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Fiber #s

Discussion in 'Commercial Food' started by corbinam, Nov 20, 2013.

  1. corbinam

    corbinam Moderator

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    We are considering switching foods and it's making my head spin! I remember thinking that the higher fiber in the food we were feeding prior to feeding Acana (what we feed now) was making the dogs poop more. Lexi was going 4-5 times a day! Now she only goes 2-3 times, which seems more normal.

    Part of me is sort of slightly almost just a little :razz: considering a dehydrated or pre-packaged raw. But, in looking at some of the dehydrated raw, the fiber numbers are SUPER high! The average fiber % for kibble is around 4%, while it looks like the average for dehydrated raw (and I admit to having done less research on these foods) is closer to 7%. Seems like that might be poop-city!

    Does anyone have any experience with this? Am I comparing apples to apples here?

    Thanks!
     
  2. Justicemom

    Justicemom Forums Celebrity

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    So without looking at the label I am assuming freeze dry raw is almost 100% dry matter so 7% DM basis

    Kibble depending on brand is usually around 70% DM so at 4 % you need to convert to DM. 4/70 x 100= so 5.7% Dry matter basis not as big of difference as at it first looks like.

    It will also depend on the quality and what source of the fiber content. Some is a little digestible and some is not. Dogs as a general rule don't digest insoluble fiber like grain based plant fibers all that well. They do handle soluble fiber ie from legumes ie peas more readily.

    So not only do you need to look at % but source. :smile2:
     
  3. take4roll10

    take4roll10 Moderator

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    the frozen raw I have is 2% fiber. Doing the dry matter conversion, it is 5.7%. Raw has bone in it, which can constipate dogs, so even if the fiber is more, the bone should help with pooping a lot . Don't quote me on this. That's just my own logic...

    On kibble my dog pooped 2-3 times a day. On commercial raw, she poops 1-2 times. Since I added a little kibble to her diet, she poops 2x and it's a lot more poop. With just raw she had the tiniest poops!
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2013
  4. Caro

    Caro Moderator

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    Not exactly sure what you mean by dehydrated raw, is the meat part of the raw or is it like a muesli that you soak in water and add meat. I feed mine the latter. With the muesli, once you add water the fibre % actually goes down quite a bit. The muesli I feed, once water and meat is added the fibre is 1.7%.

    I do find if I feed mine something else and then switch back to the muesli they may poop a little more to start with. But as Dr Shelli mentioned, it's better quality fibre so more likely to be digested. And I find the length of time I soak for makes a difference, the longer it's soaked for the more the muesli breaks down and the less grains I see in the poop.
     
  5. Chris

    Chris Premium Member

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    I feed Acana, too. Is there any particular reason why you're looking at switching?
     
  6. corbinam

    corbinam Moderator

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    I've been pretty happy with it, and it's nothing specific. In fact, I can't even prove that the things that are making me switch are because of the food!

    1--Basically, Bentley has had on and off stomach troubles for the past year. It might be the food, it might be a result of his surgery, it might be him getting older, who knows. I do know that this time when we rotated to Grasslands he got super sick. We put him back on Pacifica and he was fine. We went back to Grasslands and he got sick again. Back to Pacifica, and he's fine!

    2--Lexi has had some serious allergies this year. Started in August and they haven't really let up. We put her on Prednisone and it seemed to help a little, but never cleared up. Because the steroids didn't help a ton, I figure it's food or environment.


    I'm not sure if we're talking about the same thing or not :) To be truthful, I really know almost nothing about raw and dehydrated raw. Here's one I was looking at:

    http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/dog-food/love

    My only hang up is that it seems like it's SUPER expensive. I have to really think about how it compares, but it looks like it's $90 for one month's worth for 2 dogs. That seems insane! Maybe I'm doing the math wrong?
     
  7. take4roll10

    take4roll10 Moderator

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    I think it will be more than $90 a month. The site says a 10lb box is $99. 1lb equals 1 cup of food. Assuming your dogs eat 1/2 a cup a day each, that's 20 1/2 cup servings or 10 1/2 cup servings each dog. You have two dogs, so one 10lb box is 10 days worth of food. You're looking at $300 a month... if I did my calculations correctly. To me, that is a lot!

    EDIT-Maybe I'm wrong, when I clicked on "how long will one box last", it says one 10lb box is 40 1 cup servings...so now I'm all confused because the previous page says *1 cup makes 1 lb of fresh food.
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2013
  8. Calliesmom

    Calliesmom Moderator

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    I used both Honest Kitchen and Grandma Lucy's for Callie and still have some of the last of the HK.......

    so the HK box says for 11-30 lb dog-active, 1-2 cups/day and a 4 lb box will last 16 days at that rate
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2013
  9. k9kreationz

    k9kreationz Forums Celebrity

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    You can get samples from Honest Kitchen, you may want to see if you can get a few bags. I know Miko didn't really like it. You'd think all dogs would like that stuff. And yes, it's very expensive.

    Since Grasslands upset Bentley's stomach, do you think maybe it's one of the ingrediants in it, that's not in Pacifica? If it was me, I'd probably try to get to the root of why Grasslands is upsetting his stomach.

    Good luck. I know it's not easy findinf a food that works. I went through a lot of different ones. I think Koji's stomach must finally be okay with new things....I can finally switch Acana varieties without pumpkin and transitioning and canned doesn't bother him either. Yay.
     
  10. corbinam

    corbinam Moderator

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    I guess the cost of the dehydrated raw makes it hard for me to pull the trigger on a big change like that. Also, it sort of weirds me out that the dogs just eat mush. Wouldn't it be really bad for their teeth to not chew?

    And to your question about Grasslands, the Grasslands was the first time I was able to pinpoint that it was definitely food-related. Bentley has been sick probably at least once a month for the past year or so (and we rotate flavors), typically uncontrollable diarrhea for several days, and then it resolves. That's why I thought it might be good to try something totally different.

    So again, I guess I can't say for sure that it's the Acana, but I have one dog with recurring stomach problems, and the other with recurring allergies, so I figure the easiest thing to try is a new food :)
     

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