Does anyone know where I could get either premium dry dog food or Raw diet food for a dog in Aviano, Italy?

Question

I am trying to get dog off of all that corn and grain filled garbage dog food, but I have no idea where to get the "premium" dog foods (i.e. Go! Natural Endurance, Orijen, etc...) that don't have grain, corn, and have human-grade ingredients and/or where to get Raw diet food like chicken necks, bones, all the stuff that doesn't normally sell. I have no idea if there is an Italian "butcher" so to speak anywhere around here I could get all of that from, but the closest thing is the commissary and they don't sell that. Also, I cannot have the premium dry food shipped over here. Has anyone done this before in Aviano or have any ideas??

Answer 1

Well I assume you have goats and sheep and chickens and rabbits, etc in Italy, so there must be someone who processes these aninmals for food?



Try searching for a meat/poultry processing plant, abbattoir, or butcher. See if there are any game keepers who would allow you to buy birds from a shoot, or farmers with ducks and chickens they would sell you (pre-killed).



I am sure there must be a way to get good raw food for your dog and this is how nature intended them to eat, as you rightly say.



Good luck and happy hunting !

#

Answer 2

This might be a bit long and not all relevant -- but there is a lot to take into consideration here. No dog fed enough bone content will get the runs. It is also likely as you had four dogs with similar symptoms that it is something to do with how quick you changed over or the food that you are using. It is virtually impossible for a raw diet to have adverse effects on four dogs otherwise. This is about changing over although not all may be relevant to you at the moment. Kibble contains sometimes more than half its weight in carbohydrates, carbohydrates is not by nature on the menu of carnivores. Carbohydrates can only be digested in the dogs stomach by enzymes that only function well at pH levels that are close to neutral (pH6-7) whilst a natural raw diet for carnivores requires a strong acidity (pH 1-2) for the enzymes to digest raw food. When a dog has been programmed to expect a meal mainly of carbohydrates at 8am the pancreas will produce the enzymes that can do the job of digesting carbohydrates and the stomach will adjust the pH level to around 6. This happens shortly before 8am every day. If you suddenly start to feed an adult dog a raw meaty bone diet it will be a shock to the dogs digestive system as the stomach is programmed to digest Carbohydrates. The enzymes produced by the pancreas and other glands are wrong and the pH level in the stomach is wrong hence the dogs may vomit the food to deal with the problem. Most enzymes are extremely sensitive to pH and if the pH is off what they need they will not function this is why feeding both raw with biscuit or kibble is a contradiction a stomach's ph must be one or the other. The problem is not the food but the past feeding program and biologically wrong food. Some adults dogs will make the switch to a raw diet with no problems at all but ideally it is best to de-condition the reflex responses created by unnatural predictable feeding by varying the times when you feed by feeding an hour earlier for a few days then perhaps 2 hours early on another day, the stomach is already full by the time the usual feeding time arrives but try to avoid feeding later. It does not take long, just a few days, to break the conditioned reflex of producing enzymes for carbohydrates that may have been established for several years. Add on. It is virtually impossible for any of us to say "this worked for my dogs and this didn't" when we are talking multi-dog household. If someone said "Raw was great for 3 of my dogs but the 4th one didn't get on with it" then I accept that. So something else has to be the cause, otherwise the rest of us wouldn't be having all our dogs fine on it.

Answer 3

you could invest in a book about cooking for you dog or otherwise feeding a raw food diet. here are some resources for you to check out:

Dr. Pitcairn’s Guide to natural Health for Dogs and Cat

Sue Johnson's Switching to Raw

Dr. Ian Billinghurst, two books - Give Your Dog a Bone; Grow Your Pups With Bones

http://www.canismajor.com/dog/barf.html



For menu idea and so you can see what it looks like - http://www.auntjeni.com/barf.htm



recipes for cooked food - http://dog-care.suite101.com/article.cfm/homemade_dog_food_recipes

http://dog-care.suite101.com/article.cfm/homemade_dog_food



Best of luck! Buon Giorno!

Leigh

Answer 4

Orijen was recalled for KILLING cats in australia, so mch for a premimum food



Also Zea Mays is CORN. So much for being an "HONEST company"



There seem to be several myths and half truths about how dangerous corn, corn gluten and other corn by products are for dogs. Dogs are not carnivores, cats are. Corn is dangerous for cats and causes several diseases and conditions, but it is completely safe for dogs, and is even extremely beneficial to your dog’s health.



There will always be debates if dogs are carnivores or omnivores, but the fact is they are really both. There are three classifications of animals based and their diets: carnivores eat meat, omnivorous eat most anything edible, and herbivores eat primarily plants.



Have you ever met a dog that will not eat almost anything? Certainly we, as owners, must watch what they eat and be careful in what we feed them, but they are not cats.



If your dog ate only plants and grains, it would jeopardize their health. But they don’t and they need several different foods in their diets, including corn products.



Here are some of the myths and the actual benefits of some corn; the key word is some, in your dog’s diets.



Myths about Corn

Corn is filler and your dog can not digest it.

True, if the corn used in your pet was whole corn. Most of us can not digest whole corn either. But the truth is that all corn in dogs food is ground, meaning that it is finely ground and designed specifically to digest in your pet’s stomach. Ground corn is 99% digestible. Corn is perhaps the best source of carbohydrates for your dog.



Your dog does not need carbohydrates.

False, dogs do need carbohydrates, as the Linoleic acid in complex carbohydrates like corn provides your pet with both fiber as well as amino acids. It is also essential for helping your pet with keeping the skin and coats healthy as well as several other benefits.



Carbohydrates also help your pet’s liver, heart, brain and nerve tissues function properly. They also regulate how much starch and fat is broken down and utilized in their digestive tract. It is than stored in the liver in the form of glycogen and released as energy as your pet needs it.



Corn gluten is extremely bad for your dog.

Nothing could be further form the truth. First of all, it is not corn, but is a product that goes through an entire series of corn wet milling processes and has numerous benefits for your dog.



Raw food diets are much better for your dog than commercial dog foods as they contain absolutely no corn products.

Absolutely false, as raw dog food diets put your pet at a very high risk of infections as well as potential poisonings, especially from salmonella.



Corn causes allergies in your dog.

Amazing how wrong this one is. Several studies have shown conclusively that over 70 percent of all dog food allergies are caused by either dairy, beef, or wheat products. 25 percent are caused by chicken, eggs, lamb, or soy products. That leaves about five percent. All dogs, just as humans may be allergic to something, but corn can not be found in 95 percent of all the causes.



Benefits of Corn

Corn is by far and away the best form of a carbohydrate that your dog could get. It is 99 percent digestible according to Animal Science, August, 1999, as well as holding more protein content. The protein content is also 87 percent digestible, and is literally twenty times less likely to cause allergy reaction in dogs as wheat does.



Corn also contains five times as much essential fatty acids as rice, and has extremely high levels of luceine and lucopene, which are both very important forms of antioxidants for your pet.



But the best benefits of corn or corn by products come from corn gluten. Corn gluten is actually a co-product of corn wet milling. In this milling process, corn is cleaned and than steeped in a water and sulfur dioxide mixture which breaks down the corn seed. Once it is broken down, it is than dried into a mush form called protein gluten.



So exactly why is it used in dog food?

It is used because of its protein content, and it is also very economical. It also has high levels of methionine, which is instrumental in breaking down fats as well as removing heavy metals from your pets system. It also converts to cysteine, which helps to detoxify your dogs liver.



Corn gluten is also very low in ash and has a full complement of vitamins as well as lutein, critical for your dog’s eye health.



There are other benefits to having some corn products in your dog’s food. Because of the reduction of other fillers, corn products in your pet’s food will help protect against skin and food allergies as well as helping their coats to become softer and shinier.



It also helps their eyes brighten and clear up, as well as increasing hydration in your pet. There are also several people that claim that corn causes stool problems in dogs, when it actually helps to reduce stools in their size.



There are several Internet sources that bash any type of corn filler in dog food in every way imaginable. But, it is simply not true. The real problem is the other fillers that are added.



Unless you make your own dog food, the vast majority of people will buy commercial dog food. Commercial dog food is going to have additives and corn is going to be one of them. Ask yourself, which is the better additive?



Always check the ingredients, but understand that the myths about corn are just that, myths.



In australia so called ultra premimum have cost their animals lives. Not everyone has the luxury of having this fancy brands, yet the dogs and cats here in australia tend to reach well into their 18yrs+, on the so called "crap brands" yet many are dying before 10yrs with these NEW ultra premimum diets? Explain that?