Bodhi's Blog: Life on the Dog Ranch---time to feed the furry kids!

Bodhi's Blog: Life on the Dog Ranch

Time to feed the furry kids!

Guess what?! I am now 9 months old. My moms can’t believe it. I can crawl and grab and I never stop talking. I will talk to anyone who will listen, though sometimes people look at me like they don’t understand what I am saying. Don’t worry though, I won’t let that slow me down!

I start talking the moment I wake up!

Another amazing thing about being 9 months old is I am now able to eat “chunky” food and pretty soon it will be bye, bye bottle! You would think finding foods for me to eat would be easy, but NOPE! My moms are worried about something called “preservatives” and sugars and boy, do they do a lot of research on which foods I can eat. Now there is some debate over something called “peanuts,” which sends their heads spinning!

I stole one of mom's cookies that grandma made her over Christmas!

But, the worry over what to feed your kids doesn’t just stop with your human babies, most people worry about what to feed their fur kids, too. I get it, how do you know choose between five bags of dog food that all have cute faces of pups and random veggies on the bag? Well, not to worry, Bodhi is here to help you!

This is all opinion from what my moms have learned over the years of research they have done, but if your vet says otherwise, listen to the vet! Also, this will only be on dry food you can purchase in the store and not raw food. I have nothing against raw food, but my parents say we haven’t done enough studying on the topic to add to my blog.

I like sharing my food with the dogs.

First thing to do when looking to see how good the food you are feeding your dog is to look at the ingredients on the back of the bag, the ones in the super tiny writing, not the ones that the front of the bag highlights. The very first ingredient you want to see is Chicken Meal (or any named meat like lamb or salmon, but meat meal). “Meat Meal” is the dry, rendered meat without any bone in it. It has the most protein by weight, more than just “Chicken” as “Chicken” still has water in it. Now, it isn’t a “bad” dog food if the first ingredient is “Chicken” (again, when I say chicken it can be any meat), it just isn’t the best.

Second ingredient for the best food should be “Chicken.” So, for the best food look for Chicken Meal, Chicken to be listed as 1 & 2 on the Ingredients list. The second best food would list Chicken, Chicken Meal. Sometimes there will be something else in between them, but you want Chicken and Chicken Meal to be 2 of your first 3 ingredients.

Look for a list of ingredients on your dog food bag.

Then starts what you don’t want. You don’t want preservatives such as BHA, BHT or ethoxyquin, bi products or “meat,” which is a nondescript source of animal protein, and you don’t want this for your fur kid. Also, try and avoid “mill run” grain (again not specified type of grain, just a generic grain), more than one type of the same grain (brown rice, rice flour and brewer’s rice) or ground or whole corn.

This may feel overwhelming and will make your head spin. With that in mind, I am including a couple of links that rates most brands of dog food. This will allow you to quickly look up the type of food you are feeding and see its quality. Don’t be fooled that spending more on dog food means you are getting a higher quality food, nor the foods that are most popular are healthier. There are several foods that are mid-range price and not popular at all but are a great brand of food to feed.

If you find your food isn’t listed on their rating scale, they also have provided the actual rating scale so you can rate the food for yourself.

http://www.lonesumdranchsaddlery.citymax.com/releases/release/7074548/20274.htm

http://www.petfoodratings.org/quick-dog-food-reference-table/

One other note, my mom likes to say, “You can live perfectly fine off of sirloin and don’t need a filet minion.” What this means is if you can’t afford the bag of food that costs $60 for 35 pounds, your dog will be just as healthy if you find an A rated food that costs $35 for 35 pounds. If you need help finding a food that fits into your budget and is highly rated, let me know!

Dreaming of steak for dinner!

If you find you are needing to change your dog food to a better food the best rule of thumb for the switch is:

Week 1: ¾ old food, ¼ new food

Week 2: ½ old food, ½ new food

Week 3: ¼ old food, ¾ new food

Week 4: all new food

This progression allows the dog’s stomach to slowly adjust and not have an upset tummy. If, however, you are switching to a fairly comparable quality food most pups can handle a faster switch. If, you decide to switch foods AND proteins (used to feed Chicken based foods and now you are going to feed Salmon) and your dog has diarrhea for a while, he or she may be allergic to the new protein, so keep an eye on your pup’s poo!

Labs eat A LOT of food!

Well, that is all from me for now! I am off to try to figure out how to get that darn spoon in my mouth by myself! It’s proven to be more difficult than my parents make it look.

See you next week!