Kelp for Tartar Control? Yep!

Kelp is a nutritional powerhouse, providing minerals, vitamins and amino acids. This group of sea-vegetables has proven abilities to help our bodies and dog's bodies too. That doesn't mean supplementing with a little kelp will even out a crappy diet, but it is still a supplement worth using.

I actually learned of kelp's ability to help tartar by accident.  I purchased it for it's abilities to boost the health of my dogs skin and fur. I started finding that certain kelps have a bacteria (a good bacteria!) that releases an enzyme in the mouth that helps to reduce plaque on teeth by breaking down the biofilm.  Less plaque in the mouth means less bad breathe!

This is when I started making my Coconut Biscuits, which have the same 2 kelps in them that have these tartar reducing enzymes. Because of all the wonderful properties of these kelps along with the other high quality ingredients in my Coconut Biscuits, I make sure these are a daily treat for our dogs. No, kelp will not magically dissolve all of the tartar currently on your dogs or cats teeth but it can help soften the plaque and help prevent further accumulation.

With daily use, kelp can impact your dogs or cats tartar within weeks.

Read about Newcastle University's discovery on kelp's tartar fighting enzyme here.

Another study on it here. And lots more info online!

If you want to incorporate the benefits of kelp into your dog's daily routine, you can contact me to purchase my Coconut Biscuits through my store.

Review: Pet Fooled

 I recently flew across the country to visit my sister and was able to download this film to watch on the airplane, which allowed me to give it my undivided attention.

The pet food industry continues to thrive due to our ignorance as pet owners. We are suckers for flashy pet food bags and commercials that tug at our heart strings. We're also in a time where knowledge is just a few clicks away and while we're making healthier food decisions for ourselves, we continue to buy the same bag of kibble at the store, with no understanding of what is actually in that bag. Let's change that!

PetFooled is a short documentary/series of interviews with enlightened veterinarians that push us as pet owners to open our eyes to understand how unregulated the pet food industry is.  You may suspect that this film has an ulterior motive behind it, to buy THEIR food and treats or use THEM as veterinarians but neither would be correct. I enjoyed the fact that the film's main purpose wants to be an education tool for making a better informed pet parent. They want to help you ask better and tougher questions when it comes to your pets health and nutrition. You may be surprised who doesn't want to give answers to those tough questions...

So I gave you an idea of what this film is, I want you to know what this film is NOT.  This is not a plug for some healthier brand of food, or a plug for some pet supplements, it's not even a list of what brands to stay away from! There is no hidden agenda in the short film and no hateful accusations.  It is simply a group of people who want pet owners to be informed. Some of the people in the group have had dogs that died during the massive 2007 pet food recall, some people in the FDA, pet food advocates and some enlightened veterinarians that are pioneering the way for better food.

For those that don't know my background, I started as a young vet tech assistant who fed the kibble my vet/boss recommended. I eventually started reading, researching and understanding food and step by step made better nutrition choices moving onto grain-free kibble, and then commercial made raw food, then homemade raw food. I have worked alongside several vet's in the 3 states I've lived, I have attended nutritional CE's that were NOT sponsored by the big name companies, I worked in the pet food industry for a year, I study books on homemade food written by Vets. I am a well-rounded informed pet owner and I recommend this film.

Pet Fooled is currently on Netflix, available to rent or buy on Amazon, also on iTunes or Vimeo.

Pet Fooled on Facebook

Pet Fooled website 

Watch the trailer here:

Bored Beyond Belief

The Washington Post just put out an article titled How to Keep Your Cat From Losing Its Mind, and I couldn't be happier!  The author Karin Brulliard touched on so many topics that I feel most cat owners ignore: that indoor cats are bored beyond belief.

If you're one of my clients you may have heard me say before that I believe that cats are not as domesticated as we make them out to be. They still have those desires to hunt, stalk, and pounce and instead of encouraging those behaviors in appropriate ways, we make them settle by giving them a cat condo and calling it quits. That's not good enough.

I'm not saying let your city slicker cat outside, or fill your homes with expensive carpet covered cat condos, but I do want your creative juices to start flowing. I certainly had to think outside the box when we adopted our cats, and I admit I have a difficult time coming up with new and exciting ideas. So I turn on an episode of My Cat From Hell and Jackson Galaxy inspires me! Creating fun spaces for them that encourage them to jump, climb, and watch 'prey' (they have visual access to my flock all day) keeps them happy and entertained and I don't have jerk cats that tip over cups or claw up things they aren't supposed to.

I bet you didn't know that urinary tract problems in cats can be caused by boring indoor living! Pandora Syndrome is the term for the litany of health and behavior problems that can be caused by a stuffy, boring, depressing environment for a cat.  Now that alone should get you pumped to start creating some exciting things for your Garfield. 

Before you get started, make sure to tailor anything to the wants of your cat. Not all cats like cat condos if they're bush dwellers that prefer to stay on the ground in dark cozy hiding spaces. Rethink how you feed them as well.  I feed all of our cats off the ground - it forces them to jump up to their food and water. You can even try using food puzzles for cats which can help them lose weight! Read this article in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, it's pretty awesome!

Here's a list of some things to think about to create a cat friendly home:

• Does your cat have visual access to wildlife? Think about a catio or use window bird feeders where your cat can watch them upclose from the indoors.
• How are you feeding your cat? Cats are not cows and get bored from 'grazing' their food that is out all day/night. Consider set mealtimes, food puzzles, or an automatic feeder on a timer.
• Do you encourage your cat to climb to high places? Think about installing some simple shelving or moving furniture around to facilitate natural climbing behaviors.
• Does your cat have a way to act out natural hunting skills? Think of a 'wack-a-mole' type toy, or any toy with erratic movements. 
• Is your cat bored with the toys you currently have? Odds are they are probably out 24/7 sitting in the same cat toy box on the floor. Consider rotating toys and putting unused toys away out of sight. Also move toys around from room to room.

If you look at my Amazon Store, you'll see I have a few food toys and puzzles and window feeders listed for cats.  I hope these help you get started in creating a healthier cat home! Below are some great options to get started!

Homemade Outdoor Cat Bed

 Kitty, our barn cat, has been with us for 2 and a half years! In April of 2014, we started finding cat scat on the property and then flashes of a spooked gray cat that would run away if she saw you. I started putting food and water out and after a few weeks of her doing recon on us, she popped her head out from under our work shed and gave me a 'meow'. She decided we didn't look all that bad and was curious of all the fun looking things we were doing on the property at that time (building a catio for Nova & Naveen as well as building a coop and run for our first chickens).

Kitty was a wild looking skinny cat that I kept feeding and watering. She very much needed to take her time warming up to us.  During monsoon, we put a cat door into our work shed where she could quickly escape the rain, and go hide under a table in there. When winter rolled around, Kitty spent a very difficult night on a heating blanket outside and I knew it was time we needed to come up with a long term plan.

The following night we brought her inside the house for the cold winter night. We closed her off in a room that we had been using for storage. She had food, water, a warm bed, and a litter box and a quiet place away from the dogs.  During these past few months, we realized Sarge isn't quiet used to cats.   He would react to seeing Kitty waiting at the door outside and try to pounce at her through the glass door. Pepe & Zoey are total pros with felines.  We've been slowly working with Sarge on his Kitty reactivity and we've definitely made a lot of improvement but not where I would like to be, and maybe never will get to that point.  

Fast forward to now, September 2016... Kitty still has 'her room' that we're currently in the process of remodeling.  At dusk every day, she waits at the backdoor or the front door, waiting to come in for the night.  In the mornings she goes back outside but she NEVER strays far.  If we're outside working, she is either right there with us, or watching us from somewhere safe if we're mowing or weed wacking.  She can scale a tree to get up on the roof at one end of the house, then do some kitty parkour and jump down on the opposite end.  Because of the amount of skill she has rapidly climbing trees and walls, I don't worry about her getting away from any daytime predators.  We don't have many that come through, the occasional lone coyote which always passes through so quick (They don't even want to stick around to check out our flock). 

We often bring Kitty inside for a mid-day nap but sometimes she likes to stay outside for her naps and we find her on a patio chair, in the shed, on a deck storage box, and recently ... in an old planter.

I wanted to give her something more cozy, just for her, that wasn't full of dirt!  I had 2 large 22" plastic planters that I got on sale that I never got around to using.  I ended up using them as a quick table when I was cutting some plywood and cut through the lips of both planters. Whoops.  When I spotted Kitty napping in the planter, a brain light bulb turned on in my head!

I pulled the plastic planters out of the shed, took a few retaining wall blocks and the wheels in my kept turning.

 

I ran out to Home Depot to pick up some small 2'x2' plywood and cut a platform that would rest evenly on the blocks.  

 Now that I knew this was going to work, I painted and glazed the planters, bought a memory foam square (2" thick), some pretty material and a zipper.

 

I got a great deal at Hobby Lobby - I found this fabric hiding under a bunch of others and score, it was half off! I bought extra fabric since I liked it so much. I used their 40% off coupon on the memory foam which came out to only $6!

 

I cut the memory foam to the size of the wood platform, 18", and then proceeded to sew a cover (by hand!) A lot of people make cheap pet beds out of fleece but I hate the static properties of fleece and how dog and cat hair never fully comes off of it, so I decided on a different material and to sew a zipper on it so I could take it off and wash it.  I don't have a sewing machine, nor know how to use one, so this was all done by hand.

 And tada! It turned out great!

 

Now I just have to entice Kitty enough to start using it!

And after a week or so ... she loves it!
She really seems to appreciate that I sunk the cushion. She feels like she is 'hiding' inside the planter! :)

Review: PFAT Food Storage Bag

This review has been a long time coming!  Outward Hound makes some great affordable pet gear and about 2.5 years ago we were preparing to take 2/3 of our canine crew across country on a road trip.

We were still feeding kibble at that time and I didn't want to take up valuable space in the car by bringing a whole air tight food container which would be mostly empty by the time we drove back home.  (This was close to 2 weeks away from home and we took Pepe & Zoey back to IL and IA while we visited family and attended a wedding)

I stumbled across Outward Hound's PFAT (Pest Free Air Tight) bag and thought what a perfect solution.  I wanted something that could keep the kibble safe during our travels, easy to carry as we bounced around, didn't require using and throwing away food storage bags, and best of all - the size of the bag diminishes each day kibble was eaten allowing for valuable SUV room since we were bringing a lot of stuff back home with us.

The PFAT bag may not be optimal for everyday kibble use, but it's great for storage and traveling.  Our pups eat homemade raw 6 days a week and the 7th day is usually Honest Kitchen prep or kibble.  I want them to be able to handle kibble for when we go on vacation and someone else watches them, or in the case of another fire evacuation and needing something super easy and convenient. 

One of the best things about this bag is how it's designed. When you're ready to close it up, you can squeeze as much air out, then roll the sturdy top seams down and buckle the ends together.  This helps to keep the food fresh and essentially making the bag into a purse, you could throw on your shoulder or carry by the handle.  Again, super great for traveling, camping, any K9 adventure that awaits!

The PFAT bags come in 3 sizes and we purchased the medium which holds 20 lbs pounds of kibble- more than what we needed in the 2 week time we were on the road.  For now, I have the PFAT bag inside a reused kitty litter tub for extra protection since we only need to feed kibble 1 day a week at most. The bin is kept out of the way in the laundry room and pulled out as needed.

All in all, a great purchase and this bag could be used for so many other purposes besides kibble. Chicken feed, bird seed, or even long term food storage for you zombie apocalypse preppers!