lives...I would warn everyone you know that feeds it.

This was the answer from The Honest Kitchen, via their Facebook page: Me: _This article came up in a discussion on one of my dog forums: (link) It was pointed out that the Honest Kitchen appears to use a pre-mix, given the list of minerals and additives at the end of your ingredients lists. I know you have a very thorough list on your website about the countries from where you source your ingredients, but I was wondering if you could respond directly to the concerns raised in this article about mineral and additive sources?_ Their answer: Great question! We have an affidavit from our premix supplier that ALL the components are from European and North American Sources with the exception of one, which is from Israel. The components are blended right here in the USA. As with every ingredient in our diets, no part of our premix is derived from or has even been near to, China.

My dogs are on different foods so I almost always buy the smaller bags. There is a health food store near me that usually has the smaller bags for sale. For some reason many of the petfood stores near me do not put the smaller bags on sale. Jennifer

Do you have the water bowl raised? I did this for my elderly BRAT foster and it helped tremendously and have since kept it elevated since most of my Bs are older. Jennifer

I use Fastrack liquid dispersible. Although the container is expensive, (about $44 shipped http://www.marvalstables.com/happybellies/what_does_it_cost.htm ) one canister should last you many months, I estimate about 6, with one dog. Testimonial== had ROTTWEILER (ie massively more air and smell produced lol) who was so bad we would not let her even sleep in the HALLWAY. When we had a sick pony we put on the horse formula, I decided to try my dogs on the liquid dispersible. The gas stopped. Okay I know that it is very healthy, new studies on HUMANS show probiotics may have some really impressive results beyond just healthy digestion. But I won't lie. We kept it in stock to prevent Rottweiler gas. Yogurt sounds good, but the daily cost comes to far more than Fastrack even if you get them on sale at 75 cents or less.

Well after waiting a bit, I finally got the salmon ears http://www.salmonears.com/products.html today. I was wiped out, going to take a nap, thought– let me give them one so they are happy. Big mistake. They first were like "wth?" Then, they went wild. They ate one, would not stop scenting and looking for more. I had to make them get under the covers. They got up. They searched the bed, the floor, they scented. I gave up, got up, got another and took pics. I am going to place an order for 2 friends I had TOLD I'd share a few of mine with. Um, no. Not sharing mine. Until now, their fave thing has been the dried Canyon chicken breast jerky or Waggin trains. Since both from China, stopped them. They will eat any treat, but those made them happy. Guess what? They are happy again. Will they work for training? There are large and small sizes. I am going to use the small for training, but the big ones created very very happy dogs.