Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the raw food category.
Raising Cats Naturally by Michelle Bernard
I finally finished “Raising Cats Naturally”; it’s not a long book, but I got sidetracked (Sons of Anarchy on FX is really addictive). I will not get into the diet specifics outlined in the book except to say that the most important thing I took away from it was to strive for “perfect packages of nutrition”, not variety over time like we do for dogs. The author makes a convincing (and perfectly logical) argument that wild cats are not like wild dogs in that they tend to rely on rodents, small birds, and rabbits which are eaten whole most days. Therefore they are getting bones, muscle meat, and organ meat on an almost daily basis. Believe me the book is well worth the $25 (you can get it here). Some interesting tidbits from the book:
- 100 grams of bone contains: 25,000mg calcium, 12,000mg phosphorus, 370mg magnesium, 700mg potassium, 9mg zinc, .5mg copper
- around 30% of bone is made of organic compounds, and 90% of that is collagen (important for skin/coat and containing amino acids that help prevent fat build up in the liver, helps the digestive tract run smoothly, and assists in assimilation and metabolism).
- cats (and dogs) lack the salivary amylase to initiate digestion of plant matter.
- fermentation of fiber may yield short chain fatty acids that are important sources of energy for horses and cattle (which can supply up to 75% of their daily energy needs), but provide less than 5% of the energy needs in dogs and cats due to their shot intestinal tract and quick digestion.
- when fed a proper diet of raw meat a cats mouth will remain acidic, which inhibits bacterial growth. feeding a food containing cereals or plant matter (even if it contains raw meat) will make the mouth more alkaline.
- cats cannot synthesize Vit. D from exposure to sunlight since they lack enough 7-dehydrocholesterol in their skin to meet their metabolic needs.
Anyway, the book itself is thoroughly researched, and goes into great depth on every aspect of feline nutrition, as well as general feline care, and holistic care. To be honest this is one of the best raw feeding books available, and certainly the best for felines that I’ve come across.
As wonderful and informative as Raising Cats Naturally was Kymythy Shultze’s book on feeding cats was disappointing. For the size it is extremely light on information at least as far as feeding a raw diet to cats, though it’s extremely useful in learning about what exactly is in dry and wet commercial cat food. Only about 30 pages of the almost 200 page book (don’t be deceived it’s very small in size, so the page count is higher) covers feeding a raw diet. I’ll save you $10: buy a cornish game hen, cut it up into 4 pieces and feed half of it per day w/ a little liver and heart. Seriously that’s basically it. If you’re going to invest money in a book on raw feeding cats get Raising Cats Naturally or Whole Health for Happy Cats; they are vastly superior in every way.
Raw cat food: homemade vs. premade
I have now had both the kittens and Riley on a raw food only diet for about the last month. I finally decided that if a bunch of cats from various raw feeding forums, newsgroups, etc. could live quite well on one or two types of raw food, so could Riley. So The Monster (Riley) gets NV pre-made venison most days, and a few times a week the rabbit formula of the same brand (I also give the kittens some when he gets it), and occasionally some of the homemade raw food the kittens eat.
Having had a month to judge the results of feeding homemade vs. premade I can say that I think the homemade I’m feeding is the superior product. The basis for this is entirely superficial; the kittens have developed soft, silky, and shiny coats that they did not posses before homemade raw, and Riley who eats premade has a much poorer quality coat.
I really sincerely wish that I could get Riley to eat homemade, but he just won’t touch it if I feed it more than a few times a week. And forget adding supplements to the NV; if he even suspects you did he’ll go on a hunger strike. Thankfully he will take a chewable multi-vitamin, but that doesn’t seem to be doing too much to help his coat. Thankfully since he’s decided to make friends with the kittens he’s much more active 
Anyway, though I think most premade raw foods are great, especially if they get owners who otherwise wouldn’t feed raw food to their pets. On the other hand, at least with Natures Variety though their meat comes from a “USDA inspected facility” it does not say that the meat is “USDA certified for human consumption”, which I’m not entirely comfortable with. I think the benefit of the homemade is two fold: 1.) I’m using USDA certified for human consumption meat, organs, etc., and 2.) the product is always fresh (the kittens go through about 10Lbs every 3 weeks), so the vitamins and minerals contained in the food and added supplements is at an optimum level. I have even stopped giving the kittens a daily multi-vitamin because it’s just totally unnecessary for them. On top of all of that homemade raw is so much cheaper. Here’s a breakdown of what it costs me to make one batch of food (enough for 2 kittens for 3-ish weeks):
- 2 whole chicken fryers totaling 8-9Lbs – $9.00*
- 1Lb chicken necks – $0.72
- 1Lb turkey hearts – $0.60
- 1Lb ground turkey – $1.20
- 6oz beef kidney – $0.20
- 2oz turkey liver – $0.10
- 2oz chicken gizzards – $0.10
- 3 eggs – $0.80
Of course I do add some supplements so the total of $12-13 for each batch is a little misleading, but it cannot be that much more since the supplements are not expensive on their own, and are used in such small amounts; I’d say it adds at most $3 more. So a total of $15 per batch, which is about 12Lbs, and lasts just over 3 weeks. For Riley a 6Lb bag of NV venison patties is $25 + tax and lasts him the same amount of time (give or take a day). I think the figures speak for themselves.
Anyway, I thought it was an interesting comparison. I’m currently reading “Raising Cats Naturally”, and just finished Kymythy Shultze’s book on feeding cats; I’ll probably post about them in the next few days.
* I had to modify my recipe to include chicken fryers since the cats are eating much more than expected. It’s actually closer to the recipe included in “whole health for happy cats” now. I do remove the leg bones since I don’t think my grinder could handle them, hence the reason to add in some necks. Also keep in mind that the prices listed (aside from the whole chickens and eggs) are from products provided through SCB, so are probably lower than you could find in a grocery store.
Waring Pro meat grinder & SCB order
Waring Pro 300w Meat Grinder
I have finally decided, after a few years of feeding raw, it was time to invest in a meat grinder. It’s not something I’ve been gung-ho about, but something I’ve kept my eyes open for a good deal on. I recently stumbled across one on amazon.com for the above pictured Waring Pro Meat Grinder. It is “remanufactured”, so was considerably cheaper than it otherwise would have been, and had excellent user ratings on amazon. I used it tonight to grind up boneless meat and organs, and it works very quickly and easily through them; for 5Lbs of turkey hearts it took a little less than 1 minute per pound. Assembly, disassembly, and cleaning was easy as could be, and in use it’s actually quieter than my blender. I know I geek out of kitchen gadgets and raw feeding, but it’s so freakin’ cool to use! It was like christmas morning
So I few new items from this distribution:
Instincts Ground Chicken Necks: I have purchased the ground duck necks before, and really liked them, and these are no different. A good size grind (I’d say “medium”), no skin, and conveniently packaged in 2/5Lb chubs.
Beef Kidney: I won’t lie; I got this because it’s cheap, and nutritious. I generally detest the smell of kidneys, but when they’re fairly well frozen you don’t notice it as much. I kind of panicked when I got the box home and it was labeled as “50Lbs”, but after weighing everything out it was indeed the 30Lbs I order, just mis-labeled or something. I gave each of the kittens a teeny-tiny 1/4tsp size piece of this each and then went nuts for it. I was a little worried that these would be frozen together in a solid block, and a nightmare to break apart, but there was enough room between them that they weren’t frozen together too badly.
Beef Hearts: these on the other hand were, and still are, frozen together in a solid block. Like the kidneys I got these because they were cheap, and can replace some striated muscle meat in the diet. The dogs like beef heart, and eventually I’ll (hopefully) be giving the cats some as well.
Turkey Hearts: I had been considering ordering the 40Lb box of these for some time, but always held off, until I was able to purchase them in a smaller quantity to try them, and found that they’re wonderful! This time around I will be grinding them up and using them in place ground turkey from the grocery store for the dogs. It will be considerably cheaper; the hearts cost 60c/Lb as opposed to $1+/Lb for ground turkey. The kittens and Riley both really like these too. If I haven’t mentioned it before, these are perfect “pill pockets”; I made sure to take about a pound out of the box and froze them individually just in case I need to give the dogs anything.
Though I have purchased their products since joining SCB, GreenTripe.com has started using new packaging, and I would be remise if I didn’t say it’s really very cute. Instead of the simple clear bag, it’s now white with green cow spots. Hopefully they stick with it, because it’s very eye catching.
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.
Borage Oil For Allergies?
borage flowers
So a few weeks ago I decided to try adding borage oil to the dogs food. I will occasionally try out certain supplements just to see if they make a difference, and usually they’re not at all useful. However, Abby has been struggling with airborne allergies all summer, but only receiving minimal relief from OTC medication like Benadryl and Allevert. I didn’t want to have to put her on shots and everything from the vet unless absolutely necessary, so we tried borage oil.
Before I get to the results, some info:
The main interest of GLA lies in the fact that it orientates the metabolism of fatty acids towards the synthesis of hormones whose anti-inflammatory effects are well-known. This production is done at the expense of other hormones that promote inflammatory mechanisms. Then, GLA supplementation allows to limit these inflammatory phenomenons in animals that suffer from allergic diseases, or various cutaneous problems. In older animals, GLA has got a positive effect on the hair sheen, the suppleness of the skin.
The only ones oils that bring an interesting quantity of GLA are: borage oil, evening primrose oil, and black current oil. Among them, borage oil is the only one that contains more than 20 % of GLA.
Therapeutic using of borage oil
Positive effects are especially obvious in dogs or cats that present an hypersensitivity predisposition. In the majority of these cases, a regression of most of the cutaneous irritation symptoms can be observed a few weeks after the beginning of the dietary supplementation. Only itching seems more difficult to control. Results are also promising concerning problems due to hyper-secretion of sebum by the skin (seborrhea).
When chronic cutaneous diseases make compulsory a medical treatment, borage oil supplementation can make possible to reduce the necessary doses of the drugs. Consequently, it limits the risk of undesirable secondary effects due to the medical treatment.
So I have been giving it to Abby for about 2 weeks now, and only on days when she doesn’t get raw eggs since they are excellent sources of omega-6 fatty acids by themselves. I wasn’t expecting immediate results, but that is what I got! Within 3 days of being on borage oil her itching subsided considerably. Now after a few weeks I have taken her off the OTC allergy medication entirely, and she’s not itching at all, and the small hotspot she developed under her arm is almost completely healed. I wasn’t expecting any positive results this soon, or at all really, so it’s been quite a pleasant surprise.
Though higher doses are indicated in some of the information I found regarding borage oil I have seen results with 125mg daily. I don’t think this is a substitute for a good diet though, and the first line of treatment should always be that. Since my dogs get plenty of animal fat in their diet (fatty cuts of lamb and duck 3x a week, raw eggs 3x a week, raw fish 2x a month, and a high quality fish oil daily) I am confident in their diet. Of course not all dogs need supplements and unless your pet is having allergy or other skin issues in light of a healthy diet only then should additional supplements be introduced in my opinion.
A Word About Dr. Lonsdale
Dr. Tom Lonsdale - Author of Raw Meaty Bones Promote Health
So I have just finished reading Dr. Lonsdale’s book “Raw Meaty Bones Promote Health”; overall it was a thoroughly interesting read, and I particularly enjoyed chapters 2 – 8 (chapter 9 and on was totally superfluous). Someone on Amazon described this book as “the martyrdom of dr. lonsdale” (or close to that), and the preface certainly is, but you can just as easily skip that part. As with all books on raw feeding that I have read I do have some points of contention with the diet outlined, but I think that’s as much a testament to the diversity of the diet, as it is a criticism of the one laid out by anyone who writes a book about it. In the overall picture those points of contention are mostly insignificant.
So having read the book I decided to take a closer look at Dr. Lonsdale’s website, and his newsletter archive. To say I was dumbstruck by some of his claims would be an understatement. In the book that I read (copyright 2001) Dr. Lonsdale was nothing but complimentary towards Dr. Billinghurst; I came away with the impression that though they may differ slightly on the details they both adhered to the principle of raw meaty bones being the bedrock of a healthy diet. I got a very different impression on reading Dr. Lonsdale’s newsletters, which prompted considerable thought on the subject. Why would Dr. Lonsdale go from being complimentary to spewing vitriol in a few short years? I finally came to the conclusion that it had something to do with Dr. Billinghurst’s success and renoun due to the promotion of a B.A.R.F. diet. I do not think I was far off the mark in this regard; Dr. Lonsdale’s website includes a copy (at least in part) of a letter from Dr. Billinghurst to Dr. Lonsdale removing himself from the “raw meaty bones lobby”. It states:
Worldwide my credibility is rising … I am here to educate whoever will listen. Pet owners, vets and even pet food companies — if they are interested. It is not necessary; in fact it is counterproductive for me to participate in the politics of this debate.
If I am to be of use I need to be seen as outside the political arena. Someone who has the respect of the profession, whilst retaining strong views and unequivocal beliefs — supported of course by good evidence. My aim is to make a positive difference in this debate, and continue to make a living.
If you have ever read anything that Dr. Lonsdale has written this is not surprising, and given his treatment of Dr. Billinghurst in light of this I think it’s totally understandable. While Dr. Lonsdale’s book keeps sensationalism and, shall we say stretching the truth to the breaking point, to a minimum his website (and newsletters) do not. Granted these are examples purely from his comments on Dr. Billinghurst, but you can find similar sensationalism in regards to anyone and anything that does not fall strictly into his method of feeding.
Unfortunately for many pets and their owners in the USA and UK, Dr Billinghurst used his ‘credibility’ to falsely persuade them that dogs are omnivores! He ‘continued to make a living’ telling pet owners that dogs, besides needing raw meaty bones, should be fed copious amounts of vegetables, fruit, milk products, high priced bottled supplements and grain. Dr Billinghurst’s followers developed a near religious devotion and began referring to themselves as Born Again Raw Feeders. When contracted that becomes ‘BARF’, a colloquial term for vomit and now widely used as a name for minced diet concoctions.
There are many inaccuracies contained here. For one thing Dr. Billinghurst does not say dogs are omnivores, he says they are “omnivores with a carnivorous backgrounds”. That may seem like an insignificant distinction, but it is not. Dogs (wild or domesticated) do eat things other than other animals at least on a simi-regular basis. This is what I have come to describe as “opportunistic omnivorism”; i.e. dogs will eat what they can their paws on. They may eat over-ripe fruit that has fallen from trees, table scraps (or trash can scraps), etc. This is exactly what Dr. Billinghurst and Dr. Lonsdale say in their respective books. Dr. Lonsdale goes on to say that Dr. Billinghurst encourage feeding of “copious” amounts vegetables, fruits, dairy products, and supplements. This is soley based on what you would consder “copious”, and indeed Dr. Lonsdale does not give us a solid numerical figure, just “copious”. Even so Dr. Billinghurst suggest that dogs get 15% crushed vegetables and 5% ripe to over-ripe fruit, though the fruit is optional (the entire vegetable/fruit content is “optional” for cats who Billinghurst describes as “obligate carnivores”). This is fed to mimic the intestinal content that wild canids consume when eating whole prey. To my mind those numbers do not seem “copious”. This gets even more muddied when we move onto dairy products and supplements; Dr. Billinghurst suggests that dairy products (i.e. cottage cheese, yogurt/kefir) be fed occasionally to also mimic stomach/intestinal contents of prey. The same can be said of the addition of kelp and/or alfalfa powder to the diet to mimic the trace minerals gained by A.) eating stomach/intestinal contents, and B.) eating food off dirt/grass in the wild. Before anyone gets their knickers in a twist over the whole “wolves don’t eat stomach contents” thing I would like to point out that while wolves may not eat the stomach contents of large prey, they do when they eat smaller “whole prey” such as rabbits (again, something both Billinghurst and Lonsdale are in agreement about). It should also be noted that Dr. Lonsdale promotes feeding 30% of a dogs diet in “healthy tablescraps”, but does not preclude feeding vegetables and fruits as a part of that.
But as with so many diet fads the vulnerable followers had been duped. Dr Billinghurst is on the record as saying:
Fruit and vegetables are an essential part of a dog’s diet. An essential part, not an optional part. Meat is optional, fruit and vegetables are not. (Canine Nutrition—A Point of View 1988)
Dr Billinghurst recommended that fruit and vegetables
should comprise 30 to 60% of a dog’s diet. His diet sheet recommended:Midday: A Carbohydrate Meal
Rolled oats soaked in hot water until like porridge. Alternatively Weet
Bix or muesli or vegetables. Add to this such things as dates, sultanas,
prunes, raisins, grated apple or carrot. Add honey.
As you will notice this information is from 1988; over 20 years ago. I do not think it is too far out of the realm of possibility that Dr. Billinghurst’s diet went through several versions in that time before it became what we know as B.A.R.F. This appears to be the case as Dr. Lonsdale states:
After reading Raw Meaty Bones information, Billinghurst saw the elegant
simplicity of nature’s teachings and applied to join the RMB Lobby. We
freely supplied him with our research findings and he availed himself of
those findings. So much so that he used RMB information as foundation for
his first book.
So why use what you know to be out-dated information to create a case for labeling B.A.R.F. as “natural junk food”? Dr. Lonsdale goes further and states:
In the mid-nineties barf (vomit) mania swept across North
America and much of Europe too. Pet owners were conned into believing
that dogs are omnivores, not carnivores, and need lashings of vegetables
and bottled supplements. Here in Australia barfmania has not taken hold
to the same extent. But where ever it spreads it does harm. If we want to
take decisive action against the junk cooked pet-food alliance I believe
we first need to tackle the barfmaniacs and their junk raw pet-food scam.
Though this does not provide any more information than before (i.e. B.A.R.F. is bad because…) it is a good example of the sensationalism that I beleive is the cause for Dr. Billinghurst wanting to “stay out of the politics”. Yes, he was getting more fame, and clearly his diet philosophy is in no small debt to Dr. Lonsdale, but he was right to say that “If I am to be of use I need to be seen as outside the political arena. Someone who has the respect of the profession, whilst retaining strong views and unequivocal beliefs — supported of course by good evidence.” While sensationalism may be useful to get attention in the short term, if you ever want anyone to take your cause, beleifs, etc. seriously you must dispense with it and stick to reasoned arguements and hard facts, something that Dr. Lonsdale finds impossible. His sensationalism, and distortions of the truth do not start and end with the Dr. billinghurst, or even the sections I’ve copied here, and as someone who beleives in a raw food diet (both with and without vegetales, fruits, dairy products, supplements, etc.) I am embaressed by it because it allows people to dismiss raw feeding as a “fad” diet, and disparage and condescend to those who feed and promote it.
So while I may agree with almost everything, save a few minor points, in his book “Raw Meaty Bones Promote Health”, and I would certainly recommend it to anyone interested in a feeding a raw diet, I simply cannot take anything he says on his website seriously. I have to wonder if he had a very good editor for his books, or just feels that he can get away with distortions, sensationalism, and half truths more easily on the web.
For further reading please take a look at Raw vs. BARF at the Newcastle Boxer’s website.
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.
