Dinner time

Max and Mylie's favorite  dinner, a chicken piece and a 9 oz veggie pattie.

What did I notice last night??

Well, Max was over by me for his evening petting and I noticed he is filling out or 'buffing up' and not in a fat way but in a muscle way.  He's now just about where we want him and I don't think we ever got him to that point when he was on the kibble dog food.  He just couldn't eat enough (or didn't want to) to be buffed up like a normal boxer should be.  He always was right at the point of ribs showing etc.  

He used to also have this dry spot on his nose and it got to the point where it was covering 1/2 of his nose and growing.  Last night I looked (and not sure at what time it started to improved) but that spot was almost gone.  Not sure if this even has anything to do with the diet but it's a GOOD thing!  The vet told me that is very normal for boxers and nothing you can do about it.  

Every day that goes by they are more excited to eat their dinner and they can eat it in under 3 minutes now!  BIG change from the 20 min they started with lol.  They got those bones down now and have never had a problem with them at all.  I gave them a little liver last night and they loved that as well.  They have never turned down a meat yet and I really don't expect them too.  Oh something else I noticed was their poo has changed some (most likely because of the new adds we had recently)  but Max's was a little lose and Mylies is just larger but not runny.  Took them to the dog park and it was real fun to clean up after Max lol.  We will keep an eye on that and see if we need to give Max less organs and more bones maybe.  Will update next on their weigh in day. 

Weigh in number 2 for the dogs

 Got the dogs weighed in tonight and it was good. 

Max was 64.4 which is .4 lbs more then what he started at so were headed in the right direction with him.

Mylie was 56 again which is right where we want her so nothing will change with her.  

They both got a little extras with their meals but Max got more by weight.  I gave them about 8 oz each of extra cow tongue with their veggie pattie tonight and will continue to give them a little extra meat (chicken wings or cow tongue) with their veggie pattie.Max is still 'looking' thin (can see some sign of ribs showing, however he was always a hard dog to keep the weight on no matter how much kibble he ate) so we will continue to monitor him with that.  Mylie looks perfect so we will keep her at 56 lbs or right around there.  Still very happy with the Raw diet for them both and do not plan on going back.  

Cow tongue?

I honestly wasn't sure how the dogs would take to it but oh wow they REALLY enjoyed it.  It was their first time eating it and we served it as a side to their nightly veggie pattie.  I have fed more to both tonight because we had the tongue that needed to be used soon.  So tomorrow they will get more.  I haven't read up a lot about the muscle meat (I'm assuming that the tongue is considered a muscle meat).  So will do that tonight before I go too overboard on it.  The butcher I have has TONS of them and he's selling them to me A LOT cheaper then in the store.  Will update on what I find out.

Update

So far so good.  The dogs are enjoying their food more and more every day.  One thing I have noticed is that Max seems to continue to lose weight so we added more food to his day.  Mylie is doing great though.  NO more weight lose and she looks perfect right now.  Will weigh Max twice a week until we get a steady weight on him.  He now needs to gain close to two lbs.  I don't think that will be hard at all seeing he's WILLING to eat it.  We just have to up his portions.  He is VERY active now.  So we give him his 12 oz of chicken plus a little extra beef or whatever we have on hand that day.  The dogs will get their first taste of beef tongue prob tomorrow.   And Max got an extra patty as well yesterday.  We will see what that does for his weight after a few days of that.  Otherwise, still going great and the dogs seem to do well.  Its coming up on three weeks now. 

The Truth Comes Out In the End - A Poo Story

One thing I kept reading all the time while reading up on the BARF (Bones And Raw Food) diet was how different a kibble dog's poo was from a raw-fed dog's.  I didn't believe the stories or at least assumed there was some exaggerating going on.  Oh how wrong I was!

I kept reading things like: "a fraction of the size" or "no smell at all" or "we never have to clean up after him anymore." No way.  How could that be right?  They are eating about the same amount (by weight).  What goes in must come out right?

Apparently that is true for kibble but not so much for a raw food diet. I thought I'd share a couple of pictures.  They aren't mine but they mirror what I'm seeing with my dogs.  Funny enough, it never occurred to me to take photos of dog poop for "before-and-after" purposes.  (I wish I had thought of it now though.)

From http://neversaynevergreyhounds.blogspot.com/2009/07/its-in-bag.html

First, overall quantity really is a fraction of what it was.  In fact, at times our lab produces even less.  (I haven't checked on Max's since he runs way to the far corner of our property to do his business.)

Then there is the smell.  A sudden wind change after Mylie dropped a doggy-land-mine was nearly enough to knock you out.  It definitely was enough to drive you away from the area. Since we switched the dogs to raw foods, I can honestly say I haven't smelled a thing even once.  I'm not going to go and put my face down there to get a good whiff, but before 10'-15' was more than close enough.


Finally, those "no clean up" rumors look like they'll be pretty much true once we get to spring again.  Someone took the time to take several comparison photos over time.  Here is the difference between kibble and BARF poo after only six days!

Even in the cold weather it really does literally crumble to dust just like in this photo.  When spring rains come the evidence will be gone.  No more stepping in a big pile of poo!  


Just wanted to share my 2¢ on the real scoop about poop.
  

An update and their first weigh in after switch.

The dogs are into their second week on the Raw Food Diet and it's been and amazing week.  We already see changes and they are GOOD ones.  The best change (for us) is the poo amounts (will do a post on this next)  The water they consume is hardly anything now.  A bowl of water used to last them a day IF that.  Now we have a bowl sitting out there for days and we have to refresh it before it's even gone now.  And of course I have mentioned the NO farting.  Not even one since we have switched them over to raw.  It's just great!  I'm sure we will soon see other great results the longer we keep them on it. They are now devouring the food MUCH faster then when they first started.  It used to take them about 20 min to finish a chicken quarter, today it takes them 7 minutes tops.  They got the hang of it now! 


They continue to love the foods and their Veggie patties as well.  They really look forward to breakfast and dinner time now.  We are very happy we switched them over and will continue to update on how they are doing.

WEIGH IN:   

Well tonight's weigh in wasn't bad.  Both dogs lost  just a little weight.  Mylie lost a lb (she started out at 57 and she was at 56 tonight) not bad considering she did look a little overweight so we won't do much change with her unless she loses any more next week.   Max on the other hand will have a bit more food every third day (to start) he has only lost a 1/2 lb (Max's weight was 64 lbs and is now 63.5) but we did want him to gain a lb.  We will see what next week brings with the extra he  will be getting.