Lacey attempts to try raw Chicken meat

So,now,we are experimenting with feeding Lacey raw meat.She does in fact have very little tarter build up but it’s a very very light yellow tarter color.She has been chewing Dental Bones from Ziwi Peak but has not been chewing it daily.She may chew it daily for awhile then she stops and goes back to it afterawhile.Other bones she just licks it because she has no interest in it.What we’re trying to do is find a way to cut back her dental cleanings…At VCA it runs us over $100 just for the cleaning not including OraVet,inducing anesthesia..At Pets In The City which I am considering on paying for myself is $72 without tax and no anesthesia next year if needed.

We gave her a very small piece of raw meat which we placed on a plate.At first she just looked at it as if to say”WHAT IS THIS???”then she started sniffing it,eventually taking it off the plate,licking it then dropped it…That was the first time…We’re gonna keep trying because if WE CAN get her to eat it(2 oz=1/4cup which is what she typically gets with dry or can food anyways)even twice a week to see if it helps her teeth then in the near future I may consider BARF as a staple diet for her depending how her teeth does.
Update:February 28 2011:Lacey did accept the piece of raw chicken once I combined it with shoyu chicken.I just pushed it closer to the shoyu chicken and she ate all the shoyu chicken &the piece of raw chicken meat.Tonight she went over to dog food bowl that has food in it and ate just one piece out of everything(1/4 cup) and walked away.Maybe she’s waiting for more raw meat??I will be posting more info on the BARF Diet soon so be sure to check back.

Lacey Girl takes her first jump onto a bed!!

Lacey Princess took her very first jump at 23 1/2 months old 2 weeks and one day old,onto Mom’s bed all by herself after working with her to walk on her hind legs in short distances inside the house to get a treat.It must have helped because after her bath she did the usual run around to dry off then she went into Mom/Dad’s room went to Mom’s bed on her hind legs motioning “up,please” so I was going to ask her “Lacey,you want up??”but before I could ask the question next thing I knew in her “up,please” position she pushed off her hind legs & pushed up with her front legs and took a good jump on the bed!It was amazing!!I couldn’t believe she could actually jump on the bed!

She also got a new Ziwi Peak Oral Health Bone Deer Hooves for $5.00,Bravo!Turkey training treats $10.50,Dogswell Happy Hips Chicken & Sweet Potato,Lamb & Sweet Potato,Can Food,Ziwi Peak Lamb & a Vension Can Food,a Wellness Core Turkey Formula Can Food and a Merricks Grammy’s Pot Pie Can Food today at Naturally Pet.

Lacey update on undiagnosed UTI02202011 with ACV Day2

Lacey is continuing to recover from her undiagnosed UTI with ACV.There’s probably about a day left of ACV to give her then she should be good to go again!She’s starting to accept other food(Acana Wild Prairie she ate about a 1/4cup which is good) and actually had a piece of Halo in the dining area she went over to it sniffed it,picked it up,gave maybe a half lick,took it in her mouth and spit it out!Guess she must not be used to it anymore.We’ll keep it as a backup though.Could be she started refusing Acana because it is not mixed with can food…
Edit:On the third day,Feburary 23 2011,Lacey was given 1/2 tsp of ACV which she regurgitated and we’re thinking that happened since she didn’t have any people food in her tummy like the other days.Her vulva is in the clear so we’re good there.No need for the vet.Again,she’s refusing to eat what we prepare so we’ll just battle it against her.You eat what we make or you don’t eat.Sooner or later she’ll get it.Once she gets on a more predictable feeding schedule again we can give her people food in the day but not til she gets her body back on track..

So..Lacey gives us a difficult time with Acana dry food

so….out of desperation & a result of eating Earthborn Holistic Adult Vantage(which is for Brownie but she wants what Brownie gets but if I had known ahead of time she wanted the same we’d have gotten something a little “safer”for Lacey’s health) for even a couple days apparently has given our girl a UTI..a mild one…as we caught right on “cue”..We’ve not taken her to the vet but we do know what to look for(refusing to eat dry/can/people food,straining to urinate,odor in urine..)and she’s had some of those..refusing to eat dry food(Acana in particular not sure if she’s only liking a certain protein though she seems to be hinting for lamb–Acana Grasslands..but she wouldn’t touch any of the Acana Wild Prairie or Acana Pacifica..She’s been refusing almost every food we have of previous trial foods & dry food we currently have in the house)..Yea,she’s had an odor in her urine on the 20th and the 21st there was no odor to the urine..We caught the UTI(mild) when I was observing her and saw her lick the side of her skin towards the back right back end leg then I saw her focus on the vulva which is when I decided to see what’s going on with her..Sure enough..less than 72 hours later there was a slightly red vulva not swollen about 3pm(HST)by 6pm(HST)it was gone so it comes & goes..We’ve since took up the Earthborn Adult Vantage(4 grains as Solid Gold Just a Wee Bit) & have been giving her ACV 1/2 tsp once a day with water via syringe..We considered Doxcycycline which my brother had but didn’t want to do antibiotics because she’d probably get another yeast infection so we’d be spending at least $200 on meds/vet visits & rechecks.We gave her some ACV which she really didn’t like but who can blame her..It’s a very YUCKY TASTE!It gives her a froggy like bark when she barks..Kind of like a croaking frog..
Among all that with refusing her food(see above) & dealing with a mild UTI(see above about ACV) we,out of desperation basically,stopped by Whole Foods & picked up a bag of Halo’s..The first night ( February 20th)she ate one piece..The smell was a little different from what I remember but according to the ingredients it’s the same as back in 2009 so I am not sure why PetCo’s site has it different..Anyways,back to the 21st..when she was feeling better after the ACV she started pawing for people food & accepting people food a lot more..Prior to that she would refuse even her favorite meats..chicken,turkey… & started accepting Halo’s…so I guess we’ll keep with Halo’s for a while til something else comes up like she refuses(if that ever happens…)eating Halo’s dog food we’ll look into others..& prior to that wanted to play.I imagine once she’s about 7-9 I probably want to switch her to Nature’s Variety Dry/Can/Raw just for the sake of her health as she gets older.Between birth-7 years old I let it go a little more but in the senior years I get a little more strict even on high quality food. But yea she’s feeling better and we’re thankful for that!

Nature’s Variety Instinct Beef & Lamb Review

Originally,the plan was to sell or give away the Nature’s Variety Instinct Beef & Lamb because well,Lacey wasn’t taking to it very well BUT..one night she started refusing Acana Grasslands(the one she’s supposed to finish up before opening Acana Wild Praire & Acana Pacifica)Acana Wild Prairie is mostly Chicken & Whitefish.Acana Pacifica is mostly Salmon,Herring and Whitefish.The plan was to do Chicken & Whitefish Proteins.Both bags remain unopened currently.When she started refusing the Acana Grasslands(which is graciously going to Brownie as there’s less than 2 pounds left),I gave her the Nature’s Variety Instinct Beef & Lamb.The next morning there was very little tear stains and this morning(Sunday) there were absolutely none at all.Not even the slightest bit was seen on her face!Truthfully,that is a SHOCKER!No other food(that hasn’t had apple cider vinegar)in the list has ever Chicken,Beef,Turkey,Fish,Lamb,Duck has ever stopped her tear stains this much.Certainly higher quality foods do help as most people say with almost every high quality brand of dog food has said BUT none of those past foods has ever had ACV in it..However the truth stands with Nature’s Variety Instinct…Not a bit of tear stains.We’re seeing such good results I am going to keep her on it for at least 6 weeks to see if we can find any more improvement then we’ll try Acana Pacifica which does not have ACV and see if tear stains come back.If they do,that will tell us feeding Lacey food with ACV has a big part to do with her tear stains & that would prioritize how we feed her a great deal BECAUSE a lot of foods don’t have ACV and if that DOES help with tear stains we WILL BE adamant to stick to foods with only Apple Cider Vinegar such as possibly all Nature’s Variety Prairie(Possibly as it has ACV that’s supposed to help prevent UTI’s & may give it a shot in the near future)& Nature’s Variety Instinct with being consistent of Primal Frozen Raw or Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw which means can food would likely be out of the question.Whether she’ll take the Primal or Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw or not she’d have no choice.We’d eliminate all other dry food options if it comes down to the fact that tear stains do clear up more on ACV based foods than non based ACV dog foods.
We weren’t really going to switch off of Acana/Orijen completely but we may have to rethink things if ACV does help with tear stains so we’ll see where we’ll stand with dry foods/can foods after a month on Nature’s Variety Instinct Beef & Lamb followed by a month of Acana Pacifica.

Lacey goes dog crazy for Ziwi Peak Deer Shank!

So,today when we went to Naturally Pet we were of course looking for Jones Natural Chews which she’s had the Pork followed by the Lamb Femur Bones,but the only one they had was the Lamb Femur Bone which she just had/or the last JNC bone she’s had in a while.JNC is made in the USA and very reasonably priced.($5.00)
They also had Merricks type of bones but I don’t trust Merricks’ treats due to all the recalls they’ve had in the past few years.Dry Food & Can Food we’re good as they’ve never had recalls on these foods.
We looked around and saw Ziwi Peak.I wasn’t looking at the price til after we had bought it.It was 7.50 for a small deer shank bone but you know what??It’s SOOOO worth it because Lacey Princess TRULY CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF IT!She goes crazy over it literally even when you take it away from her she’ll give you the look like”HEY!I WAS CHEWING THAT!!”I remember on dogster a dog owner who feeds Ziwi Peak Raw says that it is one of the more pricey foods you can feed a dog!You know what??That’s NOT A JOKE!Anything made by Ziwi Peak is pricey but most dogs love it if there owners can afford it they are one of the extremely lucky dogs out there!

New Foods for Lacey Girl

She will finish up the Acana Grasslands in the next few weeks then she will start her new bags of Acana Wild Prairie & Acana Pacifica.Should last anywhere from 3-8 months depending how she eats it(every other day or just one protein and every so often she’ll eat the other..)We looked for the new earthborn formulas but nowhere had it in Hawaii so we’ll look for it in the future.Same with Solid Gold SunDancer.We’ll keep an eye out for it in the future.

Lacey will be transitioning to new proteins in the next few weeks

In the next few weeks Lacey will be transitioning to two new proteins(see the New Foods for Lacey Blog) as she’s almost done with Acana Grasslands.She’s got 1.5 pounds left so that would go down pretty fast.Right now,I have got her trying Acana Wild Prairie,will have her try Acana Pacifica/Orijen Adult(80-20) to see how she does/likes it but really I think she’ll do fine regardless.Those(Acana/Orijen)would be the easiest to find for us as it’s right in town but I’d really like to see if we can find the Earthborn Holistic Coastal Coast & Solid Gold Sun Dancer first at a couple other feed stores in town.Otherwise we’ll opt for Acana/Orijen or just do Nature’s Variety Instinct Chicken Formula & the Rabbit formula which we’d have to go to Kailua because while we can Special Order from Naturally Pet it is one of the more expensive priced dog foods(for a 4.4 pound bag)we have ever paid for that was even made in the USA.Acana/Orijen didn’t even cost ~$20.Acana/Orijen typically go for about ~$15-18.00 for a 5.5 pound bag.But then again Rabbit is not a protein Lacey’s had before.IF it were something like Chicken/Beef/Turkey/Lamb/Duck,a protein she’s had previously that’s not really a big deal for us but a new protein not knowing how she’ll do that’s when we try to get local if possible.Although we try to buy locally as much as possible unless we can not find it on our island(Oahu)then we consider special order.
Though with Lacey I don’t make her eat one specific one.She can choose to favor both proteins,eat it weekly/every other day switch proteins/daily whatever she wants as long as she eats something but as she gets older around 7-11 years old she won’t have that freedom with raw so I let her get a little finicky now.Once we get the new proteins she’ll finish up Acana Grasslands before opening the new bags.
As for the Nature’s Variety Instinct Beef & Lamb we thought we were going to sell it but..(see the Nature’s Variety Instinct Beef & Lamb Review) feeding raw may be coming sooner than we expected.

Lacey’s eating mostly dry food nowadays

She’ s went from 7.2-7.8 pounds on 1/4c-1/2c(dry/can/people food as a topper)to 7.0 pounds since starting(1/8cup daily) currently switching up Acana Grasslands & Nature’s Variety Instinct Beef & Lamb.We are trying to get her down to 6.5 at the lowest but if she loses more than that I will up her dry food accordingly.So,for the past week Lacey has been eating dry dog food in her crate at night.She now goes in there after all the humans go to bed & automatically goes to her crate without being asked.Took her a while to go on her own but she did it!She’s been on 1/8 cup of dry dog food(Acana/Orijen/Nature’s Variety Instinct)switched up nightly and weight is good.. So,we are very pleased that she’s accepting dry food a lot better even Nature’s Variety Instinct because it has ACV which is/was the reason she refused Primal Frozen Raw was she didn’t like the taste/smell;but has gotten used to it over the past few months.Tear stains are actually becoming a lot more crummy on the whiskers/sometimes doesn’t have any at all!So,Lacey’s only been getting 1/8 cup of dry food a day & she’s starting to eat her food nightly in her crate..But she won’t eat unless she HAS to!Overall,so far weight’s been better.I don’t plan on cutting her back anymore.With her eating an 1/8-1/4 cup(can food only) every Saturday,there’s really not much use for can food although Brownie does help too.When Lace gets can food so does Brownie(1/4c+1/4 dry-Earthborn Adult Vantage)For her an 1/8 cup of can food with one can having about 12-14 servings that’ll easily last her over 3 months straight.She’s getting less exercise about 30-1 hour daily or she will be barky like when she was a puppy,on dry food from 1hour to 3 hours on 1/4cup-1/2 cup of dry/can food.

New Foods for Lacey after Acana Grasslands

Solid Gold Sun Dancer
Earthborn Holistic Coastal Catch
Acana Pacifica/or Orijen 6Fish (In replace of Coastal Catch)
Acana Wild Prairie(If we can find either one of the two above.If not we can Special order SunDancer or do something else)
OR
Acana Wild Prairie
Acana Pacifica/or Orijen 6Fish(If we were to stick to Chicken/Whitefish theme for dog food)
OR
Acana Wild Prairie OR Nature’s Variety Instinct Chicken(If we decide to see how her tummy reacts to other formulas on Instinct.On Beef & Lamb bowels can be unpredictable & difficult to transition back to Acana Grasslands but not as bad as on Wellness Super5Mix.See previous blogs on that.Does well on SIS but not sure on Wellness Core)
Nature’s Variety Instinct Rabbit