Ive been looking into diets and wanted some input. I hear a lot about protein and raw food. I definitely want my dog to look healthy and be fit with good muscle tone but first of all I want her healthy so I'm looking for a nice outline or Diet regimen that I can put together for her.
I'm afraid I have no experience of Bull breeds but didn't want to ignore you. My dog tends to go overweight so I feed a good low-calorie, grain free kibble, topped with a dollop of raw or cooked meat, and I add a small dose of Atlantic salmon oil. She also has a crunchy 'salad' of raw red and green veggies.
Your first step should be to discuss diet with your vet. If your vet is not knowledgeable on diets, then I would ask for a reference for a vet who is knowledgeable on diets. Bully breeds can be susceptible to allergies. In addition, just like with human diets, there is a habit for declarations of all or nothing rather than moderation. And that can create bigger issues. You want to get an educated evaluation by a vet to determine if your dog needs anything in particular. With a raw food diet, you have to be very careful to make sure the dog gets all the nutrients needed. You also need to make sure that the dog doesn't have an allergy to any ingredient. So if you go that route, I would go slowly. Keeping the kibble as part of the diet and adding the raw ingredients one by one so you know which is most likely the problem if there is a reaction, etc. Like @CaroleC , I feed mine a good quality kibble (mine is not grain free). With that fed regularly, I know the dogs are getting all the nutrients they need. I can top that with "goodies" as desired.
So far I'm doing pretty good with the BARF diet her stool is good she looks good good energy now I'm just looking for the best Kibble to use in combination with the raw food diet.
I do suggest you talk to your vet. They can go over your BARF diet and point out any specific areas of nutrition that could use a boost and then recommend a kibble that will provide for that. I feed mine Costco Kirkland brand. My dogs get the lamb and rice as Tornado-dog has minor allergies and the chicken and rice made him itchy. I've been feeding the Kirkland for years now and all my dogs have done really well on it. One thing I like is that the Kirkland brand has had fewer recalls than most of the quality brands out there. The last recall they had was when there was a huge salmonella contamination - and pretty much every dog food and cat food was recalled. The food is actually made by Diamond Pet Foods, so on the very rare times I can't get in to Costco, I will order the Diamond Naturals lamb as it is the closest to the Kirkland.
I am currently trialling a low-calorie Salmon and brown rice kibble which is made in Wales, but Tally's usual brand is Wellness Core, low-calorie turkey. I always believed that this was a European product, but according to Google that is made by Diamond too! Small world isn't it?
My Girl is 5month and she's to the end of her 40lb bag of Diamond large breed Puppy. I top this with her raw diet. https://images.app.goo.gl/V1LnX2LQ2HMCpucKA
Oh that's funny @CaroleC ! I did a quick search and found that most of the pet food brands today are actually owned by just a few companies: Mars Petcare Nestle Purina Petcare JM Smuckers Colgate-Palmolive Diamond Foods and General Mills Diamond is actually the only one that IS an actual pet food manufacturer - the others are conglomerates of many types of manufacturing. Mars and Nestle-Purina also own veterinary hospitals, so be careful of that.
