The Katzke Dog Diary

Carey Jones’ article in Serious Eats about corn products in human food and her experiments with cutting them out has applications to your dog’s health, too: Have you ever read the ingredients on your dog’s bag of kibble? You should consider shying away from corn products for your dog for the same reasons that Ms. Jones gives as applied to humans.

And it’s worse for cats: Even if the carbohydrates from wheat and corn filler products aren’t in a sweetener form, much like enzymes in the human mouth convert the starches to sugars, the same thing happens in a cat’s mouth. But cats walk on all fours, and regularly regurgitate the sugar into their mouth. Which rots their teeth. If you’re feeding Science Diet t/d (the dental prescription diet): Go read the ingredients label on the bag. And then smack yourself in the forehead with the heel of your hand, and go buy your cat a bag of Innova Evo.

I clicked into this link about human grade dog food from Dolittler and it immediately struck a chord with me: My vets displayed the same confusion when I mentioned that I was feeding Wellness Simple to Henry, and the diet change had cleared up his major digestive tract problem. They’d never heard of it, and didn’t know it existed. They couldn’t tell me if baked or pressed kibble was better for a dog, they couldn’t recommend similar products or even understand why I was paying more than $30 for a 50 lbs bag. In fact, my vets didn’t know any details about any food besides the Science Diet that they carry in the store.

I completely understand why that is. Veterinary students are bombarded with Hill’s advertisements and get free food from Hill’s, Purina, and several other manufacturers through their entire time in veterinary school. When they’re out of veterinary school, Hill’s keeps their clinic stocked with anything they could need and don’t put a lot of demands on the vet. They also are sometimes the only supplier of the specialized prescription diets that some pets need… and those foods, in many cases, are the only thing that will work in a particular case. Why would they bother learning anything else

Luckily, my vet is awesome and has invited me to share some of my food research with him. He also examined Henry’s stool before and after … on many occasions, as we were troubleshooting things! … and agreed with me that it really was the good food that helped him come as far as he has. If you’re feeding good food and you haven’t talked to your vet about the benefits, I encourage you to do so.

Eowyn’s nickname when she was a little puppy was “Munch Rat” because she chewed on EVERYTHING. She’d chew on furniture. On parts of the house. On walls. On furniture. On pillows. Towels. Bedding. Her food dishes. The inside of the crate. Other dogs in the house. Before she came to live with me, she even once ate my ex-girlfriend’s Battery Operated Boyfriend. (Phone call: “Do you know what YOUR dog did?”)

Finding toys that she stays interested in and can’t destroy in minutes is difficult. It’s basically limited to Kongs, Rawhides, and a few others. There’s a few web stores that offer dog toys in wholesale quantities, but you usually have to buy some absurd quantities (well, yeah, wholesale!) or a set dollar amount before they’ll even take your order, much less give you a discount. And then there’s shipping to pay for.

I joined Amazon Prime this month because it offers free 2nd day shipping on any orders you make for a year. The tradeoff is like Costco — you can buy cheaper bulk quantities of stuff, you can get things a dollar or two (or more) cheaper than you would at a retail store, and you can sometimes find a wider variety and/or backorder without dealing with retail stock-outs. Just be aware that not all things are sold by Amazon Prime, so you might have to pay shipping on some things if you buy them through a 3rd party — and some of the 3rd parties have some serious shipping costs.

Disclaimer/Full Disclosure: The following Amazon URLs have my Amazon Affiliate code embedded in them. If you click them and then purchase something, I will get a share of the purchase price of the things you buy. You will not be charged anything extra. If I do happen to get some, I immediately turn any money I get back into dog treats and split them between my kids and a foster rescue, so you’re really helping the pooches if you do click through. Thanks!

Air Kongs are a great example. Henry’s learning to fetch. It’s been fun with the Air Kongs because they squeak and are interactive. At certain retailers in my area, Air Kongs can go for up to $17. Amazon has them for $11.10. With the free shipping, it’s well worth saving $6-7. And regular Kongs can be had too — Eo’s favorite snacks, XL Black Kongs, will only run you $15 instead of the $19 that PetSmart charges.

A good example with training treats is Zukes Minis. The local store that carries quality, healthy dog treats will have the Peanut Butter variety from time to time in the six ounce bags for $4.29-$5 per bag — Amazon also carries the Chicken and the nigh-unobtainable Salmon.

When you’re prone to dropping a couple hundred bucks a month on the dogs like I am (between vet visits, flea and heartworm preventative, medications (Henry’s Prozac and Eo’s pain meds), every last cent counts… and between christmas gifts and dog stuff, I’ve earned my Amazon Prime membership back before the free trial’s even up.

I feel like a complete dork for making this post, but — Henry, for the first time in at least three months and probably a year, has had consistently solid stool for three days running. What did it? I switched him from Innova Adult to Wellness Simple Venison and Rice … I think he thought it was bland at first, but the difference was immediate and obvious.

Also, he stayed in his crate quietly for an entire 8 hour workday today. Talk about a day of accomplishments for him… and one hell of a lot of relief for me.

Fruitables were developed by a clinician/nutritionist at the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine, and I was given a couple of samples by a friend. I’m happy to report that the kids loved them to a tail-wagging extreme.

When looking at training treats, there’s three things I look at. The first is ingredients and caloric content. (Pupperoni? Bad. Our usual 100% dried chicken chips / cheap lunch meat? Good.) The second is smell. The smell of the treat has to be SUPER DUPER so that the kids will want them even when they can’t see them. Remember, I’m training a couple of dogs that are mixed hounds at best and exclusively sighthound at worst. The final thing is portability. This is where the wonderful cheap lunch meat, which is usually well-regarded, fails — it’s hard to separate the pieces, it’s hard to control how much I have with me in my training pouch, and if left out or on a long training “exercise” (aka a day at the office for public desensitization / socialization) … well, it’s better if you have a refrigerator, ifyaknowwhatImean.

If you can’t find them at your local pet store yet, you can order them from Amazon.com. There’s several varieties available:

• Pumpkin & Blueberry
• Pumpkin & Banana
• Pumpkin & Apple
• Pumpkin & Graham
• Canned Dry Food Supplement – For mixing with / supplementing your dog’s dry food.

My only wish, which has been communicated back to to Dr. Bauer, is for smaller bits. The 9 calorie cookies are great, but it was too easy to go through them quickly. I ended up (approximately) quartering the cookies for our training session. He responded to my email by saying that they had heard that (and also had found in the process that birds greatly enjoy the treats) and were planning to produce something along those lines in the future.

It’s a bit of a thick read and I suggest using an outlining tool or pad of paper to keep track as you read through it, but the FDA’s animal feed labeling requirements is a fascinating look into the world of the highly processed food industry.

In my original review of the Everlasting Treat Ball, I pointed out that a large, smart dog could get the treats out by chewing the long way on the ball itself and would then very rapidly consume the treat.

At ~ 60 lbs, Henry is a “large” dog (although he’s at least fifteen pounds short of Eowyn), but (bless his heart) he wouldn’t qualify in anyone’s book as “smart.” The Large Everlasting Treat Ball (with both “ends” filled with Chicken refills) occupied his exclusive attention for three entire days with him cooped up in his crate. In fact, it’s one of the few things (besides a beef bone, which I won’t leave him alone with because he’ll eat the entire thing) that has kept him somewhat happy in the crate by himself.

… you get kicked out of a pet food store for writing down the ingredients on different bags of dog food so that you can research them at home.

*hangs head in shame*

The most important choice you make about your dog’s health is their food. Dogs can and will eat pretty much anything … table scraps, birds and bunnies they catch in the back yard, the newspaper, your sneakers… but SHOULD they?

I never ever feed my dogs table scraps. On the other hand, I will trim meat before cooking it, cook the trimmings separately for them, and supplement their kibble meals with it. Most of the spices I like are things dogs shouldn’t have — garlic, pepper, etc.

Innova entered Eowyn’s diet two weeks before her surgery. I bought a small bag of it as a ‘treat’ at the feed store when I was picking up some other supplies. Her body’s reaction to it was so favorable that I haven’t stopped feeding it since. She gets large breed, Henry gets your normal adult food since his hardy body doesn’t seem to need the same supplements that her joints do. He’s put on fifteen pounds. He has hair growing on his belly and other male parts for the first time in his life. He no longer suffers from mites and other infections. I’m only half kidding when I say that Innova could probably cure cancer. A friend of mine who feeds her dogs raw says that she feels the same way about kibble vs. raw… she doesn’t like processed food at all.

The benefits of feeding a quality food, no matter what you choose, is huge. The dogs poop less. They fart less. They need to eat less food (by volume) to maintain the same level of health. They have healthy coats that don’t shed as constantly. (I went from sweeping every other day to sweeping once a week.) They have more energy and rest better. I think the only side effect I don’t like is that they don’t think the treats I have for them are as good anymore. Time to start buying dried liver slices again, I guess…

When we went in for Eowyn’s hip evaluation, and I asked why her hips in particular were so bad, one of the reasons was malnutrition during youth and adolescence. That fits — my ex-girlfriend, now a veterinarian in a city near you, was feeding them Beneful … which is just one step better than Ol’ Roy. I think sawdust has more nutritional value than Beneful does.

One other things that my dogs don’t eat is Science Diet. Science Diet is crap. I think it used to be good, but these days it’s mostly filler and it fails just about every measurement of it’s ingredients. Hills does spend a lot of money selling it to veterinarians, who then sell it to you. Don’t buy Science Diet!

I’m working on a database to track ingredients and to develop a quantitative method of rating foods based on their ingredients and processing, but I’m buried under another project right now so it’ll have to wait a few weeks. I’m starting to collect evidence. If you want to help me with that and have a digital camera, please leave a comment with your email address and I’ll get in touch with you.

I’ve added Sara Ireck’s method for grading dog food to my site. I know that it’s not a very scientific method, but I hope it helps some dog owners make a good choice about food for their pet.

Keep in mind that the cost differences for feeding a better grade are slight. Purina Pro Plan All Breed is about $32/33 lbs at PetSmart, and gets an F. I pay $51/33 lbs for Innova Adult and it gets an A+. For $20 every other month, and the giant difference that Eowyn and Henry have shown healthwise? I’d say it’s worth it.

A lot of dog owners that I talk to at classes and stuff complain about shedding. Do you want your dog to stop shedding? Feed it better food! Want your dog to chew on things less? Feed it better food and they won’t go looking for nutrients from your shoes! Want your dog to poop less, or more reliably? Feed the dog better food, and they’ll poop less (because they use more!) … this isn’t rocket science! But it is all about your dog’s health.