Weight Management: Satin Ball,Green bean diet,Weight management kibble
If you have a dog,you may have heard of some of these things: Satin ball, green bean diet, weight management kibble.
Have you ever wonder what they are, how it is done??
Satin ball..
Satin ball is basically a raw meatball designed to put weight on dogs that have hard time to put weight on.
The recipe was created by Diana Carreon RNC and it became popular and you can find her recipe all over the internet.
Usually,ingredients are ground meat, Total cereal(I am not sure why it has to be Total brand but any recipes you come across point out to use Total cereal.), Oatmeal,wheat germ, vegetable oil, Molasses, Raw egg including shells, Gelatin and salt.
Here is my guess why it has what they have in the recipe for the Satin ball.
Meat is ground meat,so maybe it has more fat than other cut. Then, cereal is probably for fiber??
However,cereal is enriched with vitamin FOR HUMAN,and according to wikipedia, it has sugar,corn syrup,coloring, and it has BHT to keep the cereal fresh.
To read full article on Total cereal, please click here.
Therefore,cereal is probably in recipe for fiber,but without noticing, people are adding these sugar,preservative,coloring,sugar too, to their dog’s food.
Then, Oatmeal is probably for fiber as well,but it also be there because FOR HUMAN,Oatmeal is good for lower the chorestrol so,maybe it was put there thinking it is also good for dogs as well.
Wheat germ is ,FOR HUMAN,really good source to gaining muscle and it is usually used for protein shake. You can see the different between Germ,Bran,Whole grain kernel at wikipedia.Click here.
Vegetable oil is for… possibly be for fat?? But since it is delivered from plant source,dogs cannot utilize it very good in their body.
As for Molasses,it is there for sugar,and make the Satin ball better taste??
Raw Egg is good protein source and shell is good source of Calcium,and then,Gelatin is for… I am not sure why it is there. Salt is probably for taste??
Looking these ingredients,it looks like Satin ball is made from high fiber ingredients, sugar-heavy items, with a little bit of protein source.
I have to wonder,why you make very sugary canine version of meatball with fiber is so popular. Dogs love sweet things, and this Satin ball maybe hit among dogs but is it good for them?
No,I do not think so. If I make my version of Satin ball, I could make simply one ingredient:ground mutton meat.
If I wanted to play around as recipe,I probably can make “Mutton Meatball with Green Tripe inside”. Mutton is,very very fatty meat.
Therefore,it can add calories up with bit chunk of meat. But I would think that you could possibly done by feeding more amount of regular food,more fatty meat, but without food ingredients that are from plant matters.
Too much fiber/sugar can cause diarrhea too. I read this one put weight on dogs pretty quick (Of course:SUGAR! and Carbohydrate, but to me,it is just another band-aide quick fix.
Opposite diet to Satin ball diet is green bean diet.
Green bean diet..
This is the diet designed for dogs to loose weight.
As you can imagine, diet is base around green bean. Palette likes green bean, but how are they fed?
Basically,it is 50% kibble,50% green bean in the diet.
Usually,green bean amount is fed small,then, gradually increased in meal. First meal could look like 10% green bean,90% kibble then as you go,50-50 in meal.
Now,why green bean?? This diet is made from theories that fiber makes dog stomach full with little kcal.
Therefore, green bean provides fiber and this fiber keeps stomach feel full so,dog end up eating much less calories even if half the diet is kibble.
Some people buy bunch of canned green bean,stock up for dogs and feed for meal,but have you look at canned food??
Well,you would not think that canned food is one single ingredient in the can,would you?
Unfortunately, I do not have canned green bean on hand (We ate it last night!). I tried look online for ingredient list but they did not have list in their site.
However, canned food needs something to preserve the freshness. I have.. canned sweet pea. Ingredients? Peas (Of course),water, and sugar!
I have canned corn.Ingredients? Corn,water,modified food starch,and SUGAR!
Now,I have to wonder,when you buy canned fish,usually ingredient for canned fish packed in water is fish,water,salt,but with canned vegetable,vegetable,water,and sugar is norm??
Anyway, unless dog owners take time and cook FRESH green beans,dogs get some sugar from canned green beans too.
I sometimes give Palette a piece of green beans but,half of dogs diet being green bean sounds not that good.
Since calories being fed can get lower with this diet,dogs may loose weight and it SEEMS good and working but,is it really?
To me,if you take your dog for walk everyday,play Frisbee or ball with them, and do lots of play with them and feed a little less of regular food, without quick fix diet method maybe better for dogs.
Weight management kibbles..
Along with green beans diet,there is a kibble specially made for overweight dog.
I tried to look if Palette’s kibble ( I used to feed Blue buffalo,now I feed raw food) had weight management kibble.
Well,the brand I used to feed did not carry so called weight management kibble. So,I had to look other brand to see what are the different between regular kibble and one for weight management.
So,I looked Nutro. What I saw was that,regular adult kibble is 26% protein, 12% fat, 4% fiber and first ingredient is meat.
Weight management kibble is 16% protein,8% fat,and 10% fiber. And first ingredient being rice. So,lower protein,lower fat,higher fiber for weight-management kibble.
Weight management kibble ingredient list: click here.
Adult kibble ingredient list: click here.
I would think that theory behind why kibble has high fiber is probably same reason to green bean diet:to make dog full with fiber and owner can feed less amount of kibble.
However, since it is highly processed food, I am not sure how much nutrient from ingredients is in there,and actually working for dogs’ health.
There are so many foods out there for human or dogs,but I think that eating fresh food taste better and better for human too.
Minimally processed food ingredients are better.
For me and my husband, we have not made phone order for Pizza for more than a year. We do not have frozen commercially made pizza in the box as well.
We have none.
When we eat Pizza,I take 3 hours making pizza dough from scratch and,use fresh vegetable on topping and less processed meat on top.
Pizza is not healthiest food ever,but I make my own pizza so,I do not put any chemicals or preservatives to keep my pizza dough fresh etc, and I have control over amount of cheese,meat on the pizza etc…
When I make BBQ chicken pizza,I boil the chicken,I do not use ready to put deli style chicken. It definitely takes time,and need some labors; kneading dough for 8 minutes on kneading mat, but it is made fresh, and I can play around what kinds of pizza I make (spinach-fet
a pizza dough/knotts are really good,by the way) and I can control what will be eaten,so,I feel better too.
Freshly made pizza makes our house smell really good,and makes you feel more hungry.
Same thing for our dog “Palette”. We do not have kibble bag in our house.
It is good for convenience, but it is highly processed and most kibble is heavy in carb,and you really don’t know what you really giving to your dog.
Kibble never look like dried fish when you feed fish based kibble.You do not have much control on what you feed to your dog.
I prefer to feed fresh food,I prefer the way I have a control over detail of menu, and more than anything else, I prefer to see more drooly,excitable dance in Palette and I love to watch how she eats her food. I like the fact she gets super excited for each and every single feeding time.
Fresh food changed her coat:shiny,softer etc and better build, pearly white teeth with sweet breath with sweet compact less odor poop…
I do not regret that I have switched Palette’s diet to raw diet..
What do you think of Satin ball diet,green bean diet,and weight management kibble?
What are the solution to underweight dog/overweight dog to keep good weight?
