Long-Dangerous Tails

My dogs love these, great source of bone for nutrition and hours of entertainment. Made by Best Buy Bones “Smoked Krown Knuckle”  phone: 810-687-2106

I thought you might find this interesting.

The whole statement is too long, but here is part of an official quote from the AAFCO rule book about what goes into pet food: “derived from the parts or whole carcasses of poultry or a combination thereof”

This statement means if your pet food states the first ingredient is “CHICKEN” it could be ONLY THE CHICKEN BONES & SKIN left over from the slaughter house after the good parts go to the human industry OR animals that are completely REJECTED for the human food chain coming FROM a USDA facility!

Here is a conversation I found on the net between a consumer and a pet food company:

Question to dog food company: Is the grade of meat you use Prime, Choice, OR Grade A?

Answer from company: “All our meats come from USDA inspected facilities.”  Remember that “rejected for human food” animals come from’ USDA facilities – they are rejected ‘from’ USDA facilities.

Question to dog food company:  But what grade of meat is in your kibble?

Answer: “Our meats are sourced from the same USDA meat processing facilities as the meats you would purchase in the grocery store….USDA approved facilities”. (Again, rejected animals ‘come from’ USDA approved facilities – as well as skin and bones ‘come from’ USDA facilities).

Question:  But you still didn’t answer my question; what is the Grade of meat that you use in your kibble?

Answer from dog food company: “I’m sorry, I don’t have an answer for you.”

For real meat you want the response “Grade A” for chicken, and with Beef and Lamb it would be “Prime” or “Choice”.  If the company can’t or won’t tell you???  That says plenty! :-/

This will be my third day of feeding honest kitchen. The correct way to do this is to gradually introduce them to the new food as you phase out your old food. I was very pleased with the Royal Canin German Shepherd formula, the dogs liked it and they looked great. But after reading some unfavorable  reports about some of the ingredients added to the fact the place I purchased it from was out of stock. I switched to another premium brand. It was evident almost immediately they did not do as well on this new food. So I bit the bullet and purchased the Honest Kitchen. I purchased multiples of all the varieties except for the Preference which is the base mixture to which you add your own protein. So I started out by giving the puppies, and all the dogs in the house “Love” the packaging says it is for: Dogs of all life stages (puppies, pregnancy, nursing, active adult) of all breeds and sizes. Making this a good one for the house dogs with Ana being pregnant and being extremely picky about her food lately, while Maika looks pregnant because she is eating everything Ana doesn’t eat. Funny needs extra good food as she is healing from her surgery and Gavin is still a growing boy. When I mixed this I could really smell the coconut. I put down for the puppies and they dove into it. Today is their third day and I put in the Honest Kitchen and a bowl of the kibble they had been eating. They sniffed it and turned their noses up at it. Not interested at all. Ana loves this food and I am happy to see her eating with some relish. Gavin, Funny, and Maika also liked it but were a little slower to take to it.

I started the kennel dogs on Keen which is an adult maintenance food and their lowest cost food. Monica’s friend Collin helped me mix up the food and he liked how it smelled, it did smell like you were in someone’s kitchen as they were making dinner.

Before I go on I need to tell you I do not have picky eaters. They eat anything I give them. The only one that has not been eating well is Allie and that started right at the 3-week mark after being bred, this tells me she is very likely pregnant as this is one of the non-scientific indicators of pregnancy. Also because of the cold weather I have bringing all the dogs inside for the night. I feed them at night so this gave me a good opportunity to observe them eat. Because this was a maintenance food I added additional meat to the food. This time the results were more mixed. Allie pulled the meat out and refused to eat the HK, Heike looked at like I was trying to poison her, several others also just pulled the meat out. I was not very smart about this as I just put in big pieces of meat. A couple ate the Honest Kitchen and licked the bowl clean. Day 2 for the dogs being fed “Keen” I put beef liver and its juices into a pail and added the warm water that would be used to hydrate the HK. Made with the liver flavored water everyone ate all the Honest Kitchen some immediately and the others ate it during the night. But all dishes were completely eaten. I fed the kennel dogs early today (3rd day) the dogs that were being picky are eating up straight up but not with gusto.

I expected stools to be loose since I switched cold turkey, but they were perfect.  The 10 pound box is supposed to be equivalent to 40 pound of dry.  I fed 8 dogs 2 meals and the box was empty and that was in addition to supplementing with meat. That is more like an equivalent to a 20 pound bag of kibble.

The Health Benefits Of Coconut Oil

by Dogs Naturally on July 8, 2011 · 69 comments

Although supplements can be a confusing topic for many pet owners, most dog owners have heard of the benefits of feeding fish oils. There are however, a variety of oils that you can also use to your dog’s benefit, each with different actions and benefits.

Coconut oil consists of more than 90% saturated fats, with traces of few unsaturated fatty acids, such as monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Most of the saturated fats in coconut oil are Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCTs). The main component (more than 40%) of MCTs is lauric acid, followed by capric acid, caprylic acid, myristic acid and palmitic. Coconut oil also contains about 2% linoleic acid (polyunsaturated fatty acids) and about 6% oleic acid (monounsaturated fatty acids).

To see the full article go to:

http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/the-health-benefits-of-coconut-oil/

I  have a question about Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  Is it good for dogs, what does it do to a dogs system, etc. Thanks Karen, and keep the info coming please!  - Al & Karen

Karen Murray Replies: