So I'm with the program everybody. Nothing could beat the happiness I get out of watching my dog eat happily. He's always been a really picky eater on kibble eating only when he was starving, and even would retch in the middle of the night often, though would only throw up little bits of foamy mucous or nothing at all.. Even when we switched him to really premium kibble (that cost us more than meat and had to be shipped- I won't mention the name of as I don't feel it's necessary to malign one poor company for what I think is just a bad idea generally) he wouldn't eat much and was still sick often. Now he loves to eat, he doesn't throw up in the middle of the night and that's good enough for me. Only thing that could be better is if his health improves in other areas as well, but that's just icing compared to the simple problems already solved.
Well here's what I'm thinking next about is bacteria. I know that dogs are naturally less apt to have trouble with this sort of thing than people. But as I understand it, part of that is because meat doesn't stay with them as long in digestion, and part of that is their very intense digestion, but part of that is probably having very established colonies of probiotics in the gut that doesn't allow for competition from invading problematic bacteria. (Is that correct even?)
I can't help but wonder if being raised to adulthood on sterilized foods prepare their insides for the assault that comes from the strengthened bad stuff that humans have created with 'clean living'- abusing antibiotics, germicides as common cleanser, etc.. Some bacteria in modern foods is probably even worse when it's there, then what you'd find in nature.
I hope this is read as I intend it to sound- I'm not second guessing my decisions, I'm just wondering if this is a concern for other people as well. What do you guys do? Giving live yogurt or other probiotics, leaning more towards wild caught foods (from the ocean or woods), going organic or free range, or just not worrying about it? I'm not that worried about the cost of his food because he's a very small dog and doesn't eat that much, but I don't want to spend more on a scam, so to speak, either.
Just curious whether this has come up before, and whether there are different schools of thought on this among the meat and bone feeders.
Well here's what I'm thinking next about is bacteria. I know that dogs are naturally less apt to have trouble with this sort of thing than people. But as I understand it, part of that is because meat doesn't stay with them as long in digestion, and part of that is their very intense digestion, but part of that is probably having very established colonies of probiotics in the gut that doesn't allow for competition from invading problematic bacteria. (Is that correct even?)
I can't help but wonder if being raised to adulthood on sterilized foods prepare their insides for the assault that comes from the strengthened bad stuff that humans have created with 'clean living'- abusing antibiotics, germicides as common cleanser, etc.. Some bacteria in modern foods is probably even worse when it's there, then what you'd find in nature.
I hope this is read as I intend it to sound- I'm not second guessing my decisions, I'm just wondering if this is a concern for other people as well. What do you guys do? Giving live yogurt or other probiotics, leaning more towards wild caught foods (from the ocean or woods), going organic or free range, or just not worrying about it? I'm not that worried about the cost of his food because he's a very small dog and doesn't eat that much, but I don't want to spend more on a scam, so to speak, either.
Just curious whether this has come up before, and whether there are different schools of thought on this among the meat and bone feeders.
:wink:
