Pumpkin for loose stools... Two related questions...

[Richard Crowe]

1. I realize that pumpkin is good for loose stools (or rather to prevent the stool from being loose) but is it pumpkin alone or do other members of the squash family work the same? 

 

2. Has anyone frozen cooked pumpkin?  It should be O.K., after-all they freeze pumpkin pies don't they?

I was thinking that after Halloween, when pumpkins are selling dirt cheaply, I would buy a couple and cook the pumpkin meat then freeze it.   I have a big freezer, so storage room would be no problem,  It would be a lot less expensive than canned pumpkin and probably better for my doodle.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Freezing cooked pumpkin is a great idea and works very well. Several of our members have mentioned doing that. I think i remember someone mentioning freezing it in ice cube trays and then keeping the individual cubes in a plastic bag, very convenient to have 'individual servings"!
Considering that some areas of the country seem to have shortages of canned pumpkin and people have trouble finding it sometimes, I think your idea of cooking and freezing fresh pumpkin after Halloween is absolutely brilliant! I'll bet a lot of people will follow your lead on this!

[Carol and Banjo]

I've frozen pumpkin in ice cube trays. It's a perfect portion size and so handy when we need it. Great idea Richard - I hadn't even considered buying fresh!

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Has anyone heard when the pumpkin shortage is going to be over. I'm down to just a can or two! I may have to go raid my Mom's freezer because I think she has some she froze last year when she made pies for Thanksgiving. The pumpkin was huge and she had pumpkin everywhere.

[Cheri & Bonny]

I recently bought more canned pumpkin from Amazon.com (15 cans of organic pumpkin for about $28) -- it came with free shipping as well since it's over the $25 threshold. That should hold me until pumpkin season and I can freeze lots more...

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

This is a great idea and will do this this year regardless of a shortage, as it was very inconvenient and expensive as you mentioned. Ice cube trays, snack size zip lock bags, plastic containers all would work. As for other squash having the same effect? Not sure, as I don't know what it is in the pumpkin exactly that works so well. Maybe Karen knows.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It's the fiber; pumpkin is a very fibrous vegetable. Some people here have said that they've used other winter squashes with decent results. "Winter" squashes are those like acorn and butternut, that have very thick skins and orange flesh. Pumpkin has the highest fiber cintent, but you could certainly try cooking the other kinds in a pinch. I wouldn't use the commercial frozen mashed squash products, because those lack most of the fiber. Canned squash might be okay, if you see it, but I would check the fiber content against the pumpkin.

[Richard Crowe]

It has been a wonderful Summer for us here in inland San Diego County. Our county is said to have the largest variety of micro-climates of any county in the USA. For instance, we live about 20 miles inland and have a totally diferent climate than our daughter whose house is on the coast! We generally have more sun and during the summer it can be 20 degrees or so hotter than it is right next to the water. We can get pretty sizzling during August, although the humidity is generally fairly low and it usually cools off at night.

However, this year; the folks on the coast are complaining that is has not been warm enough, However, living inland, we love it. Right now, at 7:00 AM it is about 60 degrees and a bit foggy which is quite unusual for our inland home. We expect it to get sun about 9:00 am and for the temperature to be in the mid seventies today with humidity hovering around 60-65%. The highest forcast for the next week or so is the mid-eighties.

This is absolutely comfortable weather for humans but, has played heck with my garden. The plants that have suffered the most are my pumpkins. Usually I plant a dozen or so pumpkin plants and then cull them back to two or three which can grow in excess of 50 pounds; great for Holloween decorations. This year however, I will be buying my pumpkins and will wait until after Halloween when they are dirt cheap in the local pumpkin patch or even the supermarkets.

Holly at the local pumpkin patch last year...

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Cute picture idea too. Since my Murphy is apricot, this would be a great backdrop. you are just full of ideas Richard!

[Richard Crowe]

Great idea regarding sweet potatoes. We do a home made topping for kibble using white potatoes and carrots cooked in a slow cooker with chunked pieces of London Broil beef which our local supermarkets feature for between $1.69 and $1.99 per pound very often. We then run the combination through a Cuisinart food processor.

I don't know if this should be in the food group or the recipe group:

We cook batches of this mixture and freeze it in plastic containers. Our Maltese love it however, we have been recitent about feeding the mixture to Holly since she is prone to loose stools (is this a trait in doodles?). Additionally, she doesn't do at all well with kibble of any kind. We are planning to substitute sweet potatoes for the white potatoes in our next batch and try some for Holly without putting it over kibble.

We feed Holly Nature's Variety raw beef patties. It is pretty expensive but, her weight and her stools are perfect.

However, since the tragic deaths and illnesses of many dogs due to commercially prepared food, we would like to have total control of what goes into our dog's tummies. The only way to do this is to make the food ourselves.

We need to add something with calcium. Ground egg shells are sometimes recommended but, we probably eat only a dozen eggs a month in our house. Brocoli is reported to be pretty high in calcium. We would want to stay away from dairy products. This website lists non-dairy foods which are high in calcium. We just have to experiment with something which the dogs would eat and which would not upset their digestive systems. I'd want to stay away from the legumes because of bloating and gas problems.

Apparently blackstrap mollases is quite good for dogs and has a very high calcium and potassium content. Old time breeders used to use blackstrap molasses along with seaweed or kelp in their dogs diet to keep the pigmentation dark.

The website http://www.allergies-in-dogs.com/dogs-honey-molasses.html recommends raw honey once weekly:
Honey is used once a week in the breakfast meal. It contains protein, carbohydrates, iron, copper, manganese, silica, chlorine, calcium, potassium, sodium, phosphorus, aluminum and magnesium, plus vitamin B complex vitamins C, D and E. It is almost a complete food. Honey should only be used in its raw form because heat processing kills the health giving enzymes it contains.

I would expect that we would need to balance the caloric intake when using molasses or honey so the dogs don't get obese.

We would probably supplement the above food with some type of Omega-3 oil product also.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I wasn't able to access the website, but I would be very careful about giving raw honey to anyone, dogs included. I will have to look again, but I believe there have been warnings about that.
The problem with calcium rich non-dairy sources like broccoli is that most of calcium is often not easily obtained or absorbable from these sources, particularly those that are also high in iron. Some forms of calcium are just more easily absorbed & utilized in the body than others. In addition, only a certain amount of calcium can be utilized at any one time. It cannot be stored, as some nutrients can. For humans, that amount is 500 mg. In other words, if I consume 1000 mg of calcium in a meal or supplement, half of it will simple leave my body in the urine and not be utilized. (I don't know what the figure is for dogs, but it's likely to be the AAFCO standard which would be listed on the label of the premium dog foods.) A calcium citrate supplement may be your best bet. Some of our home cooks use powdered bone meal, too.
When evaluating nutritional information from internet websites, it's always best to try to ascertain whether the information is based on sound scientific research. I have found out the hard way that most of the sites, especially those that talk about allergies, are not. And of course, we want to be sure that any recommendations we make here, especially those pertaining to health, are based on sound scientific infromation.

[Richard Crowe]

Is there a food type bone powered bone meal. The garden variety bone meal which is used for starting bulbs and fertilizing other plants has chemicals in it which could be or are (I don't know which) detrimental to dogs.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Oh yes, you can buy food quality powdered bone meal in pet supply stores and probably in human health food stores, too, although I haven't looked for it there. I purchased Solid Gold brand bone meal supplement from my pet supply store, but there are many others out there which are specifically meant to be used as a food supplement. Maybe our homecooks here could tell us what kinds they use.