Being Retired now, I thought that it was time for a new name to this Blog |
Our Dogs Food This might be a short entry, we'll see. Our two dogs (a 16 year old Schipperke, and a 5 year old Akita) eat a natural diet. For example, this morning I served them raw meat and bones consisting of, a Duck Wing, Pheasant Necks, Chicken & and chunks of a fish called Scad. OF course Buddy (our Akita, about 100 lbs) gets larger pieces and more of them, than Suzi (our 16 year old Schipperke, about 13 lbs). It's a little scary, and almost awesome to hear them crunch the bones. Yes, they get the meat, bones and all. Raw bones are fine for them; after all wild dogs don't eat cooked meat! We don't feed them cooked bones though. Those are brittle and can choke them, but raw bones are ductile, and can be chewed easily. I often wonder how strong their jaws (and bite) must be. We spent four hours today cooking a little bit of Chicken & bones, pork bones & meat, and A LOT of coarsely chopped carrots, broccoli, and asparagus in our pressure cooker. Once the pressure cooker shut down, we separated the bones from the veggies nd threw them in the trash. I used a fork to crush the veggies together. After letting everything cool, their dinner was raw ground meat mixed with those veggies and a bit of broth, plus a couple of whole carrots. We do not feed them dry food, dog food (we call it kibble). That stuff has so many ingredients that do nothing for them, much of it not good for them at all. Feeding them dry food like that can cause Torsion (basically their stomach twists around the tubes that enter or exit it, causing trapped gas). This can lead to death or emergency surgery. When we travel, we feed as little of that possible, and only after it has been soaked in warm water for at least a minute). Torsion doesn't always happen, but it can. Buddy's Breeder just had one of her dogs experience it. A feast fit for a King/Queen, and those two ate like pigs. If we stuck to a human diet like that, we'd be a lot healthier. But you know we snack a little a lot. Such is the life of our dogs, the same food every day. |