Day 85 (31 March) – In summation

Ziggy started out this diet with coarse fur, slightly watery eyes, some bad breath, and weighing about 57.8 pounds. Today, the last day of the Raw Food Challenge, what changes have come about?

As Susan Moss (owner of ATB and instigator of the Raw Food Challenge) pointed out, it’s always easier to see the changes in old, fat, ugly dogs that aren’t doing that well.  Ziggy started out relatively well, just a bit pudgy and a few other concerns (see above).  The changes in her due to a healthier diet weren’t earth-shattering, but they are noticeable.  She’s incredibly soft-coated and very pettable now.  There wasn’t much of one to begin with, but there’s no longer any odor to her coat.  Her eyes have cleared up and no more bad breath! 

And what of her weight?  She does indeed once again have a waistline and weighs in at right around 50 lbs. (give or take a bit depending on when I last walked her and how long its been since she’s eaten)!!! 

All in all we’ve both been very satisfied with the experience.  Ziggy loved meal time and constantly ate with gusto.  I liked it because most of the products I used were very convenient to feed, even with my hectic schedule.  She looks better, feels better to the touch, smells better, and has more energy. 

So now what?  Well, I have seen the light and will definitely continue to make raw a very integral part of Zig’s diet.  Unfortunately, it’s not something I can afford to feed for every meal.  In addition to the raw I will be adding some high protein, high quality canned food and, in a smaller amount, kibble.  One nifty tool I’m going to be putting to use is the Nature’s Variety Interactive Feeding Guide which allows me to set the percentages of food I want to feed and then breaks it down for me into easy to measure portions.  Of course, in feeding less raw I will need to add digestive enzymes, probiotics, and essential fatty-acids to her diet. 

Check back every so often for updates on Ziggy, how she’s doing and what she’s eating, as we try out new products and do live research.  Also stay tuned as I plan on tracking the progress (and expected success) of some fat cats I know!

- Mag & Ziggy

Day 81 (27 March) – Grocery store vs. pet food raw

Why can’t you just buy bulk ground burger at Costco and feed that to your pet?  It’s much cheaper and it’s high quality protein if it’s made for humans, right?

There’s definitely a difference between “human grade” foods and “pet grade” foods.   All of the foods carried at All The Best, which are the foods that Ziggy has been eating, do not contain any animal by-products or other sketchy ingredients.  All of the food sold here is of human grade quality.  However, the difference is that they are specially formulated for our pets. 

Meat from the grocery store is handled and packaged with the expectation that someone will take it home and cook it .  Raw meat from one of the pet food suppliers is handled and packaged with the expectation that it will be consumed raw.  Also, many raw products have fruits, vegetables, vitamins, minerals, etc, that dogs and cats need in addition to the flesh and bone they contain.  All of these things are very important.

You can indeed make your own pet food using mainly grocery store ingredients.  Learn how here.  In addition to the protein (meat) you will need to add in vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, bone meal, vegetables, etc.  Though very healthy for your pet it’s very time and energy consuming on your part.  I find it much more convenient (and it’s equally nutritious) to buy and utilize the pre-packaged, pre-formulated raw foods available.

Not to mention that Ziggy likes them too.  They have all of the nutrients she needs for a healthy and well balanced diet.  Of course, it’s always recommended that you use variety and rotation in your pets food, even when feeding something as healthy as raw.

- Mag & Ziggy

Day 73 (19 March) – About poop

Not really a fun subject or one that you want to deal with much, unless of course you’re shoveling the back yard or talking about nutrition.   Less poop.  Poop that’s easier to clean up.  Poop that doesn’t stink as much.  That’s what everyone wants from their critters, right? 

So how does raw food, or any food for that matter, affect stools?  According to the research conducted by S. Somerville,

“Pets that are fed a raw food diet consistently have smaller, firmer stools than animals fed canned or dry food.  Any excess bone matter in the diet is excreted out, often making waste appear whitish and chalky – this is completely normal.  Occasionally there are some loose or odd colored stools during the trainsitioning process to raw.  This can be a reaction to overfeeding or a too-quick change, or just a sign that toxins are being eliminated from the body due to an improved diet.  Such stool changes usually do not last long.”

I can attest to this with Zig’s new diet.  Her stools are much firmer, way easier to pick up in a dog poop bag, and there’s A LOT less of it!  Hurray! 

But why is this?  Well, since raw diets are the closest to their natural diets, most of the protein, minerals, vitamins, etc, etc. are more digestible and bio-available to our pets.  That means that more of the food is digested and used by the body and less of the food is waste product.

- Mag & Ziggy

Day 67 (13 March) – Grain vs. grain-free foods

In my experience there is somewhat of a schism in the pet food world about foods with grains vs. the grain-free foods. Most raw foods (and certainly all of the ones that Zig has been eating) are grain free. But is grain-free better? If we were talking about cats, then definitely. Cats lack the enzymes necessary to break down and digest grains. They are perfect candidates for the Atkins diet: high protein, little to no carbs. The starches in dry cat food is responsible for a large part of the increase in rates of diabetes, kidney failure, and obesity that we’re seeing in our companion feline population. But not so for dogs. Dogs are more omnivorous than cats and can process some grains. Personally, I don’t feel that grain-free is necessarily better for dogs. Here’s why. In their natural environment, dogs would indeed eat some grains whether it be from stomach content of their kill or in bird droppings, etc, etc. However, no answer is the right answer for every single dog. For instance, small dogs, like your toy breeds, have small digestive tracts and need higher levels of protein to keep from getting peaks and dips in their blood sugar levels throughout the day. They should also, ideally, be fed three to four times a day instead of just once or twice, which is sufficient for larger dogs. For small dogs with little stomachs and little intestines grain-free is probably better than foods with grain because of their higher protein content.

Grain-free is not necessarily better for dogs and tends to be more expensive. That being said, take stock of your own pup and their individual needs.

Ziggy is not a dog that needs to be fed grain-free, though she certainly enjoys it. Then again, she tends to enjoy most foods. She continues to drop in minute increments for the most part. We’ll have the final verdict at the end of this month!

- Mag & Ziggy

Day 58 (4 March) – Variety & Rotation

Don’t change your dog’s/cat’s food or they’ll get an upset stomach and have diarrhea!

So would you if you ate the same thing over and over and over again ad nauseam and then suddenly ate something different. Think about it in this way: say you eat general American fare most of the time for months on end; cheeseburgers, potatoes, spaghetti, etc. and then one day you decide to go out for spicy Thai food. Yep. You know what that means. It’s exactly the same for your dog or cat.

If you’ve read this far, then you know that I’ve been feeding Ziggy all sorts of different proteins: chicken, turkey, venison, lamb, buffalo, beef, etc. Once your dog or cat gets used to variety and rotation they’ll be able to switch to different flavors and brands of kibble, canned, or raw no problem!

Why rotate? Good question. No diet can be 100% balanced for long term feeding. It may be well balanced for that particular meal but for weeks, months, and years on end it’s not. You couldn’t do it and neither can your pet. By varying the brands, flavors, kinds, and types of food you’ll provide your beloved companion with the maximum amount of nutrition. Remember that your pet is very closely related (at least internally) to their wild cousins and the mother nature model is a good one to go by. In the wild, they would not eat chicken & brown rice for every meal. Sometimes they’d manage to catch a rabbit perhaps, or possibly come upon a deer carcass. Some days their hunt would be unsuccessful and they’d fast for a meal. (As a side note here, in her book Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats: The Ultimate Diet Kymythy R. Schultze explains that “Fasting is a normal occurrence for wild carnivores. It enables the energy used for digestion to be used elsewhere in the body.” [p 40] She and others recommend that dogs and cats over one year of age fast at least one day per week.)

Click here for more information about variety and rotation in your pets diet.

- Mag & Ziggy

Day 53 (28 Feb.) – About your pocket-book

Sometimes when I talk to people about raw food at work they take a look at a package of raw food and quail at the price. Let us just get this right out here in the open. Raw food IS more expensive than kibble and can be more costly than canned on a pound-per-pound basis. There’s one important thing to keep in mind, though and that is that because it’s much higher protein than either kibble or canned and much, much healthier for your animal (because it most closely resembles their natural diet) they’ll likely eat less. When you eat more nutritious foods and higher protein ones, you eat less than you do of, say, french fries or ice cream. Also, a higher protein content means you’ll stay fuller for longer and need to eat less often!

Ziggy continues to do well. According to the scale, she’s shrinking little by little. We’ve been rotating around and she continues to enjoy her meals, eat heartily, and seems satisfied with the amount of food she’s getting.

- Mag & Ziggy

Forthcoming

Dear readers,

I had some difficulty getting onto WordPress to produce my weekly blog updates.  However, I faithfully wrote them long-hand using old fashioned pen and paper. The problem has since been resolved so you’ll be seeing them all up soon (as soon as I make the time to copy all of them to the blog)!

- Mag

Day 47 (22 Feb.) – Raw food and travel

It’s getting to that time of year when people begin travelling. Nobody wants to take a package of raw meat on a long car trip or in their suitcase on a plane. Freeze-dried raw is the answer!

I know of two brands of freeze-dried raw: Nature’s Variety and Addiction. Nature’s Variety freeze-dried diets come in four flavors chicken, beef, lamb, and venison. It is the same exact formula and size as their raw frozen medallions, only freeze-dried. I’m familiar with two flavors of Addiction freeze-dried: the Venison & Fig and the Brushtail.

Simply add water, let soak (re-hydrate) and voila!

- Mag & Ziggy