I find that all “vet recommended” pet food is naturally keto. I’ve always fed my pets the best food I could afford at the time and if you look at the composition its naturally keto.
This is the irony of where we find ourselves as a species, we will feed our animals what we know is good for them, high fat, moderate protein and low carb, but we feed ourselves the complete opposite (used to in our case).
Not at my vet’s office. They tout a diet of 1/3 each macro and go on and on about how important carbs are to a healthy diet. My usual vet actually is very pro manufactured foods because she likes that they have nutritionists working out the ‘perfect diet’ ~ particularly for puppies. It is hard to listen to. Scare tactics are employed.
We (Zoe, my 16 wk. old) went for her visit yesterday and had a different vet and was relieved to not discuss diet at all. Zoe has been on raw for 7 wks. now and is growing well and doing really well in all departments. She went from having poo that was much like toothpaste to ones that have form and substance. She has never defecated inside. Tells me she is not experiencing any urgency issues like some of my other dogs had on ‘vet recommended foods’.
I would add that I anticipate avoiding many of the issues that come from commercial foods - primarily dental issues. This will be an n=1. She only spent a month or so on commercial foods and those teeth will fall out. Hopefully and gum disease will be avoided as well.
I absolutely love raw feeding our dogs. Fiona (the golden shepherd) is over 5 yrs old and has teeth that look cleaner than Finn’s teeth who is 18 months of age. I recently aquired him and he has been happily eating raw. I believe in letting dogs eat to satiety and then letting them fast for 24 hrs. Fiona chooses to do this on her own and it alarmed me at first. But after some study I discovered it is natural. Finn is still growing so he eats daily.
The horse fly that took a chunk outta my leg dry last week was keto. That’s the only pet I can afford to feed right now.
I’d like to feed my rats a keto diet, but the only laboratory block I’ve seen is ketofied with Crisco oil, so that’s not so good. Perhaps when I have a bit of time I can work out a keto diet for them on my own. The chinchillas are obligate herbivores, so they can’t go keto.
I learned recently that including tripe in a raw diet is very good. It should be green and raw. It is stinky and at first I thought it had gone off but no, that is what is suppose to be. Zoe seems to like it so looks as if I will continue to be disgusted! 
I came across this series on youtube today through my raw feeding facebook group today and thought it would be interesting to this group. Would love to hear comments.
When my Maddie was very ill, I was told by 3 vets that she most likely had diabetes. I ended up getting in discussions with them, trying to explain that she was highly unlikely to get that because she was on a raw diet. They wouldn’t listen. Finally a vet tech did a pin prick and tested with a meter and sure enough, her blood sugars were ‘low’. According to those sources, dogs always have a higher b.g. than humans. Still not sure what all that might mean but she certainly did not have diabetes. Had I been better informed I might have been a better advocate for her…
I’ve been feeding my dogs keto/paleo for over a decade. They are healthy and long lived, usually living longer than 15 years. One of my Springers made it to 18.
I usually feed raw. A local butcher sells me his saw trim and beef fat. I also add about 10% raw beef kidney I buy by the case.
It is really nice to hear from people who have been feeding raw for a long time. I am hoping for a long and healthy life for my wee puppy. So far she is doing really well.
I talked about this here
My dog Herakles has a mouth tumor that I can not afford to have treatment done on, about 10K. Although they ate pretty good from the start, all organ meat I did mix in rice and oatmeal. We went strict keto with advice from the Ketopet Sanctuary. So far so good as well as giving him CBD oil. We have not measured any growth and they don’t seem to mind.
Hi everyone,
I have a question. We switched our pug, Ziggy, to grain-free dog food not long ago. (I really want to go raw, but not quite ready yet.) It seems as soon as we made the switch he started drinking tons of water. Before the grain-free food he rarely drank water.
I know that suddenly drinking lots of water can be a sign of diabetes or thyroid problems. The tests for these costs a lot of money, but I’m willing to pay for them if I have to. But before I do I’m just wondering if anyone here knows if the switch to grain-free can cause a sudden increase in water consumption?
Thanks!
Does he seem well otherwise? In humans, going from a carb rich diet to a keto diet has a diuretic effect in which water consumption goes up and so does urination. That should taper off over a week or 2. If there are other symptoms, I would consider the vet visit.
Yes, he is fine otherwise. We switched well over a month ago, but the heavy drinking persists.
We took Ziggy to the vet yesterday for his blood work. We will get the results today or tomorrow.
I am really upset about our visit. The vet was a real jerk to me because I had switched Ziggy to grain-free dog food. He questioned me like I was on a witness stand: “Why did I switch to grain-free?” “Who recommended to me that I make this switch?” He didn’t like my answers. Then he went on to tell us that it’s very bad for dogs to eat only protein, that they require carbohydrates in order to make protein. I didn’t know what to say to that but I did interrupt him to say that the dog food does have carbohydrates, it has peas and other fruits and vegetables…to which he replied: “peas have carbohydrates?”
It was a horrible visit and I’m still thinking about it today. This vet is the cheapest vet in our area and we don’t have money, which is why we see him. I am just hoping Ziggy’s blood work comes out fine.
