A lot of the past 6 months of my life has been about my dogs. I am with them nearly 24 hours of every day and it's hard to imagine it any other way. Sadie, above, is now a year old, and Sophie, below, is almost two. Sometimes they drive me nuts, and sometimes I feel like the days are going much too quickly and the years that I have with them don't seem like enough!
One of the things that I think about a lot is their nutrition. I was away for a few days last week, and Sophie got some kind of food allergy that caused her to be very sick for about 24 hours. Having 2 dogs, I feel like I spend a lot of time and money at various pet stores, trying different foods and choosing what is best for them, but to be honest, they've never really liked anything that comes out of a can or out of a bag.
I decided to see what it would be like to make their food from scratch. I read a lot online and then started experimenting with different recipes. The most important thing to understand is that they need the right ratio of protein, starch, and fiber. I usually combine some kind of meat (beef or chicken or ground turkey) with some eggs including the egg shells (for calcium, which they would normally get from bones), and then make some brown rice in the rice cooker with some vegetables like sweet potato, carrots, celery and/or peas. I usually add in some oatmeal as well, to bind it all together a little. I was using some canned organic pumpkin when Sophie was really sick, as that is easy for them to digest.
So far, so good. I am still playing around with it, so I will publish some recipes once I have them down. The dogs love their new diet, and I feel much better about it than I did opening up a can of cold, gloppy dog food and dumping that in their bowl, especially since I read that most of the meat used is of terrible quality. My challenge right now is to get the cost down and the labor under control so I am not constantly making canine meals in lieu of human ones. :)
Next up, I will tackle the cats' diet. My cat Hugo has long suffered from crystals, and I know a lot of that has to do with his food. Wouldn't it be great if I could come up with one base recipe for all of them, that I could put together once a week and just slightly alter according to their needs?
Overall, we had a nice Christmas Day together, cleaning up the party aftermath, and opening gifts. Unfortunately the pups "helped" by eating many of the leftover cheeses that were still on the coffee table, which I am sure contributed to the poor digestion a few days later. However, one of the coolest things about dogs is that you can give them the cheapest toy from the bargain bin and they will act like you just gave them the keys to a brand-new Ferrari. Wheeee!
They looked great over the holiday season sporting their new collars from one of my favorite pet boutiques, George. These red wool plaid collars are so popular that they run out of stock almost as soon as they get them in, so I pre-ordered theirs in September and they got them in late November. I don't believe in dressing my pets in outfits of any kind, so collars are as close as I get. Definitely on the list for craft projects this spring: learning to make dog collars. If I can figure that out, I may even host a craft day with my group, who are all dog-lovers as well...stay tuned.
