HOME COOKING UPDATE #3

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Well it's been another two weeks of home cooking, and things are still great.  Every meal is an adventure for Guinness.  He has yet to find a human food that he doesn't like.  Now he even eats those dreaded green beans that he used to pick out of his food (when he was eating dog food).  I keep learning.  I got the Pitcairn book, and you were all right...it is great. I do find many of his recipes a little complicated, but I make adjustments.  I also got The Healthy Dog Cookbook and Dr. Khalsa's Natural Dog.  With all these books, I have plenty of recipes, although we've been having fun making up our own.  He rarely has treats now.  I do save out some of the small pieces of meat from his meal if we are going to be training, and that's what I use for treats.  I think the Salmon Oil along with some of the natural fat that is in his meals are responsible for his coat being much less dry.  There is almost no scratching or licking now, and his coat feels wonderful. He has gained back the weight that he lost when he was so sick plus another half pound.  He's up to a whopping 16.5 lbs.  He also grew an inch...to 15".  He's such a "half pint".

It was really all about "the poops" that sent us down this road.  They continue to be great.  He is going less frequently (usually twice a day) and they are PERFECT.  "Perfect poops"...does that seem like an oxymoron?  

I'm still not totally confident that I'm providing the right supplements.  I just started him on 600 mg tablet of calcium each day and the vet prescribed vitamins.  I'm going to stay with the calcium but will move either to the human One A Day multivitamin or to the Solid Gold SeaMeal supplement.  Has anyone had any experience with the Solid Gold Product as a home cooking supplement.  I have not been using the brewers yeast or bonemeal that is recommended in some of the home cooking recipes.  He is getting either two tbsp of yogurt or cottage cheese each day.  Thoughts?

So that's the latest in our little adventure.  We're having fun with this.  DH just shakes his head when I tell him what's on the menu for Guinness.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'm so glad to hear how well Guinness is doing on his homecooked diet!
I don't know much about the supplements, but if you use a human multivitamin, the additional 600 mg of calcium may be too much. I don't know what the number is for dogs, but humans can only absorb and utilize 500 mg of calcium at one time, which means if I took 600 mg, that extra 100 mg would just be waste product. Also not sure about the relationship of excess calcium & the development of crystals or stones. Hopefully, the vet will know about this, or the books will have info.
Otherwise, it sounds like things are going very well for you & Guinness on the "Dark Side"! I think we need to start making T-shirts for the homecookers' DHs that say "My Wife Cooks for the Dog, and I Get the Leftovers"!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Love the T-shirt idea....I'm sure this exactly how my husband feels these days. Oh, well. The 600 mg of calcium with the One-A-Day vitamin came from Rebecca Remillard (the Veterinary Nutritionist I posted about earlier). She actually suggested 1.5 of the 600 mg calcium tablets daily for a 15 pound dog, but I'm only giving the one tablet. He's getting calcium from other dietary sources as well.

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

See...the "Dark Side" really is worth it. You will continue to see "perfect poops" and even smaller and less smelly poops, too. As far as the many supplements you could add, if your goal is "balance over time" then over the course of the week add the various things. Everyday, give your staples like the multi vit and one day add Sea Meal, another day add bone meal, etc. He will be getting so much more from his food, now. The commercial foods have so much fillers and so much less good stuff, that is why the poops are plastic and so much larger. With real food, the body has more to use that adds the nutrients found in many of the supplements. That's why commercial DF has to be fortified with vits and minerals, because it's crap to begin with. I am so glad Guinness is doing so well. As more and more people start doing this, I believe we will see healthier, longer living dogs and lower incidences of all these illnesses.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

You're right...the dark side isn't so dark after all. Thanks for clarifying the "balance over time approach" also applies to supplements. It makes total sense to me, and it is comforting to know that I won't be "putting all my eggs on one basket". I'll alternate between the Sea Meal, the One-A-Day vitamin and the bone meal. I'm thinking I probably can do the calcium every other day. I'm getting there thanks to all of you DK Food groupies, and Guinness thinks you're all his Fairy Godmothers!

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

This is so good to hear. What a relief for both you and Guinness. The supplemental powder mix that Dr. Pitcairns' recommends makes sense to me and I am just now adding it back to Murphy's food as our Vet suggested I stay away from adding yeast to his diet for awhile as we had such a problem with ear infections. It ended up not being a yeast infection and he's been clear for over a month now so I'm adding again. I believe I made powdered baked egg shells for that mix. I have added the egg shell powder to his morning meal now for months and it's easy to do and again makes sense. I will skip a day here and there and not use the Dr. P's powder, especially if I am giving a real marrow bone as there is bonemeal in the mixture.
The yogurt just makes good sense for his digestion and again you're adding calcium and a little protien, so no harm there.
I think with all the support, research and common sense we are all using with homecooking, we can't be that far off in providing sound nutritional diets for our dogs. I feel it just makes sense to feed him, as ourselves, more like the cavemen ate and basically, if it comes out of a box or a bag and has a shelf-life, just how good is it for anybody?

It sounds like you are doing great and I found it really is a process, and that given time, it becomes very second nature to know just what looks and feels right with the foods you are providing.

As for DH's, I think Karen is on to something with the T-shirts. I've been homecooking so long now that if I'm in the kitchen cooking my DH just assumes it's for Murphy and not for him......Sad but true.

[Kirsy & Jasper]

In regards to supplements. I live in Australia. We use a product called VETBASIX PREMIUM VITAMIN with seaweed, available from www.rudducks.com.au It has all important vitamins & minerals and you just sprinkle the powder over his food.
We also give our dog a human fishoil tablet and sardines in springwater on his food.
An even better alternative towards jogurt and cottage cheese would be KEFIR. Google it and its high benefits for dogs!
We make our own, but you might be able to buy it???

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

In what way is the Vetbasix vitamin better than any other multi-vitamin? The website does not give the nutritional information.
Kefir has a slight alcohol content, which is lower in commercial products but higher in homemade ones such as you mentioned; the alcohol rate also varies with fermentation times. I would be very careful with that, alcohol definitely doesn't have benefits for dogs, lol.
Googling kefir didn't really help me as far as finding out about the "high benefits", because there is no scientific data on that; you can find lots of websites where someone who is selling it tells you that it's better than yogurt, but no scientific info to back that up. However, aside from the alcohol, it seems like a reasonable alternative.

[Kirsy & Jasper]

Had no idea that Kefir contains alcohol. Thank you for this info!

Vetbasix contains Vitamins A, D3, E, K3, B1,2,6,12, C, Pantothenic Acid, Folic Acid, Biotin, Calcium, Potassium, yeast, Seaweed, Salt & Vanilla Flavour. I like the addition of Seaweed in this product.
Yes - they should show the nutritional info on their website!
There might be other brands, that contain the same ingredients!

[DeeDee and Sheila]

No thoughts, except what a lucky pooch Guinness is. Really, this food group thing is breaking ground. I told Adina between the HILARIOUS stories, the different funny dog stories, plus the serious DK work that is being done by VERY sharp girls, I thought there was a book in there somewhere. Funny stories, Dkers from different geopgraphical areas, DK "speciaists", did I mention humorous stories, different personalities of mom, even just the terminology. Seriously, when I go thru some of this at dinner parties or like I had my sis on DK the other day, they are in hysterics, plus impressed at what this web site does. My sis wants to be on it as an "aunt". And she is a busn' owner and was blown away at the talent on the pages, discussions etc. I think we could do a collaborative effort and have a BEST SELLER w/ proceeds going to further Doodle Collictive, other dog causes. I have the whole thing in my mind and mentioned it to Adina (who is swamped). I think we should think about it.!!! In our spare time from dealing w/ the doodles, that its.
Glad, so glad, Guinness is doing better. Man, I can just hear him saying, Oh man, Mom is the Greatest.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Thank you, DeeDee! Actually, I'm the lucky one! I love your book idea...how fun would that be! At first my family thought this whole DK thing was pretty funny. Well now it's a different story. My brother has a Lab puppy and my daughter has a Golden puppy. They call me with their problems and ask me to search under the DK forums for solutions. I have what has grown into a large collection of dog books, but I always get better answers right here on DK. We are so lucky to have DK friends with a wealth of experience and knowledge!

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

When I first started homecooking, it was out of dread of losing another dog to the garbage in dogfood. I read every book I could find and scoured the Internet, looking for help. There was very few options. When I first started coming on here, I was afraid to even tell anyone that I was cooking my own DF. That's why I call it the "dark side." It was dark and scary.

But since, there are more and more people doing it. We have done some excellent research here and we continue to share and learn about the industry, the products and alternatives to commercial DF. Part of the best part about this group is having others to bounce ideas off of and ask about how this worked or what will work. I don't feel alone on the "dark side" anymore. This is a book in the making.