What spring looks like on my frozen piece of earth. Wish you were here?
On another note, and because I have absolutely nothing interesting happening in my life, other than nearly being picked up by the wind yesterday and deposited in the Land of Oz, I will talk about my dogs. Or rather my cooking for them. This is what the dogs' dinner (as well as breakfast and lunch) looks like.
It is the dog food, there are too many different protein types in dog food. The gut is assaulted and a rather large number of dogs succumb. I fed a very expensive food, no corn or beet pulp. There were 14 different proteins in it. If you have ever seen a dog slough off its' dead intestinal lining, you know why I became a crusader. The problem is, no one listens.
So this is this morning's batch of chow: parboiled rice, rolled oats, peas, carrots, extra lean ground beef. I put a little olive oil in, as well as flax meal. I change the meat with each new batch. Sometimes ground turkey, another time I will boil chicken thighs for stock and give the dogs the meat. As a special treat, they sometimes get organ meat. I supplement them with a calcium, mineral and vitamin powder mixed in with their breakfast. They also get Teddy's Pride, a probiotic for the teeth. Greyhounds are notorious for very bad teeth. Breakfast gets some yogurt or cottage cheese as well. It helps mix in the supplements.
They get bones and dental chews for the hard chew they need to clean plaque from their teeth.
So there we have it. I am a bit of a crazy dog lady, but they appreciate me! And I do love my pooches and never want to experience such trauma again. There are good dog foods on the market, but for what they cost, I might as well cook. CosCo has become my BFF.
15 comments:
That looks good enough to eat! Much more appetizing than pizzle, eh? I used to have to make my GSD's food, due to the protiens in the commercial foods. There was always a crock pot of bones softening. Lucky Grace (in more ways than one) and Howard!
gsc, did you cook the bones for calcium? I don't use cooked bones and wonder if I should add them in? They get bones to chew.
Aaak. More snow. Ugh. We are florida bound just in time for the next round of awful weather. Although, careful what I wish for, it will be in the 90's there and I'll be wandering aimlessly around Disney as a labor of love for my daughter who still believes in magic and roller coasters. I'll be bitching because I'm too hot in no time.
Your dogs are very lucky. Mine would rather eat rice than his own dog food anyday. But he is adept at eating around all manner of green vegetables. He is legendary for eating all but his peas or green beans!
Hang in there, before you know it, May will be winking at you and April's mud will hopefully be a faded memory.
I used to prepare a mixture of ground beef, rice and green beans. The pups loved it all. Chicken and turkey too.
Now we have two small dogs and they get people food each night. They love cottage cheese too. Their dry food is Premium Choice...no corn and full of good stuff.
We had green grass yesterday and have snow today.
Mel, I am near tears, FLORIDA! Minnesota. AAAARG!
They don't need peas. Grace doesn't like them much, but Howard will eat anything. They also get broccoli and cauliflower. Sweet potato sometimes.
Spring is a long way off, I'm afraid.
Lori, count the proteins. It is the number of different proteins that causes their body to turn on itself. There should be no more than 3. And one meat in different forms is a different protein.
I am the dog food police. No one I know likes it when I step up on the soapbox, people are very attached to their brand of food, I have found. I fed a commercial single protein for a year after Grace got sick, then went to a commercial dog food the DR. recommended, he said it was the best overall food on the market. So of course it was discontinued. After reading label after label, I decided my best and safest course is my own. Single protein made by my own hands.
Good to know...I want to hold onto my little Copper as long as possible. I feed him IAMS currently. Any thoughts on that brand?
I would not feed it Deb. The various types have between 6 - 9 different proteins that I am able to identify as protein. The specialist dismissed all of the major brands. I had fed a dog food from a small company in WI, which I felt was excellent. All natural, but too much of a good thing. It is not the percentage number for protein, it is: chicken, chicken by-product, egg, fish oil, chicken fat, corn, corn oil, soybean, soybean oil, etc.
You want to see the meat protein (lamb, fish, chick, etc). Usually there is a fish oil of some sort and generally a by-product of the meat. That should be it for proteins.
We are in full blown snowstorm mode , after a few days of spring glory. It's not the typical , oh it snowed in spring thing. It's ridiculous.
I feed our little dog half a portion of an good food ( although I will check now ) and half human food such as rice, sweet potato, ) What about egg?
Well, pretty much the same here. I mean about the food for the fur relatives, not the snow.
They get about 1/2 cup of organic dry food, with a tablespoon of Angel Eyes - McKenzie has a tendency to tear red tears if he doesn't get that, Aliah doesn't and they are brother and sister so go figure - mixed with vegetables and some times they get apples and grapes. No rice for either one of them as they get constipated when they eat it but they are well fed and according to their darling vet - I wish she would be my doctor, honestly - they are in great health and happy critters. They absolutely love vegetables, get boned chicken and ground meat and they are spoiled rotten and they deserve it.
deb, isn't it awful?We have so much new snow.
As far as the food: because I have a dog with IBD, I am hyper-sensitive about dog food. I never mix in more than 2 proteins at one time. Oats have some protein, so if I use oats, I don't put in any other protein except the meat. If I don't put rolled oats in, I will put egg in their individual servings, shell and all. The shell gives them calcium. Dogs are generally low on calcium. I use organic eggs and mix it in raw. I don't cook the meat, except when I feed them the chicken I use for stock. I mix it in with the hot grain, so it ends up medium well.
Allegra, brown rice is not easily digested, so I don't give it to them. I use parboiled, which retains about 85% of the nutritional value of brown rice, but is easy to digest. So they do well with it.
I feed a dog that is 100 lb & one that is 85 lb, so it is a lot of food to make. 1/3 of the diet must be protein. 1/3 is carbohydrate and 1/3 vegetable/fruit. Fat is essential, I use flax or olive oil.
Dogs digest high quality protein easiest and will have less health problems if they're not fed low quality protein (corn, soy, meat by-product).
Between them, my dogs eat a pound of meat a day. Gracie gets more than Howard, even though he is larger. He is prone to fat and she is not!
Who knew I spent so much time thinking about dog food. : )
Wow. I don't spend that much time thinking about human food! I try not to think about food at all. So dull of me I know. I have cats & have to limit the dry food ~ which they all see to love ~& they supplement with the occassional rodent or unwary bird. They'd live on chicken & steak if we could afford it. On meat packing days they become a health hazzard they get so excited around our feet until Dearest has dumped some scrapes in their bowls.
I make my dog's food too. Chicken and rice are her favs. Today was the FIRST time ever she ate a carrot. She usually eats around the peas and carrots...
Ganeida, when Grace was really sick and was only supposed to eat one protein (venison) she routinely grabbed pigeons out of the air and ate them whole. It made me crazy and a little sick. It was not good that she is so fast. I should have just had her on the pigeon diet. She still grabs one occasionally, but she doesn't have her heart into it the same as when she was sick.
Missy, Howard will eat anything placed in front of him. So he eats any vegetable or fruit without questioning it. Grace is more picky, but she eats most of her vegetables. I cook the carrots with the carbs and if I am having peas as well, I put them in after the simmering is done. I'm going to give them potatoes next time, with chicken, broccoli and cauliflower. I like planning their menu. : )
FYI, there should be a protein the dog has not had. With the commercial single protein food I fed Grace it was venison. I am reserving pork as the virgin protein, just incase it happens again.
We fed our dog raw food for a while, but I just couldn't keep it up. She eats a no-grain, salmon dry food now and doesn't have any problems.
I'm sorry that it's still so cold there and will send spring your way.
Elizabeth, I can't quite go raw, so they get medium rare!
It is cold, 10 degrees. I sure could use some CA sunshine.
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