# Feeding Your Poodle Fresh Food



## MMM18 (Sep 29, 2020)

My toy poodle puppy is arriving in a few weeks and I'm starting to plan out his diet. I would like to feed him fresh food either from one of the brands that sends you fresh food or, perhaps, making my own. Does anyone have any suggestions/recommendations?

When my prior toy poodle was diagnosed with cancer, I started reading a lot of books about canine cancer and they all seemed to state that dry food because it is heated at very high temperatures can increase the risk of developing cancer. 
I started looking into both fresh food and freeze dried raw food. However, it seems there's a lot of risk associated with raw food and bacteria. Which is why I wanted to stick to cooked, fresh food. I was hoping to do organic but it seems like Evermore is the only brand I can find that is organic. Does anyone have any experience with them?

Anyway, would love to hear what you all are doing or have heard/learned? It also seems like some of these fresh foods are not suitable for puppies. My boy will be 3 months when he arrives so I may have to wait a bit before I transition him from his current food to one of these diets.


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## Raindrops (Mar 24, 2019)

I have never fed any of the "fresh food" premade cooked diets but I do use freeze dried raw and air dried food as treats. I like the brands Ziwipeak, Vital Essentials, and Real Meat. None of them are really affordable as a diet for me, but good for treats or travel meals.

I've never heard of a dog actually having issues with bacteria from raw food. It's something vets say to scare people off it, but I'm part of a huge PMR raw group on facebook and it's something I've never seen. Dogs have very strong stomach acid. That's why they can eat all kinds of nasty crap they find and they're ok. The issues with feeding raw or fresh food diets you make yourself is making sure that you're giving balanced meals with all needed nutrients. This generally involves either A) using a base mix with vitamins or B) following recipes or guidelines to ensure balance over time. I also choose to get bloodwork done semi regularly to ensure there are no imbalances.

A vet's nightmare is somebody just feeding their dog chicken breast or hamburger meat only. That's obviously not going to be nutritionally complete. It's a lot of work to do correctly. It's hard to find vets that are educated on diet because it's just not part of vet training. Mine is perfectly happy with Misha's diet though.

Personally I've fed PMR raw to Misha. He was weaned on it by his breeder and has been on it ever since. For him he gets a base formula of 75% muscle meat (chicken, turkey, beef, pork, duck including things like gizzard, heart, tripe) 15% bone (usually duck/chicken wings, backs, necks), 5% liver, 5% other secreting organs (eyes, brain, kidney, pancreas, spleen, testicles, ovaries, sweetbreads), plus egg and fish. It gets rotated through this variety so it stays balanced over time. He does get the air dried treats which are a complete food so I feel they help to keep him balanced as well.

The other raw model is BARF which includes fruits and veggies. It's a different formula. If you do decide on raw it is _very important_ to introduce the diet slowly and properly or you will get a lot of diarrhea. Digesting kibble is very different for the stomach and gut so it needs a slow transition.

I know Lily cd re does home cooked food so she may know more about that.


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## Liz (Oct 2, 2010)

I'll second what @Raindrops said about raw. I've fed two dogs for a total of 15 years without a single problem - for them or for me (and I'm veg). Can't say enough good things about it.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

I home cook for my minipoo because she has food allergies and ulcerative colitis. I’m using a diet from my vet that is very similar to what I fed my tpoo when she got pancreatitis from helping herself to the cat kibble (don't let your dog eat cat food, this was before internet, I thought a little was okay but it wasn't). It’s a lot of work and for a dog that needs a special diet for the rest of their life, it’s a big commitment. For my older dog, keeping her on homecooked is a life saver because it keeps her healthy.

I did search and find a puppy food that my new minipoo puppy could eat that doesn’t have any legumes in it so it my older dog got some by accident she wouldn’t be sick. I found FreshPet Puppy food....they have some other choices appropriate for all stages but they have legumes so I didn’t try them. I have been using another of their meals as training treats for my older dog and they have similar ingredients to my home cooked. This food is sold in refrigerators in the pet section of many stores.

I also use zwipeak and real meat for my dogs training treats.

A good resource to look up food is Dog Food Reviews and Ratings | Dog Food Advisor. Keep in mind their considerations used in scoring may not be yours.

Looking forward to you posting your new puppy photos.


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

My guys are fed freeze dried raw, fresh food, and high quality kibble rotationally (I switch up the protein and type of food daily). The only reason I don’t feed frozen raw is because they often eat from my hands while we’re training, if its in a bowl they eat very slowly and I don’t want it to go bad, and I get super lazy about the amount of defrosting, packaging, and clean up the frozen needs. So I just shell out the bucket loads of money for freeze dried 😂 kiwi kitchens and ziwi peak makes things affordable. Nulo and Nature’s logic is just for special treats.


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

One of the vets I use mentioned she has several patients on Balance IT. I have no personal experience, but it looks like it might be a decent compromise between commercial (with all its poultry byproducts) and raw (with the contamination concerns). The company has an online recipe creator. You type in which ingredients you want to use; it comes back with the proportions and the supplements you'd need to add to compensate for and deficits. They do have puppy recipes, but they require your vet to give approval before granting access.


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## Phaz23 (May 31, 2020)

cowpony said:


> One of the vets I use mentioned she has several patients on Balance IT. I have no personal experience, but it looks like it might be a decent compromise between commercial (with all its poultry byproducts) and raw (with the contamination concerns). The company has an online recipe creator. You type in which ingredients you want to use; it comes back with the proportions and the supplements you'd need to add to compensate for and deficits. They do have puppy recipes, but they require your vet to give approval before granting access.


Makes me wonder why there aren’t dog restaurants on uber eats for those nights when you don’t feel like cooking


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I fed my dogs and cats raw, and then home cooked, for years. Sophy still gets all home cooked, and the others get a combination of home cooked and prescription diets - hepatic for Poppy, renal for the cats.

It does need research and some effort - I have a string of spreadsheets that I use to check and double check that I have covered all the nutritional bases, and I batch cook and freeze portions every week or so, then have to remember to get the right combination of meals out to defrost. I have found www.dogaware.com to be a good source of comprehensive, evidence-based information


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## MMM18 (Sep 29, 2020)

Thanks everyone for all of this great information! I will look into all of your suggestions and also discuss with our vet.


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## Rose n Poos (Sep 22, 2017)

Whatever you choose, be sure to make a slow transition of the old to the new.


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