Has anyone been able to find high grade pet food around the Yokosuka or Ikego area?  I'm one of those "health food nuts" that likes feeding my dogs holistic food that contains real meat and little/no chemical additives.  In the States I would buy brands like Blue Buffalo, Holistic Select, Nature's Prairie, Orijen, etc.  I'm not stuck on the brand name, just being able to find healthy, natural dog food.

I've heard there is a small, specialty pet store near Ikego on Rt. 24 that may have someone who speaks a little English.  Any info from anyone would be much appreciated.  We're down to the last bag of dog food that we shipped over!

Premium dog food is hard to find. There are some pet stores off base, but unless you can read Japanese, you won't be able to figure out what's in the package. I find that they are terribly expensive, too! I'm rather disappointed in the selection of dog food on base. Most of the food is filled w/ cornmeal and by-products (not good for your dogs' health). Over time, feeding a cheap dog food will eventually catch up w/ your pet. Expensive vet bills will be the end result later in life if your pet doesn't get good, quality food now (which you already know RD since you're on here trying to find out where you can find good dog food!).

I've switched over to making home cooked meals for my dogs. It's a lot healthier for them, plus I know exactly what nutrients they are getting. I just started cooking for them not too long ago, and already I noticed a HUGE difference in their coat. They shed much less and their coat is healthier looking. I still mix some of their old dog food w/ their cooked food. I prefer to give them a raw diet, but I don't trust the quality of meat here, so I cook e/thing.

This website is quite useful:

http://www.wellvet.com/feedingdogs.html

I also use this website for pet supplies since getting them on base is minimal.

http://www.jefferspet.com

A couple of things I recommend off that site are:

1: Yummy Chummies® Wild Alaska Salmon Oil (great for coat and good price on this website!)

2: V.P.S. Oral Dental Rinse (good for teeth)

3: Twirl Chews (great for small dogs)

You can also get $10 off a $50 order if you use coupon code: jade1 (as of 8/14/10)

http://www.retailmenot.com/view/jefferspet.com

They ship to APO / FPO, and it usually gets here w/in a week. Shipping is around $8 / $9.

I know this doesn't answer your original question, but maybe it'll get you thinking about cooking for your dogs (they'll thank you for it!).

We have wondered the same thing. I do know that
www.petfooddirect.com
will ship to FPO/AP also and they have a HUGE selection of items

You could just cook for your dog...I do it for my older cat. He is diabetic. And yes dogs and cats can be diabetic. So I feed him some special food I get from the vet out in town in the morning. Then in the evening I boil him chicken and rice. Sometimes beef or I go down to the fish market and make him sushi. You can do the same thing for your dog. Depending on the breed there might already be an astablished "home cooked" diet. I know there is one for Collies and one for English sheep dogs and most sled dogs like huskys live on diets of fish. And a good rule of thumb I use for my cat is, if it doesnt rot dont feed it to him. Dry cat and dog food really doesnt rot. Either does the canned food. You can think Im a little werid, but my cat eats more closely to a normal "natural diet" than a cat that is just eating dry food. What we think of food for a dog or a cat is actually kind of strange if you think about it.

I have heard that making your "own" dog food can be healthier then most dog foods out there anyway. It's more natural for them

Thank you all for the info. I also agree that a nutritionally sound raw/slightly cooked diet is best for our four legged friends. However, it is very difficult to maintain when traveling and boarding. I also used to work full-time and didn't even cook for myself, much less my pets. Now that I'm not working though, and I can't seem to find high quality dog food anyway, looks like this is the perfect time to start the home prepared meals. Maybe I can at least find some dry food that's decent enough to mix it with that we can feed when we take them on trips or board them, that won't completely wreck their systems. We'll just have to see how the cost works out...these guys may eat us out of house and home! :-)

Just make sure it's a grain free product that you mix and you should be ok

Mixing regular dog food w/ home cooked food is just fine. In fact, that's what I'm doing now. Eventually, I would like to provide both my dogs only home cooked meals, but we still have a lot of their kibble left, so we mix it in w/ their cooked food. They love it!

Our dogs get cooked chicken, hamburger, turkey, and some pork (they really do eat better than me!). We also give them egg twice a week. I bought a food processor and puree meat and veggies about once a week. We use the frozen veggies from the commissary (consisting of broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots). Frozen peas and beans are also good for them. I also use a mortar to grind up the egg shells (for calcium) to a powder and add it to their cooked meat (it's very important to get the phosphorus / calcium ratio right). We also give them salmon and liver every once in a while as a treat (VERY LITTLE liver because it's high in Vitamin A).

Cooking for your pet is not the hard part......getting started is. It takes a lot of research and time to figure out which foods are best for your dog and how much. But, once you've done the research, it's really very easy.

It's really not that much more expensive to cook for your dogs than to buy them dog food. We calculated the cost and it cost us about $1 per pound per day (for our two small dogs). You can pick up hamburger at the commissary (when it's marked down) for a little over a dollar / pound. We buy chicken breasts from Costco. You'll find that your dogs won't need as much food once they switch to a cooked diet because the food is so much more nutritious than dog food (because dog food is always filled w/ fillers).

This site is also very good if anyone is interested in cooking for your furry friend:

http://www.dogaware.com/articles/wd...made3.html

Yoko-girl, you remind me of my mother in law. My wifes mom spoils the crap out of their 1 dog. The dog gets served packages of steak, hamburger meat, pork, etc.. She mixes it with rice sometimes, and also some special dog food for vitamins.
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As we look at making the switch to "real" food for the dog, my only struggle is trying to find out how much to feed him. He has a problem realizing he is full (LOVES TO EAT). Anyone find any good guides on how much to feed them?

MMM you could try to use my cat as a rule of thumb. Yes he is a cat but he is unusually big. He holds the record for being the largest cat at 2 out in town vets! He is 26 pounds 34.5 inches around his chest and about 13 and some change inches from the floor to his shoulder maybe 14. Yes he is big. No i have no idea where he came from. I got him from the kill shelter i wasnt even sure there was a cat in the cage until he grabbed my hoodie and wouldnt let go. All i seen was black fur until i took him out. Anyways he eats about 3/4-1/2 cup in the morning and the same at night.Or maybe start with the same amount they eat of dry food and change it as needed, sometimes the more natural food isnt as fatty or is more fatty than.

Also Adam its not so strange to papper your pets. We went out for teppanyaki tonight and ordered some kobi steak to go for the cats!

Photodrm: We had the same problem w/ our dogs always acting hungry when we made the switch to home cooked food. I think they were use to all the "fillers" in their kibble that made them feel full, but now that they are eating a nutritious diet, they don't have that "full" feeling anymore. I'm not sure if their stomach just shrank, and they don't feel so hungry anymore, or if they just got use to their new diet.

Our dogs are 17 pds and 19.5 pds. The heavier one (our little porky pig) is overweight. In the beginning, we gave her a half cup of food in the AM and a half cup in the PM. We've since cut her down to 1/3 cup in AM and 1/3 cup in the PM. The other dog still gets half a cup twice a day.

This link should help you figure out how much to feed your dog:

http://www.dogaware.com/articles/wd...ml#amounts

It's important to monitor your pets weight once starting this new diet to see whether your pet is gaining or losing weight. Getting a good kitchen scale would help to measure out the correct amount of food for your dog.

wow - overweight at 19.5 lbs!  My "little dog" is overweight at 70 lbs, and my big dog is underweight at 110!  This is definitely one of those times in which I almost wish I had small dogs :-)

Another great website though.  You are really a wealth of knowledge and I truly appreciate you sharing.  Based on the info in that article, Bear should be getting about 2 lbs of home cooked food a day, and Roxy about 1 lb!  On top of that, I'm trying to pick my foods based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to help Bear specifically.  I started adding in the new foods this week and currently it is a LOT of work, taking about 1 hour to feed and clean up.  I'm sure that as I get things sorted out it will get much faster, especially if I can portion things out and freeze them ahead of time.

Hopefully the posts will continue, as it provides me motivation to hear about others that are trying to do what they think is best for their furry friends, not to mention all the great advice that is being shared!

Can't wait to see what is posted next. :-)

LOL.....110 lbs! You must have lots of dookie to pick up! The nice thing about switching to a raw or cooked diet is that their poop size shrinks dramatically! Their bodies use most of what you feed them. Commercial dog food has so much crap in it that they don't need, which in the end means big piles of poop (sorry to put it so bluntly!).

Getting it all started is a lot work......I, myself, am still trying to figure it all out. It really is quite rewarding in the end though. It wasn't until I nearly lost one of my dogs (came w/in seconds of dying) that I decided to not take their health for granted. I want to give my dogs the best. I don't have any kids of my own right now, so I guess they're pretty spoiled!

It all seems a little overwhelming in the beginning. Once you get into a system, it becomes a lot easier to prepare their food. You should only have to prepare their food once or twice a week. Store what you can in the freezer or refrigerator until you need it. Buy a really good, large food processor to grind up your veggies and meat. Also, get a mortar to grind up the egg shells (the calcium is really important - don't leave it out - 1 tps / lb of meat):

http://www.ehow.com/how_4789650_hom...hells.html

I think the biggest thing that I've noticed is the difference in their shedding.....my dogs used to shed incredibly bad before. Now, I hardly notice any shedding! I had no idea that food could play such a vital role in their coat condition.

Remember, you don't have to make the transition all at once. You can mix some of their kibble w/ their cooked food. I can't imagine what your food bill must be like w/ two big dogs to feed! Just keep an eye marked down meats at the commissary to save a little on the cost! Buy whatever is on sale.....but, make sure you use a variety of meat in their diet over time.

Let me know if you have any other questions. I'm certainly not a pro at this either, but I've been doing my best to educate myself on what's best for my dogs for a while now.