Picky Eater

     Annie will eat almost anything from just about any one.  She'll take treats from everyone, old and new friends alike.  Paul on the other hand is more discriminatory.

    There are only certain people Paul will take a treat from, and only certain treats he will eat.  When we last saw the vet and discussed raw diets, she said to be sure to add in fruits and veggies with the meat and protean.  Annie has no problem with this and chows down.  Paul sniffs first and then eats, and in the case of today, stares at me as if to say, "Mom, what did you cook?"  I added in bananas to crockpot chicken (just water with chicken slow cooked), dog cream (yogurt, cream cheese, and peanut butter), an egg each, and cut up bananas soaked in the chicken water (I thought I could fool Paul into eating it if it tasted like chicken).  As it's baseball season, I think I can say I struck out with this idea.

     Chicken soaked bananas = Epic Fail.  Annie will usually eat the bananas, even she wouldn't eat these. 

Cooked Raw Diet: take 2

It's been a few weeks since Annie's UTI when we took her off of the raw diet and went back to kibble, and the problems that we had with the kibble have come back.  Red ears, lots of black earwaxy stuff, itchyness, and lack of interest in food. Anne's also gained a few pounds on the kibble that she had lost on the raw.  So we're trying the raw diet again.
The vet last time also voiced problems with too much meat and not enough veggies, so I've added in more carrots now.  Another friend of ours feeds their dogs chicken, rice, carrots and celery, so I'll probably add that in later as well.  Also in the mix now is yogurt with peanut butter blended in (Paul gobbled this up right away).
Added to all of this, it's been nice and cool here this weekend, so I've had the chance to turn on my oven and bake several batches of treats for them (mini muffins and peanut butter cookies) with rice flour.  Most of it has been put into the freezer in tupperware containers for later this summer when it's too hot to bake and they need treats of some sort.
The mini muffins have rice flour, caned pumpkin, honey, olive oil, baking powder, and eggs while the peanut butter cookies have peanut butter, apple sauce, canned pumpkin, oatmeal, and rice flour in them.  They smell fabulous when they're baking and the whole house smells of peanut butter!  Maybe that explains why Annie follows me around the kitchen when I'm baking.

I know this is not the best shot, but it works.  She loves to try to help me bake.  

food!

Annie is usually itchy all the time with little red bumps all over her belly (they make me think of the chicken pox).  I'm hypervigilant about their flee/tick repellent I put on them and the heartgard that they take (we live in the south with swamps and rivers that the misquotes LOVE).  But Ann has always itched.  We wash, we dry, we switched to a salmon as first ingredient with no wheat food.  We clean her ears like crazy.  We've tried the expensive grain free food (she turned her nose up at it and Paul, who never itches, chowed down.).  Yoi!  Recently, she woke me up in the middle of the night from the other room with both doors closed scratching (and I can sleep through almost anything). She never scratches open her skin, except for 1 spot on her ear.   

When I've mentioned any of this to the vet, I'm told that they can run expensive tests, but they still may not know what all she's allergic to. I've got a few friends with dogs with allergies and I've heard the horror stories of vet bills.  Annie and Paul are generally healthy dogs who get a once a year check up, updated shots, a new pack of heart worm preventative, and a clean bill of health.  

About a week ago, I started doing the raw diet with both of them.  I've got to admit, I'm not doing the true hard core RAW diet.  In other words, I'm cooking the meat.  If I had the money to buy organic clean, don't have to worry my mind about the meat or the money, I'd do raw meat for them in an instant.  However, I'm a public school teacher in a small southern town.  My husband is presently a college student.  Money has to be factored into anything we do.  So into a mini crock pot it goes.  

Generally, I buy chicken because it's the cheapest thing and cooks well in the crock pot.  It's also simple to buy it boneless.  A pound of it can be tossed into the crockpot in the AM, and dinner is ready by the time I get home with out consuming large amounts of my time, electricity, and it's not burnt (which is more than I can say about our dinner some nights). 

I usually shred the chicken some and put something else in with it like ground up egg shells, or yogurt, peanut butter helps pills go down, scrambled eggs get inhaled, and rice is always a good friend.  

When Annie and Paul were on dry kibble, they usually looked at the food with mild disinterest, "oh, it's that again."  Now they charge into their room while I walk down the hall balancing 2 bowls. Like a true 6 year old excited for something yummy, Annie even jumps on the bed, spins around, and hops back down.   

Best of all, most of her itchiness is gone!  I still clean her ears once a week, but no more little red bumps, no more neosporon in her ear and no more hearing her itch all night.