Yassy's Bow Wow K9 News: Recent Comments

Comment on Raw feeding 911 Part V

2010-09-06T20:07:30Z

I enjoy watching how much Palette enjoy her diet.If you open the bag of liver to prepare for her meal for example, you would hear the trotting sound and find her right next to you standing with 2 stumpy hind legs She even not called yet for meal

The emu is from Emu farm.Usually, if you find someone that offer Emu oil or search Emu farm, you might be able to finds the farm near you.

That being said, you do not have to feed every single thing I feed. You do not have to feed Emu. Variety is good but, first thing you might want to focus on is to get your dogs used to the new diet.

With fresh food diet a.k.a. Raw feeding diet, raw meat is not crunchy like processed food a.k.a. kibble, and texture is much different and taste is bland compared to kibble. Palette took the new diet as if she were eating it for long time from day 1 but, some dogs need adjusting time to get used to the diet menu.

After dogs get used to the diet, and do good on .. lets say chicken, you can introduce one thing at a time by making sure they do good on newly introduced protein source. Then, eventually branch out the variety or add extra items such as Green Tripe,Egg,Fish body oil etc one at a time.

Comment on Why do dogs shed? Non shedding dog Labradoodle.

2010-09-02T21:34:08Z

This is my first time at your blog and I've really enjoyed looking around. I will come back again in the future to check out some of the other articles.

Comment on People food for thought

2010-08-31T18:47:16Z

When I was a kid, school lunch did not have choices such as choice of milk. Everyone had same plain milk.Sometimes, milk came with coco powder packet so that kids can pour those to their plain milk and stir with straw and drink.It was rare occurrence and I remember I was looking forward for the special drink sometimes.

As for brown bag lunch, it is nice if Japanese Bento box culture becomes popular here in the states. Mothers might need to be up early to make lunches for kids, but making with fresh ingredients and having overall control of everything including preservatives,coloring,sugar amount etc.. is plus.It is more nutritious and fun for kids to eat,too. It is probably cheaper to make than buying pre packaged lunch.

If you missed entry on "Bento box culture in Japan", you can read here.

Comment on Raw feeding 911 Part II - Updated on July 15th,2009

2010-08-23T16:49:01Z

I think there are various ways to approach the method of raw feeding, and even if following the same approach, if you ask 10 people, you will hear 10 ways to feed the dogs. This is because each dog's need is different. It is best to find the way you feel most comfortable with, and the way your dogs do good on.

What you have read in the raw feeding 911 series is just the way I have started,and the way I am most comfortable with, and the way Palette does great on.You do not need to feed every single thing I feed Palette, you do not need to feed exactly the way I feed Palette. It is just the way that works both of us and just take information as grain of salt.

If you research on raw feeding, you may find 2 big ways to feed your dogs raw.

One way is the one that their focus is more on "bones" such as chicken wing, chicken neck,chicken back etc than meat and they usually suggest to feed the fruits and vegetables. This way is, like you have mentioned, come from belief that wolves eat stomach contents of the prey.

The other way is more focus on "meat" rather than bone itself and without vegetable. I am following this approach to feed Palette, and fruits,vegetable are not in her main diet. As you know, I give vegetable/fruits as treats sometimes though via cool down treats.

When I was switching Palette to raw diet, I read lots of books on raw feeding. Then, I have decided that I feel most agreeable/comfortable approach is the way without fruits and vegetable and focus on "meat" not bone. It is because I feel that if they could digest animal source matter much better, I thought why would I feed the plant source matter try to give the same nutrient to her.And I also thought that meat has more nutrient than bare naked high bone % in the diet. So, with the way I feel most comfortable with regarding feeding is , as you know, lots of meat, some bone, some organ with some extras such as green tripe,fish oil, and egg, and the way without vegetable.

Palette gets green tripe as side dish. Green Tripe is basically a stomach contents such as grass from 4 legged animals.It is not "must feed" menu, but many dogs love them including Palette.I feed those when I can get them. This is not bleached white tripe you find at stores.It is unwashed tripe and you cannot find green tripe at regular grocery stores but from raw food suppliers. Usually it is either whole or ground and frozen.So, I do not feed puree/mashed vegetable in her menu to mimic the prey stomach contents but I do feed green tripe.

If/when you switch your dogs to raw feeding and decide to feed tripe, look the label on products carefully. Some products have added charcoal (I do not know why it is there), some are just plain ground/whole green tripe, some are canned. Canned tripe is not just plain green tripe but it has garlic etc and cooked. I do not know how much garlic in the canned one but too much garlic can thin the dogs' blood and can cause anemia and, I am not comfortable feeding canned tripe to Palette. It is just personal preference.

Dogs can do good without green tripe in menu and Palette gets green tripe only when I can get them;the one just plain green tripe nothing added, no canned. Even if you cannot get the green tripe I do not see the problem.

Back to vegetable topic, for example, animal liver,heart are high in vitamin A. Many vegetable is high in vitamin A. Lets say you want to find the way to give vitamin A to your dog.If we know dogs digest animal source matter better, I would choose to feed liver/heart to Palette, not sweet potato for vitamin A.

Also, as you have read in the entry,vegetable has cell called cellulose and dogs cannot break it down by themselves,so you need to break those cell for them if you feed them. Also, it is best for you to know good/bad points of vegetable such as.. if you have arthritis dogs, night shade family vegetables are best to be avoided. And I feel even if you decide to feed vegetable, it should not dominate the overall diet.

Now, poop is the stuff that body took all the nutrient from what you fed and the one body does not need. You can compare the volume of the poop and also you can see if any undigested material in the poop between the two ways of the approach; one with vegetable in menu,and the other without vegetable in the diet.

When Palette was on kibble, her poop was 3 times more in volume compare to the one on raw diet, and also she pooped more frequently than now. With the way I feed now, she poops out much much less which means, she digesting food much much better.And, she got much less gassy too.

I have just Palette and not experienced switching more than one dog but here are some of my suggestions. You maybe can switch one dog at a time or switch all dog but feed same protein source until all dogs do good on the protein source and then move on to the new protein source.

I would guess that if any of your crew had digestive problems, you probably would notice because they may whine to go potty, or you may find messy fur on their rear.

With food, you can buy in bulk, or you can go to grocery store and buy close to expired date or follow the season; Turkey is cheapest AFTER Thanksgiving day,and summer, grilling food is cheaper such as pork ribs,pork shoulder etc. You do not feed every single thing I feed to Palette. With readily available items, you maybe can do chicken,pork,Turkey, fish as final variety goal goes if you use just grocery store.

To start,you can buy a whole chicken and cut to each dog portion and feed until they do good on chicken, no organ, no fish oil, no nothing but chicken, Then, add one thing at a time and move on very slow.

Keep raw feeding journal to track. That is easiest way to find the cause and tweak the diet when/if your crew had digestive problem. Some people give just pumpkin when digestive problems occur but it is like fixing the problem's outcome; result,and no cause is fixed so chances are, digestive upset would occur until you will tweak the diet/find the cause and fix it.So, keeping the journal helps.

Supervise your dogs when you feed always.It is good time to know the eating habit and also good to be around if dogs needed your help.

When you switch your dog to raw diet, first focus should be to get your dog used to the new diet with one single protein source. Then, from there, you can introduce new stuff one at a time and when they were introduced all kinds of stuff, and do great on those,you can then start adding extra stuff such as green tripe,egg,fish oil etc.

Do not feed big hunk of meat too soon.You have seen Palette eating emu leg in the video on raw feeding 911 series.That is how I feed once in a month but that is the recipe for digestive upset if fed to new dogs on raw diet.

I feel raw diet helped Palette teeth cleaner, and also feel it is doing good on over all health. Her coat got shiner and no doggy breath, no doggy smell ...

Since raw feeding is fresh food diet, not processed food diet and free from all those fillers,salt,sugar and stuff, I feel that it is more nutritious, and better for their body. Plus, ingredients list is much simpler and not lengthy list like on processed diet. And, you know what your dog are eating and you get 100% control over your dogs' diet.

So, I personally feel fresh food diet for dogs are great for them too, not just that fresh food is good for us.

Comment on Keeping your dogs cool during summer - Updated on April 25th,2010

2010-08-23T14:10:45Z

Our stumpy little Corgi "Palette" loves her cool bed as you see in the entry. She spends on it a lot during summer and after exercise such as playing fetch ball/Frisbee or walking etc. It seems cool her down much faster than she naturally cool herself down just be near the vent panting.

I know there are couple of cooling products for dogs such as cooling bandanna which you suppose to soak them with water and let them wear, and cooling jacket which soak with water and let them wear. Both I have never tried personally,but as I understand it, both seem to be using the concept of water evaporation, and I am not so sure what are the difference between you soak the regular towel into water a while and put those around dog's neck or put on their body. I personally prefer the canine cooler bed because Palette can lay down however position she prefer and whole body can contact with cool spots not just one spot and bed never get dried out,always be cooler than dogs' body temperature. Previous brand I have tried had water leaking accident within a year but with canine cooler bed, no water leaking accident yet and, I am happy with it.What I like most is the fact the user; Palette, loves the canine cooler bed.

This summer, we have tried kiddy pool for Palette just to see if she likes it. She does not mind to be bathed but apparently,she is not a water dog Water was just about 2" or so depth but she saw the kiddy pool as her giant water bowl and more interested in drinking the water inside.When I toss the Frisbee into the kiddy pool, she stretched very long and step into the kiddy pool just with front paws around the edge and grabbed the Frisbee with mouth and ran to me to play Frisbee again. Maybe she needs time to get used to it.

And as you already know, other than cool bed, she gets cool down frozen treats after walkie and it is another favorite of hers. She waits in front of freezer door when she knows she is entitled to get one after walkie etc.

Comment on Raw feeding 911 Part III

2010-08-21T09:17:05Z

Lots more good information on raw feeding. I've learned a lot from reading this series.

Comment on Raw feeding 911 Part II - Updated on July 15th,2009

2010-08-21T09:03:34Z

All this is very interesting... I'm almost finished reading the whole series and have found it to be very informative. I have read from other sources that some vegetables are pretty good for dogs... carrots, yams and pumpkin in particular. They don't digest a lot of it, but it doesn't hurt them and they do get some nutrients from them. Also, when eating animals that they have caught, wild canine species eat some of the intestines, and there they get some of the partially digested vegetable matter, and the nutrients from them.

This sounds really interesting, but I'm trying to figure out how it would work to switch SEVEN dogs over... I'm not sure that I could afford it for one thing, and I don't know how I would keep track of whose poop was whose to be sure that they were getting the correct % of nutrients. I have often fed OC food that I've made from chicken, carrots and rice that the vet told me would be better for her because she used to be overweight, but I have her down now.

I really like the idea of the teeth being so much better with the raw meat/bone diet.

Comment on Raw feeding 911 Part IV: Gound/chunk of meat VS Whole big hunk of meat

2010-08-21T07:54:31Z

I can really see the benefits involved in this kind of feeding. I will also continue reading backwards to find out if some of my other questions are answered... This is so interesting!

Comment on Palette's summer treats diary; June 13th,2010

2010-08-21T07:37:13Z

MMMMmmmm.... These frozen treats look SOOOO GOOOOODDD!!! Grammy says that she thinks SHE would like to have some too! We think we will easily be able to talk her into making the mango treats for us... probably not the banana ones though cause she is allergic to them and she loves them, so doesn't want to be tempted by smelling one... :(

Comment on Raw feeding 911 Part V

2010-08-21T07:30:13Z

Oh, Palette, you make my Mom smile! She says you remind her so much of me and she just loves your smiling face! We still want to know where you get those Emu parts. You must live near a place that raises them or something. We are reading backwards to find out more about your fresh diet...