This is my beloved Sal, taken this morning. Sally the Doodle. She turned five last December, and has been a happy healthy dog. It's good for me in many ways, but I am grateful to have her here especially when Mr W's with his dad.
Anyway, I went to visit a friend yesterday who is housesitting at this really nice place a little north of town, on one of the few lakes in the area. There aren't any natural lakes around here; they're all for irrigation, so she said the water goes up and down throughout the season. Nice digs though. Her friend is in Hawaii for 4 months, so S and her husband P and their two dogs get to do some lakeside living for a bit.
She's had the misfortune of having two dogs die before their time in a pretty short time frame. She and P are fans of German shepherds, and after the second dog died, she decided to get a puppy from a reputable breeder. That puppy is about 11 months now, and my oh my, what a handsome guy. I should have taken his picture. He is a beautiful dog. We got to talking and she said she is feeding him a raw diet.
She started it when one of her other dogs had health problems that were eased by the diet, and she just kept going. The prep would be prohibitive for me (unless I could make two portions and turn around and cook Mr W's share....). Her distain for kibble was strong, and it's making me think I should at least look into whether changing to a higher quality kibble for Sally would be good for her health. The question is: is a better quality food (and can we measure that just by the sticker price?) beneficial for a healthy dog?
It's hard to say because she's already healthy, you know? And down the line, if she does get sick, it'd be difficult to attribute that to her diet. I don't buy the cheapest food on the shelf, but I do buy Iams for large breeds at Target. This was a conscious decision, after trying to buy a more expensive kibble at what we call "the dog food store" when she was a puppy and having them be out of the brand, twice in space of a few weeks. I didn't want to vary her food too much, so I decided to feed her something I could get easily all the time.
For her part, Sally's a good eater. Scarfs down whatever's in the bowl, so I'm sure she'd be on board with a menu change, should it come around. If anyone reading this would like to weigh in, please do.
In other news, I checked the want ad for Graycie the campervan and as of this morning it had gotten 355 views. Not bad.
We've had three dogs and they lived to be 12, 14 and 14. (The one who lived to be 12 was a Cocker Spaniel - a breed we never would have chosen but "somebody" had to save her! - who was very sickly and the only surviving pup of the litter.) Have always fed a raw meat diet supplemented with dry dog food. Our mix has probably been about 50-50, heavier on the meat at times. We can easily get highway killed deer up here in northern MN and that's the raw meat we use. We've switched the kibble over the years trying to find the best. The last we used and were happy with was Solid Gold brand, "WolfKing" variety. Their website is www.solidgoldhealth.com. It's pricey but some of the other dog food out there is made of awful products that you wouldn't want to feed . . . well, a dog.
ReplyDeleteYour Sally is adorable. Every time you post a picture of her I want to reach out and hug her!
I've had this battle with myself as well. I cannot honestly add more time-eating things to my schedule, so I feed my two dogs kibble. I use Eagle Pack, which is also pricey, but I figure it's less expensive than running up high vet bills. I supplement their dry food with cooked bits and warmed homemade chicken broth every morning. They don't seem to mind. My sister and BIL have a Doodle and he is the most huggable dog I have ever met! Cute and smart!
ReplyDeleteA sincere thanks to you both. This was totally off my radar, and I'm going to do a little research, buy something better for her and start easing her into the change.
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ReplyDeleteSally is adorable! We also have a doodle (Lily) and feed her Blue Diamond; it's a much healthier choice for her and doesn't contain the ingredients many dogs develop sensitivities to as they grow older, such as corn and wheat.
ReplyDeleteYou can also cook up inexpensive batches of chicken and rice or oats, pre-package it and stick it in the freezer for later use.
I am so thankful to open this kind of site of yours because you really helped me so much to know how and what to do when there are things that will happen like this..because honestly i really don’t know what to do in terms of same topic .
ReplyDeleteTHANXS FOR SHARING !
Thanks for visiting, Juce.
ReplyDeleteMOST WELCOME..... LindaCO
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