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Best food for English mastiff

Mamie2shoes

Well-Known Member
Have you tried her on raw chicken? I'm only asking because many dogs who have issues with chicken in kibble do fine on raw. My EM has chicken kibble issues but she's fine on the occasion where she gets raw chicken. Just something to think about!

yes we have, this is how we figured out the chicken issue. We had her on a chicken based kibble and she had very, very loose stools. We had planned on raw so we slowly worked into it, I got the percentages to feed from you actually, thanks again. The first few days on raw she did ok with beef, pork, lamb. The stools firmed up and were smaller, more regular poop like. But then we fed chicken and yikes!!!!!! She never has pottied in our bedroom before, this is her room too, and wow, all I can say is she was considerate enough to go to the bathroom and use the tile. It looked like, well, let's just say I have never seen such a mess and immediately felt guilty for feeding her whatever had caused this reaction. I thought maybe she was just having a hard time with the switch. I had bought loads of raw chicken and some beef, pork, and lamb but chicken was going to be a larger percentage due to to affordability. When we fed her beef, it was fine, but chicken reacted violently to her tummy. We went to the duck and potato kibble and saw improvement within 2 days and now she has normal stools, very easy to scooper up. I am disappointed to not be able to feed raw all the time to my girl, but beef/pork/lamb are expensive and she needs so much per day. We are very happy with the Natural Balance kibble, I have used it before with great success- my shi tzu lived 16yrs on it. We just make sure we avoid ALL chicken with her. She still gets some raw with her dinner each day and this seems to work well enough. Mean while, I have become a wiz at roasting whole chickens. LOL Thanks for the advice though, I truly appreciate the help.
 

Smart_Family

Dog Food Guru
Just curious haha. It always puzzles me when there's dogs, like mine, that are fine with it raw and not in kibble. Thanks for explaining it to me!
 

Mamie2shoes

Well-Known Member
Oh I hear ya, and I was all about it, but she changed out plan, and I mean fast!!!! I felt soooo guilty for causing her such troubles. I had my husband all ok with raw and on board too. But, like I said, she gets a bit of beef/pork/lamb each night and kibble for the rest. But she also only like red apples, not yellow ones. Eh, she is a unique one for sure. Thanks again
 

PANDORA

Member
I feed 4Health. My puppy does great on. I do make sure to check the production code though, so that that bag is not from Gaston SC plant.
 

angelbears

Well-Known Member
Mamie, I'm not saying there is not a chicken allergy but it sounds like you introduced a lot of different proteins in a short amount of time and that could have been some of the problem. It's great that you found a kibble that your happy with and thriving on.
 

Smart_Family

Dog Food Guru
Where can I read your "guide" for food? I am in the process of looking for a food for my 5mo old EM. Thanks!
It's not done quite yet and has taken a lot longer than I had hoped. It's going to be about 100 pages when all is said and down so it's a rather large project. Just off the top of my head some good foods are Earthborn Holistics Great Plains Feast, Coastal Catch or Meadow Feast, Orijen 6 Fish or Adult, and Acana Wild Prairie or Pacifica. If you have a certain place you get your food or want some more suggestions let me know :)