Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Crazy people.


                This little comment was posted on a FB page. Here's my take on it..

Such a nice thing to say to raw feeders. love how purina deletes a lot of the comments, but keeps the one that is against raw up. Very suspect.. lol

Renal failure can happen with elderly dogs and cats even when fed kibble grain inclusive or grain free.

I mean for pete's sakes of coarse a senior dog is eventually going to have health issues!  kibble fed, home cooked or raw something might happen as the dog gets older, eye sight loss, glaucoma, tumor, arthritis, renal failure or whatever and who knows the dog might age gracefully and healthy to the end!

I mean sure a poorly done raw is just as bad as bad quality kibble like ol'roy.. ol"roy biscuits gave my last three dogs death farts I'd hate to imagine the gas if they ate that kibble brand. haha

I find it so odd how many human health nutritionist recommend to eat fresh healthy foods and to keep processed ones at a minimum, but giving fresh food to dogs is a big no no.

I mean I don't condemn people for feeding lower priced kibble brands especially if they are having financial issues or for some reason that is only food that works. Sadly sometimes you gotta make sacrifices.

I do find I'm not feeding as much of good quality kibble compared to when I fed beneful.

Sometimes I see comments like better quality kibble gave my dogs the runs.. Which sometimes dogs don't handle grain free or some ingredients in some kibble too well.. Sometime it is because the dog transitioned too fast or owner fed too much of it.  they're used to their lower quality kibble needing more cups so they make a mistake and feed too much.. There is many good quality kibble that has grains in it too if dog has issues with potatoes..

I notice how better quality kibble isn't as much cups compared to lower ones.

Bella's food cost us $59 from chewy.com they have it lower price there compared to in store which is like $71 or so..

For price comparison Beneful I found online is selling for $38. $21 cheaper than the wellness core.

Despite being more pricey you feed bit less compared to beneful.

Beneful guideline has for dog Bella's size 56lbs she'll need 3 1/4cups to 4cups a day.
VS
Wellness core ocean guideline has it for  2 1/4cups - 2 3/4cups a day. Big difference!

Coarse it depends on the dog some needs bit more some less. depends on activity level, weather and so on.

I know I had to ask my dad to feed lower amounts of the wellness as he would give her two cups a meal and then I was noticing how loose her #2 were and asked how much she was given.. Once it was lowered to right amount she got better.

I chose beneful for comparison since that was my last three dogs ate.

Dink seemed to perk up once we switched her to wellness core ocean. Coarse she did eventually went back to being slow and hard to get up, but I think the better kibble helped. She lived to 16 till she had be put to sleep due to the pain she was in. She was 14 when we switched so I think she had good year and half maybe two of being more perky. Sadly winter took a hard toll on her in the final years.

I'm no dog nutritionist or food expert. I'm still learning everyday. I still find food like purina and beneful lacking ingredient wise. poultry by products, menadione sodium bisulfite complex etc.

As a raw feeder I do feed by products like beef green tripe, beef trachea, gullet, lungs, spleen, pancreas, chicken feet, gizzards, liver, and stuff like beef snouts or whole quail even(head, feathers and all).

Only difference I know what animal that by product came from. I don't mind it if kibble had liver, kidneys, hearts, lungs and stuff like that long as it is listed what is it and what animal. To me poultry, chicken, animal or beef by product is too broad of description and can mean anything!

There are many good brands out there for decent price too. Taste of the wild is pretty good for it's price and ingredients.

Dr.tim's, Annamaet, wellness core, core ocean, Farmina, fromm etc.

Coarse if you have a dog with food allergies then you'll pay what you can to keep an reaction down..

Bella had issues with farmina chicken so we got her back on core ocean and she isn't as itchy. I'm thinking it was chicken in the kibble as she had issues with fromm and Totw. Both had chicken in it somewhere either egg, cartilage, or chicken meal..

Currently she does not itch at all on the fish based kibble. I might try red meat based kibble if it has no chicken next time to see if she reacts or not.

Currently switching to acana pacifica she is now half and half of each and doing fine no itching yet. We'll see when she is on it full time.

Friday, October 24, 2014

Bella back on wellnessc core ocean

Bella was on farmina Chicken & ancestral grains for good bit. I thought she did fine with it, but itching came back. She used to itch a lot on Taste of the wild kibble so I tried farmina to see if it helped any.

She stopped for bit, but started back, but not as bad as when she was on Totw.

I decided to try her back onto wellness core ocean. I bought it off chewy.com because local store had it bit too pricey $71 vs $59.

So far the itching has gone way down and she barely gets itchy at all.. I'm thinking it's due to the chicken in the kibble or something else that was in Totw and farmina. Going to check both formula ingredients to see if they have common one in it.

Bella doesn't seem bothered by raw chicken which is good since I can get bone in chicken for decent price.


I also bought a 15lb bag of acana pacifica to try to see how she does on it. She's had a sample of the orijen regional red which had enough for two days of food. she did good on it despite no transition to it.

I figure acana would be better since it is not as rich compared to orijen. I might try the ranchlands later since it doesn't have chicken in it to see how she does on it.

Acana kibble top and wellness core ocean bottom

Now that I got plenty of raw stuff in the freeze I've been giving it as kibble topper and she's been getting raw as dinner instead of kibble more often too.

She really likes the food I got for her and she seems do well with the meat too.

I plan to order a box of the honest kitchen base mix hale to give it a try. Might make good option for when Saya gets boarded next summer.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Second mpc order

excited for a walk
Ordered from my pet carnivore a second time.. I got four 3lb beef snout, three 2lb of ground beef tripe with gullet & trachea, two 2lb pork heart chunks and two 2lb pork tongue chunks.

I have both dogs stuff portioned out and frozen except for the tripe. I still have couple of the tripe supermix so once that is all gone I'll sort out the tripe with gullet and trachea. Each get three lbs of it.

Everything together!
The beef snout was something different I fed tripe, hearts, tongue before..

The snout is chewy I cut a few to gradually get Bella used to it. Luckily most of the pieces were still frozen some except for couple.  I definitely recommend cutting this type of thing semi frozen much easier to handle.

Watching as I prep it.
I've fed both dogs the heart, tongue and beef snout and both like it and have no issues. Saya had pork heart and tongue before from the farmer's market and Bella is bit new so she gotten it in smaller pieces for now. I'll increase it soon.

Coarse they love the tripe. I got the gullet and trachea ones instead of the supermix.

Freeze is now pretty much fully only has little bit of room in the dog treat and misc stuff baskets.


Crazy looking stuff..

 The pork heart chunks and pork tongue chunks are pretty nice.. No need to cut up like beef heart since it's already cut up and whole one is not huge like beef too.

the hearts and tongue looked good no bad smells and dogs love the ones I gave them.

Yummy dog's dinner

Bella first time trying pork tongue. She had beef tongue before and gets boneless pork and pork ribs too.

I also have some scoops of the beef tripe supermix and little bit of honest kitchen preference too.

duck neck and bit of bonless chicken
Saya got beef tripe supermix with bit of HK preference, joint supplement and fish oil for breakfast and duck neck and bit of boneless chicken. She ate the chicken and half of the neck. I plan to give rest of  the neck later on.

I'm happy with the second order. Coarse since freeze is full I'll be holding off on ordering till there is room.

Posting this in case anyone plan to order from there soon. MPC is having payment changes beginning November first. here's the full info here.
UPCOMING PAYMENT CHANGES
We want to give everyone plenty of advance notice. Beginning November 1, we will no longer be accepting payment at delivery for orders. This includes all orders that are picked up at our warehouse, home delivery and route delivery. Orders placed for UPS shipping have always required advance payment. Now, we are making advance payment the only option for all methods of delivery. 

There are several reasons for the change. We are trying to streamline operations to serve you, our valued customers, better. Although we have found fellow raw-feeders to be thoughtful and integral, there have been occasional issues with returned checks and having to track down payments. We also take into great consideration our drivers' safety.
Thank you for your continued patronage and your understanding with this change.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Portioned out the organs from MPC

Yesterday I portioned out Bella's beef, goat spleen and beef pancreas. It was ground up so had to work bit differently compared to whole organ.. I decided to just freeze the portions in containers instead of putting it in ziplock bags as it was too messy to do it that way..

I know some freeze ground organs on cookie sheet or something, but I didn't feel like doing that. Might try that method next time, but so far this looks like OK option..

I mixed the beef pancreas, goat and beef spleen together.. I figured it would be fine long I introduce the mix slowly.

Yesterday Bella got tiny bit of it with her food with her beef tripe supermix, kibble, and a chicken foot. yummy stuff..

Here's how the stuff looks portioned out.. this is weeks worth of it. I plan to introduce it slowly so I'll give it to her little bit each day along with her usual food. Either with her kibble meal, or with her raw meals..

She really liked what she got with her kibble which is good. I plan to do Saya's portion today.

Bella doesn't seem to have issue with having some raw with her kibble. I try to give her a full raw meal two to four times week as dinner and sometimes more if possible, but sometimes something comes up..

Next time I go to the grocery I plan to restock up on some chicken quarters, breasts and some ground meat then she'll be able to get raw for dinner much more often..

I'm pleased with the organs looks good and dogs love them. I'll definitely get more spleen and pancreas when low. for now the 3lbs of other organ should last good bit of time. I just need get some more bone in chicken, boneless meat, some beef and lamb kidneys and some more liver.  I'll be set for good bit.

Plan to order from MPC again.


Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Thoughts on My pet carnivore

Last Saturday we went to farmers market got some nice veggies and meat for us and I got Saya lb or so of beef stew meat, beef tongue, pork heart, and beef heart. I'm hoping to pick up more beef tongue, kidneys, and hearts to stock up before the market closes.


After dinner we did some running around and then went to the cracker barrel to pick up the my pet carnivore pick up.

There was only one other person who came to pick up she got a pretty big order makes mine. look tiny. haha


It was nice meeting the people who work at MPC very kind and friendly. Came bit early luckily I came early too so they weren't waiting too long.

Items were packed nicely and looks good in quality.

I've only portioned two of the 2lb tripe supermix to make it easier to take out. Still need to thaw and portion the spleen and pancreas.

I just got two tripe super mix,  goat spleen, beef spleen, and beef pancreas for each dog. I figure this makes a nice first order.  Didn't want to go too overboard so wanted it to be something simple and something they'd like.



Saya and Bella had some the next day and they loved it. They had tripe before when I gotten a 1lb of it from hare today.. Saya's portion had bit of honest kitchen mix, tiny bit of oatmeal and blueberries. I don't give Honest kitchen all the time, but sometime mix it with some ground meat, egg or canned fish to make a quick meal.


I like MPC and plan to order more in the future. Currently checking items and deciding what to order next. Coarse will get some tripe supermix, but might try couple different things too.

Both love it and it's nice to get some variety in since not many stores sell pancreas, spleen or green tripe.

Monday, September 8, 2014

First MPC order

Pig foot they got last week
I'm going to make order at mypetcarnivore soon! They have a drop off that is pretty close to my house.

Never ordered from them before and finally got room in freeze. I'm still bit undecided on what to get.

I plan to probably just do small order see how that goes. I plan to do the ground beef tripe supreme would make nice breakfast or part of a meal. Dogs had tripe before and loved it. I like that the supreme has other stuff in it too.

I also plan to get some beef spleen and beef pancreas and probably goat spleen too. nice to add some variety from the other organs.

Yummy
I plan to try Raw paws too they have some nice items that look yummy. Well for a dog that is.

I'm hoping with trying these two places I'll be able to get Bella on more raw. So far she only gets raw as dinner two to four times a week. I also give her bit of either, ground, gizzard, hearts, liver, or egg with her kibble for nice topper.

Bella's my parent's dog, but I take care of her most of the time. She's nice dog and loves people and loves to run. 
pig foot :D
The pig foot I got from farmer's market. I asked the farmer if he could get me some whole to try. He says the processor usually splits them, but he said he'd ask if they could do couple whole for me to try.

Last week I fed them coarse they got some boneless and bit of organ with it. They didn't get to eat the whole foot as it's a lot of bone.

Today Bella gets her half with some liver, ground turkey, beef rocky mountain oyster, and bit of chicken gizzards. Saya will get her's later.

I've never done the co op or MPC type thing before. I've ordered from hare-today which I enjoy their selections.

I think it'll be worth it to order from these two places the items they have are nice almost hard to decide what to get.

Maybe one of the times I'll try picking up a MPC order from their place to check it out.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Honest kitchen preference thoughts

Saya enjoying the sun.
I bought preference while back to try just made kibble topper for Bella and snack for Saya.. I mixed with with home made broth, meat, egg, and stuff. Dogs loved it.

This last week I had Bella on it for her meals to see how she does with it and so far she loves it.

I got ground meat, ground chicken and chicken gizzards for the meat portion and made enough for the week. I kept three days worth out and froze the rest to take out as needed.

She also got a chicken quarter, beef kidney and some chicken heart for dinner one day and today she gets chicken foot, chicken liver, green tripe, and little bit of chicken hearts for dinner.

So far her she likes it and her #2 is good no issues with it.  I gave her egg with breakfast twice a week and added fish oil daily.

Coneflowers
Honest kitchen is taking out alfalfa out of the formulas and with the preference formula they're adding green peas in it's place. With the other formula they're increasing the other ingredients a bit to make up the amount of alfalfa taken out..   Link to information about this.

In kibble side of things..

Bella will be on her second bag of farmina chicken & ancestral grains kibble. Chewy was out of stock so I went with sportdogfood.com. Never ordered from them before, but they look good even has free shopping bag with purchase.

Prices are decent and do have coupons $10 for new customers. free shipping for certain states. Coarse Indiana isn't on it, but the shipping isn't too bad compared to one site I was checking.

The bag of kibble seems to last for very long time since I've been giving more fresh food. Stocked up on some ground beef as it was on good price and bought more chicken quarters. Bella still has plenty liver and kidneys so got some gizzards.