Let me first say I have never been one to spoil my dogs. In my opinion dogs that are spoiled are dogs that are in control, and it should be the other way around. You should be in control at all times. That said I, learned some valuable lessons about not only what dogs eat, but how they eat over the past week. Nicole, that would be my ever lovely and vivacious wife, and I decided to try to make our own dog food a few weeks ago. We did this primarily as research for an upcoming article on the topic of, you guessed it... how to make your own dog food. We did all the research and learned all the Do's and don'ts about what should go into home made dog food. Once we felt like we knew enough, we made the food. As to how we made the food... Keep checking in with us and you will get to read all about it soon.
Once we completed the home made dog food, we tried it out on our dogs. Needless to say, Jasmine was a total pig about it, she scarfed down that food in a few seconds. Frankie loved the food and they both started doing the happy dance whenever meal time was near. We made enough food for about a week and near the end we started to transition them back to their regular dog food. We mixed in a little more of the old dog food with each meal and before long they were back on their old food. Frankie was fine with the change back, but then again Frankie is a scrapper. We rescued her off the streets of North Philly, she had been abused and was terribly malnourished when we got her. She survived by eating whatever she could find as a pup, until we got her at about 8 months old. So needless to say she has an iron clad gut. Jasmine on the other hand did not do so well, she began to have diarrhea badly, and she became noticeably sluggish. It got so bad that Nicole had to take a day from work to look after the poor thing.
During her day off she decided to put them back on the home made dog food. She made up a big batch and fed Jasmine that day around noon. No transition time, no careful measurements, just BOOM here ya go... the home made stuff. She fed her another helping that evening, and to my complete surprise Jasmin had recovered, she was dancing around, no more diarrhea, no more whining in the middle of the night to go out. In 6 short hours she was seemingly cured. Now I can not say that it was the change of food that did it for sure, but I have a strong suspicion that it was. I was going to come home that day and we were going to get her to the vet, however, by the time I got home all was well.
The more I look into this home made food the guiltier I feel for having fed her dry dog food all these years. Sure the nutrition is there in dry dog food, but only what is required. If you make the food yourself, I am sure you will find your dogs will become more active, and will be even more excited about meal time... If that is even possible. You will also endure that your dog will be getting a truly nutritious meal. It will be fresher and tastier, and you will have control over what is going into your dogs body, not some nameless company. I don't find anything wrong with big dog food companies, I just find I feel better when I make the food myself. I will never again have to worry about a dog food recall. Yes it is one more weekly chore I have to add to the long list of chores I already have to do, but it's one I don't mind doing.
So a big thank you to Nicole for having the foresight to know that switching back to the home made dog food would make Jasmine all better. And as always remember to keep you furry family members healthy and happy. I know my lovely wife will be sure to keep our furry family members healthy and happy.
Nick C
DoggieDiaries4U@gmail.com
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