Pheobe, the golden/chow

[Joan]

Re: Dog food for diabetic dog and nondiabetic dog!!

I have 10 pugs and have both home cooked and fed high quality kibble. Not going to post opinions on which is better or more nutritious. But homemade is certainly more work! I would wake up on the middle of the night thinking I may have forgotten one ingredient etc. Fridge is always full of containers LOL

But on the cost, the kibble ( I used Orijen) is way cheaper. ON the homemade, by the time you buy the chicken, veggies etc and then you must add calcium, vitamins & minerals, enzymes, probiotics, omega 3s etc, I think it cost me at least double to home cook. My ten are probably the same as your 2 bigger dogs. Plus I have several on different diets for different conditions. So much fun, but so worth it.

[Hollyfaucheux]

Re: Dog food for diabetic dog and nondiabetic dog!!

Thanks for the advise! I think we are going yo try turkey over chicken to get more meat at a time and use a pressure cooker! Maybe then I won't feel like I am making dog food every other day!!! At least I am hopefully!!! If not... We will just start buying the expensive dog food! Which we figure it actually wouldn't be a whole lot more then what we are doing now, but without all the work!!

[Hollyfaucheux]

Re: Dog food for diabetic dog and nondiabetic dog!!

One more question... As I do feefd both of them at 7 and 7 .... They both get 2 1\2 cups morning and night... They both seem to be staving! Pheobe (the diabetic one) has even gotten into cat food that wasd WELL hidden a few time which made her sugar sky rocket!! Should I start giving them a mid day meal/snack? They get frozen green beans as treats once or twice s day... But when it starts getting close to the 7pm feed its like they won't leave the lichen and spanky will even star crying sometimes... U just can tell they are hungry. And my boyfriend said it might just be BC they are getting "people" food but I just think its more then that... As long as pheobe doesn't get into anything her sugar is normally pretty good with these feeds...

[jesse girl]

Re: Dog food for diabetic dog and nondiabetic dog!!

thats the choice to have better control of blood sugar or not

if they are not loosing weight they are not starving

a friend of mine had a pit bull she would eat until her belly would explode if you let her my jesse is the same way always looking for a meal

trying to change a routine to more structured can be very difficult because if a dog is used to being fed at different times and gets treats they expect it and not easily cleared from the mind because they are creatures of habit

i just spent a week with family and i took jesse she ran higher for most of the time back home back to normal . she had quite a few extra treats on vacation

just to add one more thing my dogs only eat one meal a day and get a snack . would they like more yes but this is what works for us keeping them healthy and happy

[Hollyfaucheux]

Re: Dog food for diabetic dog and nondiabetic dog!!

I see she gets 3 shots a day.... Are u not feeding her with shotsd? It was my understanding that u are suppose to give food with insulin? Sorry... I am doing this on my own until we find a new vet BC ours would not treat phoebe with human insulin and wouldn't allow home testing. We just simply could not afford the way he wanted to treat her! So this forum has been my savior in all this!!!

And pheobe did lose a little weight, but she also needed to lose a few pounds!

[amydunn19]

Re: Dog food for diabetic dog and nondiabetic dog!!

Just a bit of perspective - a lot of us have been doing this for a minute and have discovered our dogs need a different routine than the typical routine that we initially started with. Through extensive testing and lots of trial and error, we found that certain things work for our dogs but may not work for everybody. My Maggie has four small meals per day and two shots. We started with two meals twelve hours apart and some dogs work perfectly on that schedule. We did not so we changed.

[jesse girl]

Re: Dog food for diabetic dog and nondiabetic dog!!

yes jesse maybe the only diabetic on one meal a day . for her it was more of a digestive issue . my theory for jesse who had acute pancreatitis is to feed less meals so digestion of food is not occurring as much

now this method is conflicting with the thought of giving smaller but more meals . my strategy was to feed her something highly nutritious so the amount of food is not that large for a single meal

she has not had an attack with this method and for us that is the risk more so than diabetes the funny thing is it improved her blood sugar which was a bonus with a dog with very unstable sugar

she does receive a smaller dose with a snack in the morning a full meal in the evening with half dose then the rest a couple hours later because she use to drop quite a bit after a dose of insulin and meal but now she rises but i have kept the split for safety reasons because i do not trust this disease

as amy suggested many have altered the routine to fit there pups reality. i really dont post jesses method to promote it but to show there are alternatives to pups that are struggling . most do well on a 12 /12 routine and live happy healthy lives

[Hollyfaucheux]

Re: Dog food for diabetic dog and nondiabetic dog!!

I am going to do a curve on her tomorrow and see her number s and go from there I guess... I haven't done a curve in a while and I don't test her that often BC she seems to be happy and full of engery. I have only tested her when we knew she got into the cat food! So I will see what tomorrow brings and I !may do some adjusting to there food after that! Thanks for the advice!!

[Shellie]

Re: Dog food for diabetic dog and nondiabetic dog!!

One thing you can do is calculate calories in order to be sure you are feeding them enough. One fantastic site is http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/ They have everything here to help you figure out food.

Like I said, it's calories more than the actual amount of food. You can feed more of a lower calorie food which may satisfy the dog's 'hunger'. Or you can always try more meals that are smaller thru out the day. It's really a trial and error sort of thing with the food. Think we've pretty much seen it all here! LOL One meal a day...free feeders ... two meals...three...!

One thing on the site above is that you can really investigate which foods might be more cost effective without sacrificing quality.

Good luck!

[Hollyfaucheux]

Pheobes dog food

Hi, does anyone use blue buffalo food? Pheobs will NOT eat the diet food and the one she did eat (kind of) did not fill her up and she was constantly begging for food! I used to cook her food, but I have another dog ( Phoebe is a golden/chow and Spanky is a lab mix) and cooking for 2 big dogs really got to be way to much!! I was cooking more for them then myself! So I need a little help! Her numbers for the most part are fine ( it jumps up here and there, but not a lot) any suggestions??

[CraigM]

Re: Dog food for diabetic dog and nondiabetic dog!!

You seem to have several threads open, so I combined your newest post into your previous thread. Much easier to look back,at your history if we don't have to search through several threads

There are many types of Blue Buffalo food. I used Blue Buffalo Healthy Weight dry kibble for several years. Lower fat, higher fiber is what many look for, but forum members use a wide range of foods. Guess there isn't just one correct one.

Craig

[abdamurph]

Re: Dog food for diabetic dog and nondiabetic dog!!

Every dog is different Murphy has been on regular Blue Buffalo before diabetes and after and he has been regulated and doing very well. So you don't necessarily have to feed them anything special, just make sure it is a good quality food and do your regular BG curves to check the numbers. I would guess that most people with dogs that do have diabetic dogs do not feed any special diabetic dog food, to me that is a waste of money.

[Hollyfaucheux]

Re: Pheobe, the golden/chow

Hi everyone! its been a little while since I have been on here, which is a good thing I guess! but all of a sudden phoebes numbers are way high again. she wasn't eating the dieting food so we put her back on blue buffalo which was working before the vet just wanted us to try the diet stuff bc it was "better" for her... but she has been back on blue buffalo for about 3 weeks or so and all of a sudden the last 3 days she has been drinking A LOT, peeing while she is sleeping, and her numbers are in the 500... not "all day" mainly at night is when its the worse... any advice???

[amydunn19]

It may not be the food. It could be an infection - ear, skin or UTI. That is usually the problem when they go way up with no explanation. Have you done a curve?

[Hollyfaucheux]

Re: Pheobe, the golden/chow

no, I plan on doing one today. she gets her insulin and meals at 7am-7pm.. so I will post results tonight!