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Thanks for the response I have found a butcher where saves soft bones and meat. I have noticed my dogs seem to have more energy with the addition if more meat.

Clean water and food bowls are very important. Service dog training centers, trade out bowls at least once a week and take away the food bowls as soon as they are done eating and I do the same. And you made a very good and important point, spraying the kennel with a good disinfectant is also very important for overall good health.
A small amount of Copper Sulfate or bleach in the water, every week or two is helpful. Virkon by Dupont, makes a great disinfectant, less than bleach and far better.
Have you visited a dog food plant? The one that I did, was a dumping ground, for sick and old animals, moved around with a front end loader.
Some dry food is better than others and I feed it myself, when two starches are mixed, it's bad news and will slow down digestion and rob them of energy. Dog food is a business and their goals is to make money.
When I can get it, it's raw meat and they perform much better.

macedonia mule man wrote:I've sold manufactured dog food for 35 yrs, most all the major brands that are offered in the Southeast. What one man is using and wouldn't use anything else, another man swears his dogs are starving to death on. Don't ask me to explain why. I've sold a lot of brands starting with Jazz dog food in 1983 costing 4.75 for 21/8 50# bag. Today sportmix products ranging from 21.00-45.00 per bag. Throughout those years selling all these different brands the same discussion is going on today as it was in 1983. Iv fed dogs commercial dog since the early 50s. The first I can remember was Jim Dandy ration, I believe it was around 1.75 for 50#. I feed the Sportmix black bag now. From the early 50s up until now I've seen dogs go off there feed from time to time, upset stomach and just look puny for some reason. The first thing I do is disinfect the water source and that usually clears things up.Keep the paracites under control and have a reasonably clean pen and the dog troubles usually disappear.

If I wanted to for now , mix half and half of cooked deer burger and dry food, is there any issues with that? Would they digest it ok when fed both at same time?

It would be better to feed the deer meat raw by itself, wait at least 8.5 hours and feed the dry dog food or reverse it. It would not hurt to mix the dry dog food as long as the dry dog food, does not mix two starches.
Feeding deer burger with the dry dog food, would be better than, just the dry dog food.

david wrote:There was a legendary cat hunter named Butch. I was shocked when he told me the age of some of his older dogs because they looked and acted/hunted so much younger. So many bobcat hunters are thinking in terms of replacement when a dog reaches 7. He had hard hunting, hard going dogs over 10 years old. I never would have guessed their ages correctly. I asked him what in the world he was doing. He said first of all, he does not poison his dogs with chemicals and anti-biotics (translation: anti-life) like everyone else does.

He also made his own dog food. He had an arrangement with the grocery store in his town, and EVERY DAY he picked up all the meat scraps and outdated vegetables etc. They left it out for him, and depended on him to pick it up. (Don't try to do this unless they can rely on you. You will lose favor quickly.)

But the foundation for his home made dogfood was dried peas. He bought it in large bulk and was feeding 18 dogs. He cooked the grocery store rejects in with the peas. The peas are high in protein. He also fed raw meat whenever he could get it. And my job during my visit was cutting servings of raw meat off road kill deer for them. He never would buy commercial dog feed. He fed the peas even when he had fresh meat.

Like was mentioned, this all takes a lot of time and effort. But he treated it like a part time job. And if a penny saved is a penny earned, and if a dog year saved is a dog year earned, he earned plenty in this "part time job".

I spent many days in the shop cutting meat and cooking dog food. You are right about the WOW factor in the age of some of them dogs and how they hunted. 5 are in the 8 year and older Mark and are still key players who hunt day after day. I picked up a dog from the yard that he retired cause he was getting grumpy he still acted good still got around good. Butch told me to get him in shape and hunt him. I took the dog and got him in shape when I felt he was ok to go. I started hunting him with a pack of young dogs at 10-11 years old he was making every tree and making it look easy. His cooking he had it broke down to a science when you spent enough time there to see how it was done. We were feeding 25 dogs off of a cook which he did every three days. And one cook would last two days so he had a feeding system. Was neat to see how he did it and what the out come was. Absolutely mind blowing. Anywho I miss that sucker.

jTG, sounds like you were at a rendering plant. There is a difference. Pet food manufacturers buy their ingrediance already rendered into meal., then formulate it into pet food. My experience with people and pet food problems has always bounced back to the animal owner. I've had several problems over the years where we sent feed off to independent lab. For analysis and not a one found feed to be the problem. Feed is just the first thing that comes to mind when a person thinks something is wrong with their animal. I've picked up some costumes who got beat at certain events because the person who won was feeding the feed I sold. I had a good discussion with an animal nutrsionist and he says a animal won't eat enough bad feed to hurt him unless he has been living under bad conditions. Who ever thinks there problem is feed, is thinking the wrong direction. I've tried feeding molded feed to healthy animals and the wouldn't have anything to do with it. If you keep getting beat by your buddy's dog, don't switch feeds , buy his dog.

Mr. Mule Man.
We agree again, in respect, to most of the problems being related to the handler. A person can eat at home and go out to eat fast food and other food places, however they will not be able to perform at high levels like an athlete at the Olympics.
Here is a couple of examples for someone, that has one or two adult dogs, that no dog food can compete with.

Meal one-One dozen hard boiled eggs and half of loaf of wheat bread. (The bread must be toasted or heated in the oven.) OR one bag of cooked brown rice instead of the bread, mixed with the eggs. (Never mix two starches like bread and rice.)
Meal two-(At least 8.5 hours later) Raw meat (No pork in any form) One large bag of frozen vegetables, lightly cooked with olive oil, mixed in with the raw meat.
They can eat as much as the want, however as soon as they stop eating, take the food away.
It important to stay away from some bones and never cook them. Cooked bones, splinter and can also turn sideways and get stuck in the digestive system.
On puppies, the same, except feed them every 4.5 hours and at least three meals per day.

jTG, start feeding one of your dogs Extreme Athlete ( beef) manufactured by Sportmix. Feed for 90 days and let me know what you think.

I will try it on one of my hounds, until a couple of bags run out, if you would try my method for 14 days, and let us know what you think. Let me know and I will start looking for it, in my area.
In just two weeks you will see a huge difference. Not only in health and performance, but they will hardly have any waste.
Use the two meals with meat and eggs, that I mentioned above and the following one and rotate days.
Meal one-Sardines in oil or salmon or mackerel or shad, fresh or canned. You can use one of them or mix them, they all combine. They also combine with meat, except pig. Mixed with a half a loaf of wheat bread, toasted or heated.(All wheat products, must be heated and at least 36 hours old.) or mix with brown rice. Starches do not combine and should never be mixed with each other.
Meal two- Salmon oil, like Alaska natural.(Sold at Sam's) Two table spoons, poured over brown rice. One bag of frozen mixed vegetables, lightly cooked with olive oil or vegetable oil and then mix with the rice. Space meals at least 8.5 hours apart, take the food away as soon as they stop eating. Clean water, with electrolytes, rotate and clean water bowls.

The above meal plan and the two meat and eggs meal plans, mentioned previously, will also work on any overweight dog, they will naturally move to their ideal weight, even with little exercise and within a few days, you will start to see a difference. Overweight dogs should fast 24 hours, prior to starting and fast one day a week.... Just in-case you know any "city folks" with lap dogs.

macedonia mule man wrote:jTG, start feeding one of your dogs Extreme Athlete ( beef) manufactured by Sportmix. Feed for 90 days and let me know what you think.

https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/ You can you up most brands to see ingredients

jTG, I'm too lazy to make dog food. My dogs look good , they are ready when I pull up to the dog pen and hunt and run good when I unload. I don't have any complaints.

Can i add hardboiled eggs in with his dry food for some added benefit?

Crack it raw and put it in to the food. That's what I'd do anyway along with smashing down the shell from time to time and dropping that in with the egg. Few, if any, items maintain their full nutritive value when cooked.

Yes, but it would better if you fed the eggs, mixed with cooked wheat bread or cooked brown rice or heated mixed vegetables, during the first feeding and 8.5 hours later, feed the dry dog food. Eggs are cheap, so is bread, do your self a favor and read the ingredients on your dog food bag. The meat listed, is old and sick animals or body parts, that humans will not eat.
Try it and let us know if you see a big difference. I promise you will, in two weeks or less.
I understand it's hard with a pack of hounds. You can get old bread cheap and freeze it, same with the rice, rice is cheap and you can divide in quart bags.

To answer your question, yes it would benefit. Eggs are a perfect food and they combine with most anything.

rum3002576 wrote:Can i add hardboiled eggs in with his dry food for some added benefit?