Zukes Bought Out By Nestle

I am sad to say that one of my favorite brands of treats- Zukes- Has been bought by Nestle Purina Pet Care.  Unfortunately as we have seen with many past brands this is sure to mean a compromise in ingredients and safety no matter what they say to the contrary.  I will no longer be buying them because neither the people or the dogs in this house consume any Nestle products, but I am very sad.  The power bones were great for active dogs like Kerri who were skinny buy wanted to keep going for many hours on the trail.  The minis were perfect training treats.  You can read the statement from zukes on their website-

www.zukes.com

They have some empty promises in the "Hot News" area of their homepage and a full press release if you click on the link.

This is the bullet point that most concerns me the most-

  • Every recipe will remain the same, or be improved, but will never be compromised.

They are not even saying things will be the same.  We all have seen what happens when giant pet food manufacturers "improves" things.  We also are starting to see the deception tactics that are all too common in the business.  Highlight the part of the sentience saying you will never change and follow it by the rest of the sentence saying you will be improving things.  Zukes do not need improved and it is sad that they are already preparing consumers for their formulas to change.  I guess to our house it doesn't really matter anyway, we will not be buying them ever again no matter what they put in them (that is after I go buy every store out of power bones).

My hope is owners who were buying these more expensive, high quality treats will abandon the brand ASAP, it will go out of business and never again will a company think that partnering with Nestle is a good thing.

Raw food, cooked food, local food, people food!

I decided I have a lot to say about feeding raw food, buying that food locally and the fact that I am not a vegetarian (something that a lot of my friends in animal rescue surely judge me for).  Before I start I just wanted to say if you don't home cook, but you feed a pre-made diet don't feel bad.  Good kibble is a good decision for a lot of people!  Nothing at all wrong with that.  Also don't feel bad if you had a frozen meal made by ConAgra for dinner- I had a box of fruit loops the other day and I really don't feel bad about it.  Likewise don't judge me for having eaten bacon for breakfast this morning, pigs are really cute, and smart but...  I'm just going to stop before I put my foot in my mouth with that one.  If any of these topics make you really angry (or you just don't want to read a giant block of text that is nothing more than my opinion) feel free to pretend this post is just a cute picture of a chihuahua.  Eating a commercial dog treat.  With veggies in it.  Oops.  Even the raw feeders will be against me after this post.

Wow this post needed a lot of disclaimers.  You still feeling good about this?  Blood pressure holding steady.  Great. Lets be on with it.

The reason I moved to a home made raw diet in the first place was actually to help the world at large, not just Copley.  I believe that buying our food from local, small family farmers is the best thing a person can do to make a difference in the world.  I don't mean that you must buy organic (does that word even really mean much?) and spend your whole pay check at a health food store.  In fact I mean the opposite of that.  I mean you should go down to the local farmers market and talk to people who are lovingly growing healthy veggies and then barter with them for a good price on food.  I promise after a few trips the farmers market will be saving you money on your grocery bill (that is if you can find a good market).

I feel the same way about meat.  Factory farms are not good for you, they are not good for the world and they most certainly are not good for the food animals in them.  I would rather be a vegetarian than support feedlot cattle.  Over the last few years I have managed to slowly transition us off commercially raised feed animals.  At this point the humans in the house are eating 100% pastured meat and the dogs are at about 90%.  And when I say pastured I don't mean I buy the grass fed ground beef at Whole Foods.  I buy beef from a local rancher that has heirloom cows.  They are grazed on BLM land in Arizona and finished in pastures in Southern Utah.  Their cows are all born, raised, and slaughtered on the ranch, unlike commercial cattle that often changes hands many times over the course of its short life.  All of the eggs that enter my house come from "pet" chickens and ducks living in people's backyards.  Not one of these animals has its beak cut off so it can live its life crammed into a small cage.  I supplement my beef with occasional Goat- also local, and I can show you the pasture where the herd of goat spends their life.  Then my favorite local meat is the pork we just found.  That's right- after years of not eating pork I found a local farmer who keeps three pigs at a time and makes BACON.  Sweet, sweet bacon.

Many animal rights activists would tell me killing is killing and I am still doing it.  To them I say- well you are right about that.  I have no problem with vegetarians, my Mom is one, and I am worried that in the not too distant future Ben will be one too.  What I believe is the answer is not to stop eating meat, but to strive to move all of our food from large scale farming to small farms down the street.  I also believe if we are eating meat it is our responsibility to make sure the animals we eat are treated ethically.  The point is I am doing what I can, and what I think is best.    I don't want to sound like a saint here- cause I'm not.  I just want to encourage everyone to make a little change that helps the world.  Imagine what a difference would happen in the world if everyone just replaced one meal a week with food bought at the farmers market?  Or if you took one step to buy local, ethical, meat?

Alright- that went there- now back to the dogs!  I know people judge me for feeding raw, and think I am some sort of crazy dog lady.  I will have you know I am a crazy environmentalist, tree huger thank-you-very-much.  With that said the benefits of a home prepared diet are many after seeing the change in my dogs I will NEVER be going back to commercially prepared foods.  Even commercially prepared raw foods- because that would totally defeat the purpose of my home preparing food.  An argument people have against raw is that they can't afford all pastured, or organic meat.  Well who cares?  First of all supermarket meat on sale is still a whole food that is just fine for raw feeding or home cooking.  Also what do you think they are eating now?  Every kibble on the planet (even organic, "all natural" kibble) is made from commercial cattle.  So even if you feed 99% feedlot meat and 1% pastured, local meat you are making a difference, and doing better than commercial foods.

As of right now the dogs are almost totally on local, pastured meat.  I do keep backup canned food for emergencies, and buy a few raw mixes for our pet sitters to feed when we are out of town.  I also get green tripe from commercial cattle, and currently I struggle to find edible bone locally.  For the most part my dogs diet consists of beef from the cows we eat, eggs found locally, local veggies, rabbit that is raised on a small farm and local goat.  A few times a week they do get commercial chicken, and while I hate that the rabbit is really the only other edible bones for the chihuahuas and it is not affordable enough to feed all the time.

I don't want to sound like if you are feeding kibble you are destroying the world.  I fly a few times a year and that pretty much destroys my carbon footprint and I certainly am not going to stop that!  What I am saying is that it does not matter what people say to me- I am sticking to a home-made diet.  For my dogs and for the world.  I just had to get that out there.  

Thanks for listening everyone, and no matter what you feed your dog and your family make an informed decision.

Dinner Time!

Hey- If you don't like looking at raw meat that may still slightly resemble the animal it came from don't read this post!

First of all- hooray for my new camera!!!!

Second of all- horray for dog food!  It just so happened that on the day I bought my new camera (to replace the stolen one)  I also made dog food.  As you all  know we feed raw.  I call what I feed "prey model plus."  It is 70% muscle meat, 10% bone, 10% organ and 10% veggies.  Not to say that it what is in every meal, but it is what I strive to over time.  Also not saying that we feed the best diet out there or anything- I know lots of doggies thriving on home cooked, BARF and prey model.  With that said I thought I would use this opportunity to share our cooking adventures.  This happens every 2 weeks- because that is how much dog food fits in my freezer at one time!

All the veggies this week were not only local like from Southern Nevada/California and the farmers market- but all local to this very valley.  Horray for being uber local not even on purpose (usually everything is at least regionally local and bought directly from farmers).  We have pea shoots from Boulder City, summer squash from Boulder City, apples from Las Vegas and green beans from North Las Vegas are on the bottom of the pot.  The veggies we feed vary from week to week based on what is available locally.  Apples and squash are two of our favorite bases. 

The picture at the top of this post is Copley's meals.  This one here is Kerri's.  In this meal she has a chicken foot, some gizzards and hearts, a piece of beef kidney and a dalop of veggies.  I add various supplements and coconut oil to the veggies, depending on what dog I am feeding.  This particular meal would also get an egg cracked on it but I do those fresh.  We've always got some local eggs from somebody's chickens in the fridge.

People always ask me why I cook for my dogs.  The simple answer is that I believe whole, fresh foods are healthiest for my animal.   I also do everything in my power to support local farmers and not support feedlot animals.  Honestly it was that second thing that first motivated me to go to raw in the first place.  The commercial meat industry is a horrible thing.  For me those two reasons are enough and now that I see the change in my animals I would never go back.  There are some other surprising advantages though.  I used to buy a bag of kibble that lasted Copley about 3 weeks and cost $30.  Using some magic math I have determined it would cost me $50 to feed that same kibble to the dogs living at my house for 2 weeks (that would be 18lb Foster Dog George, 22lb Copley and 6lb Kerrigan).  On this round of food that is going to last me the same 2 weeks I spent less than $30.  This week didn't even include any free/really cheap meat that I usually get.  Feeding raw has also led me to meet a lot of cool other raw feeders- including my amazing Vet who I never would have looked for if I hadn't been feeding raw in the first place!

Now I must end this post so I can go to the DMV and register the car I wish I never had to buy.  It could take anywhere between 15 minutes and 4 hours- wish me luck.

We Love Our Vet!

I don't sit on my hip like this anymore :)

A while back I wrote about why we dumped our old vet and promised you a post about how much we love our new one.  Well it has taken me a while but here is why we love our new vet.

• She is a really cool lady and I really like her personally.
• She is a big fan of a raw diet.
• She splits her time between a primarily holistic practice and a primarily conventional medicine practice.  This means she brings a lot to the table.  Sometimes I find holistic vets a little too out there- and sometimes I find conventional medicine too closed minded and vets in particular seem easily bought out by pet food companies and pharmaceutical reps.  This new vet thinks for herself and has a lot of tools at her disposal.
• She is not anti-vaccine, she just is for reasonable vaccine schedules based on scientific fact, not based on ripping you off every 6 months.  This is good because I am equally annoyed by (scared of?) the people who claim all vaccines are evil so you should never vaccinate ever and the people who want me to uselessly pump a grate dane sized helping of parvo/distemper vaccine into my 6lb chihuahua every year.
• Her office DOES NOT SELL DOG FOOD!!!!!!!  Or at least if they do have prescription diets they are hidden away and you would never know they had them if you were a regular client there.  Cutting corn filled kibble out of my life even further feels so, so good.
• She does house-calls but also has a physical building we can go to if we need (and for blood draws and such).
• She gets results.  Under her care Copley has gone from a lump on the couch that "there is nothing wrong with" to an energetic, happy dog.  He even got back to agility just the other day.  I am so glad we found her.  As I said in my last vet post Copley was in a scarey place.  I truly believe if we had followed our vets advise and gone on pain meds, prescription joint care kibble and limited activity Copley would have declined fast.  By the time we found the TBDs I am sure it would have been far too late for his organs to recover.  I really believe we have bough Copley another 10 years of life.
• Did I mention her office does not sell dog food?

I could go on and on but really it is just more of the same points.  This vet fits us so well and I can't believe how lucky I am to have found her.  It took a lot for me to take the plunge and break up with our vet.  They were good people- and good vets- just not for us.  I wish I had "shopped around" sooner.  My take away message is this- There is no harm in trying new vets out till you find one you love- so don't be afraid to look!  We found our perfect vet and so can you.  For the record I feel the same way about human doctors.

It's been a year since this picture was taken?!?!?!?

P.S.- You may be curious how we found this vet.  Well we were at a totally non animal related social gathering and noticed a car in the parking lot with a magnet on it about a local veterinary house-call practice.  It turned out one of the people we met there was said vet and we tried her out.  Fate I think.

I dumped My Vet

It wasn't them it was me.  Seriously our vet was really good- for most people.  They care about animals and they try to do the best and have reasonable prices.  The problem is that they just were not doing it for me.  A few factors really played into it.

1. Raw Food.  I feed raw and I believe 100% that a home-made diet (not necessarily raw) is good for dogs.  There is no way in my mind that processed dry nuggets are better for your dog than whole foods sourced from trustworthy places.  At the very least I would expect them to recommend a HIGH QUALITY kibble- not Science Diet or the equally corn filled Purina.  I understand that there are a lot of complicated issues when it comes to why vets are against home-made food, but basically it comes down to dog food companies having a vice grip on vet schools and continuing their propaganda campaigns long into vets carriers.  I really felt it was time I found a vet who could see why raw feeding was better- and I did.  It was getting to the point where I could not remain civil in a conversation about how processed nuggets were better and I was probably killing my dog by not feeding them.  I also believe our blood-work was being only glanced over because the vets believed it was a byproduct of what we feed.  Unfortunately it was actually a DISEASE slowly killing my dog, not my food.
2. Vaccinations.  I am not anti-vaccine.  I do however have a problem with giving my dogs vaccines every year for parvo and distemper when those vaccines have shown to last for 7+ years.  Especially when my dog is fighting a disease that is attacking his immune system.  Don't even get me started on bordatella and the guilt trip I got from the receptionist every six months for not giving that!
3. Chiropractic and alternative medicine.  I am not against western medicine.  I also don't see why it is a problem to look at all modalities available to us to achieve good health.  The way I see it prevention is always the best medicine and often eastern or holistic approaches are about maintaining good health overall, not just treating problems once they happen.  What is wrong with those approaches?  NOTHING.  That is why we have changed to a holistic-centered vet who also understands you need an ER or some antibiotics every once and a while!  Lets use everything we have available to us and keep an open mind.  My old vet was not willing to do that.  They wanted me to put my 3 year old dog an an NSAID for the rest of his life and feed him glucosamine filled kibble (they never could come up with a good answer about how my giving them joint supplements would be any less effective than a kibble company doing it).  I can only imagine what Copley would have looked like after 2 years of NSAIDS, kibble and Lyme disease.  I don't think he would see his 6th birthday in that scenario. (I don't mean to say NSAIDS- or long term use of them- is always bad.  It makes a lot of dogs comfortable and with proper monitoring it is often the best choice.  For us it was putting a band-aid on a degenerative disease.)
4. Tick Borne Disease Literacy.  I needed a vet who had treated and seen TBDs before.  They are tricky and the symptoms are subtle and seem like other things.  Every time I went in it cost me $200 and they told me it was nothing.  The new vet looked at our whole picture and came up with a solution.
5. Fear Mongering.  I started getting stuff in the mail about putting my dog on flea/tick/heart worm meds and how I was doing them a horrible disservice and  killing my dogs by not having them on monthly frontline and de-wormers (for the record I DO test for heart worm and think people in areas with it should use preventatives).  This bothered me for two main reasons.  First it was propaganda made by a pharmaceutical company but was disguised as a meaningful letter from my vet.  Secondly WE DON'T HAVE FLEAS or TICKS or MOSQUITOES HERE!!!!!  They are literally just ripping people off at best, and tricking them at worst.

For now I guess that's it.  My did this turn into a rant.  I guess it is like all bad breakups- I am a little bitter.  Seriously though- my old vet isn't that bad.  If you don't mind standing up to them about the food thing and your dog doesn't have a TBD they are one of the best vets in the city.

Enjoy this picture of what really matters- a happy, healthy Copley enjoying a romp in a field of swamp cabbage.

Copley's got a Chiropractor

First of all HAPPY EASTER!  We celebrated the holiday by enjoying yummy treats (dog and human) from our amazing neighbors and ordering rabbit meat for the dogs.  What is more fitting of the season than nom nom nomming on humanely slaughtered, pastured bunny rabbits?  Well... probably lot of things.  I try not to think too much about the fact that they will be eating rabbits but the fact is dogs need to eat meat and these rabbits were much more humanely raised than the poor supermarket chicken they are eating for dinner tonight.  If I find humanely raised meat from a small farm for a good price I am really inclined to buy it no matter what it is.

In other news Copley has been seeing a chiropractor.  Did you even know animal chiropractors existed?  I didn't until I saw a brochure for one and did a little research.  They even have a national certifying agency The American Veterinary Chiropractic Association.  Copley has been adjusted twice and it really seems to be making a difference.  You may remember the injury he had back in January.  The month of total rest and 6-8 weeks of slowly going back to normal activity seems to have done the trick for the leg but I still felt like he was not 100%.  When I saw the flyer for the chiropractor I thought it might be just what he needs to make that final recovery.  After just two sessions with the chiropractor Copley is playing more with his sister, more enthusiastic on walks and even the waddle in his gait is improving a little bit.  The improvement was not overnight, nor was it like a shocking change in behavior, but I do see it making a difference with the little things.  He is never going to have the perfect posture or gait because his genetics are working against him but some improvement in that area hopefully will help hold off injury and arthritis as long as we can.

One thing I have noticed is for the first time ever Copley is laying straight on his own.  He will lay straight when we are doing rally or I ask him too, but when he just plops down he ALWAYS tucks his right leg under him.  Lately I have noticed he is using his muscles to lay down instead of just plopping down on his hip.  I looked through pictures and could not find ONE of him laying straight like this until this week.

I was so happy to catch him laying like this with my camera nearby that I let him break the rules (paws in the kitchen) so I could take the picture.  He has been laying like this for a few days but I keep the camera by the treat jar so every time I went to get it he got up.

I am curious if any of you have seen a chiropractor for your dog?  Did you notice results?  Most of the people I have talked to who use one are doing it to keep their performance dogs in shape but I would be curious what your experiences were for other uses.  Our primary vet was supportive (make sure your chiropractor consults with your vet before you begin any treatment) but I am curious what other vets have have to say about this "alternative" treatment.

Kidney Brownies

Have you ever heard of liver brownies?  They are a super easy home made treat that dogs love.  Because they are cheap, easy and good for training they are a favorite of those of us who are high volume treat users like trainers and obedience people.  Well today I set out to see if the recipe would work with kidney.  Why kidney you ask?  I happened to get 4 pounds of local, pasture fed-finished beef kidney for very little money.  It has been sitting in a giant 4lb glob in a bag in the freezer taking up way too much space and I really needed it to go.  If I were to put this in to dog food (even if it was the only organ other than liver I used) it would take months for it all to get eaten.  Right now I am not short on organ and frankly the other stuff fits in the freezer much better.

So here is the recipe I improvised for kidney brownies-

4 LB of Beef Kidney

1 1/2 Cup Corn Meal*

1 Cup Flour

1/2 a Wedge of Parmesan Cheese

4 Cloves of garlic**

*Read what I have to say about corn if you want to.  If your dog is allergic or sensitive to corn you could use regular flour and an egg but I think it will be more crumbly like a traditional brownie and not a rip-able, pliable bar like I got.

**From what I read garlic can cause anemia in dogs if used in large quantities.  This recipe uses only 4 cloves to make an amount of treats that will last two dogs months.  I hear that dogs like the taste of garlic and it also made the cooking smell of this a little more bearable for me so I am glad I used it.  It is certainly not necessary if it makes you uncomfortable or if your dog can't have it for some reason.

First I assembled all my ingredients-

Then I preheated my oven to 350 degrees.  Next I covered a cookie sheet in foil and greased it (I used olive oil, but any cooking oil would do).  I put the cheese in a food processor with the peeled garlic.

And zap, zap, zap- tada!

I don't have any pictures of chopping and blending the kidney.  It was too gross and I just wanted it to be over.  My only advise is if you value the motors on your kitchen appliances use a blender, cut the kidney up small and pour all the blood from the bag into the mix.  Once it was all processed I mixed it with the cheese, corn meal and flour.

Spread the mixture into your greased and foiled cookie sheet.  I made it about 1/4 inch thick but I now see that either thicker or thinner would both work although it would be a different consistency treat depending.  I like my 1/4 inch and at that depth I got several cookie sheets worth.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Once it cools a little I turned the slab over onto a cooling rack and carefully peeled back the tin foil.  Without the foil I can't imagine I would have gotten it off the cookie sheet.

Because of the consistency of the sheet it was easiest for me to cut it with scissors once it was completely cool.  I cut it into strips and then cubes like you see in the first picture.

These treats need to be either refrigerated or frozen.  I froze most of mine because I made a lot of treats.  I do have a tip on freezing though.  If you first freeze the treats laid out on a cookie sheet THEN put them all into a bag it will help avoid clumping.  You should be able to just pull out what you need without having to thaw the whole bag.  This method works for veggies and most other cooked then frozen items too.

I got a LOT of treats.  Previously I had been buying Welness Pure Rewards for about $6 a bag.  This recipe made about 12 bags worth of treats and cost me $6.*

*I calculated $2.50 for 1/2 a block of Parmesan cheese at $4.99, $2 for the kidney, 25c for the garlic (although I did get it for free from a farmer we know) and $1 for the corn meal and flour then to make it a round number I pretended it cost me 25c in gas to run the oven.  Total- $6

These were a big hit with both Copley (who would eat anything) and Kerrigan (who it a little bit more picky).  They are the perfect consistency for training and once done don't really smell like kidney any more. 

Corn

I know two posts in one day.  It might turn into three, I am on a roll today.  Anyway...

I have been goggling treat recipes today and I found a lot of crazy ranting about corn out there on the interwebs.  I thought I would put out there my stand on the plant just so we are all clear on it in the future.*  Feel free to agree or disagree, for I am no corn expert.

Firstly- Corn is used as a filler in a lot of dog food.  So is potato, grains, pea fiber, tomato, rice and lots of other plants.  All kibble use carbohydrate fillers- to me no one of them is any better or worse than another.  Especially the way it is done in kibble.  That's why I don't feed commercial dog food.

Secondly- Using corn gluten as a replacement for meat protein in dog food is also not so good in my opinion.  This is where corn as an ingredient in dog food gets it's well deserved bad rap.

Thirdly- Corn is not evil.  I am about to bake treats using cornmeal as an ingredient.  Corn had gotten a bad rap because it is used rampantly in kibble as a protein source.  Using 1/2 cup of it in my treats is no worse than using rice or oatmeal.  It is just another carbohydrate that I don't believe will do any harm in the small amounts I need it to hold my treats together.  The people on the internet raging in the comments about every treat recipe I find with corn clearly don't understand this complicated issue.  Putting a little corn in treats is a totally, totally different issue than the use of highly processed corn gluten as a protein replacement in your dogs diet.

Lastly- Lots of dogs have allergies to corn.  If your dog is allergic to corn then don't give them corn.  My dog is intolerant of potato, sweet potato and carrot.  I don't go around telling everyone I meet to stop feeding their dogs carrots.

Thanks for listening to my rant, feel free to rage at my non hatred of corn.  I am sure some of you are convinced the pet food companies are paying me to say this as part of some massive conspiracy.  Others I am sure will think me a crazy granola muncher (or whatever) for not accepting corn gluten as a legitimate protein source.  I will take that as a compliment.  Pissing off both sides is what I do best :)

*Only in the dog world would something like corn cause rage of this magnitude on the internet.

Fat Dogs

You know how I know most people's dogs are fat?  The general public can't even recognize a healthy dog anymore.  People constantly remark about how skinny my dogs are.  Just today someone told me how my dogs looked really skinny and unhealthy.  Even asked what I feed them.

As you can see Copley is totally skin and bones-

We never give him any treats-

And we work him so very hard-

If he could talk all he would say is "feed me, please feed me".  (actually that one is probably accurate)

As you can see the chihuahua is skin and bones too-

Seriously though, my dogs are a healthy weight.  Here is a copy of the chart my vet uses.  At our last visit Copley was a 5 and Kerrigan was a 4.  That's right, Copley, the dog I get the most comments about is not even borderline skinny!  He is on the HEAVY side of good.

Also why does everything my vet do revolve around products from what I consider to be one of the most evil companies on the planet?  I spent a lot of time cutting Nestle out of my life before I got a dog and now I am posting a chart made by them on my very own blog.  Sigh.

If only I ran the world, if only...

If I Were Getting a Dog... Part 1- Books

We over here at DogInTheDesert have a few friends thinking of becoming dog owners.  This inspired me to write some posts about what I would make sure to have if I was getting a dog for the first time.  Hindsight is 20/20 after all.

In the first part of this series we will be covering...

Books

We read a lot of books before we got Copley and they were extremely helpful.  I see a lot of new dog owners do a lot of nutty things and reading a bit about dogs can really help you avoid screwing the dog up totally in your first few desperate weeks of owning them.  I have gotten my list of must reads down to a manageable three books and here they are-

• For the Love of A Dog, by Patricia McConnell.  While the title makes it sound like a mushy book about loving dogs it actually is a fascinating book full of facts about dogs and the way they experience life.  The most vital part about this book in my opinion is it's in depth look at canine body language.  So many dog-human issues are caused by people being blind to the signals their dogs are sending them.  After reading this book you will never be blind to your dog's emotions again (ok, that was an exaggeration, they are confusing sometimes, but it will help).  If you are really feeling like some reading Patricia McConnell has a few other books and all of them are great.
• Cesars Way, by Cesar Millan.  Be careful with this one, because for some reason dog people seem to hate Cesar Milan with a fiery passion.  I really don't get it.  Just like every other book I read it has some great info and some not so great info.  Understanding how your energy effects your dog and how picking a dog of the proper energy level really makes a lot of sense to me.  His emphasis on exercise and calm leadership seem like great ideas.  Until one of the people out there shouting "Cesar Millan is evil" can tell me something horrible about his training style that is actually in one of his books I will continue to recommend them. Maybe the hate comes from things he does on his TV show.  I wouldn't know, I don't have cable.
• Feed Your Pet Right by Marion Nestle and Malden Nesheim.  This book has great info on dog nutrition.  It talks about everything from reading labels on commercial dog food to cooking your dog a well balanced diet.  No matter what you plan to feed this is a must read.  If you are fascinated by the pet food industry and don't mind a long rather complicated read you can pick up Nestle's other book Pet Food Politics.  If you make it to the end of that one and would like to be scared to ever eat anything ever again unless you grew it yourself then feel free to round out the series with Nestle's book on people food, Food Politics (this book actually came before the pet ones).

 Isn't is great how I wrote a whole post about dog advise without actually giving any?  Sometimes it is best to leave these things up to the professionals, so get to reading their books and hopefully I will have written the next post in this series by the time you get back.

What we are eating around here

I realized the last post I made about what we ate around here was this.  At the time I was really trying to get the puppy just to eat anything but for it to be the only post about what we eat here is a little unfortunate.  Cause dinner prep around the DogInTheDesert household looks a whole lot more like this these days-

 

Before I go on about what we feed I would encourage everyone to do their own research.  I read two great books Feed Your Pet Right by Marion Nestle and Pet Food Politics also by Nestle.  I also did lots of research online.  In the end I settled on a diet of 70% muscle meat, 10% raw edible bone, 10% organ and 10% veggie mix.  It has been going well for us for a little over a year now.  Unlike some people I know out there I really believe any way you make a diet (prey model raw, BARF, home cooked, some mix of them all) is better than commercial kibble as long as you do some research and make sure you offer lots of variety.

We accomplish our diet with veggies from the farmers market, Cornish game hen and chicken for some meat and nearly all bone, beef, venison, and goat for meat and organ.  I also throw in the occasional egg or odd meat we get here or there.  For supplements I use a multivitamin, a green lipped muscle product for omega 3's because Copley can't handle fish oil and occasionally coconut oil.

I find that diet is one of the biggest hot button issue when it comes to dogs.  At the vet practice I go to half of the vets seem to be all for my raw feeding and half of them are very leery about it.  On the internet some people would call me a total traitor because we keep some high quality kibble around for vacations or the occasional meal when the kitchen is really busy.  Some say I am killing my dog by not feeding them enough veggies, some would say I am slowly killing them by giving them any veggies at all.

In conclusion I have some messages for the people out there-

To the crazy-die-hard-only-natural-foods-everything-else-is-killing-you-and-your-family-and-by-the-way-modern-medicine-is-a-conspiracy-to-end-the-human-race-people:  Be happy I feed a whole foods diet and shop at a farmers market but for real sometimes I need to go on vacation and it is not always sanitary to camp with a cooler full of raw meat.  A meal of kibble here or there is not going to kill my dogs.  You already won me over with the natural diet, now get a grip on reality and get off my back.

To the ALL-CHICKEN-BONES-KILL crowd:  Google it.  Also have you ever heard of mass wolf die off due to bowel perforation?  Me neither.  Cooked chicken bones kill, raw ones build strong joints.

To the but-only-kibble-can-possibly-provide-a-complete-and-balanced-diet-people:  You could live off of nothing but ensure and total cereal.  Instead you eat a variety of foods, maybe take a multi vitamin, and if you are really snazzy you read a book on nutrition once.  And guess what?  You are still alive and a lot of you are healthy.  P.S. I bet that book on nutrition told you to eat lots of whole fresh food with minimally processed ingredients.

To the raw-meat-makes-your-dog-viscious-taste-of-blood-and-all-that-people:  Do wolves eat each other?  Does a piece of kibble look any more like a cow than a steak?  If you were one of the people who "warned" me that because of raw feeding Copley would eat the puppy please comment because I really don't know what to say here.  A lot of you were educated normal people I want to know what you were thinking.

Finally for the vast majority of people out there who feed commercial dog food- you are not evil.  For reals.  This raw feeder does not bite (or jump down your throat).  Good quality kibble can keep your dog healthy and happy. Just do your research on the brand you choose and maybe throw in a home cooked meal every so often. 

In conclusion I am won over.  Nothing could get me to go back to full time kibble after the results I have seen.  Not even the rather hardcore and somewhat off putting members of the raw feeding community themselves.

Final Disclaimer:  Don't use this page alone to decide what to feed your animals.  Do a little research, don't believe everything you hear, demand proof , e-mail me if you want to chat with another real life raw feeder, and use common sense.

Chicken Jerkey Treats- FDA Warning

I just saw a news article about this today, but then I looked on the FDA website and they actually released a statement in November.
Here is the FDA statement from November
Here is a newer caution that basically says the same thing

They are cautioning people about feeding ANY chicken jerky or chicken treat from China.  There are no recalls because they can't tie the illness specifically to one brand or product because dogs are becoming ill after eating many different brands and products of chicken treats from China.

So be on the lookout.  Many imported chicken jerky treats are branded in a way that makes them look like a natural, organic, local product.  So be sure to check out the label on all of your jerky and jerky-like chicken treats.

It can never hurt to periodically check out this FDA website for a list of current recalls.  Even for someone like me who feeds home made raw my dogs are still given treats, chews and occasionally a pre-made meal when traveling or being boarded.

One final edit after publishing this post- If you have children, food allergies, a compromised immune system, or really if you eat any food at all you should probably check out this FDA website to make sure you are not eating any recalled food yourself.

Puppy!!!!!!!

We got our new puppy!  She is a little chihuahua, weighing in at a whopping 4.2 LBS at 13 weeks.  We got her from the city shelter where according to their website they had 243 dogs available and 60 were chihuahuas.  So if you are interested in adopting a Chi and live in the Las Vegas area you should know Lied animal shelter (aka The Animal Foundation) has plenty.

Here she is!  I keep trying to take pictures at night, when the light is not so good, I promise better pictures tomorrow during sunlight hours!

The puppy says hi!

Copley asks "What have you done to me?"

 

The little lady was having some trouble with the raw chicken so we gave her a break and are cooking it.  At this point she is getting fed three meals a day of seared chicken (very rare) and yogurt in a kong along with a multivitamin, calcium supplement and a pro-biotic.  The hardest thing about these is that they are miniature amounts.  One of the supplements she gets 1/16th of a teaspoon split into 3 meals!  How do you even really measure that?

 If her tummy manages to stay settled we will be adding some veggies and some kinds of fattier meat tomorrow.  The vet said she is a little skinny for a puppy, but that is expected after four days at a shelter.  I could probably use starvation tactics to get her to take the chicken raw, but since we have the calcium supplements as a raw bone replacement we can go on with cooked meat until she gets a little weight on her.

That is all for now!  I will be doing more updates on the puppy very soon.