raw
Attention Raw Dog Feeders!
July 21, 2008 | 
Author Here’s a link to get a buy one get one free coupon for Nature’s Variety raw food.
http://www.naturesvariety.com/tryit
Just sign up and you’ll immediately receive a coupon for buy one package of raw, get one free (medallions).
We can’t feed it to Topaz because it has rosemary in it, but Onyx will enjoy it!
Also, watch the Honest Kitchen blog because they have coupons all the time and do giveaways and stuff. I just won 5 of the travel size packages for free and before that they sent me 6 samples (one for each animal)!!
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Sunday’s Ramblings
I’m over yesterday’s hubby rant and all is well again in our humble abode. Actually he’s at work and I’m enjoying some quiet time while the zoo is napping. It’s funny, they are literally laying all over the house. Onyx (Missy) is in the dining room…her and I spent some intimate time cutting the mats off her underarea earlier so she’s a bit miffed with me…Topaz (Puppa) is in the hallway sprawled out, Razzle (Yidda) is in the kitchen on the floor, Malcolm (Mooshy) is in the kitchen on the stove…he always lays there, it’s warm and he likes to be up high…Alex (Fana) is in the laundry room on the rug and Beans is under the bed in her hiding spot.
And me? Well I’m sitting here in my purpley office in my jammies searching the net for scrappy freebies. Oh, and I’m printing invites for my sister’s wedding. We kind of had a girls’ day yesterday (just my sisters and me) and went shopping, to Thai for dinner…and I had this new YUMMY peanut sauce dish with broccoli, chicken and cabbage – YUM!…and then we came back here and searched the net a little for favor ideas and then tweaked my sister’s wedding invites and started printing them a bit. It was a good time!
Today’s layout is another of my nephew. I feel like I am always making one with my other nephew and niece and not as many of my older nephew. I have tons of pictures of him growing up but they’re all on floppy disks and this pc doesn’t have a floppy drive. I need to put them onto CD’s so I can use them!
Credits:
No template this time, and I made the Elijah picture thingie myself thanks to Pamela from Digitreats and her tutorial!
Papers: Digitreats Jump Add on freebie by Kimmy’s Keepsakes
Crown & yellow in star by Melanie
Jewels on Crown by Vicki
Everytime I pull my camera out Elijah is posing or setting up some kind of scenario for me to take a picture of or video. Here’s a picture of him from a few Thanksgivings ago where he wanted it to look like he was chasing or trying to kill the turkey for dinner.
Well the husband is on his way home and I have to repackage 40lbs of chicken backs to be refrozen. Fun, yucky stuff! lol
I may be back later with another layout later. There’s a picture of my niece that would go perfectly with the Digitreats “skip” set…
Houston…we have lift off!
I am writing this day down as a success!!
Topaz ate his breakfast AND ate his dinner!! The raw is a success! I am so happy. The lady who runs the Pet Beastro brought me in some chicken necks to try with Topaz…and he ate it right away. So either he was hungry, or he’s into it now! LOL Onyx, of course, ate hers like a pro.
Also, we had an excellent adoption at the shelter today. 15 homeless animals were adopted out into their new forever homes. We were SO busy today at the shelter!!! I’m really glad to see so many people who want to open their homes and hearts and welcome a new pet into their family. It’s awesome to watch people come in and meet their new best friends. It definitely makes me feel great to be a part of it all.
I got all of our Christmas decorations out this week. Well Todd got them from the garage for us. I went through and picked out the few things we will be putting out this year. See, my mother decorates every inch of her house…and I mean every inch. And don’t think it’s tacky because it’s really spectacular. She uses lights and a lot of vintage Christmas items, it’s just really cool. I wish I had that much stuff to decorate with, and could do it as nice as my mother does. But I’m always left with this feeling like it’s just not enough. My sisters say the same thing. It’s a curse really. lol
Anyway…I am going to put up the few things I picked out of our boxes to decorate with. We have not had a proper tree since getting topaz and now that we have 4 cats here, I am so afraid that they will climb into our tree and/or knock it down. And I don’t want to ruin all of our nice ornaments. Maybe next year we’ll get a tree and I’ll decorate with plastic bulbs. We’ll see.
Gotta go…have stuffs to do!!
Later…H
Please take the container of turkey necks out of the fridge
Well the title says it all.
Funny how this is going…the little lab girl is loving the raw…loved the bones. Knew to chew them, what was I worried about?? And the Topaz…still having a hard time.
I’m worried about the seizure/blood sugar thing since he’s not eating much. We still have a few kibble samples that I’ve been giving him because I am nervous about the amount of food he’s eating. The last thing I want is for him to have another seizure.
I still feel really clumsy and I’m worried about the raw food all over the kitchen.
I need to get into a routine. I’m working on it.
So far though, not that bad. Tripe is the nastiest thing on earth…that’s all I have to say.
Till next time…H
Adventures in RAW – Day One
I should rename this blog…Our adventures with RAW! LOL
Ok…so we got the food tonight. A little pricier than I had thought it was going to be, but we’ll see how long it lasts and how everything goes. I was paying this much a month for a month’s worth of dog food and canned cat food, so I think we can work it out for just the dogs. And yes…the animals are NOW eating better than the humans in the house…haha
I have a few tips for myself…The inexperienced RAW feeder.
A little tip…don’t attempt to feed this way on a day that you are really clumsy and inexperienced and NEED to feed the dogs something!! We ran out of kibble…totally. I needed to feed them something today…it was either cat food or this mix.
Tip two…also plan out to thaw the tripe…just in case the red beast doesn’t like the mixture. Which for some reason, he doesn’t!!! Well…I think it’s the consistency that he doesn’t like. Now the little black dog…she ate the shit out of that mix!! Tomorrow is the turkey necks…this will be interesting.
Tip three…remember that you have 3 VERY curious male cats who would also LOVE to sample a bit of that raw mix food. It’s very hard to measure and scrape off the thawed meat mix from the block when you have 3 nosy kitties all in your face.
Tip four…put the box of turkey necks just in the tub…no water, no nothing. Necks in a tub in water made for a huge mess. I was able to pull a few off for the next couple days and thank GOD for Freezer zipper bags…I will be splitting them up and refreezing some of them tomorrow.
Tip five…dig the other aluminum pan out of the garage tomorrow and buy another one. kitchen bowls will not cut it.
Tip six…remember to breath and know you’re learning as you go. It will all be ok. You bought enough food for a month.
******************
Tips are over for now. lol
Anyway…yeah, the cats would LOVE to eat a bowl of the mix. All of the boys were all over the counter and licking the spoon and bowls and everything!!
And tell me why the little black dog gobbled it all down and Topaz kind of picked up a mouthful and then spit it out everywhere. I added a little tripe and he picked that all out. He’s a fruitcake!
I am so tired. I will write more tomorrow.
The adventure continues…H
Raw Raw Bo Baw
So much for posting to this blog, eh? LOL
Ok, so I’m no good at this everyday stuff. I feel like I’m talking to myself. Maybe one day someone will stumble across this pile and think…oh there’s an intelligent mind at work…heh, yeah right.
Ok…so I decided to revisit this blog because although I do have other dog issues to write about today, I’d like to keep the other blog strictly about the seizures and although related, not quite seizure topic.
So…raw foods. Yeah, I believe will will be going that route. Who woulda thunk it?? Not I said the fly!!
I got the information on both sides…good and bad. I read info till my eyes glazed over. Shit, I even dreamed of raw foods last night!! Totally bizarre! But I feel like I have been well educated and ready to give it the ole college try.
I think it’s the control over the food. I will know EXACTLY what’s going into those dogs. No additives, nothing not natural, no preservatives. None of those bad things the seizure dog shouldn’t have and then let’s see how he does. Shoot, how they both do because the little girl dog has her own issues…hair loss, alopecia. So maybe it will help her as well. It should!!!
So people…the adventures with RAW start on Thursday…well, Friday we’ll start feeding it. Won’t that be fun? lol
Till next time…H
Some thoughts..RAW Diet??
This is brought over from my other blog about the seizure dog….
My husband and I volunteer on a regular basis at a local animal shelter. This weekend was the grand opening of the pet store that’s located inside the shelter building. The pet store is called “The Pet Beastro” and they sell holistic, natural and raw pet foods and treats as well as some quality toys, collars, and beds. On Sunday I sat in on a talk about pet food nutrition. Now I know that since all of the pet food recalls last year and earlier this year, I for one, have been paying more attention to what is in the food I’m feeding our animals.
The dogs have been getting Canidae and the cats, unfortunately, are still getting a mixture of the crap that you buy at the grocery store. I have one cat, the little female, here that will NOT eat premium foods…however, we may just buy a bag of it…replace the junk in the feeder and not give her a choice BUT to eat the premium food. I think we’re going to do that this week and see how it goes. I want to feed them all the best we can.
Ok, so this brings me to the little seminar/talk I sat through and the whole RAW diet thing.
It was really interesting…i mean what she was saying made sense and I really have to wonder if it would help Topaz. We’re just about out of dry food, so we’re due to buy some more. The 40lb bag of Canidae lasted us just about a month…a few days shy is how it will come out. But we free feed, so I don’t know who’s been eating what and if we fed at certain times, certain amounts I am sure that it probably would have lasted a little bit longer.
Anyway…so now we have to buy food this week. I am seriously considering giving raw a try. I never ever in my life thought I’d say that, but it doesn’t seem as awful as it all sounds. I mean it’s gross sounding to me and it will probably take me some time to get used to the whole fact that I am feeding my dogs raw meat, but I think we’re going to give it a month and see how it goes.
I am worried about Topaz with his meds and the seizures and everything and unfortunately the internet is not the best place to get information about all of that because you do get such differing opinions and everything. I almost need to just stop reading the net, think about it, get my questions answered and go from there. I’d be better off.
And I do have a TON of questions: How to get a dog that gulps and doesn’t chew to chew the bones? What about vitamin supplements? Do we need to go cold turkey and just jump into it? Will there be side effects to look for? What about Topaz and his medication, what effect will the food change have on him? How do I know how much 8 ounces is? Do I need a scale? What about veggies and fruits? Will this make them sick in the beginning?…and well, the list goes on and on!!
So… I will need to chat a bit with the Pet Beastro lady and see what she says. And well, we may be venturing into the scary world of RAW food. I don’t know yet…I have a few days to figure it out.
Here are some links:
http://www.barfworld.com/html/barf_diet/barfdiet_specific.shtml
http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm
Here’s a site that talks about what is in pet food:
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/PetFood/Processing.htm
The jury is still out on this one. I don’t know what to think about it all.
Later…H
