Lace gets excited for raw!

So tonight it just so happened we didn’t really have a whole lot of chicken(cooked/baked) for her to eat besides mushroom chicken which we had made with cream of chicken with herbs instead of regular cream of chicken(by the way made by campbells)which she doesn’t care for as much as the regular cream of chicken,so we tried to give her BBQ chicken which she turned her head away from…I had taken out frozen raw(Nature’s Variety Instinct Chicken Frozen Raw) and unthawed it as one option,I have the can food that was frozen unthawing for tomorrow should she choose to eat it and we also had some frozen raw meat(beef) in the freezer so we took some out,waited for it to unthaw,now once the raw meat was unthawed we fed it to Lace which she responded with a such exciting wag of her tail and she excitedly ate a good amount.Very surprsingly she remembers what raw meat is and she loves it.The first time I fed her raw meeat she didn’t get excited at all.In fact she was trying to figure out if she could actually eat the raw chunks of meat which she did eat once she knew she could eat it.After she ate her raw meat,minutes later she went over to her puppy pad and made a nice firm piece of bm.The best thing about feeding raw meat is not only do dogs love it & I actually encourage owners to feed raw over cooked meat if you can or even dog food but bowels and health benefits are just as good.
In case anyone wanted to know my prefereance when it comes to diet for a dog(Large,medium or small)
1)Raw Meat
2)Frozen Raw made by several dog food companies
3)Freeze Dried Raw made by several dog food companies
(Dogs who have tear stains I encourage raw meat or Nature’s Variety Instinct Frozen/Freeze Dried Raw with Apple Cider Vinegar)
4)Dehydarated Raw made by several dog food companies
5)Can Food(High Quality)
6) Lastly dry food

Primal Frozen Raw vs Nature’s Variety Frozen Raw

So tonight Lacey Princess ate her very first meal of Nature’s Variety Frozen Raw & I was so excited to see her,actually attempt to eat a frozen raw food on her own…She ate almost one mendallion after I broke it up into two pieces.When asked if she was done she backed away from the frozen raw,told her come to me and asked her”Did you enjoy it???”and in response she very slowly started wagging her tail!I remember when I tried to get her to eat Primal Frozen Raw!She’d rather starve than eat it!

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 chooses Stella & Chewy for her primary diet for now…

Between last Saturday and this Saturday Lacey has chosen to eat Stella & Chewy’s 4 out of 7 days…There are 12 patties in one package with each going for $15.00..It can last for 6 days or as long as almost 2 weeks.On average she’s been eating about 2 a day.So in a month,she could go through 48 patties costing us about $60 without tax..Depending how long she wants to continue that eventually she’ll have to settle for a dry food preferably Blue Buffalo but we’ll tackle that issue when she loses interest in Stella & Chewy.Meanwhile,that’s what she’ll eat switching proteins every month.

Trying to stabalize Lacey’s eatings

So,right now we’re just trying to stabilize Lace on some type of dog food whether it be dry,can,freeze dried…At this point,we’d rather deal with good bowels or soft bowels that could require cleaning vs having malnutrition and more vet bills to pay.For now she seems to be wanting to eat her freeze dried Stella & Chewy as she hasn’t had Halo’s for a week at least(which I believe she’s holding out for) which is fine.I’d rather deal with good bowels or soft bowels over malnutrition.As long as she eats high quality,low quality whatever…as long as she eats…We’re giving her minimal can food(1/8 cup),limiting her table food(she gets some but very little)and limiting her treats at least till she becomes more stable like when and every x amount of days we can predict her eating..So if she goes like about 3-4 days eating x food we CAN allow her to maybe skip a day but as long as she eats x type of food(for dogs)90-95% of the time she can have her treats,table food back to the usual amount.

As for dry food,I am considering on getting 4 brands of dog food & in time keep the recipt or give it to our neighbor’s dog for her to eat then pick out another 4 brands so on so forth to see if she has any interest…..as well as check out a few stores around the island as time goes on..Right now we’ve got Earthborn Holistic Primitive Natural,Taste of the Wild High Prarie,Blue Buffalo Chicken & Rice Small Breed and Nature’s Best Lamb & Rice..

Switching to Blue Buffalo

So I have been doing a little thinking on Lacey’s dry food.And I came across the thought that Lacey could not have fishy food so I searched back on her site & found that it was on of one of the WellnessSuper5Mix Dry Food I had given her that caused soft stools.I checked the ingredients in it and did seems to have a “good” amount of fish but I didn’t try her on any other brand for fish.On the Wellness Dry Food she’d always gets soft stools so I am not even going to try her on the Wellness Core or the Simple Solutions.I might try her on another fishy food with a different brand such as TOTW Pacific or something similar to that.

On Blue Buffalo,doing some research I have found that a lot of poodles do good on the Small Breed which most of the Blue Buffalo dog food that does have grains,usually have 3,being which MOST poodles are doing good on.I am going to slowly transition her over to Blue Buffalo and see how she is medically in the upcoming months.Otherwise it’s going to be mostly grain free for her.So far for her diet,we will be using Blue Buffalo as the primary diet(even if it’s only grain free),TOTW & possibly Earthborn.Can Food:Merricks,Party Animal.Raw:Stella & Chewy Freeze Dried Chicken or Duck(alternating)When the NOW!dog food comes to Hawaii we’ll probably stop the Earthborn if not before that and try the NOW! dog food by PetCurean.So far I am pleased with their customer service on facebook & looking forward to try their products for Lacey..Still looking at other options but that’s where we are for now…

Update May 11 2010:It seems that Lacey can’t handle Stella & Chewy’s freeze dried raw food.She can handle the chicken & beef with good bowels but can not handle the lamb,duck/goose both resulting in soft stools.The beef she doesn’t care for it too much so we will discontinue that…If sometime later a new brand comes out for freeze dried or she will accept ACV in treats if it’s ever used in treats we may get her to eat Primal Frozen but right now it will be the raw treats from Stella & Chewy & Primal for raw treats…
As far as dry food goes Lacey is obviously giving us a very difficult time on transitioning to new food whether it be Blue Buffalo,Earthborn,Taste of the Wild,Nature’s Variety or whatever she’s just not eating…In turn I have cut out most of her treats & table food until she does eat something.I have been giving her an 1/8 cup of Merricks or Party Animal daily(can food) so she’s got something in her tummy.I doubt 1/8 cup of can food will fill her up though.I am waiting for her to eat a few kibble before she gets treats/table food and see what she responds to first..At this point as much as I’d LOVE to feed her high quality dry food I am just trying to get her to eat something whether it’s high quality or cheap.Yes,cheap will cut her years earlier but at least she will be eating.If we try most brands and she won’t respond after sometime I guess we MAY be forced to go back to Halo’s….We will try different brands for the time being ranging from high quality to medium quality to the absolute worst of dry food brands.If she responds to none….back to Halo’s we’ll go..IF ALL ELSE FAILS!

Balancing grains & grain free feedings

Most people know that Lacey has started recently on Blue Buffalo & in the past we’ve had issues with grain heavy food.We’ve looked at Blue Buffalo for certain choices of food that she may be able to eat but when we got to PetCo we didn’t see what we were looking for so we picked up the Blue Buffalo Small Breed.Although I knew it did have some grains I picked one up because we drove all the way to Pearl City so we should pick up something so it’s not a “waste of time/gas”.I was going to do this several different ways with her dry food not to mention we’re trying to get her on mostly very low grains to grain free can food too.
The first way I was going to do this was switch out the brands/flavors every time she ate but I thought if I did it this way we couldn’t focus on the new brands…Later I was going to do exclusively BB & TOTW…But..I was talking to my mom and it seemed she was concerned about the amount of grains in the BB,however energy & bowels are also very good on it…One thing I remembered with grain free is as long as she doesn’t regurgitate the food we’re good with grain free so really it doesn’t matter when or what brand of grain free I introduce we’re good.She started grain free(Earthborn back in December 2009 & we’ve had no issues).The way I decided to go with my mom’s concern in mind was to do the usual amount(1/8-3/8 daily)and make 80-85% of her dry food very low grains & grain free with about 15% being moderate grains.Not to mention she will have can food available at lunch/dinner,also low grains-grain free.Out of 21 meals of dry food times 4 weeks=84 meals/month..more on another post.. a week only 3 would be BB.The other 18 meals would be Halo’s,TOTW,Earthborn…If we do good on this rotation with very little(3 meals per week of BB Small Breed) and no health issues we can choose from many types of BB..Her food would go something like this BB,Halo’s Wild Salmon,Halo’s Wholesome Chicken,TOTW,S&C Freeze Dried Chicken,Earthborn,Merricks then
Halo’s Wild Salmon,Halo’s Wholesome Chicken,TOTW,S&C Freeze Dried Chicken,Earthborn,Blue Buffalo.

AND I couldn’t give the BB Small Breed to the neighbor’s dog because on the BB small breed bag it says for dogs up to 30 pounds so Lacey would have to finish the bag

Lacey accepts Canidae!but I don’t plan to keep her on it…

Lace has finally accepted Canidae after I placed it in a bottle for her.To get her to eat Canidae it was like I had to almost beg her and doing it the bottle method without accepting it verbally by hand for Lacey is not good.Usually if she tries a new brand of dry food and she accepts it by hand that is your biggest hint that she’s good with the new food but if she won’t even take it from the hand and you got to do it by the bottle method that’s not a good start.She was the same way with Hill’s Nature’s Best.
The reason for not keeping her on it is 1)she’s not excited about it 2)didn’t take it from the hand 3)she has chicken/salmon just by eating Halo’s/supplements with Stella & Chewy freeze dried raw Chicken 4)All the other Caindae seems to be grain heavy something we don’t want to go through with more issues of UTI’s. 5)Only has one berry.I like to see at least 2:Preferably Blueberries/Cranberries but at least 2 berries.6)List of ingredients are limited.Another issue with Lacey is she can tell if it has a good amout of meat,fruit,veggies…How?I have no clue!

As for elimination diet I was thinking of it won’t be possible with the limited amount of brands of “high quality”dry dog food brands that has good “quality of ingredients” and enough variation with meats/fish.Maybe in the long run if there are more varieties out there..

Same with grain free & feeding her freeze dried raw:If there were more of the brands she’d eat with good variety of meats/fish/fruits/veggies/L.Acid and so on..none with ACV in frozen/freeze dried raw..more meats..I’d switch her exclusivity to one of these but since at the moment there isn’t enough of that type of foods we’re working with what we have including very low grains-1 grain-grain free dry/can food.Right now we’re doing Halo’s,some Earthborn,TOTW & maybe in July starting Blue Buffalo.

Canidae ALS

We got Lace some samples from naturally pet but she didn’t eat it.like w/natural balance dry/can food & any dry/can food w/limited ingredients.i’d switch her over to 100% grain free if she ate it as well as her Halo’s!Her stool is excellent on TOTW even w/can food.Halo’s is low in grains…eats it close to a daily basis..medically it helps a lot…both Halo/s & TOTW has good variety ingredients which she’s faithful to…So far we tried Science Diet,IAMS,Beneful,Chicken Soup for the pet lover’s soul,prarie,instinct,stella & chewy,solid gold just a wee bit,wellness,canidae,halo’s(current),earthborn(current),totw(current),nature’s best(refused after once),natural balance(refuses can/dry),merricks(will eat sometimes,loves the can food),primal raw,thk ..when we are in pearl city i plan on trying a few different flavors from blue buffalo to see if she’ll eat it..

Stumped….

I am absolutely stumped with Lacey.You know,she does so well on Halo’s..Her bowels are consistent and firm….there’s dehydrated fruits & veggies that she’ll eat…but when you give her primal(she doesn’t like the vinegar..see previous blogs),stella & chewy beef(doesn’t like the flavor.good bowels…lamb causes soft bowels but loves the flavor)…solid gold may give her soft bowels(currently looking into it by giving halo’s one day,earthborn another,solid gold just a wee bit another..will know more by next weekend),doesn’t really care for the honest kitchen dehydrated raw food…i’d really like to place her on another brand of food even raw but the way she reacts to all of them and the brands available down in hawaii is so limited that we just can’t do it(raw)..again the carobs,amount of fish play factors into the type of food she eats,beet pulp,ingredient list should have good variety(see previous blogs)..so what will we try next?right now,i don’t have a clue..i will look on dogster to see what other brands are a possibility to try…maybe a sample of a different choice of earthborn could be an option?maybe trying barking at the moon from solid gold???for a while i will look into how she does on solid gold just a wee bit if it is giving her soft bowels & look into other brands…