flashback

I have rediscovered some old videos we took of Dash when he was just a puppy.  This is my absolute favorite.  I still don't understand why he plays with his food like that.  Even now, when he receives a really great treat he savors it.  He'll go to the side and carefully place it down.  Stare at it for a few seconds.  Pick it up gingerly.  Put it back down.  Then eat it after a minute or so.  LOL.

blue dog food

So if anyone read my "food choices" post, we had been feeding Dash a raw food diet.  Unfortunately, our wedding budgeting calls for cut backs everywhere, including our mini Aussie puppy's extravagant diet.  Thus, we started the Blue food diet a couple of months ago.

After doing some research online, we found that the Blue brand of dog food is made of healthy, real ingredients.  There are no by-products, artificial colors/flavors/preservatives, soy, wheat, or corn.  Dash eats the puppy dry food mixed with various flavors of the canned wet food, which contains meat and veggies.  It still creates smelly poop (which the raw food diet didn't) but, you can't win them all.

Understandably, this brand is on the fancy end of the dog food chain so the prices are higher than some of the other well known brands.  However, we've found it to be a satisfying compromise between bargain kibble and the raw food diet.  So far... Dash is very pleased with the switch.

food choices

...As a precursor - keep in mind we live in San Francisco. This city is full of the craziest new age, all natural, certified organic, heritage bred etc. fanatics in the nation...

Dash started off eating kibble as most puppies do. We started with the Innova brand because we wanted to give Dash the best, not just some generic stuff from the grocery store. It seemed easy enough. Scoop and serve. But as luck would turn out, Dash suffered from bad diarrhea. To try to calm his stomach, we chose the Wellness brand and mixed out the Innova. In the end Giardia was to blame for Dash's diarrhea, but over the course of our puppy kibble experience we decided maybe it just wasn't for us.

Then Papa Dash learned about "the raw diet". It's sort of based on what wolves would eat in the wild. It's supposed to make dogs healthier overall... i.e. coat, teeth, breath, lifespan, frequency of vet visits and illness etc. There are many different opinions and I am by no means an authority on any of them. (If you're really curious I suggest researching on your own.) All I know is we started feeding Dash part raw bones, raw meat, and veggies.

At first we bought our meat from places like Safeway and Costco. It felt really good knowing we were giving Dash fresh, healthy food every day. In fact, he probably ate healthier than we did most nights. However, the variety of proper meats and bones available was pretty slim at stores like these. Plus, when we broke down the price per meal, Dash's food was costing us more than we were comfortable spending.


So, we reluctantly switched back to kibble. This time we went with the Solid Gold brand. At first we were worried Dash would snub it after dining on real food. What we should have been worried about was the increased frequency and horrid stank of Dash's poop! It was utterly gut wrenching and after about a week we agreed to switch back to real food ASAP!!


Thank goodness for SF Raw. Papa Dash did us a tremendous favor in finding this great local resource for raw foods. Their staff was non-judgmental and super helpful to newbies like us, their prices are very reasonable, and their selection is huge and very high quality. Now our freezer is stocked with a whole rabbit, chicken heads/necks/feet, ground beef and organs, whole sardines, and natural tripe!
Hold on now. Believe me! As someone who cringes at the sight of raw meat and orders steak medium well because I can't stand the sight of the blood... and as someone who can't eat foods like shrimp when they have eyeballs because it makes me feel guilty... watching my dog crunch on raw chicken heads has certainly been a sobering experience. And yes! RAW chicken. I thought it was insane at first too. Just look up raw diets for yourself.


Overall, as I have learned many times as a puppy parent, it's not always about what's the most comfortable or the easiest for me as the owner. It's about doing what I can to provide the best for my dog...