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.
Category Archives: Primal Pet Food
Lacey’s review for Primal Buffalo Liver Treats
Lace absolutely loves the Buffalo Liver Treats.Weird thing is she won’t take it in small bites but you have to treat it like meat.Give a big piece or she won’t eat it.Once you give it to her she’ll guard it with her life!Honestly,if you try take it from her she’ll give a little growl…but I learned that if I give her too much of the Buffalo Liver she WILL get constipated…Interestingly she did well on the Turkey Liver from Primal no matter how often she gets it in a day(as many as 6 small piece of turkey liver)
Considered Zukes but it was too grainy for her to eat.
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…
Got the Primal out & waiting…..
For Lacey to accept it.I remember back in January when I introduced her to raw(stella & chewy) it was a battle just to get her to eat it.It took about a month of battling with Lacey on Stella & Chewy before she started accepting it.For a few days we are not giving her any treats,table food,dry food or can food.If she doesn’t accept it in three days I will give her some dry food then skip a few days so we can try get her to accept Primal.The thing I want to accomplish w/Primal is really to see how her bowels are on it..If it’s the lamb,I’d like to try at least 2 more flavors from Primal to see if we get the same reaction or not…Maybe her body just can’t handle raw?Right now we can’t come to that conclusion yet since we only tried Stella & Chewy’s..But if that is/was the case she’d be on dry food & can food for life.It’s better we find it out now than later.It WILL no doubt be a battle to accept Primal but we’ll keep trying…
Frozen Raw Food vs Freeze Dried Raw Food Brands
Ok,so in the last post we mentioned that because Lacey is sensitive to the amount of carob,fish & lamb in her diet we decided to switch from Stella & Chewy’s.Stella & Chewy’s Beef formula is good but she didn’t like it.However her stool was good on it but the lamb formula was “absolutely loved!” by Lacey but the result was every time she had it she had soft stools..and we can’t have that!
So,I wanted something that was freeze dried till we got her more stable on eating raw food.Right now she’s only getting it a few times a week to help the Halo’s meat content(first ingredient is chicken/wild salmon which is less than what it says on the package once water is taken out).But w/the lamb sensitivity to Stella & Chewy’s which she loved…and got soft stools on it…I decided to try to keep her on freeze dried until…she got more regular meals on it..the thing w/freeze dried is you can keep it in the bag that it came in & all you do is break it up into smaller pieces & there’s no refrigeration time..no water needed though you can…BUT when the time came to buy Nature’s Variety Freeze Dried or Frozen like in the last post we mentioned about trying the lamb…we got the coupon and went down to Naturally Pet but they don’t sell it there…but they do sell the dry and can food…Now,the only other place that might have it is Bark Ave down in Hawaii Kai which is out of our way for us to travel just to get it or even check to see if they got it…..So,we had no other choice except to get Primal..one which I was sort of against from the start..not that it’s not a great food because it really is..that it’s frozen & you need to rethaw it..The good thing is it’s sold in more places in town where we live(not far to travel except a few miles<15 miles for sure)..it can stay in the fridge for up to 5 days unlike can is only up to 3 days.Odd thing is when you look it up online primal comes up less with search results vs nature's variety raw but when it comes to stores only 2 stores on Oahu SHOULD carry it and that was Naturally Pet & Bark Ave.Primal on the other hand seems it's more preferred in Hawaii.
Anyways a long story short,we got the Primal Lamb Frozen to see how Lacey will like it.I brought it in the car and she was just sniffing away at it..licking her mouth…When I showed it to her since I was going to unthaw it for her dinner, I took up all of her dry food & no treats or table food so when it comes to dinner she'll be hungry,she was licking her mouth already begging me for the piece that was to be unthawed…The result will be if she will eat it and how her bowel movements are.If both is good results we can stick with feeding her various formulas from Primal & get a card from Naturally Pet as a frequent buyer program.The other thing I like about it while it does not have L.Acid is that it's mostly organic food in the formulas.And we alredy know she loves the treats…Oh yeah the price we paid ~$32.?? with tax for a 4 pound bag.Expensive but good.The pieces are very small just one oz so it's actually better than Stella & Chewy.Stella & Chewy was $13.00 without tax for only 6 oz.
Looking back at Lacey’s first year:Health and all
Name:Lacey Princess Maltipoo Akamine
Current Weight at one year old:7.11 pounds according to vet records,7.6 according to home weight
Birth Date:March 13 2009
Born:Kailua,HI
Breed:Maltese/Toy Poodle
Mom:Poodle
Dad:Maltese
Adopted:july 17 2009
Age of adoption:16 weeks old
Found on:Kijiji.com
Price:$600
Name of Vet:Dr John Kaya
Vet Hospital:VCA Animal Hospital aka VCA University Hospital
Weight at first vet visit:4.5 pounds
Dog Food:Science Diet & IAMS,Beneful Prepared Meals till December 2009
Puppy Pad Training:9 weeks
Health Issues:Yeast infection in ear,worms,UTI,Spaying(February 2010)
First Heat:November 2009
First Treats:Nutro Dog Biscuits,Pupperoni,The Goodlife Recipe treats
First Walk:November 2009
Shortest Walk:<<<than 5 minutes
Longest Walk:62 minutes on her birthday
First Time Out: December 2009
First Thanksgiving:Thanksgiving 2009:Family Dinner
First Christmas:Christmas 2009:A new top,Waggin Train
Brands of dog food we tried:Solid Gold Just a Wee Bit,Chicken Soup for the Pet lover's Soul,Wellness Super5Mix Small Breed/Super5Mix Complete Health Chicken,Halo's Spot's Stew
Current Dry Food Brands:Solid Gold Just a Wee Bit,Halo's Spot's Stew(Wholesome Chicken & Wild Salmon flavors),Earthborn Holistic Primitive Natural
Brands of Can Food we tried:Natural Balance,NV Instinct & Prairie can food,Wellness Can Food then lost interest,Halo's Spot's Stew Can Food,Merricks
Current Brands of Can Food:Merricks
First introduced to Raw(Freeze Dried):January 2010
Started accepting Freeze Dried Raw:Feburary 2010
Brands we tried:Stella & Chewy till APril 2010 then we'll be switching to Nature's variety Freeze Dried
First Freeze Dried Raw Treat:Primal Pet Turkey Liver(A birthday present)
Organic Treats she's tried:Trader Joe's,Waggin' Train,No Grainers
First Boarding Facilities we considered:Di Ventus Dog Hotel & Spa
First Boarding Facilities we looked at:The Ohana Doggie Day Care,Pets in the city
First Starts understanding people conversations:7-8 months old
First Command:SIT
Commands she knows:sit,stay,don't move,time out,sit & stay,shake paw/hand,"eat",hi5,shake your tail,down aka sit,lay down,kiss,learning roll over,"wait",inside,outside,table manners at the table
Uses Common Sense while walking:About 8-9 months old
Checks for cars like a human(right,left,right,left,center,then walk)about 10 months-1 year old
Goes outside for afternoon poop:December 2009-learned by example of aunty's dogs
Vaccinations:Distemper,Parvo,Lepto
First Carrier:casual Canine
First Crate:Pet Mate Kennel Cab
Characteristics:A definite mix of Maltese/Toy Poodle.Brains of the poodle.Looks of a maltese.eyes are poodle.Loves to play.Loves to sample food
Types of food she tried:Mexican,Italian,Japanese,Chinese
Favorite Fast Food:KFC chicken skin
Shops we shop at:Naturally Pet,Halo’s Purely for Pets,The Pet Spot,Kalihi Pet Store
Misc:Also tried Hartz Oinkies
Able to climb steps:10-11 months old
First Shampoo;Sergent’s Puppy Shampoo
Current Shampoo:Halo’s Cloud Nine Herbal Shampoo/Earthbath Shampoo
Grooming:Cardinal Pet Gold Metal Pets Unicoat Professional Spray
Lacey’s review for Primal Pet Freeze Dried TurkeyLiver Munchies vs Waggin’ Train Treats
For Lacey’s 1st birthday we got her Primal Pet Freeze Dried Liver Munchies.At first she didn’t like it till I “re introduced” it to her putting it in her crate bowl thinking it’s food.She loved it…Now,she’ll lick her mouth 18+ times for a Turkey Liver.You will know when she wants it by the way she sniffs whenever I put it in a certain spot.She’ll sniff upward looking at me like “Well….?Aren’t you going to give it to me???” I took a small piece of her waggin train & a small piece of the Turkey Liver she picked turkey liver over Waggin Train.She gets more excited over turkey liver than waggin’ train.Turkey liver is more expensivie but it’s good that she’s getting used to some raw treats too….
Lacey tries her crate at night
Initially she was doing good in her crate.She didn’t whimper or really cry except a few times but started to scratch her crate with her paws.I placed her favorite toy inside her crate & she sort of calmed down for a while then started scratching her crate again.She was in there for about 2 hours.She laid down,drank water,chewed on chew toys,relaxed,ate some of her food though I found it’s easier for her to eat it with her crate door open.She’ll eat anything(dog food & stella & chewy’s)that I put in her crate dish even Primal Pet treats.I tried to give it to her by itself and she’d lick it,spit,lick it,spit but when I placed in her crate tray she gulped it up along with her Halo’s!After some cries & scratches I let her out for the night(inside the house not outside).
So,we’re trying to bring Lacey to hilo with us and the airline(Hwn Airlines) told us we don’t need a health certificate from Dr Kaya for her.That she should be under 20 pounds,the hXlXw(see previous blogs)but others are telling me that we need to follow the Animal Quarantine Law for Hawaii.I emailed the links to my mom & I will let her make the call.Although we did cancel with Pets In The City our last option depending what Dr Kaya says is the criteria & from whatever my mom decides we may end up leaving her at VCA even though that’s not what I initially wanted.I might try to schedule her at Pets In the City again.I am sure she can easily pass the socializing with other dogs and with a little practice the crate part as well.Look for an update later as we have Dr Kaya at 5pm(HST) to get her distemper shot.
RAW Brands to try
Frozen/Freeze Dried/Dehydrated
1)Primal Pet
2)NV
Naturally Pet
3)Sojo
Complete Dog Food
4)The Honest Kitchen
Keen:Turkey
Embark:Turkey
Preference:Alfalfa
5)Paw Naturaw
Organic Turkey Diet
6)Stella & Chewy’s(Stella & Chewy may be out if the lamb is too rich for her)
7)Possibly Addiction
