Yes, i'm being facetious.... I hope that i DO think adequately before i write, most of the time.
I just wanted to drop a line about the diets of dogs. While out driving today, getting breakfast then shopping to restock the meat drawer, we drove past the place where i customarily buy Spenser's food and treats. Something made me think about a friend who has mentioned that her dog has diabetes.
DIABETES IN DOGS??? This is just plain outrageous. Of all the "diseases of civilization," doggie diabetes is just something that generally leaves me with my mouth hanging open, speechless.
Read the labels of mainstream, even high-end dogfood "products" and you'll see how it could happen. An awful lot of the chows read like the labels of breakfast cereal. One otherwise-acceptable treat had sugar as an ingredient. What kind of idiot manufacturer thinks that sugar is a reasonable additive to DOG TREATS?
A few years ago when i ditched grains (for the most part) myself, i decided that it was even more absurd for Spense to eat them as it is for me. I looked into a raw diet (which i personally believe is the optimal one), but decided that it needed to be easier for others to feed him when i'm not around, and therefore compromised on a kibble which contains some vegetables but not grains. I went to Taste of the Wild, and it has definitely been beneficial for him -- no more problems with his anal glands, cleaner teeth, less itchiness, lower body fat ... and he likes it very well. I'm pleased. Finding the ideal treat is more difficult, as availability comes and goes when i find one i really approve. I should probably just buy meat on sale and dehydrate it for him.
Really -- if you have a pet, DO think about what's in the stuff you feed him/her! Grain products are not an evolutionarily-appropriate diet for dogs or cats. And as for vegetarian diets for obligate carnivores...! [groan]
We have decided, next cat gets real food, not chunks of extruded grains. I think our last cat has diabetes or something. Right now, I try to cook my food without spices he doesn't like, so he can always lick the plate and get the skin. What can I say? We're the Buttertons!
ReplyDeleteYES! :-) we firmly believe in butter here, too! i actually convinced my daughter last week that she needs to go to the real thing -- yippee! (another point won!)
ReplyDeletewe haven't had a cat in a couple of decades; i don't recall if he had food aversions or not. one we had LOVED popcorn, but it might have been all about the salt.... what spices does your boy refuse?
A timely post--last night, I gave my dog some cooked ribs, not knowing she'd chomp them down like carrots. I was worried and read on the 'net some of the endless concerns about dogs eating bones. There's even advice out there to feed the dog cotton balls because it will cushion the digestive tract. That's quite a trick for the cotton balls to get ahead of the bones and form a lining in the digestive tract instead of just turning into a soggy pile of cotton.
ReplyDeleteI'm not recommending feeding cooked bones, but Molly seems fine (even without the cotton balls).
i HAVE heard horror stories about cooked bones for dogs. my husband's boyhood beagle almost died due to pork-chops.... Spense doesn't get real bones (OR rawhide) -- he won't behave like a gentleman with them! his treats are all things he can finish quickly, like doggie jerky.
ReplyDeletecotton? interesting idea, but like you, i find it hard to believe it could work!