Experience with Dog Food

We emphasize food and exercise. This simple approach keeps us out of the vetʼs office
except for regular checkups. After doing background research on the pet food industry,
we believe a lot of health problems stem from packaged dog food.
The things weʼll tell you about food are the same things that help us humans be healthy.
The most important thing about the food is purity of ingredients. This means coming
from a good source, and fresh. At our house, we basically serve two types of food: 1.
raw food, usually for dinner and 2. “brownies”, for breakfast and whenever we travel.
Raw food is just as simple as it sounds – not cooked. The main reason to use raw food
is nutrition – the food has the most nutrients when it is raw.
We figured out the balance (proportions) of the diet by following a few trusted books and
our veterinarian. (We called around until we found a vet that was knowledgeable about
food.) We provide mostly meat (including bones), say 80%. The bones themselves
have a tremendous amount of nutrients. The other 20% is “glop”, a kitchen-counter
food-processed puree of vegetables, fruit, organ meat, yogurt, apple cider vinegar,
molasses, egg and garlic. We squirt some oil (either salmon oil or flax seed oil) into the
glop before serving.
The dogs are always curious “whatʼs for dinner tonight”, which makes for a more
interesting day! Sometimes dinner takes 15 minutes while they chew, which again
makes the meal an interesting experience for them.
To keep our kitchen clean, weʼve taught each dog to stay on their rug and eat out of a
large (oversized) stainless steel bowl. Tip: meal time is an easy time to teach anything,
like “stay on your rug”. They will certainly be willing to figure out what you want, in order
to get their food. A lot of the time, theyʼll take a meaty bone out of the bowl and work on
the rug. No, weʼve never had any trouble with disease. This is a question we get all the
time and weʼve had absolutely no scares in 5 years of doing this. We have guests over
regularly, including kids.
The routine has become pretty easy. We shop once a month, or once every other
month. We either hit a chicken farm, beef farm or butcher and load up a large cooler.
We have a neighbor that weʼre starting to team up with, so we take turns going to the
farms. We load up on a variety of boney meat, keep it in the freezer in the garage, and
grab a bag or two for the fridge each week. Our most regular meats are definitely
chicken – breast bone (still has some meat on the bones), chicken backs (same),
chicken wings, chicken necks. We make sure to provide some variety each week, like
ribs (beef or pork), whole rabbit, or turkey necks. Prices vary – check out our worksheet
of typical prices we encounter.
Portions have never been too big a deal. We donʼt get head-trippy over a single meal.
A very rough rule of thumb is approximately 2 lbs for our two dogs (approximately 110
2
lbs combined body weight). Our more active dog gets more just because he is more
active and he burns through food faster.
Anpther word on portions – either your dog is overweight, or theyʼre not. A book or a
food package can be a starting point, but also let the dogʼs body tell you how much they
should eat. The easiest test is the ribs – they should be hard to the touch. The waist
should be very thin, too. Just think of an Olympic athlete and how thin they are – this is
healthy! A thin body is easy on the joints and bones (and the wallet).
We mentioned glop – this is a term out of a book we follow “Raw Dog Food: Make It
Easy for You and Your Dog” by Carina Beth MacDonald. We usually whip 2-3 cups of
this up once or twice a week fresh and serve about half/refrigerate about half for the
next day. While we do vary the ingredients from batch to batch, we typically throw the
following into the food processor – mostly greens (say romaine lettuce or spinach,
whatever you typically buy for yourself), one apple, two cloves garlic, six or so chicken
livers, two heaping spoonfuls of yogurt, a healthy splash of apple cider vinegar and
about the same of molasses. This food doesnʼt cost us much because it is o.k. to use
the produce that is too old for your liking – the lettuce that doesnʼt look great anymore,
and the fruit that is too soft. We usually have some of that around that wouldnʼt
otherwise get used. Plus we have developed a nice relationship with our local grocer –
he lets us take the food (for free) thatʼs no longer shelf-worthy due to not being perfect
anymore. We use organic produce so we donʼt even worry about washing things.
The other food we mentioned – brownies – takes a little bit of prep once a week, and
then is very quick to serve throughout the week. The name “brownies” is simply a
reference to making the chocolate dessert, brownies. This nickname was chosen
because of how easy the food is to make. I donʼt know about you, but I learned to make
brownies at age 7 or 8 in my Easy-Bake oven! For dogs, we use Essex Cottage Farms
food mix, follow the instructions on the bag which tell you to blend in a handful of
ingredients (including ground meat), and bake in a square pan (just like brownies) for 45
minutes. Even though we love the health benefits of raw food, brownies are definitely a
go-to food for us. The ingredients are also very healthy and fresh. The dogs love them.
They are quick, clean and easy to serve. And when we go away with or without the
dogs, this becomes 100% of their diet. They are easy to pack, easy to freeze, and easy
to give to someone else who is taking care of the pups.
For fun, we serve marrow bones (straight out of the freezer, not cooked) about two
times a week. Our dogs have grown out of rawhides but they will never grow too old to
enjoy bones from the butcher.
I can say a lot of good things about our dog diet. One thing that stands out is my
boyfriend/domestic partner who many times questioned me at the beginning but now
promotes the diet to others. So I will explain the benefits from his point of view. After
arguing many reasons why not, he is no longer concerned about his original fears.
What he likes is the very soft and shiny coats, and very little hair around the house. You
may not realize your dogʼs hair is not soft and shiny but you will realize when it becomes
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smooth as silk! Also, Iʼm sorry to be gross, but itʼs kind of a guy thing… the dog poop
has become perfect all of the time. Hard, solid, less than there used to be. And on the
occasion that we leave some in the yard, well, it breaks down and disappears. One of
our dogs used to have soft poops and even diarrhea when he exercised, and he has
made a total transformation since weʼve been on the good diet.
The other choice things Iʼll mention from the list of “pros” are 1. teeth and 2. allergies.
Our dogsʼ teeth are hard and clean at ages 8 & 9. We donʼt brush them – the bones do.
And allergies, well weʼre going to have to write a whole article about allergies. Neither
one of the dogs have any allergies, and weʼre also starting to notice people who
normally complain of allergies around dogs donʼt have them around our dogs.