Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the food category.
Emergency ration for kittens – Thanks Riley
Peek-A-Boo kitten - Simca likes to watch me reading
I was supposed to have enough dry kitten food to last until this weekend, but Riley decided to intervene. It should be noted that though he’d never touch Felidae if I put it in his bowl, he had no problem gulping down the kittens portion of it behind my back. So last night I needed emergency rations; I considered giving them some of Riley’s NV venison medallions, but decided on employing a raw food recipe from “Whole Health for Happy Cats“. I had to modify it slightly since I didn’t have everything listed, but it seems to have worked out fine, and it’s only for a few days, so it doesn’t need to be perfect. You can find the original recipe here (it’s listed under “option 2″).
I have discovered over the last few days that both Simca and Hiro have sensitive tummies, and they’re both sensitive to different things. Simca doesn’t do well with lamb, and Hiro doesn’t do well with canned fish. Both of those can be easily avoided, but I was concerned that they would show some sensitivity to the food I was planning on preparing for them this weekend, so this “emergency ration” has sort of been a test run. thankfully they don’t seem to have an adverse reaction to turkey or chicken, so I’m going to stick with those two protein sources when I make their food this weekend, and I’ll try beef organs at a later date. I also had been rather dubious about the inclusion of water into the recipes I’ve seen for cats, but when I was mixing this up last night I saw what they mean about it “helping with consistency”; it was almost impossible to evenly distribute everything in the mix without a little water, and it did not make the recipe soupy.
So in light of all that, here’s the new version of what I’ll be feeding the kittens as of this weekend:
- 5Lbs ground chicken necks
- 3Lbs ground turkey meat
- 1Lb turkey hearts
- 8-16oz water
- 2oz turkey liver*
- 3 eggs (whites lightly cooked – yolks raw)
- 1oz chicken gizzards
- Supplements: 2tbls salmon oil – 1/2tsp dulse – 9000IU vit. E – 5000mg vit. C – 4000IU vit. D – 4cap Jarrow multi-B
* turkey liver is extremely high in vitamin A containing 3x the vitamin A per ounce of chicken liver, so I need to use only a small amount to get an adequate supply.
I have recently started giving both Riley and the kittens Pet Naturals of Vermont “Daily Best” Soft Chews. Riley has had lingering coat problems, and of course I want to make sure the kittens are getting all their growing bodies need, hence the daily vitamin. If you have a picky cat definitely give these a try; I have to hide the bag between feedings because all of them try to steal it they like them so much! You can find them at PetCo, and other retailers.
Pupdate on Greentripe.com Xkaliber & Ark Naturals Sea Mobility
First of all my pups ADORE the greentripe.com Xkaliber; even the cat took a little nibble. Of course every time I divide up a 5Lb chub of it I have gaurds. You know, just in case crazy axe weilding food theives break into the house. The dogs are just making sure I’m…well the food is safe. I only feed it once a week, but I really like it because it’s A.) easy on my pocket book, and B.) includes both cow heart and tongue, which I would otherwise have to provide seperately. There is a small downside though; like the “GTT” product it does have a bit of a smell. The plain green tripe and tripe/organ meat blend don’t bother me at all, but the smell off the GTT makes me really nauseas. The Xkaliber isn’t that bad, but I can definitely smell a hint of the same GTT aroma. Overall though I’m perfectly happy with it, and because of the above mentioned benefits I’m more than willing to keep it in the diet.
Secondly I am also pleased with the Ark Naturals Sea Mobility jerky treats. I’ve been feeding them about 6 weeks now, and have not noticed any adverse affects. The dogs really enjoy them, and it’s their special “before bedtime” treat. I normally feed it about 11p, and the dogs now come in the house around 10:30p and wait for them. After that they both curl up and go to sleep for the night. I have found that iHerb.com has the best price on them.
Lastly I will be recieving a SCB order this weekend with a number of new products including: beef cheek meat, pork hearts, turkey hearts, and whole ducks. I am not thrilled with including the whole ducks since they’re not easy to butcher, but Abby doesn’t chew turkey necks thoroughly enough and quite often will throw up pieces of bone the next day, so I had to find a substitute for them. Pepper will be thrilled since she loves duck 
I will update about the new products when I get a chance, but with almost 200Lbs of food to divide up it may be a few days. We will also be getting lamb breasts, whole mackerel, lean pork trim, and chicken liver and gizzards, all of which we’ve gotten before.
How Green Is Your Tripe?
I was googling around earlier today and stumbled across a very interesting article from Whole Dog Journal about Green Tripe. It was news to me that feeding green tripe is something that’s almost universal (by the sound of the article) in Europe and has been for many, many years. They also mention GreenTripe.com It’s a bit of a read, but fascinating!
p.s.- I just got some greentripe.com Xkaliber this weekend! Haven’t given it to the dogs yet, but I’ll update when I do.
Some Interesting Articles From Bark Magazine
Trust The Hand That Feeds You
It wasn’t all that long ago that dogs were either fed table scraps or their meals were made for them. I know that my childhood dog ate what we did, or in my case, what I didn’t eat—she was always ready to catch the bits of meat I rejected. She lived to be almost 20 years old without ever tasting kibble or canned pet food. However, it can’t be denied that great strides in the field of animal nutrition have been made since that time, and that some of this advancement is thanks to the research performed by pet-food companies, and animal nutritionists and veterinarians.
March 16, 2007, may have marked the tipping point for the pet food industry, the day the general public began to question how pet food is manufactured and the reliability of the claims made regarding its wholesomeness and safety. One of the most important tenets of our social contract with our dogs is to provide them with food that’s good for them. Many dog guardians believed they were doing just that by feeding their dogs some of the products removed from the shelves by the Menu recall. Even people who have long been concerned about the pet food industry and who don’t feed their pets commercial food were surprised by the enormity of this recall. How could this have happened?
There are many reasons, starting with lax FDA oversight and the self-regulated, non-governmental nature of the Association of American Feed Control Officials, which sets nutritional standards, label requirements and feed-trial protocols for pet foods. Many of its members come from state agriculture departments as well as from within the industry itself. The pet food market is controlled by huge multinational conglomerates, and five companies dominate: Nestlé (Purina, Alpo, Friskies, Mighty Dog), Del Monte (Gravy Train, Nature’s Recipe, Milk Bone), MasterFoods (Mars’ Royal Canin, Pedigree, Sensible Choice), Proctor and Gamble (Iams, Eukanuba) and Colgate-Palmolive (Hill’s Science Diet, Nature’s Best).
10 (more) Easy Pieces To Liven Up Your Dogs Meal
In part one of this article, we asked the rhetorical question: “If you’re going to feed your dogs ‘people’ food, shouldn’t you feed them something that’s actually good for them?” and answered it with a list of 10 healthy, easily obtainable options straight from the shelves of your local market. As promised, here are 10 more “easy pieces” for your consideration. (Part One can be found here.)
Meatloaf
We are big fans of a good meatloaf, and our dogs Jordan and Gertrude were too. We adapted a basic meatloaf recipe using lean meats and adding different grains and vegetables for variety. Our dogs loved garlic, so we always added it, finely chopped; if you have concerns about feeding it to your dog, it can easily be left out.
February SCB Order & A Rave For “Gentle Leader”
Lamb Cuts
First of all my SCB order:
Lamb Breast: Oh, I like this. I really, really, like the breast cut, and it was a huge hit at dinner tonight. It’s similar to the “full cut” pork brisket I ordered several months back, but the bones are much finer; the ribs are smaller around than a chicken leg bone, and the bone they’re attatched to (sternum?) it much less heavy. Pepper consumed her 12oz portion in less than 10 minutes, which is very quick for her for something other than poultry. There’s definitely fat on them, but it looks easy to cut off (I didn’t). In the 30Lb box there was 10 breasts, which were very easy to seperate and portion (unlike the battle of wills that was trying to break up and portion the pork brisket). I have finally found a lamb product I love from SCB, and it will be a staple in our house!
Boneless Veal: I liked the veal hearts that we got last month so much that I felt very confident ordering the boneless veal meat (and it is priced very economically!), and this didn’t dissappoint. I got 15Lbs of it, and though it did take a while to thaw to the point where I could break it up, once it did it was very easy to portion. I gave some with the lamb breast for dinner tonight, and the dogs thoroughly enjoyed it. As long as I can get it, I’ll keep buying it.
Instincts Ground Duck Necks: I needed an extra 10Lbs of necks so that we could last 4 months without buying food, and this was perfect. The price was right, and the 2/5Lb chubs was the perfect amount. Haven’t fed them yet, but these are ground skinless necks just like what I get when I order the 30Lb box of necks, so I know the quality is high. The grind is not quite paste-like, but definitely a fine grind. Not that it matters to the quality of the product, but they’re worked up some very nice looking labels for the instincts products
Lean Pork Trim: This is the first time I’ve ordered this, and I think I will continue to do so. This is similar to the pork stew meat in that it’s just chunks of pork meat, but this is a definitely leaner. There’s a bit of fat, but I’d say it’s probably only 20% fat. I used to get the 80% lean ground pork, so they’re similar, but this is much cheaper because it’s not ground. I haven’t fed a whole meal of this, but I don’t anticipate any problems with it.
I also got some staples: turkey “tom” necks, chicken gizzards, chicken liver, green tripe, and tripe/organ blend.
Now that, that is out of the way I can *rave* a little about the Gentle Leader. Abby is fine on the leash if there is nothing to distract her. She really hates her harness though, and doesn’t like being constrained around her middle in general. So she really hasn’t been able to go out for walks with Pepper and I, which she also doesn’t like. I kept trying to find a gentle leader locally, but couldn’t, so I ended up ordering it from amazon. I got it today, and after 5 minutes of getting her used to it in the backyard I was able to walk around the block without any problems despite neighbors dogs, neighborhood kids, and cars. Being a horse person I understand the concept of a gentle leader (same as a horses halter), but wasn’t sure how effective it would be with her since she can be very single minded when she gets excited. But with this is was a joy to walk her, and she was just so excited to get to go out and be included with Pepper and I on our walks. I would encourage anyone who has a dog that is a nightmare to walk to try one.
Useful Website For Finding Bone Content
Some very industrious person the Dogster raw food forum found a website that lists the bone content of many different cuts of meat. The website can be a bit dodgy; I’ve been trying off-and-on for a few weeks to get it to work, but had luck today. I am using FireFox as my browser, so that might have something to do with it, but I don’t know. Anyway, here’s the bone content for easily available cuts:
chicken:
- neck: 36%
- back: 44%
- whole fryer: 32%
- wing: 46%
- drumstick: 33%
- breast: 20%
turkey:
- wing: 33%
- neck: 42%
duck:
- whole: 28%
lamb:
- ribs: 27%
It does have it’s limitations since I searched for many red meat cuts and had very little luck finding information on them, but for poultry it seems to work very well.
Feeding Two Dogs On A Budget
Welcome to 2009! Our word for the year is going to be “budget”. A big thank you to all the people who made that possible; I’m looking at you soon-to-be-former-president Bush! Be sure to give a big slap on the back to all the peeps in the republican party for touting all that “free market” stuff, because really without their help where would we be?
Yeah, welcome to 2009! So with two pups now who are both eating 2.5-3% of their ideal body weight per day, and a confluence of other factors we’re going to be pinching our pennies for the next couple of years. I figured with the economy in the sh*t can I’m probably not the only one having to think long and hard about how we’re going to maintain a budget friendly raw diet.
I have set up some ground rules for myself in regards to what I will spend, amount of variety, etc. So far I have come up with the following (though this may change over time):
- I will not spend more than .75c/lb on poultry or offal
- I will not spend more than $2/lb on beef
- I will not spend more than $1.50/lb on pork or lamb
- I will not spend more than $1.25/lb on fish
- I will maintain using 4-6 different protein sources per week
- Red meat will make up no less than 30% of my dogs overall diet
I was really hoping in the new year that I would be able to at least have a 50/50 balance of chicken-fish/red meat in my dogs diets, but financially it’s just not do-able. My compromise is to have 30% of the overall diet instead, which even that is streching it. I’m having a very hard time finding beef for $2/lb or less, and what I am finding is either very fatty, very bony, or both. Since, at least to my dogs, beef bones are inedible I don’t want to lay out the money for something they can’t use. similarly I don’t want to pay a high price for lots of fat either. Beef heart is also an option, but there is some debate as to whether it’s as important as muscle meat. I am pointedly avoiding “exotic” red meat unless I can find a phenomenal deal ($2/lb or less) on it. Thankfully pork and lamb have been very easy to find within my price range.
What has been easy is finding poultry that fits my criteria. I have decided that next time I need to order chicken I will be getting chicken backs and ground chicken, which will provide enough for 4 months of food @ .53c/lb. In comparison whole fryers can range from .69-.85c/lb, and split chicken breasts (my person favourite) .97-2.99/lb. I am trying to avoid buying chicken leg quarters for a couple of reasons: 1.) too much bone, 2.) they are often times “enhanced”, and 3.) I’ve have recently found a spate of reports about them causing serious stomach/intesintal problems. The first two are fairly easy to get around; simply feeding more meaty-meat with a meal of leg quarters; soaking “enhanced” quarters in pure water overnight will remove a good deal of the solution (it works on the basic principle of diffusion). However, I should note that though I have read about chicken leg bones causing punctures I have never had problems with them, and will feed the 20lbs of them I have in my freezer, but I will avoid them in the future.
Anyway, this is obviously subject to change, but right now this is what I’m thinking as far as diet goes:
monday/thursday: (am) beef muscle meat and/or beef/pork heart (pm) turkey neck and liver
tuesday/friday: chicken backs, ground chicken, egg
wednesday: (am) greentripe.com tripe/organ blend (pm) pork meat
saturday: (am) greentripe.com green tripe (pm) lamb breast and liver
sunday: (am) fish, egg (pm) beef meat, CVM beef meat mix
I’m not quite sure on the organ content since I haven’t sat down and crunched the numbers yet. I will be feeding two different organ and/or organ + meat mixes and I need to figure out how much, and which kind of organ meat I need to feed in addition to that. I think what I may do is use a 50/50 blend of beef muscle meat and beef heart to provide the amount of beef I want as well, but again I need to look more deeply into it.
I will be getting an SCB order later this month w/ beef shank (something I’ve been wanting to try for a while), veal heart, ground chicken, and “distressed” tuna steaks.
The Dog Who Wouldn’t Eat
Well, Abby has been quite a test this week. Though she thoroughly enjoyed a raw diet from sunday night until tuesday morning, she thereafter refused to eat. This could have been due to the fact that she was severely congested with an upper respiratory “thing” at the time and not being able to smell anything that didn’t have a strong scent (which raw doesn’t) wasn’t eating. It could have been that she just didn’t like it, or who knows? Either way by Wednesday she was on antibiotics (something we tried to get done on monday, but the “fill in” vet out normal vet used while he was out of town was a total hack – something I less than subtly drove home when we saw him on wednesday) and eating Natural Balance food rolls. Obviously I was displeased over this, and had she not been A.) sick, and B.) skinny as a rail, would not have ever fed her. But they smell strong, are nutritionally dense, and can be hand fed. So she ate that until friday when we ran out. I tried to feed her Solid Gold canned food and canned tripe, both of which she turned her nose up at.
She’s still not eating her raw, but she’s still somewhat congested, but I am unwilling to feed her commercial food any longer. And on a side note, I was shocked at how expensive commercial food is. Anyway, last night I homecooked for her. She wasn’t interested last night, but my boyfriend and I conferred this morning, and decided that this was our line in the sand. We put her and her food in the crate for 10 minutes, and keep ourselves and Pepper from distracting her. If she didn’t eat in that time she was then let out and we’d do it again in the evening, and we resolved to keep it up until she finally did eat.
We did not have long to wait as she polished off the 2 cups of food we gave her this morning. The recipe I used (see below) is a slightly modified “allergy diet” from Dr. Pitcairn’s book. Generally I find his recipe’s too grain/carb heavy, but the allergy recipes aren’t too bad. So, at least until she kicks this cold she will be eating homecooked. Here’s the recipe:
Home-cooked Diet:
- 2lbs ground beef
- 1lb ground turkey
- 2c cooked split peas or lentils
- 2c cooked (and mashed) vegetables
- 2 cooked eggs
for a medium sized dog this should last 3-4 days
Supplements:
- calcium (I give 1,000mg for 3 1/3c food divided between 2 meals)
- 1tsp fish oil
- 1tsp alfalfa powder
- 1/2tsp kelp powder
- 1/4tsp cod liver oil
- 1/4tsp c-complex powder
- 200IU vitamin E
- 1 capsule multi-B complex
My Totally Unscientific Study: Chicken Feet vs. Beef Trachea
After much googleing I have decided there is no picture of chicken feet where they don't look totally creepy.
So a few months back I purchased some beef trachea (greentripe.com) since they’re reported to have 36,000mg chondroitin per pound, and were generally cheaper than chicken feet, which is what I had been using. First off I was really skeeved out by the trachea’s, but the dogs really seemed to like them and they offered a good chew for the girls. However, after about 2 weeks I started to notice that Pepper’s joints were audibly “snapping” when she was very active. Put her back on some left over chicken feet for a week, and it stopped; back on the trachea, and it started. If I am correct the “snap” I heard was her tendons/ligaments snapping over her joint (not sure what it’s called in canines, but in horses it would be the hock) due to lack of synovial fluid.
Considering it’s supposed to be great for joints I found this very perplexing. I was feeding 1-2 ounces of trachea per day, which if the figure (36,000mg) I found was correct should have been providing 2,250-4,500mg chondroitin per day; more than enough to be helpful for joints. Another interesting point was that I only noticed this in Pepper and not Edie despite the fact that Edie was at least 9-10 years old, had (before we adopted her) broken one of her legs, whereas Pepper has just turned 2 years old and has no known joint problems. However, she’s a boxer, and boxers are notorious for joint disorders. On the other hand she displays no joint pain, even after heavy exertion.
Anyway, I have not been able to find any information on the amount of healthy joint promoting factors in chicken feet, and even the numbers on beef trachea I consider extremely sketchy considering the source is total hearsay. But in my totally non-scientific study chicken feet seem to be much better than beef trachea. Pepper has been back to getting a chicken foot every morning and her joints are no longer “snapping”, and that’s all that matters to me. I do still feed her 500mg glucosamine and 500mg vitamin C since those two supplements work synergystically with chondroitin to promote optimal joint health. Plus she just really enjoys crunching through those creepy looking little feet.
Super Hammy Homemade Cookies
I like to cook. I don’t do it often because I don’t like cleaning up afterwards, but I especially like baking. A few days ago I read a dog treat recipe over on Romeo and Gio’s Blog and decided I’d take a whack at it. My recipe differs a bit from theirs, but it’s the same basic thing. If you can’t find everything that I used don’t worry about it. You can substitute vegetable oil or shortening for the melted pork fat and lard, but you’ll loose out on the base flavor and have to use something like bouillon cubes to make up for it. Oh, and don’t over do the molasses; it will run over all the other flavors if you do. So, the recipe!
1c bacon drippings, melted pork fat, or lard
1 – 12oz can evaporated milk
2tbls molasses
1/2c apple sauce
1/2c flaxseed meal
1c instant mashed potato flakes
1 1/2c instant oatmeal
2 1/2c whole wheat flour
*preheat oven to 300 degrees.
I purchased some “reduced for quick sale” smoked bacon ends and pork fat at the grocery store (grand total 79 cents). So you take those and cook them down to get the fat out. If you still have less than 1 cups worth add in a little lard and melt. Starting with a cold pan heat the evaporated milk and molasses; you don’t want it to boil, but it needs to get hot enough to melt the molasses into the milk. Once that is done, add the melted fat into the milk mixture, and then add that to the potato flakes and oatmeal. Mix that together, and then top with the remaining ingredients and mix well. The mixture should be similar in consistency to cookie dough; if it’s too dry add water, too wet add a little flour until the mixture firms up.
Tip the mixture onto a well greased cookie sheet, and use a rolling pin to roll it flat and thin. Then take a butter knife and cut it into 1/2-1″ squares. Cook in 300 degree over for 2 hours (yes, 2 hours). After 2 hours turn off oven and leave treats in to cool and harden overnight.
