Hi,

I read somewhere that lamb and fish was not good for Basenji's. Any truth to this?

I currently feed my Basenji dry food with the first ingredients chicken, chicken meal, and a lot of fruit and vegetables.

I hear the best meat for them is beef or horse. If I were to make his food would I cook the beef?

I currently feed him Red Moon and he really likes it. Just looking to provide him safe varieties. I know when I make roast beef with vegetables, he devours that.

thanks.

First…welcome to the forum.

Not sure where you heard that about fish and lamb. In fact, many here feed fish based foods (me included) and also include fish oil capsules for dry winter skin. There is one member here (in Europe) that gives fish heads to her basenjis as special treat (and I'm thinking of doing that this summer for mine when they can have it outdoors).

All 4 of my basenjis LOVE, LOVE, LOVE fish - in fact, I think the fish based dry foods are their favourites (i.e. Orijen, Taste of the Wild, Barking at the Moon). When I have fresh fish in the house for dinner they always get some - shrimp, mackerel, salmon, tuna. Fish is a huge high value treat to my dogs.

I also know of plenty of basenjis that have lamb in their foods. I've used lamb lung as training treats - basically was like crack for one of my dogs - crazy crazy crazy love of it. :eek: But I have to be careful with the lamb as one of mine gets the poos from it.

My four dogs..although only one is a basenji..all eat fish and veggie (salmon in particular) based food..I mix this with turkey and veggie based food..sometimes it is only salmon, sometimes only turkey and then again sometimes it is both mixed..
They love it and has not shown any issues from it.
When Pippin came to us from Sweden he was on a lamb based food and was equally thriving then.

beef of horse? Did you mean beef OR horse?

Okay, use logic. Dogs (and all mammals) take tens of thousands of years to change on a molecular level. I am not saying we couldn't breed dogs so they only thrive on ONE protein source, but we aren't there yet and would be insane to breed for it. I want to spit at companies that produce breed specific food.. what a scam.

YES there are special needs for breeds who have some disorders (such as copper toxicity), for giant or tiny breeds, for geriatrics and very active. Yep. But in general, unless your dog is allergic to a certain protein (and BEEF is the one most allergies form to, then chicken.. but they also get allergic to lamb and venison), any high quality protein (including horses) would be fine.

I had never heard of Red Moon so looked them up… they look interesting
http://www.redmoonpetfood.com/why-redmoon.html
But I suspect their cost is much more than the quality would justify for me… however if your dog likes it, looks good. I didn't find them on the dog food comparison chart but I will ask around.
http://www.doberdogs.com/menu.html

Hi,

thanks for all the information. I saw Cesar Millan when he was in town and Red Moon was the food he was promoting, so I thought I would try it. I like that they deliver to your home at no extra cost as I don't drive.

Welcome to the forum.
My boy don't do well on lamb, but he does eat fish based foods.
That is just one out of three b's that I have, so its just him.

Cesar Milan is an abusive POC. Please, I beg you, read up, don't do his nonsense to your dear dog!
Here is a thread with links and info on trainers.
http://www.basenjiforums.com/showthread.php?t=9598

I agree Debra. Harsh treatments won't work for our beoved b's.

My girls do well on lamb, also on fish, chicken, foods with oatmeal, rice, sweet potato, various veggies (one of their "treats" is frozen green beans - they think they are koolpops. Unless you discover an allergy after feeding them something specific, our B's will tolerate lots of foods.

I was told to always look for Lamb as the main ingredient and to stick with Iams or the other top brand. I've had a rescue dog that had been mistreated, bit thru my boot and all, when I went to push him out the door. He got to know me and never a problem after that, well almost.
Dave

I feed my B Taste of the Wild, both Salmon and Bison protein based dry foods and occasionally wet as well…She does really well on both but the Salmon can give her gas which smells fishy...lol, but she loves it.

@DaMac:

I was told to always look for Lamb as the main ingredient and to stick with Iams or the other top brand. I've had a rescue dog that had been mistreated, bit thru my boot and all, when I went to push him out the door. He got to know me and never a problem after that, well almost.
Dave

Sorry, Iams isn't that great, not even in the top 50 of Whole Dog Journals.

Whoever told you to just use lamb probably needs some reeducation.

Paco loves canned tuna. He nom nom noms it up.

When I took him to the vet after he turned one, the vet asked if I had been feeding him fish because there was something in his stool that looked suspicious. I said he'd had canned tuna but that was all, and apparently that was fine.

Coincidentally, the packaging on this product intersects with this discussion topic:

http://www.vitaldogfood.com/product-lamb.htm

It's the lamb and ocean whitefish formula of Vital brand refrigerated dog foods. And if you'll notice, there's a basenji on the packaging.

I recently had a chance to do a feeding trial and write up a review of these foods, and was only slightly miffed that they did NOT include the one product that actually has a basenji on it… though they sent us practically everything else!

Oh and to add to this conversation, our Basenji gets pretty much all commercially available proteins, including lamb and lots of fish. She'll take lamb in kibble form, doesn't much like it raw or as chew treats, and she eats fish in kibble and raw form. She does seem to do well with red meat, but not entirely beef-based recipes.

The situation will, of course, vary with each dog.

I'm always switching Magnum's protein, in the hopes of not enticing an allergy. So he has had most commericially-available protein sources. No problems at all (fingers crossed), even with chicken, which is the top protein allergen (according to my sources and research).