Re: BILJAC for dogs and other food question


anyone feed BILJAC and have bad or good experiences with it? My trainer
said it was a step up from the Purina Pro Plan that I have been using for
Maui and Cali so I am considering making the switch. She said it was
good
because you can feed less since it doesn't expand in the stomach like
others
do.

also, my trainer also mentioned that she likes to add things in her dog
food
so that it is not dry/plain all the time. I know I would hate to eat the
same thing every day twice a day and I know Maui would love the idea too
(he
seems disinterested in eating lately).

......Isn't Maui the dog that was getting picky about food? Since you
stopped pandering to her isn't she eating better? Are you unhappy with
the
way she looks on the food she on?

Maui started skipping meals. He wasn't getting any treats or people food
either when he skipped meals (I was being very good about that).


I'm not against variety at all and I
think most dogs benefit from having fresh foods added to their kibble, but
I
think you need to make a decision about what dog food to use based on YOUR
research, not just the suggestion of someone else.

a big part of my research is to ask others for their experiences.


You could do worse than
take a look at some of the links and information at this website:
http://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html There's also a list of books.



great link, thank you.




........I don't think dogs really care, BTW, about eating the same thing
every day. They don't respond to commercials, ads of (supposedly) tasty
foods like we do and think they have to have them. They don't wake up in
the morning wanting some eggs and bacon added to their kibble or have a
yet
for a Happy Meal. So don't make these decisions based on what you think
you
would want if you were a dog.

that's a good point.


I think the primary reason to add fresh foods
to kibble is based on health. I don't think any dog food company knows
what
the magic formula for health is for your dog. What works for someone
else's
dog may not work for yours. And I think you have to be especially careful
not to make Maui into a picky eater again.

........I took a look at one of their dog foods. This is the Bil Jac
Select
version:
Fresh Chicken By-Products (Organ Meat Only), Fresh Chicken, Corn, Chicken
By-Product Meal, Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed), Fresh Chicken Liver,
Brewers Dried Yeast, Cane Molasses, Eggs, Salt, Sodium Propionate (a
preservative), DL-Methionine, L-Lysine, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3
Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Niacin, Biotin,
Choline Chloride, Folic Acid, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine
Hydrochloride, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Menaione, sodium
Bisulfate Complex, (source of Vitamin K), D-Calcium Pantothenate,
Manganous
Oxide, Inositol, BHA (a preservative), Iron Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Zinc
Oxide, Cobalt Carbonate, Potassium Iodine, Sodium Selenite.

........I don't understand the first thing on the list - Fresh Chicken
By-Products (organ Meat Only). What is that? Kidneys, livers and lungs
are
organs. The medical definition of organ is any part of the body
performing
a specialized function, so I suppose that would include the heart. But
when
you consider a part of the body for food, both the heart and the gizzard
are
really muscle meats. Then there's glands, which are secreting organs, but
I'd think they'd have a hard time separating out the pancreas, sex organs,
thymus (if chickens even have one) from the whole bird. Really, only
kidney
and liver are so rich that they need to be limited in the diet and they've
added liver separately.

........Fresh chicken is also around 70% water, so if you look at the
first
2 ingredients on the label, they're both heavy with water. Next is corn,
next is chicken by-product meal, which is added dried and would have a
higher nutritional value than the 2 fresh chicken items, since they list
the
ingredients in order by weight. Since they split the chicken into 3
parts,
it looks like there's a lot of chicken, but in reality there's probably
more
corn than chicken.

........This food also has brewers yeast, which I'm not fond of, as it's
often an allergy source for dogs. Also uses BHA for a preservative. All
kibbles need some kind of preservative, unless they tell you to chuck the
bag in the freezer after it's open. It's a matter of choosing which ones
you'll put up with.

........You might be better off preparing dog food yourself. Many of the
books listed on that website are about this subject. First, though, I
think
you need to take a discriminating look at dog food itself and do a little
on-line comparison and reading.



thanks for all that info. I really need to learn more about this topic
before I can compare products. Its all a foreign language to me. thanks
for the start in the right direction!


.

Relevant Pages

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