Home » K9 Nutrition » Dog Food Debates

Myth? Nutritional Balance Over Time

July 26th, 2011

The theory goes like this. It doesn’t matter if each individual meal we feed ourselves or our pets is balanced … because overtime, with enough variety, it’ll all balance out. I know I’ve said this to myself, especially if ice cream is on the menu for dinner.

I’ve heard the idea used to explain / justify things like:

• Supplementing a commercial pet food with “people food” (which I do)
• Rotating through a variety of commercial pet foods (which our pet food shopping habits survey shows 45% of our readers do)
• Making a variety of homemade pet foods (and not worrying too much about day-to-day nutritional balance)

Thanks to a press pass at the recent American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Forum, I got to attend some pet nutrition seminars given by board-certified veterinary nutritionists. I wrote a bit about one session on homemade pet diets earlier (on my own blog), but I wanted to give more time and space to one concept in particular:

This idea of nutritional balance over time.

Jennifer Larsen, DVM, a board-certified veterinary nutritionist at University of California-Davis, poked a few wholes in the idea during her seminar. After reading through my notes from the event, I sent her some follow-up questions via email to find out more.

When Larsen chooses or creates a pet diet for a veterinary teaching hospital client, she explains, “First, my perspective is that the primary goal of the nutritional management of any case is to provide adequate amounts of energy as well as all the required nutrients. Secondly, specific nutritional modifications are considered if needed (like fat restriction, limitations in potassium or phosphorus, etc). Then, I consider ingredients that work within these parameters (as well as withing criteria from the patient and client) and go from there. This is the same process whether I ultimately meet my goals using a commercial diet (over the counter or prescription), a parenteral formulation [via IV], a liquid elemental enteral product [via feeding tube], or a home-cooked diet.”

Other considerations include:

• The pet’s nutrient requirements compared to a “normal” pet population
• How a pet’s energy intake affects micronutrient requirements
• The bioavailability of those micronutrients in specific diets or ingredients
• What digestibility values determine nutrient content of the diet

Calling nutrition both a quantitative and a qualitative science, Larsen sums up her concerns about “nutritional balance over time,” like this: “I have heard the ‘balance over time’ concept as a means to promote dietary variety and achieve nutrient balance, and specifics on how this is achieved are never provided.”

Questions to Ask, Answers You Need: Nutritional Balance Over Time

Which version of nutrient requirements will you use? There are several … National Research Council, Association of American Feed Control Officials … etc.

How exactly will you balance out the various deficiencies? For example, if the diet is deficient for your pet’s needs (in something like zinc) and you feed the diet for two weeks, then do you on day 14 give a supplement that has 14 x the daily requirement? Or, do you give various levels of supplements over many days with the idea that the total amount will average out to the daily requirement?

Nutritional Balance Over Time: Concerns [emphasis mine]

“My fear,” says Larsen, “is that it is a convenient way to justify the approach of feeding casually and not worrying about such things as micronutrient requirements. It seems to me that this practice could set us up for multiple chronic marginal deficiency syndromes, such that over clinical signs of such would show up after a long period of time, if ever (given the short life spans of our pets). Also, this brings up the concern of suboptimal performance that may only be manifested in certain parameters of health and well-being that we don’t typically measure. I do see overt deficiency and toxicity cases. But, what about the many potential others that have more vague signs? The deficiency signs for multiple nutrients include lethargy and inappetence.”

Ingredient variables include things like cooking method (which can alter nutrient levels). Then, there is the common mistake of substituting volume measurements for weight ones. And, even a seemingly well-balanced homemade pet food that looks good for protein, carbs, and fats … can still be deficient in micronutrients (there are 40 of them). So, even if you use a decent recipe and merely swap out protein or carb sources once in a while, a fundamentally deficient recipe is still fundamentally deficient.

Plus, there is a tendency for “recipe drift,” where:

• Measurements get less precise over time
• Ingredients get substituted
• Feeding amounts shift (up or down)
  

Nutritional Balance Over Time: The Human Comparison

Larsen calls the human analogy (that we don’t feed ourselves particularly well and we’re mostly OK) a poor one … because there are many forms of rampant malnutrition in industrialized countries, including:

• Obesity
• Vitamin D deficiency
• Vitamin B12 deficiency
• Iron deficiency
• Calcium deficiency

In other words, we don’t do a terrific job on this for ourselves. Even if we work hard at a dietary variety, most people return to the same foods again and again.

Do you believe it’ll all work out? Or are you regularly calculating and re-calculating your pet’s nutritional intake, especially when it comes to micronutrients? If so, I’d love to know more about your methods and strategies.

Tags: American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, American College of Veterinary Nutrition, cat food, cat nutrition, dog food, dog nutrition, homemade cat food, homemade dog food, pet food rotation, veterinary nutritionist
Posted in Dog Food Basics, Dog Food Debates, Dog Health, K9 Nutrition | 2 Comments »

Research Review: Raw Dog Food, Raw Cat Food

June 28th, 2011

In the past, Dog Food Dish has covered The Case for Feeding Raw, The Case Against Feeding Raw, Raw Feeding Logistics as well as a bunch of Q&As with K9Cuisine.com community members who feed homemade, raw food to their dogs and cats. Today, I’m happy to share with you a few details from a recently published veterinary medical journal article that reviews and assesses the existing research into raw food diets in companion animals.

Published in January 2011 by the Canadian Veterinary Journal (vol 52, pages 50-54), the review article abstract begins:

“Feeding of raw meat-based diets to pets has become an increasingly popular trend amongst pet owners. Owners, who desire to provide the best for their pets, seek veterinary opinions about food options. This paper reviews and applies standards of evidence-based medicine to grade the available scientific literature that addresses the nutritional benefits or risks, infectious disease risks, and public health implications of raw, meat-based pet diets. Although there is a lack of large cohort studies to evaluate the risk or benefit of raw meat based diets fed to pets, there is enough evidence to compel veterinarians to discuss human health implications of those diets with owners.”

Broad Recap of Raw Pet  Food Studies Noted

After explaining the various kinds of research out there and its relative level of evidence, the review article goes on to recap studies the authors found and considered. On this scale (1-5), those with lower level numbers carry more scientific weight based on a variety of factors. This graphic and page from Dartmouth University explains what evidence-based medicine means.

Evidence of Nutritional Benefit

Level 4 evidence of nutritional benefit ( ~98% of pet owners reporting “healthy” dogs and cats)

Level 5 evidence of nutritional benefit (the Prochaska and Piekutowski paper noting increased bioavailablity of raw food) … except another study in people showed cardiovascular risks of raw (non-meat) diets due to Vitamin B12 deficiency

Evidence of Nutritional Risks

Level 4 evidence of nutritional risks, including:

• Too much Vitamin A in cats fed raw pork liver
• Feline pancreatitis in cats (usually related to too much fat in the diet) fed cooked pig brain or raw or cooked oily fish
• Poor bone development in two litters of 6-week-old, large-breed puppies (fed raw since week 3)
• Excessive thyroid hormone production in a some members (not all) of litter of German shepherd puppies (eating 80% rice with 20% raw meat, with excessive phosphorus)
• Commercial and homemade diet analysis showing low calcium and phosophorus in three of five diets measures
• Commercial and homemade diet analysis showing two of the five deficient in potassium, magnesium, and zinc

Evidence of Infectious Disease Risks

Level 2 and 3 evidence of infectious disease “risks” to pet or humans sharing their environment, including:

• 6% of raw pet foods testing positive for Salmonella
• 50% of raw pet foods testing positive for Escherichia coli
• 80% of raw chicken diets testing positive for Salmonella (some pets on this diet shedding Salmonella in stools up to 1-7 days after consumption)

While the authors note some antimicrobial resistance and some cases of animal and human illness, they go on to say, “Few studies document that Salmonella shedding by dogs or cats can result in illness in humans.”

Yet, there is more Level 4 evidence that Salmonella, in particular, is indeed found in many raw pet diets, so they say, “As there appears to e strong evidence that raw food can contain Salmonella, it is vitally important, if feeding a raw meat diet to a pet, that hygiene of the food preparations area and the feeding bowls be diligently maintained. This may, however, be difficult to achieve. A recent study found that standard methods of cleaning and disinfecting food bowls were minimally effective at eliminating Salmonella. This included soaking with bleach and cleaning in the dishwasher.”

Study Conclusion

The authors ultimately conclude that at this point, looking at the research that currently exists, “Clearly, there is some compelling evidence suggesting that raw food diets may be a theoretical risk nutritionally. In addition, raw food poses a substantial risk of infectious disease to the pet, the pet’s environment, and the humans in the household. What is lacking, however, is level 1 evidence from randomized controlled trials or strong level 2 evidence from large cohort studies to evaluate risks or benefits of raw meat diets in pets.”

***

I know this post is much more technical than usual, so holler if you have questions, and I’ll do my best to answer. I have not read all 42 references cited in the footnotes. It’s actually quite hard (an expensive) at times to get copies of scientific journal articles.

I had the chance to attend the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Forum in Denver a couple weeks ago, and I planned to attend a session called “Raw Food Diets: A Research Review,” but the presenter ended up super sick and could not do the session, so it got cancelled.

Tags: raw cat food, raw dog food, raw pet food, raw pet food research
Posted in Dog Food Basics, Dog Food Debates, Dog Health, K9 Nutrition | 5 Comments »

Vegetarian and Vegan Food for Dogs and Cats

June 7th, 2011

I had the chance recently to research and write a feature article for the pet section of WebMD about the risks and dos / don’ts of feeding a vegetarian to vegan diet to pet carnivores … namely dogs and cats.

When I work in the traditional journalism realm, I do not get the chance to voice my opinion. So, let me recap a few things and comment here.

Key Point: Vegetarian and Vegan Diets for Dogs and Cats –> Species Inappropriate

Cats are obligate carnivores. They really, truly need meat in their diet. Depending upon whom you ask, that means:

• Cat food that’s mostly meat
• Cat food that’s only meat
• Cat food that’s only raw, fresh meat

Dogs are also carnivores. It gets a little muddier with dogs because they do indeed fall into the family carnivora, but so do some berry-eating bears. So, again, depending upon whom you ask, dogs are:

• Carnivores, with omnivore leanings, who can and will eat carbohydrates
• Straight up carnivores, who need meat-based dog food
• Straight-up carnivores, who need raw meat dog food

So, does feeding these pets we bring into our lives a non-meat diet make sense? Many say, “No.”

The best quote in answer to this question comes from Lew Olson, author of Raw and Natural Nutrition for Dogs:

“Trying to feed a cat a vegan diet would be like me feeding my horses meat. You’re taking a whole species of animal and trying to force it to eat something that it isn’t designed to handle.”

Key Point: Vegetarian and Vegan Diets for Dogs and Cats –> Risk of Nutritional Imbalance

The biggest medical risk dogs and cats face when fed vegetarian or vegan diets is taurine-related dilated cardiomyopathy (enlarged heart with weak contractions and poor pumping ability). Cats cannot make their own taurine, so they need in their diets. Dogs can make taurine if the diet supplies the right amino-acid building blocks (found in meat). Both species can suffer taurine deficiencies, and if it goes on too long, the heart damage is permanent.

Other possible nutritional imbalances from vegetarian / vegan pet diets include:

• Problems with Vitamin A and Vitamin D
• Wrong combinations of amino acids
• Not enough total protein (less than 25 grams per 1,000 calories recommended)

These risks are real for home-made vegetarian and home-made vegan dog and cat food. They are real for commercial vegetarian and vegan dog and cat foods. One of the veterinary nutritionists I interviewed treated a cat who nearly died due to food deficiencies in a commercial vegan cat food.

One of the arguments or justifications I heard was that pet owners can simply supplement their way out of these concerns. After all, they told me, pet food companies do it. Nearly all cat foods include supplemental taurine and other things.

And, yes, that’s true. However, once you start removing an entire category of food from a pet’s diet (meat-based protein), then you can easily cross over into feeding a not-really-food-like pet food. This quote got shortened in editing, but I love it so much, I’m posting it here.

“Experimentally, there are ways to get around it,” says Cailin Heinze, VMD, a board-certified veterinary nutritionist and assistant professor of nutrition at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, “but you’re adding a lot of chemically synthesized nutrients to replace what would normally be in an appropriate diet. If we want to get a specific amino acid into a diet, we can – in theory – make a diet that meets the nutritional needs of the cat, but it’s kind of ‘Franken-Food.’ It’s not food.”

Commentary: Vegetarian and Vegan Diets for Dogs and Cats

Some of my journalist friends who also write about pet health told me they would have a hard time interviewing and being objective with someone who feeds a vegetarian / vegan diet to cats, in particular. Honestly, it wasn’t that hard for me because I COMPLETELY understand where these pet owners are coming from. I really do … even if I don’t agree with them on this choice.

It can be done (more so for dogs than for cats), but it takes a LOT of work and direct, ongoing participation of both a family veterinarian and board-certified veterinary nutritionist. So, if you are considering this option, please don’t do it lightly because there are direct and serious medical risks for your dog or cat. My other article lists several DON’Ts, but the one I want to emphasis here is that these diets are particularly risky as puppy food or kitten food.

I thought Lew Olson summed up the dilemma best with this:

“When people tell me they want to feed a vegan diet, I say, ‘Get a goat, get a rabbit.’”

In other words, if your ethics preclude animal-based food, then choose a pet that naturally does not eat meat.

Your Turn: What do you think about vegetarian and vegan diets for dogs and cats?

Tags: kitten food, pet carnivores, puppy food, vegan cat food, vegan dog food, vegetarian cat food, vegetarian dog food
Posted in Dog Food Basics, Dog Food Debates, Dog Health, K9 Nutrition | 3 Comments »

Specialty Dog Foods Not So Special

May 17th, 2011

Hype reigns in many consumer product markets, with companies trying to convince us there is a need that their product fills. The dog food market is no exception. The wonks among us bristle at the marketing messages pet owners accept as gospel, including me at times. So, it’s interesting to learn that veterinary nutrition researchers from Tufts University found that the nutritional content of so-called “senior dog food” varied widely. In other words, these specialty food probably aren’t all that special.

We’ve talked before about the flaws in the logic that say you need to change your dog’s food ONLY because he is getting older.  Personally, I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to switch foods. My big dog, Ginko, turned 11 years old May 13, and he continues to eat and do well on the same food as our younger dog, Lilly (the border collie, who is the canine heroine of my other blog Champion of My Heart).

Senior Dog Food: What We Think, What Researchers Know

In addition to discrepancies between what pet owners thought was in senior dog foods and what really is in senior dog foods, Tufts researches found a variety of actual nutritional content in dog foods targeting older dogs. For example, the senior dog foods studied featured many differences depending upon brand:

• Calories: 246 to 408 calories per cup
• Protein:  4.8 to 13.1 grams of protein per 100 kcal
• Fat: 2.4 to 6.3 grams of fat per 100 kcal
• Sodium: 33 to 412 mg of sodium per 100 kcal (important for dogs with heart disease)
• Phosphorus: 3x difference in phosphorus content (important for dogs with kidney disease)

“If an owner, for example, had a senior dog with heart disease, they might be inclined to feed them a senior food, thinking that it had less sodium,” says Lisa M. Freemann, DVM, PhD, a professor at Tuft’s veterinary school and a board-certified veterinary nutritionist. “Instead, they might replace a diet that has a perfectly acceptable amount of sodium for one that is considerably higher.”

Not All Senior Dogs Need a Senior Dog Food

“The decision to buy a certain type of food for your aging dog is an emotional one: You want to extend her life and ensure she’s healthy well into her twilight years, ” Freeman says. “However, not all older dogs require a senior diet, and if you do decide to change to a senior food, talk to your veterinarian, because these foods are not all the same. It’s important to select one that is right for each dog.”

***

The full study published in the International Journal for Applied Research in Veterinary Medicine, Vol 9, No 1.

Tags: dog food resesarch, fat, potassium, protein, senior dog food, senior dog food research, sodium, specialty dog food, Tufts Univeristy
Posted in Dog Food Basics, Dog Food Debates, Dog Food News, Dog Health, K9 Health, K9 Nutrition | Comments Off

Pet Food Ethics Survey Results

May 4th, 2011

In April 2011, I posed a three-question survey about the “ethics” of feeding human-grade food to dogs and cats in a world where people go hungry or suffer malnutrition, etc. The question came up after this now world-famous case of Patrick, the pit bull found on the brink of starvation. The very nature of our K9Cuisine.com community skews answers (mostly) in favor of dogs and cats. Here are the results.

Do you believe in feeding human-grade foods to dogs and cats?

• 89% – Yes
• 9.8% – No
• 1% – No response

Have you ever heard and/or considered the argument that feeding pets human-grade foods may contribute to global food issues (shortages, access, higher, pricing)?

• 28.5% – Yes
• 70.3% – No
• 1% – No response

How do you feel when others argue that supporting animal welfare causes instead of human welfare causes is misguided, unethical, etc.? (Choose all that apply.)

• 77.7% – Just because I support animal welfare doesn’t mean I don’t support human welfare.
• 66.6% – People should follow their hearts and support causes that matter to them.
• 24.4% – At least I’m doing something to make the world better.
• 21.1% – I concede there are bigger issues in the world, but I still believe in my causes.
• 21.1% – I don’t care what other people think.
• 2.2% – I agree. Pets are pets. People are people. People come first.

Tags: animal welfare, cat food, dog food, famine, global hunger, human welfare, human-grade pet food, malnutrition, pet food, pet food ethics, pet food ethics survey, starvation, world hunger
Posted in Dog Food Basics, Dog Food Debates, Dog Food News, K9 Nutrition | Comments Off

Pet Food Ethics: Global Food Issues

April 12th, 2011

As the story of Patrick, the young pit bull in New Jersey found at the bottom of a high-rise building trash chute on the brink of death from lack of food and water, spread from pet lover to pet lover via social media around the world. So, did the criticisms of those of us who have chosen to support animal welfare causes.

I watched it happen a little on Facebook. I saw some pretty nasty notes posted in response to YouTube videos of Patrick’s recovery. I heard sobering data on rampant malnutrition around the world and even hunger in the United States from the veterinary nutritionist I interviewed.

The crux of the argument goes like this. People are suffering more, every day, around the globe. So, when pet lovers rally around causes like Patrick’s or other animals who are abused and neglected in every community, those who staunchly consider human needs first, look at pet lovers a little sideways.

I can see their point, and … at the same time … here I am firmly rooted in the animal welfare camp that says our pets didn’t choose to be here, but if we’re going to have them in our lives, we should do our best (whatever we consider that to be) to make their lives healthy and full and happy.

I suspect I’m not alone, but I decided to ask a few questions to find out.

Please take this three-question survey about the ethics of pet food. I’ll keep it open through midnight, Friday, April 29, 2011. And, I’ll report back in May on the results … though, I believe, I checked the option where you can view the results yourself after taking the survey.

Pet Food Ethics Survey

Tags: animal welfare, cat food, dog food, famine, global hunger, human welfare, human-grade pet food, malnutrition, pet food, starvation, world hunger
Posted in Dog Food Debates, K9 Health, K9 News, K9 Nutrition | 21 Comments »

Homemade Dog Food: Feeding Raw to Active Dogs

March 29th, 2011

This is the fifth post in our series of Dog Food Dish Q&As with people who make their own pet food. This week we feature some active canine athletes, who need solid nutrition.

QUESTION: Tell us about yourself and your dogs.
My name is Cindy Dalton. My husband Mike and I play flyball on Sure Shots flyball club. I have three dogs:

• An 11-year-old Australian Cattle Dog named Cody
• A 5-year-old Australian Cattle Dog named Bentley
• A 2-year-old border collie named Myles.

Bentley and Myles play flyball, and Cody is a couch potato. Bentley and Cody are both rescues.

QUESTION: Why and when did you switch to homemade (non-commercial) pet food?
I switched to raw feeding nearly two years ago, after I got Myles. Everyone on my flyball club feeds raw, and I was impressed with the condition and energy of their dogs. I did a lot of research and decided to switch when Myles was four months old. Prior to switching, I was feeding a grain-free kibble (Taste of the Wild), but felt I could do better. It was also very expensive ($50/bag).

QUESTION: How did you develop your method/recipe, including if you feed fruits/veggies, other carbs and/or supplements?
I based my method off a combination of how my teammates feed. My dogs get a lot of chicken because it’s affordable and easy to find (I buy 10 lb. bags of chicken quarters at Wal-Mart for $5.99/bag). I also buy ground venison and beef blend from Texas Tripe and feed that a few times a week, along with liver and canned mackerel.

I often add supplements, usually Berte’s Daily Blend (available online from The Barfer Shoppe).

My philosophy when deciding what to feed my dogs is “what would a wild dog eat”? Since wild dogs don’t eat grains or vegetables, I don’t feed much of those. I’ve fed ground veggies in the past but haven’t in a while. I’ve used Berte’s Green Blend which I’ve seen recommended because it contains kelp, which is beneficial, rather than veggies. Each dog also gets fish oil capsules every day.

I feel my dogs are thriving on the raw diet. Not long after I switched, I noticed my older dog, Cody, had much more energy and seemed perkier. He was 8 when I switched, and he took to it as if he’d eaten it all his life. I enjoy being able to feed my dogs what I feel is the most natural diet for them.

QUESTION: Describe your time commitment/costs.
My husband was nervous about raw, so I’m the main person who feeds at our house. (He’ll do it now if I tell him how much to give each dog.) Since I just have three dogs, it hardly takes any more time than feeding kibble. I just have to make sure I have food defrosted for them. If I forget to defrost, they get canned fish that meal.

The most time consuming part is packaging up the chicken quarters, I use poultry shears to cut the thigh and drumstick apart, and split a 10 pound bag into two gallon Ziplocs, and feed out of the Ziploc. A 10 pound bag of quarters lasts me 5-6 days. I used to weigh the portions when I started, but once I got the hang of it, just started eyeballing the portions. If one dog gets a thigh for a meal, the next meal he gets a drumstick. Cody tends to be chunky since he’s not very active, so he usually gets a drumstick. It all balances out over time. I haven’t done a cost analysis, but feel that raw is about the same cost or a little cheaper than premium kibble.

QUESTION: What’s your best advice for those wanting to feed a raw, homemade dog food?
Do research until you’re comfortable about how to proceed. Realize that there is no right or wrong way to feed raw, it ends up being what is right for you and your dogs. I joined a local Yahoo raw feeding group, and read a few groups. Lew Olson’s book “Raw and Natural Nutrition for Dogs” is a great resource too. Once you’re ready, let your dogs help you figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Tags: active dogs, athletic dogs, dog nutrition, feeding raw, flyball, homemade dog food, homemade pet food, Lew Olson, natural dog nutrition, raw dog food, raw pet food
Posted in Dog Food Basics, Dog Food Debates, Dog Food News, K9 Nutrition | 2 Comments »

Homemade Dog Food: Food Allergies and Pancreatitis

March 15th, 2011

This is the third post in our series of Dog Food Dish Q&As with people who make their own pet food. KB and her dogs “K” and “R” are best known for their mountain biking and hiking adventures in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Thanks to motion-activated wildlife cameras, good hands-on photography, and wilderness sleuthing, their blog Romping and Rolling in the Rockies also features incredible wildlife images.

What’s most intriguing about this homemade pet food story is that in the case of K … it’s truly a life-and-death situation. From puppyhood, this now 7-year-old, purebred, chocolate lab has suffered terrible dog food allergies. Then, she developed pancreatitis after eating (and getting poisoned by) wild mushrooms.

A second pancreatitis emergency changed EVERYTHING about how this active, smart, sensitive dog will eat for the rest of her life.

K is also famous for only having three toes on one of her front feet. A a virulent bone infection in 2010 required amputation. She is doing great now.

KB and K live with another purebred lab, R, who is 3 years old now. (He eats kibble.)

QUESTION: Why and when did you switch to homemade dog food?
It was somewhere in her first year of life. As a puppy, K  had diarrhea that we just could not get rid of. It just went on, and on, and on, and on. And, we tried a whole lot of different kinds of foods, and very gradually put it together that she was having a lot of difficulty with digesting grains.

I found a couple of foods … back then there were not as many commercial options, good commercial options, as there are now. I found a couple of foods that were at least low grain, if not grain free, but it seemed as if she would start out OK on them but then get sick again.

So, basically I had this puppy who wasn’t gaining any weight like she was supposed to, and I was getting more and more frustrated with it. My vet had been saying quietly over many months, “You might try a homemade diet.” She would say it very quietly, sort of inserted it into my brain. And, I’d think, “That would be a lot of work. Let’s try to find another commercial food.”

We kept trying and trying, and she finally sat me down and said, “I’ve seen cases like this before. We don’t really know for sure what’s in every one of the commercial foods that you’ve tried. If you feed her a homemade diet, we will know exactly what she’s eating. We can manipulate it, and we can figure out what she can handle and what she can’t handle.” And, that was how I started.

QUESTION: Did you work with a veterinary nutritionist?
Not at that point. At that point, I worked with my vet, and we figured out a diet that worked K her based on my vet’s guidelines. My vet had us feeding certain supplements to make sure K got the right nutritional balance, and I don’t remember exactly what those supplements were now.

I believe bone meal powder was a big part of it because we needed to make sure she was getting enough calcium, and that’s something that’s supplemented in commercial dog foods.

So, K was doing great. We got her on this homemade food. She was just doing awesome, and then she had a big insult to her pancreas when she got mushroom poisoning. We thought it was a one-time thing. We thought she was all better after the poisoning was over, and she was out of the woods … until about two years ago, when we went on vacation, and my vet said, “You should be fine feeding a commercial food for a couple of weeks while you’re on vacation so that you don’t have to be hauling around all this homemade food with you.”

And, while K was on the commercial food, and we were away on vacation, I started to notice that her belly seemed really sore. In fact, I pressed on her belly once, and she bit me, and you know K.

[Readers, I actually know K personally. I can tell you, K would NEVER lash out at anyone, unless she was in pain.]

So, we got home, and she ended up in the hospital about a week later with a really bad case of pancreatitis.

QUESTION: How did the second bout with pancreatitis change things?
It was at that point that my vet said, “You know, this is getting out of my league. There is this board certified veterinary nutritionist at Angell Memorial hospital who does telephone consults. I’ll fax her all of K’s records, and you’ll have some phone consultations and figure out a diet for K.”

Essentially my vet suspected that over all those years between the mushroom poisoning and the next pancreatitis episode, K had actually had “smoldering pancreatitis” – they call it – so it had actually been there, but we just hadn’t been seeing the symptoms.

So, that’s when I went to the Angell Memorial vet, who formulated a diet that K has done really great on. She has been on that diet for about a year and a half now.

QUESTION: So what’s in this special homemade dog food K eats?
It’s three things:

1. The vast majority is yams.
2. And, then the next biggest ingredient is oatmeal.
3. Then she only gets a teeny bit of meat per day – 60 grams a day split over two meals.

QUESTION: What kind of protein do you feed?
I feed beef that’s raised by my next-door neighbor, so it’s grass-fed, not certified organic, but I see these cows out there all the time. I know they’re not being injected with hormones and all that kind of stuff. It’s very low-fat beef. Apparently grass-fed beef is similar to venison in fat levels.

QUESTION: You cook the homemade dog food, yes?
We cook it, yes. We start by preparing the beef. Even though the beef is very low fat, because of K’s pancreatitis, we have to prepare it in such a way that we burn off as much of the fat as we can and are left with as pure a protein as we can get.

We kind of roast it, and the fat falls down below this grill on the bottom. We lift the remaining beef out. We prepare big batches of beef that way and then freeze it. So we have all these little containers of beef in the freezer.

When we’re ready to make a batch of dog food, we pull out one of those frozen containers.

QUESTION: Are you a big home cook, or is this a big deal for you?
I’m actually not a cook at all. At all. [My husband] does all of the cooking. I hate cooking. It’s part of why when the vet would say, “You can do a homemade diet,” that I would say, “No, we’ve got to find another option.”

QUESTION: Describe your time commitment to making homemade dog food.
In terms of time, we split up the cooking of K’s food because I can no longer lift the pot. With 22 pounds of yams in it, it’s more than I’m allowed to lift.

[KB has had several spinal surgeries over the years to manage a degenerative condition.]

We do peel the yams because they are not organic. My husband is super fast with it. He does that part.

I spend maybe 45 minutes a week preparing the beef. The beef is my part, and he spends maybe 45 minutes a week preparing the food, like putting it all together.

We kind of mash it all up. We found that previously when we didn’t mash up the yams, and sometimes we wouldn’t cook them enough, and K would throw up entire chunks of yams, so we made the rule that we mash them and that way we know they are cooked well enough that she doesn’t throw them up.

QUESTION: How much do you spend on your homemade dog food ingredients?
We buy a whole cow once a year.

I don’t know what our steady-state is now, but we probably use a half a cow a year, and these are not full-sized cows. They are one year old. I think we spent about $3 a pound, so about $500 this year.

We just get the yams at the grocery store. We’ll ask them to go back and get us a case, a box, and when they go on sale, we go wild. As long as they are down in the basement, and there isn’t one bad one in the batch, they keep really well. We go through them to check for bad ones.

As for the oatmeal, we know we would save money if we went to [a grocery warehouse], but we just have this shopping reaction. Both of us do. We can’t deal. We look at each other like, “Please!” And, we run to the car.

So, we just buy the largest oatmeal containers they have at the regular grocery store.

QUESTION: Are they any mistakes you’d caution people about or any advice you’d give to others?
I think it would be incredibly stupid to try and formulate a diet on your own. I didn’t do that. However, I didn’t have any clue when I started what does a dog need. I mean, who knows? My vet knew what a normal dog needs. My regular vet didn’t even know what a dog like K needs, so I had to go higher up.

QUESTION:  You come from a scientific background, yes?
Yes, I do. Physiological sciences.

QUESTION: Are there any books you’d recommend?
No, I tried to find some, and they were all really “out there.” I’m a physiologist, and I read these books, and I believed that the authors didn’t have any idea what they were talking about. So, I put no faith in them.

There may be better books now. Since I consulted the nutritionist, I have paid absolutely no attention to what’s out there.

QUESTION: What kind of kibble does your other dog eat?
He eats Natural Balance Limited Ingredient. What we wanted to do was to choose a high-quality food for R that would not make K extremely sick if she happened to get some of it. So, in his case, we feed him I believe it’s venison and sweet potato kibble, and so it’s definitely more fat and protein than K can have on a regular basis, but if she gets a little bit of his kibble, it’s no big deal.

QUESTION: Did you ever figure out what K is allergic to?
No, we figured out that she cannot digest certain grains, and one of the ones she cannot digest is rice. It goes right through her undigested, which was very odd because every time she got diarrhea my vet would say, “Give her chicken and rice.” And, so when she was a puppy, we were actually perpetuating the situation. Apparently, it’s extremely rare.

QUESTION: How serious, how important, is it that you stick to this specific homemade dog food diet?
The nutritionist really laid down the law that K could die from this [pancreatitis], and I needed to follow her rules … all the vets were saying to me … That we were now at a point where I needed to consider this to be life or death.

Tags: beef, dog allergies, dog food allergies, grain allergies, home-cooked dog food, homemade dog food, homemade pet food, low-fat dog food, low-protein dog food, medically necessary, oatmeal, pancreatitis, veterinary nutritionist, yams
Posted in Dog Food Basics, Dog Food Debates, Dog Food News, K9 Nutrition | 3 Comments »

Homemade Dog Food Q&A: Cooking for Fido

March 8th, 2011

This is the second post in our series of Dog Food Dish Q&As with people who make their own pet food. Karen Friesecke, who is most famous for her handmade dog collars on Doggie Stylish and for dog humor and dog news on The Doggie Stylish Blog, began serving her Vizsla, Jersey, home-cooked dog food as a puppy after princess girl flatly refused to eat any kind of commercial dog food. That was nearly eight years ago.

(P.S. You can also follow Doggie Stylish on Facebook and via Twitter)

QUESTION: Why and when did you switch to homemade pet food?

Jersey has pretty much eaten homemade food since we’ve had her. I tried feeding her conventional food as a puppy, but she was just a really fussy dog, and I tried all kinds of food. I tried canned food. I tried kibble. I tried everything, and she just wasn’t having it. It was really hard getting her to eat. She was like, “What is this garbage?”

So, I just gave up and started cooking her meals when she was probably about 8 months old.

QUESTION: How did you develop your method/recipe?
I just figured it out on my own.

First of all, let’s back up, I bought one of those idiots or dummies books by dog trainers named Volhard, and they are very well respected in the dog community. Nobody seems to have issues with them. They’re into all things dog – dog nutrition, dog health, all this.

And, they said whatever dog food you choose of the first three ingredients two should be meat, so if you’re getting a kibble, the first two ingredients shouldn’t be corn and corn.

I never used to think about things like that. You know, whatever, you just fed the dog, and so that’s when I really started taking notice of dog nutrition, and suddenly this food is out. That food is out.

I would try to buy really good foods. It’s only been in the past 4-5 years that dog food has gotten really crazy, like with all the good foods like Evo, and Eagle Pack, where people are really getting into dog nutrition.

So, anyway, I was trying to buy all the best foods available at the time, and Jersey was like, “No, I’m not having it.”

So, I just started making my own food. We have an Asian market not too far away, so I can get all the organ meats – chicken livers, chicken hearts, kidneys, all that kind of stuff. I can get it, and I can get it really cheap and reliably. I can always go to my Asian market, and there will be chicken livers there all the time. Or, there will be chicken hearts all the time.

I just started boiling her meat.

QUESTION: So you cook the food rather than serve it raw?
I don’t feed raw, and the reason I don’t feed raw is partially because I have lupus, so I’m immuno-compromised, and the last thing I want to do is have my dog with her salmonella mouth lick me, and then I rub my eye or do something, and I get salmonella.

And, you know what, I don’t buy it. Yeah, there are some benefits to feeding raw, but …

I boil it, then what I like to do is used The Honest Kitchen, the preference, but we’ve had a real problem getting The Honest Kitchen in Canada, so I’ve just been buying frozen vegetables and then I cook them and add them.

QUESTION: Do you feed muscle meat as well or just organs?
Actually, Jersey has been eating venison for about four months because we hunt, and all the offcuts from the venison go to the dog, so none of our deer is wasted. We save the liver and the heart, and usually my dad gets that, but sometimes Jersey gets that. But, everything we shoot, the dog gets what we don’t want. Ever since she’s been a puppy for about 4-5 months of the year, depending on how many deer we get, she gets venison.

[Karen also feeds chicken, some beef, occasionally turkey, pork organs.]

But I prefer, just more for ease of handling, I prefer chicken hearts, chicken livers. I’ll sometimes buy ground turkey, but turkey can be expensive. I’ll do like pork kidney, pork liver.

QUESTION: Other than the veggies, do you feed any carbohydrates, like oatmeal or potatoes or fruit?
No. If I’m having an apple, she’ll have a bite of apple, but I don’t mix fruits into her food … no.

QUESTION: Do you give your dog supplements?
Nope. Why? Because the quality is unreliable. I’m very anti [all that] … I don’t believe in naturopathy. I don’t believe in homeopathy. It’s @#$@#. It’s fairy dust. Usually with vitamins, yes, there is some quality control, but I don’t do it. I don’t take vitamins myself. I get blood tested all the time, and I’m fine. Jersey had a blood panel done last summer, and she was fine.

… I’m sorry to break it to the raw feeders and all the natural people, but they’re always like, “big pharma this and big pharma that” … if it works, big pharma takes it. OK? That’s the point. If something in nature works, big pharma will take it, refine it, and sell it.

QUESTION: But you believe in good food? You eat a healthy diet yourself?
Kind of. This is my theory. If something’s going to get you, it’s going to get you. And, it doesn’t matter what you do. Obviously, the best way to get your vitamins is through good food, and I should probably follow that a little more. I should eat a little more vegetables and a little more fruit, but you know, that’s how nature intended it, man, just get it through good food.

… That’s just my theory … try to eat well and hopefully everything will fall into place. I feed my dog really, really well, and she is 8 years old, and most people – aside from the white hair on her face – people don’t believe she is 8.

QUESTION: Describe your time commitment/costs.
I cook usually once a week, and it’s not a big time commitment. It’s not a big money commitment. Normally when I buy food, I don’t know … maybe like $40 a month. Maybe $50. When I do The Honest Kitchen thing, I get the biggest box they have, and it lasts me over three months.

QUESTION: Do you have any advice or warnings for others who want make and feed homemade pet food?
I think feeding amounts can be more of a trial and error thing.

I’ll feed Jersey canned food sometimes. I’ll feed her Before Grain. They have canned tripe and canned salmon. I like Before Grain, but it’s like $4 a can here [in Canada].  So, it’s pretty expensive, so I’ll feed her one can, then when I look at the back of the can and look at the weight recommendations for feeding it’ll say feed her two cans, and I’m like, “Are you crazy? I’ll have a 500-pound dog.”

QUESTION: So, you just figured it out?
Yeah.

QUESTION: Do you have a background in nutrition?
Nope. I have a bachelor’s degree in biology, and that’s it.

Most people don’t realize that until the 1950s or the 1940s dogs got scraps off the table. There was no thing as dog food and most people, if they had a dog, they cooked for it.

When my dad was growing up in Germany, he had a dachshund. When their dinner was over, what was left on the table — well, not all of it – went to the dog. So, if they had bits of roast and potato and beans or whatever. The dog ate it.

And, now it’s insane what’s available for the dog. There area lot of good kibbles out there. Before Grain is a really good kibble. There are a couple of excellent kibbles out there, but Jersey won’t eat them.

Tags: Before Grain, chicken hearts, chicken livers, dog food ingredients, dog nutrition, Eagle Pack, Evo, home-cooked pet food, homemade pet food, the honest kitchen, venison
Posted in Dog Food Basics, Dog Food Debates, Dog Health, K9 Nutrition | 3 Comments »

Homemade Dog Food Q & A: Feeding Raw

March 1st, 2011

Each Tuesday this month, Dog Food Dish will post a Q&A with someone who forgoes “commercial dog food” for homemade. The reasons, the methods, the recipes, the resources vary greatly … as you will see. Today, we start off with Courtney Keys … famous for CourtneyPo.com (pet photography) and a group dog blog called Who’s Your Dachshund … and her raw food plan for dogs.

QUESTION: Give us some details on you and your dogs

I have 3 dachshunds – Napoleon Dynamite, Thor, and Fred. All are rescues. I also have a Cardigan Welsh corgi, Francine.  You can see them at courtneypo.com/dogs.  Thor and Fred compete in earthdog, and Thor and Francine compete in agility. Fran has also dabbled in herding, obedience, and rally.  We live in Dallas, Texas, but are planning a move to Austin, Texas.  My life revolves around my dogs.

QUESTION: Why and when did you switch to homemade pet food?

Napoleon was my first dog, and he was very sick as a puppy. I wanted to do the best I could for him since he’d had such a rough start in life, so I started looking into raw when he was 7 months old. I gave him a chicken wing one day in 2005 and never looked back!  Been feeding 100% raw since then to all my dogs and to the many foster dogs who have come through my home too.

QUESTION: How did you develop your method/recipe, including if you feed fruits/veggies, other carbs, and/or supplements?

I did lots of reading at first, and I spent a lot of time on some Yahoo groups, specifically the big raw feeding group, http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfeeding. Just reading about how others fed and how others handled issues helped me develop my own plans. I tried to make sure to have some balance/variety, and more red meats than chicken and include organ meat as well. I used to shop around at ethnic markets and make trips to chicken plants, but I’ve found better (easier!) sources now.

I have been very lucky that we have a local raw feeding Yahoo group with great resources – http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/DFW_BARF/

Through that group, I get cases of tripe from greentripe.com at a bulk price discount – we get together to place a big order and have it delivered about twice a year.  That’s the big staple of my diet now, and I feed it often, just about every day.  I try to have a good mix between meat with bone and boneless meats, though I do feed more bone now than I used to, because of the products I can get now.

Most of my other food comes from a meat processor in East Texas – texastripe.com. He started processing food for pets specifically, per the request and with the input of many local raw feeders. It actually started because people were getting shut out of the greentripe.com group buys, and found this guy who was willing to process tripe, lol.

He has added a ton of products. He delivers once a month, and it’s so convenient.  I get:

• A ground beef/organ blend
• A venison blend
• Ground chicken
• Ground turkey necks
• Chunked beef heart

I feed mostly ground bones now, because of Napoleon – his illness as a puppy caused lingering tooth issues, and he has lost a good bit of them, so it’s too hard for him to eat whole cuts now. And just easier for me to feed everyone the same thing.

From time to time I’ve also bought rabbit and emu directly from farmers who make deliveries to the Dallas area also. Wonderful sources!  I found them through the D/FW raw list too.

In addition I do add whole raw eggs and canned salmon or sardines in water to my dogs’ meals regularly.

I have fed mashed veggies at times in the summer per the recommendation of a holistic vet. But really, it’s a lot of work, and my dogs don’t really like the veggies.  So it’s a rare thing.  I’ve always supplemented with fish oil and continue to do so. My dogs also get 100 IU of vitamin E a day and all get a joint supplement. I’ve been trying different joint supplements recently, but Acti-Flex 4000 was one I used for a long time. Nothing wrong with it, I’m just the kind of person who likes trying new things.

I did write up some blog posts on some meals for my dogs a while back, if those can be of use at all.  They were actually written when I used to buy more grocery store food.

http://www.whosyourdachshund.com/2009/08/feeding-raw-i-think-its-suppertime.html

http://www.whosyourdachshund.com/2009/08/raw-feeding-for-just-pennies-day.html

http://www.whosyourdachshund.com/2009/08/raw-feeding-few-more-words-and-meals.html

QUESTION: Describe your time commitment/costs.

I buy in bulk and have a big chest freezer, and that cuts down a lot on time and cost. Most of the stuff I buy comes in tubes, so I just pick a tube or two, defrost overnight and feed the next day. If I do buy a case of chicken, I have to thaw it, and then divide it into freezer bags.  That’s honestly the most time-consuming thing I do.  My dogs are small and don’t eat much, so I only feed once a day.  Saves me a lot of time in the morning!  It takes maybe 5 minutes to put everything together – portion out the meat into bowls, weigh to make sure I’m getting portions right (it’s quite easy to fatten up most dachshunds and corgis!), and add the supplements.

The suppliers have made it so easy for me.  When I used to grocery shop, it took more time go to the stores, then to defrost and repackage and portion.  So any higher cost is worth it to me for the convenience.  But really, when I look at the store, meat prices have gone up a lot in recent years.  I probably pay between $1 and $2 per pound for things I buy, and I feed just about 2 lbs a day for all 4 dogs total. But cases of chicken backs may be as low as 38 cents a pound. Ground rabbit may be as high as $4 per pound. So it balances out.  If I had bigger dogs, I’d probably feed more chicken and turkey as it’s cheapest.  I don’t keep a close eye on the cost.  I spent around $170 on 80 lbs of green tripe the last order, and I just got 130 pounds of stuff from texastripe for $214. I guess that averages out to $1.83 a pound.  That will all last me quite a while. My freezer is stuffed right now!

QUESTION: What’s your best advice for those wanting to do this?

Read and research a lot before you start. Find a local raw feeding co-op or yahoo group. Take deep breaths. Get an extra freezer!

When you first start, it will take time to develop your plan, find your sources, and figure out your dogs’ needs.  But once you develop your routine, it’s easy and no more difficult than scooping kibble into a bowl.

Great place to start reading:  http://rawfed.com/myths/switch.html

QUESTION: Are there any other resources you’d recommend?

http://rawmeatybones.com/

http://switchingtoraw.com/

http://rawlearning.com/

http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.html

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfeeding

http://www.rawfeddogs.net/

http://dogaware.com/

http://www.dogforums.com/dog-food-forum/15085-feeding-raw-where-start.html

http://www.rawdogranch.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Raw-Natural-Nutrition-Dogs-Definitive/dp/1556439032/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

Tags: bones, feeding raw, green tripe, homemade dog food, homemade pet food, raw dog food, raw meats, raw pet food, tripe
Posted in Dog Food Basics, Dog Food Debates, Dog Health, K9 Nutrition | Comments Off