Basenji Feeding

@snorky998: There's a popular belief that our dogs live up to their names. It could be your 'Ringo' is just putting up the drum beat, poot by poot!:D:D LOL. Nice.

Happy that all is well and going so great since the food bowl solved. Have fun. Rita Jean

@Varanus: So I have Yoshi on Canidae All Life Stages right now, and I don't think it's the food for him. He's doing better on it than on the lower-meat-content Three Dog Bakery food I was using, but it isn't making him as happy and healthy as it could. For various reasons, I don't think I can do a raw diet right now, so I'm interested in kibble recommendations. I'm willing to spend money to get good food for him to thrive on, but I'm also not made of cash. Recommendations? B's are funny about there food, I only feed dry food and use Wellness brand, which has been good for my B's, Try a newpaper under the bowl so it wond shift around, that may help. If he hungry enough he will eventually eat. Good luck.

I have been feeding my dogs Diamond Brand Chicken and Rice small breed, according to that website it's not the greatest but not the worst. I might try the Orijen brand and see if my dogs like it, Cooper and missy will eat anything but Abby is more picky that's why I went with the diamond brand cuz she likes it and she will eat it! :)

One time, I left Loki & Freya in the car while having a quick meeting before a road trip. Unfortunately, I had forgotten a 3/4-full 20-ounce latte in the cup holder. Loki generously helped himself to the whole thing! There was not a single drop left!!! And I really needed that caffeine jolt! Unsurprisingly, a 3 hour road trip with a B "bouncing off the walls" and diarrhea turned into a 4 hour ordeal. :-) Loki & Freya's Mom

It would depend if you have "trained" your pup to eat raw bones. Most dogs that have never eaten raw bones - don't understand that they are suppose to consume the bone too not just the meat. I wouldn't start with necks. I would check the Primal.com and read their suggestions for feeding and training dogs to eat raw bones. Good luck

Wonderful news! Topper gets 4-5 pills twice a day and he too is very suspicious. I alternate things, but a tiny bit of cream cheese with a couple of pills in it, dunked in left-over pot roast gravy, is the best I have found. When all else fails, I dunk the pills in a bite of vanilla ice cream. Keep up the great work with Tayda!

We give Shaye about a heaping teaspoon of pumpkin in her kibble to firm her stool, and it has helped with the anal gland issue. Also cottage cheese helps, as does a little sweet potatoe. In the first instance, when she had really bad problems, I mixed up drained boiled hamburg, rice, and cottage cheese - she loved it and cured the loose stool situation in about a day and a half. I found you can buy sweet potatoe patties in Walmart, and a half of one heated and mixed with her food in the morning, the other half in the evening, makes her eat it all up right away. Since we've been doing these things, she hasn't had anal gland problems and her stool is always firm.

Chance and Kiya get 1/2 cup/each of innova dry food in the morning after a 2 mile run and 1/2 cup each of innova dry food at night after a 3 mile walk. Usually in the mornings I mix their dry food with salmon oil and at night I mix it with nonfat plain yogurt. From what I learned salmon oil helps with their skin and joints and yogurt helps with digestion. Sometimes I also mix green beans into their food, but they don't seem to like it that much. I started giving chance a bit less per day, about 3/4 of a cup instead of a full cup, as he is getting a bit heavy.

If it's any consolation Koyu,my Kangal (Anatolian KarabasSheepdog) (who was the runt of her litter) would eat hardly anything when she came to us. We kept her going for 12 months on raw eggs (from our own free range chickens) and wholemeal biscuit. One day she showed an interest in her Basenji sisters and brothers and from then on ate normally. She also grew to normal height and weight.

If Magnum doesn't have a little something in his stomach, it's an almost sure bet he'll puke on a walk. He just gets so excited! So I've learned to give him a biscuit or two before a walk. But he doesn't get his meal 'til we get back.

You can get Fresh Digest at Petco. Prozyme you can order from Drs Foster and Smith online. Both are probiotics. The size sold at Petco is about 100 servings.

The truth is all dry dog food has been processed and heated to death as to make it a poor food item no matter how good the ingredients are. Just look at it. That dry, crunchy pellet was actually meat, veggies, etc at one time.

@agilebasenji: "I don't think that pickles would be a problem…. I find that most dogs/Basenjis like root veggies.. and pickles come from a root veggie " Uhm, Pat, I'm pretty sure pickles are made from cucumbers and cuc's are from the flower of the plant (making it a fruit to biologists, but it's a veggie to nutritionists). Of course I don't care for pickles (and cuc's don't like me too much), so I could be wrong. Opps…. you are totally correct... LOL....

lvoss: "I highly recommend a long walk with the dogs while the food cools because mine are constantly asking, "Is it done yet? Are you sure it isn't done yet? I think it might be done." I don't have to be "cooking" anything for Gossy - she jumps around asking those same questions when I'm making anything - even when it's "my" food. :)

Alright great thanks. I will try the Beechnut baby food instead.

I've noticed that dogs, including Basenjis, eat more and get chubby if they were abandoned and lived in the streets for a while, especially when they were young pups. One of my Basenjis and one of my rescues have cast iron stomachs, they aren't picky eaters, and they love food! One of my Basenjis doesn't eat a lot and I often hand feed her so I know she is getting enough nutrients.

@AndrewnShango: …A similar situation happened not long ago with the food brand "Canidae" and many, many dogs had digestive issues due to the change in recipe. I urge you to contact them if there are issues... I'm glad you mentioned this, because Canidae was my other favorite brand…

I did some research on all foods when I was about to get Otis and one of the ones I looked at was Candidae, and there are a lot of bad reviews out there regarding the effect the change in formula has had on their dogs. For a food that is that expensive, there should be no problems, except maybe the few that has food issues regardless of what food they try, there is always going to be a few of those poor pups. Either way, I choose to give/make mine their food, so they are on raw, grainless food with occasional, very occasional treat (because of Obedience training and all, don't want raw chicken or the like in my pocket…thank you very much). Sorry to hear about her obvious problem.

@JazzysMom: Is that necessary? Mine eat sizable chunks and there is no evidence it's not digested well. Like Quercus, mine raid the garden when they can. I have a fence around it, but snow peas and green beans hang out through the fence, LOL. and the blueberry bushes behind my house are never safe {I know that's fruit, but …. :p} So is a tomato:) I cook 1/2 bag of frozen broccoli, drain, and put 1 slice of american cheese to melt over the top. My dogs think it's the best treat ever. I only give each one 1/2 cup each at each feeding. 1/2 of a baked potato with broccoli mixed in is also another favorite at our house.