Think Outside of The Bag - My Journey of Feeding Better

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm deeply invested in pet nutrition, specifically nutrition for dogs and cats.  I wasn't always so careful about choosing dog food though, or even reading ingredient labels of dog food.  When I was a newer vet tech, all I needed was to know what kibble the vet's I worked for recommended, and that's what I bought.  Sadly it took me a few years to realize I needed to be a better guardian for my little Pepe and become pickier about what I fueled his little body with.

I won't name the food, but the kibble I fed Pepe contained the top 5 ingredients: brewer's rice, chicken meal, corn gluten meal, corn, and wheat gluten.  Because I didn't know better, I never questioned these ingredients.  At some point I started to put puzzle pieces together and realized my carnivore needed more carne, more meat!  The simply anatomy of the dog's and cat's jaw shows that their bottom jaw does not swing side to side, only the open/close motion.  Animals that are meant to eat fibrous plant material have lower jaws that swing side to side.  Picture a cow chewing cud.  Even humans have bottom jaws that swing, since plants are meant to make a considerable part of our diet.  But canids and felids do not have this jaw motion, which should be a very strong indicator that plant material is not meant to make up a majority of their diet.  Additionally, read about the major difference in the saliva of dogs and cats vs. herbivores and omnivores.  It makes you think....

Now, I am no veterinarian but after years of working in animal hospitals, you start to see connections between chronically ill pets and the poorly rated pet foods they eat.  I started doing my homework on a better food to feed Pepe and I decided on Fromm's Four Star line.  The top 5 ingredients of one of their 4 star foods: duck, duck meal, pearled barley, sweet potatoes and brown rice.  Already a large improvement from the corn and wheat Pepe's previous food was made of.  I started rotating bags, giving Pepe different proteins, to offer him variety and keep him from getting bored.  One of the quickest changes I saw was his #2 in the yard - now that he was eating better ingredients that could get absorbed better, his #2's were much smaller and much less stinkier! What pet owner doesn't love that!?

We purchased this 7 cu ft freezer solely for dog food ingredients.  We also have a 14 cu ft freezer for our food, storage for my treat ingredients, as well as the dog's prepared meals (container picture at the bottom).

When I was working at my hydrotherapy pool in the Chicago suburbs, I started Pepe on a raw diet for the first time.  My boss was also a distributor of some commercially made raw food, so I was able to try it at cost.  I started bringing home 6lb bags of Northwest Naturals - a commercially made raw food that comes in nuggets, so it was very easy (and still affordable) for my 12lb Pepe.  I instantly became the world's best mom in Pepe's eyes.  Because he was the only dog for many years, he never felt the urge to gobble up his kibble.  There were no other dogs eyeing his food, so he often picked at it.  Now, he was excited about meal time!  I remember taking out 5 or 6 nuggets to thaw in the fridge for the next meal, depending on Pepe's activity level.  (We did tons of walking and running back then, and I altered his meal size based on activity level - something that helps overfeeding and maintaining weight).

But a major life event happened and Pepe and I were getting ready to chase our dreams and move cross country to Tucson!  This is when we went back to kibble for a number of years.  I still wanted to feed the best I could afford and I didn't have the freezer space in my new apartment.  Zoey also suddenly became a member of the family, just 2 months after I moved to Tucson.  So after some researching on ingredients and companies, I started feeding foods like Orijen and Taste of the Wild. I was now feeding strictly grain-free foods.  

Fast forward a few more years to living in Hereford and a third dog named Sarge.  It was now 2014 and I really wanted to get back to feeding a raw diet.  Our raw options in Cochise Country are extremely limited - buying commercially made foods wasn't going to happen.  No one carried the variety I wanted and having food shipped to my door was way out of the budget.  So I decided to start making my own!  There are ample resources out there to homemade dog food - whether you're doing a  homemade cooked diet with fruits and veggies, a raw diet with fruits and veggies, or a strictly raw meat diet... The resources are out there to help you start the journey.  The most important thing is to do your homework and really understand what is involved.  I firmly believe that an unbalanced homemade diet is worse than a bag of Ol' Roy.  You can't feed solely chicken breast and expect your dog to be healthy.

I joined some raw feeding groups, locally and nationally to start getting an idea of where to get my products from.  I bought freezers (we have 21 cubic feet of freezer space in the garage now) so that I could stock up when prices are good - this is critical to keeping things affordable!  I bought a small kitchen scale to weigh out food, freezable reditainers for storing prepared food, and thanks to a large raw group (22k members), printed out feeding charts for each dog as a quick reference when I make their food.

Vacuum sealed 1 lb packages of a deer/elk blend.  Bought through a raw feeding coop.

I've now been making my own dog food for a year now!  Bones are an every day part of their diet too!  Pepe and Zoey get bones like chicken necks and chicken feet and Sarge gets turkey necks and chicken thighs.  Bones are always raw and uncooked and choosing the proper sized item for the size of your animal is essential.  They eat liver and kidney which are full of vitamins and minerals.  And the proteins they eat on a monthly basis include: chicken, pork, turkey, smelt, beef, elk/venison, mackerel, green lipped mussels, chicken and duck eggs (from our birds) , and home raised duck.  Yes, our duck flock is solely to help feed our dogs.  I won't go into detail, but feel free to ask me about it in person.

Feeding a raw diet isn't for everyone and I don't encourage anyone to do it without ample understanding and research.  I do still feed kibble one day a week, just to keep their bodies used to it.  Primarily for the event of an emergency and needing to feed them on the go, or for when we go on vacation and I don't want to burden someone with feeding a diet that requires supervision. (I always stay in the kitchen and wait for the dogs to finish eating).  I also make a blend of raw fruits and steamed veggies that I puree together in a blender, freeze in ice cube trays and add to their dinners.  Not all fruits and veggies are created equal so I have a list of what foods to use and what foods not to use for these veggie cubes.

All of the meat I feed is from the grocery store, besides our eggs & ducks, and the elk/venison which is made specifically for animals and contains about 10-15% ground bone.  Now would you believe that my cost of feeding a homemade diet is the same cost as feeding a premium kibble!  As long as you know how to shop and plan, it can be really affordable!

This is what a day's worth of dog food looks like for us, without the veggies cubes and eggs (both stored separately).

One thing I instantly noticed about feeding a raw diet is once again, their #2.  Because their bodies can use so much more of their nutrients, compared to kibble, very little is expelled out.  In fact, I can't even smell it!  The only time their yard gets stinky is when they're back on kibble and it knocks me off my feet.  Their #2's also literally disintegrate after a few days.  No more picking up dog poop (unless it's from a kibble day), because it really does turn to dust!  Another major change is their drinking habits.  Because they're eating food full of water content, they end up drinking much less water throughout the day.  There's no real benefit to this, but it was eye opening to understand the difference of what their bodies are doing with their food.  Imagine if all you ate everyday, was crackers.  Your body would be insanely thirsty every day too.

There are a lot of options besides feeding kibble or a homemade raw diet.  The next blog entry will discuss:

• Freeze dried/dehydrated food

• Homecooked food

• Chubs

• Raw food: homemade vs. commerical

• Companies that formulate diets for you

I hope this has been interesting and has you thinking of ways to improve your pet's nutrition.  Stay tuned for more information!

What to Do with Those Tidy Cats Litter Containers?

I can't remember how it started but I started collecting my Tidy Cats litter boxes and soon one of my cat families started saving theirs to give to me once they heard how I was reusing them.  Locally, our waste companies do not accept these bins to be recycled so these big bulky litter containers take up space in our garbage bins and landfills.

The containers are built to hold up to 35 lbs of clay litter so they're obviously strong and durable and are built to stack upon each other, while holding all that weight

Tidy Cats asked their customers how they reused their bins a few years ago on Facebook, you can read some of the responses!

Iowa State University used them for glass recycling!

Here are some of the different ways I've used them...

I spray painted these ones and use them to hold feed! Spray painting them different colors makes it easy to know what is in each container.  These 3 colors of bins hold sunflower seeds, chick feed and chicken scratch.  Even if you don't have feed to store, the bins make excellent buckets.

I've used one of the bins under my kitchen sink to hold my kitchen scraps (with the lid on of course!)  With the handle on the bin, it makes it very easy to carry out to the garden and dump the contents into our compost, and then I rinse the bins out with the hose.

With a few large holes drilled on the bottom, they make excellent bins for weeding.  I have a few of these throughout the garden which make it convienent for weeding and pruning.  The holes are great so you don't have to worry about the bin filling up with rain.  These also get carried to the compost.

I have successfully grown veggies in them too! Again, with 1" holes drilled in the bottoms, I've grown peppers, beans and carrots in them!

This bin is currently my chicken feeder!  At the very bottom of the front side of the bin, I drilled two 2" holes.  The bin then sits in a small plastic container and I can fill the bin full of chicken feed and it keeps food available to the chickens for days!  (There are also some black sunflower seeds in there too)
 

My next bin project:  I will be cutting off the bottom 3-4" of a few bins to use as shallow trays to grow fodder for the birds during the upcoming winter.  This picture is currently day 3 of fodder, which will be a full bed of sprouted seed and grass in a week!

So you can see there are multiple ways to reuse these bins and even if you might not have a need for extra containers, someone you know might!

Review: Cardinal Auto-Lock Pet Gate (Model MG-15)

Right off the bat, I'm gonna say it - I love this gate!  

We've had this gate since we bought our house in November of 2013.  One of the things I liked most about our house was that there was a perfect doorway to put a gate up to keep the dogs out of the kitchen when I was cooking.  When we were first married, we were renting a huge house that had an awful kitchen floor plan and there was no way to gate the dogs out without blocking off half of the main floor.  We had our friend's mastiff living with us for over a year and he liked to lay in the middle of the floor of the kitchen, and I was always having to step over him when I cooked.  So I was thrilled when our new home had a good layout for easily blocking the dogs out of the kitchen.  I started shopping for semi-permanent gates that wouldn't be an eyesore but also wouldn't kill my wallet.  I originally found the Cardinal gate on Groupon - a site where I like to go look for some good deals.  The problem with Groupon is you often don't know the quality of the item and you don't know exactly when it'll be shipped to you.  I decided to take a chance on this gate.  At the very worst I knew I could return it.

I was so pleased when we got the gate set up!  It does require wall anchors to keep it securely in place but other than those, it came with everyone needed.  The width is adjustable and the vertical slats keep seasoned gate climbers on their side of the gate. (Yes, Zoey was once a gate climber!)  The auto-lock means that you can swing the gate behind you and it will lock into place - you don't need to stand there to lock it.  

When we received the gate, the instructions stated to install it 6" above the floor.  It didn't say why, so we left the 6" gap on the bottom which you don't want to do if you have little dogs.  They can sneak underneath if they're small enough.

We've now had this gate installed for 2.5 years and it is still working beautifully and looks just as good as day 1! 

It is available on Amazon and extensions are also available if you need a little more width.

Review: Ceramic Water Fountain

Hammacher Schlemmer makes ceramic water fountains for pets that make your nicest casserole dish look outdated.  These water bowls come at a price tag in the range of $80-90 and though I could never afford such a water bowl, I was given two of these by some of my pet parents whose cats wanted nothing to do with them.  I was curious how well they would work, since most pet fountains are made of plastic and even some of the nicer plastic ones can come with hefty price tags.

When we adopted Nova & Naveen I did purchase a generic plastic fountain off of Groupon for a mere $22 or so.  It was my first fountain, though I've seen plenty in action, and I've had it for over a year now. Typically lower priced fountains mean their motors are louder, though I was very surprised how quiet my little generic fountain ran.

Back to the ceramic fountain, I kept one in the house for the dogs and one in the garage for the cats.  The thing I noticed right away, is that this isn't a fountain for dogs.. at least not large dogs.  I have a combined weight of about 90 lbs between our 3 dogs and this fountain needed refilling pretty much every day.  It has no reservoir and only holds approx 72 ounces.  When the water level dips too low, the motor is unable to pump the water, so even if there is still water in the bowl, it needs to be topped off, or the motor can stress and shorten it's life (that's just a fact of water pumps, not solely an issue with this fountain).

I also realized I made the mistake of placing these fountains under nightlights.  Because they have such a wide basin, there's a higher chance of catching more ick like bugs, hair, dirt, etc.  Because they were under nightlights, they would accumulate night time bugs, but the real surprise wasn't until I went to clean the fountain the first time.  Those bugs had all gotten sucked into the motor housing, so I never saw all those dead yuckers until cleaning!

Cleaning the unit doesn't seem any easier or harder than cleaning a plastic fountain.  Because our water comes from our private well from deep in the ground, we have an issue with minerals.  So the best way to clean it, is to soak it with vinegar and then use a scouring brush to wipe away the mineralization. 

Overall, the fountains are very aesthetically pleasing, if kept in pristine condition.  I would only recommend this one to smaller dogs and cats though, otherwise you'll be filling it on a daily basis.