Why is my puppy "reserving" her poo?

[Omega_Glory]

@Renee

Honestly, it’s so simple. Takes maybe 10 minutes a week, cost about what Iams or similar costs, even here in Okinawa where food is expensive. My basic recipe is about 1 cup rice, 2 cups water, 2 lbs ground beef and/or pork, and a couple of cups of frozen veggies. Pinch of salt. Sometimes add beans. Put the rice in the pot with water, dump meat and veggies on top, cook as you would plain rice. I supplement vitamin e capsules and calcium every day, although I’m not fully convinced it’s necessary. It has made such a difference in the dogs–much less shedding, much, much less poop. Their teeth look great. I know it sounds like a pain, but I’d rather spend time cooking than picking up dog crap in the yard, you know?

That does sound simple, but I’d be concerned about them missing out on something that they’d get in a mass produced, balanced food.

[Renee]

@Omega_Glory

That does sound simple, but I’d be concerned about them missing out on something that they’d get in a mass produced, balanced food.

I was worried about that at first, too. But everyone recommends people get their vitamins and minerals and whatnot from whole foods rather than vitamins. I’m not sure why it is assumed that the opposite is true for dogs. The above recipe is their regular, day-to-day food, but they also get scraps from us like fish skin and bones (raw, of course), raw chicken bones, eggs, dairy and fruit. They definitely eat a healthier, more balanced diet than I do, and I eat pretty well. We don’t (or at least most people don’t) worry about having complete, balanced nutrition in every meal they eat, but they seem to think that their dogs can’t handle any variety in their diets. They let their kids eat mcdonalds (and I’m not judging that–I was a picky kid who ate mcdonalds, and I turned out fine), but worry that real meat and real vegetables are less healthy than animal byproducts and cornmeal in their dog’s food.

I think that dogs have been living with humans for thousands of years now, and they can pretty much eat what we do and be healthy. Obviously there is going to be some debate about this, but even human nutrition does not seem to be well understood–some people think that the atkins diet is the healthiest way to eat, some say vegan–and most people could survive either way. I seriously doubt that as much research has gone into dog nutrition as has gone into human nutrition, so we decided to try the homemade food approach (with some trepidation, I might add) and it has been so great that we couldn’t imagine going back to kibble.

I probably sound kind of insane here. I get that. But every time we dog sit for a dog on regular food, we just can’t believe the poop! My og, they poop SO MUCH! And it smells AWFUL! And the dogs themselves smell bad. So if you’d rather cook than pick up dog crap, I do recommend you try it for a couple of months. I cook once a week, takes about 10 minutes, and keep it in the fridge. They’re fed twice a day. It has really changed the whole dog experience for us in a good way. And I’ll shut up now. But if you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me.