Love to talk about the ancestral diet of Newfs.
Started to do research and testing re diets for Newfs in 1982 when I realized that genetics did not yield all the answers; however it was not until 1996 that the lightbulb went on.
Had clues all along but it took awhile to gel in this old man. In the early 80's, one of my Newfs who was a "lodge" dog in Callander, Ontario (just south of North Bay on Lake Nippissing)started to get fish in her diet after an episode with guests who were ice fishing. One of the guests came running back to base screaming that a bear had eaten all of his fish that were strung out on a line. Of course that bear turned out to be the lodge's Newfoundland.
When fish come out of the water in winter, they freeze instantly and this girl ate the fish down to the gill line because they had hooks running through their gills, attached to a line. After that she had to have her fish frozen and the lodge owners kept a freezer full for her so she could have frozen fish all summer long. My clue was that she had the shiniest, healthiest coat that I have ever seen on a Newf. She made the coats of the show dogs of the day look dull.
In 1985 they discovered that cats needed taurine in their diets. Before that, books on cats discouraged feeding fish to felines.
In the 80's I was having great success with feeds that were chicken based but was slow to connect to the fact that chicken skin was a good source of taurine (although not as good as fish).
By the 90's I was looking for even better feeds but couldn't find any, so started supplementing with fish oil (how I missed this clue for so long, I'll never know). Then I read that the first kibble was made in the 1880's and was fish based but the light bulb still did not go on.
Then I started researching Newfs in Newfoundland in the 1600's to the 1800's. Found out that Newfs regularly lived 13 - 15 years and were used instead of horses because hay was not readily available and the Newfs could eat what the family ate. Of course the staple of the diet for humans on the Island of Newfoundland in those days was fish. It was quite common that when cleaning the fish, the head and other parts not considered edible by humans were tossed to the Newfie dogs. Also read that when Newfs were on their own, they were not good at catching prey on land and would go into the sea and catch fish. By now the light bulb was at least flickering. Then I started studying polar bears and how they evolved away from other sub-species of bears like the Newfoundland did from other breeds of domestic canines. The similarities between polar bears and Newfs amazed me and I looked into what these bears ate.
While polar bears love fish and eat them when they can, they subsist primarily on seals which eat fish. It is difficult for a polar bear to catch enough fish to survive; much easier to let the seals catch the fish and then eat the seals.
Turns out that Newfoundland dog ate fish and seals as well, just in reverse proportion - more fish for the Newfs than seals.
So, after 14 years of research I changed my testing completely over from chicken based foods to fish based foods. In the next decade my rate of learning accelerated and I am now convinced that something like an uncleaned whole herring or mackerel is a perfect balanced food for a Newfoundland dog. This is the type of food that our breed evolved to and any attempt to evolve them to a different type of food will result in physiological changes to the breed resulting in a different dog over time. For example, all commercial dog foods use an omega 3 to omega 6 ratio based on human studies partly out of ignorance and partly because omega 3 is more expensive than omega 6. The ratio for humans varies widely from study to study but never does the omega 3 exceed the omega 6; however the ancestral diet for Newfs suggests the opposite for them - much greater proportion of omega 3.
Even when a kibble is fish based, they use fish meal and take advantage of a loop hole in the AAFCO rules. Fish meal can mean either fish that is dehydrated or fish with the oil removed that is dehydrated. The only way that you can tell which was used is that further down in the ingredient list you will see that various vegetable oils (flaxseed, canola, etc) have been added. This wouldn't be necessary if the fish oil was still present.
Currently I am testing a sausage food that just came out in 2006, Rollover Wild Pacific Salmon. Salmon, not salmon meal, is the base ingredient. In the years to come, if my theories prove correct, this food will be the food of choice for Newfoundlands as it combines ancestral food in a relatively pure form with the convenience demanded by our modern society.
I'm use to ridicule. From 1996 to 2000 I had to use canned cat food as there were no dog foods that were fish based. Other breeders and vets made fun of me. Vets would say "If fish is so good for dogs, why hasn't a food company developed such a fish?" Then when several brands came out with fish formulas at the turn of the century, these folks became very silent.
The above is a Readers Digest version but may give you some idea of where I'm coming from and why research on diets for Great Danes in my opinion should be used for Great Danes and not Newfs.
Newfondly,
Peter
[ 01-15-2007, 06:20 PM: Message edited by: Peter Maniate ]
