Natural Treats Question

[lollerskates]

In an effort to make Lola's diet more natural (and therefore more healthy, i hope), I've started giving her baby carrots as treats. She LOVES them. But I've noticed that they tend to make her stools a little looser. Not diarhea perse, but loose.

Has anyone else experienced this or can anyone offer advice? Am I maybe giving her too many at once? I'll be honest I tend to "over-treat" because she's just soooo cute. :o It's something I've been working on.

I'm also considering switching her to a raw diet because of everything i've been reading on this forum, but I feel like I have a lot more research to do before I make the switch. So if anyone can recommend decent websites or books on the subject, I would really appreicate it. I want to make sure it's the right choice for her before I change her food. We've been having some skin irritation issues which pretty much cleared up once I got her off of Science DIet and onto Merrick's (thanks, gmacleod and franp :) ). But I still feel like it could be better.

I also saw that someone said they noticed less paw licking with raw. Lola is an avid paw licker so this is something I'm interested in clearing up.

Ok ok. enough. i look forward to your advice, comments and recommendations. this forum is a god send!!!

[franp]

Great Book for learning about raw is The Ultimate Diet by Schultz..

Bravo has a good explanation on its site www.bravorawdiet.com


Probably cut back on the carrots and her stool will be firmer..


fran

[Chris&Eti]

Dogs can't digest vegetable matter/cellulose-it needs to be pulped for them to be able to digest it-so the carrots may be interfering with the digestion process hence runny stool. Although I believe freezing them first may help to break it down.
Healthy treats are hard to find as the majority contain grain products. Its going to depend on what your local resources have on their shelves. I recently found this link to what would be really good treats for a naturally fed dog
< http://www.aplaceforpaws.com/treats.html >
I've yet to try them out but Eti might find some chicken feet in his xmas stocking
< http://store1.yimg.com/I/aplaceforpaws_1865_893599 >
In the meantime duck and potato kibble is one of his favorite treats.

[franp]

Chris,

I was at Whole Foods and saw chicken feet; almost bought them.. One question; do you leave the toe nails on.?
Sorry, but I REALLY need to find out.

fran

[Chris&Eti]

Fran; I think it depends if they have nail polish on or not:lol:
Devon.

lol
but seriously, you don't need to trim the nails
< http://boxerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46857 >

[franp]

EEEEEEWWWWWW ; foootsiceles.

Ok , so I am not the only one who asked about the nails..:o

Thanks Chris

fran