We have a cute little cockapoo (cocker-spaniel poodle cross). She's the blonde, her best friend Sammie is a Lhasa-poo. I might have mentioned before that she's probably the cutest and smartest dog that ever lived. Recently she had an abcessed anal gland. Nasty stuff. Anyway, I thought what Socrates said makes sense for dogs too. He said, "Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food." It seems to me that over the past hundred of so years, we've started feeding dogs non-food. They are the same species as wolves, should they not eat the same?
Have you heard of wolves eating corn, wheat, veggies in the wild? Do they sit around the fire turning little pieces of meat on a spit? No they are carnivores. They eat raw meat and bones. Their digestive system is designed to handle that. Do they sneak up on the farmer's cornfield and hungrily tuck into an ear of corn? They can't digest vegetables or fruit, the intestine is too short. Cattle even have two stomaches to handle that. Canines have no worries about salmonella and e-coli, that's a human issue. So I thought, I'll check into rawfeeding our little wolf.
I've ordered a book from amazon.com to read up on it. I've started using a dog-food that you serve mixed with raw meat. I joined a Yahoo list group on rawfeeding. Now I'm pretty open-minded about things. However, I'm having some difficulty with some of the food choices on this list.
Raw ground beef, chicken, pork, lamb, stuff like that, not an issue. Raw eggs with shells, easy. Raw chicken legs with the bones - I'm working up to that one. Even raw beef ribs with the bones - not quite there yet. Buy a frozen rabbit and let them have at it in the back-yard, ok that's starting to push the edge of my comfort zone. Then they started to mention mice. Whole mice. Ok, I know that dogs are carnivores and that means eating prey, but I just can't go there. Call me squeamish if you like.
I think that feeding kibble is not really natural, even when they are made with human grade wholesome foods. When I see the gusto with which Muggins is now eating raw meat, I believe it's the right thing to do. It seems natural. There are no chemical additives. However, while I'm adjusting to this new way of feeding her, I add some stuff called Urban Wolf that has some fruit and veggies finely ground up and added. I do this for myself, it isn't a dietary requirement for her according to all the research I've read so far.
So as this all settles in, I'll keep you posted on how it progresses. I'm watching for two things. She consistently has dark tears in the corners of her eyes that seems like it shouldn't be happening, but the vet and the groomer say, don't worry about it, lots of dogs have it. Back to Socrates quote again. Is it our interfering with their food that is the root of the problem?
The other thing I'm looking for is the anal glands to clear themselves naturally. They are part of the digestive system so the food has to be an issue. Again, the vet says, it's common in small and overweight dogs, just bring her in every six to eight weeks and we'll force what's plugging them out. I have never heard of a wolf having to go to the doctor to have the anal glands "expressed" on a regular basis. What's different with them ... back to the food.
Here ends my rant. As I learn more and watch for the results, I'll keep everyone posted. Muggins, Bon Appetit.
4 comments:
Last year I was fortunate (or was it unfortunate) enough to get several pails of deer scraps. I cooked them because I don't have a freezer and it was still to warm outside.
It was really gross cooking all those "parts". The dogs loved it, but I couldn't keep it up. It was just too gross.
Four big dogs eat LOTS of food, I'm sorry, they're just going to have to cope with kibble.
They have managed to catch mice and squirrels from time to time. They never eat them, only play with them.
Raw Food For Dogs....let me touch on this topic. My sister and brother in law have always and only fed their dogs raw food..beaver, rabbit, deer you name it that's what their dogs lived off. Many years ago when we were visiting them we had taken our dog Shannon with us. She loved to get out and mingle with those laid back country dogs. She was a city dog and lived life in the house and running around her own fenced yard. It was Saturday night and it was supper time, they threw each of their dogs a frozen beaver for dinner. They asked if we'd mind Shannon having one so we unknownly said sure. She loved her frozen beaver, ripped and chewed for ever. She was in heaven. On Sunday early afternoon, we headed for home. We had a 4 hour drive ahead of us. We were crusing along the highway and we caught the wiff of something rotten. The kids were sleeping, I kept dozing off and John drive. I woke up to this ghastly, gagging stench. We couldn't figure out what it was. Well it just kept happening. We finally realized that our beloved dog who was riding in the back seat with the kids had terrible gas. Oh it was so nasty. It was the longest trip of our lives. That 4 hour drive seemed like a life time. I believe we wore out the knobs for unwinding the windows. Yes my friends, we never had automatic windows, you actually had to crank them up and down. Anyway for several days Shannon kept reminding us as to the joys of being a laid back country dog and eating what wild dogs chow down on. It was a true experience.
Wendy with regard to the plugged anal gland. When my small dogs eat what we will call "junk food" (canned garbage that they call food) Little Whisper gets a plugged anal gland. Yes she's had it drained and the vet is even willing to teach me how to the do task. I do a lot of strange things and think nothing of it, but that is out of the question. Anyway when I make their food (rice, meat and veggies all cooked together)she doesn't have a problem. When she first moved here a year ago was when she had the problems. I make their food and she has never had a problem gland since. If it is of any help, the vet did tell me to add bran to her diet that will correct the problem. I might as well just make their food, they love it and it works well for them.
Now on another note, dog related. We had Choas to the vet the other day. As we all now she has Addisons Disease. If it wasn't for her pills (7/day) she wouldn't be with us. The vet was telling us that Addisons and Thyroid Disease are both at an extreme high level in the GTA. So is this an enviroment problem, I believe so.
To understand the unbiased natural sciences basis for caring for our dogs, see the following.
The author Euan Fingal has offered up a free ebook (pdf) to try to help us
understand how we might improve our well-being and that of our domestic
animals in general, but especially that of our canine companions.
To learn more about the book, and to download it, see the journal entry:
http://www.achinook.com/journal/2009/6/18/ol-sheps-well-being-a-natural-perspective.html
My best to you and yours,
Lee C
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