The menu

What's for dinner?  A common statement, and one that I ask myself often when thinking about my dogs.  My dogs eat a huge variety of food; everything from raw meat to dry dog food.   In the last couple of days they've had cooked chicken, raw pork, cooked salmon dinner that I had prepared and was in the freezer, dog food, raw beef and sardines.

The girls will pretty much eat everything; it is a wonderful thing when dogs are not picky.  Luke on the other hand is fussy, complicated fussy.  His preference for food is our food; food that has been prepared for our palate.  Although one of his favorite foods is raw; beef or pork he doesn't care.  Because of Luke's highly challenging eating habits I also like to keep good treats on hand to add some much needed calories here and there.  I make my own cookies for him and he LOVES them.  (The recipe was posted several times on my FB group)  He has never turned them down so far.

Taking the leap from feeding dog food to real food can be a scary one.  Even once you've made the switch it can be a stressful time if you are worried about making sure that you get it all right.  Feeding our dogs is actually pretty easy.  Just think how wolves in the wild eat; no grocery store, no supplements, no balancing act.   I always discuss the fact that we don't give our own diet a second thought most of the time with new "real feeders."  Just considering that fact alone takes a bit of stress away.

Variety is the best way to go both for our own diet and our dogs.  Dogs need to eat a far larger portion of quality animal protein than we do and don't need near as much fruit and veggies.  Once you get the basic portions down it gets easier and easier.  Plus once you feel more comfortable with a big variety of foods to feed your dog the worry fades away.

I am learning new things about how to best feed dogs all the time.  All dogs are different so it doesn't always work for everyone in the pack but once you learn what all the dogs in your home or your just one dog does best on it's easy to rotate.  If you do feed dog food; buy the best you can afford.  Don't go with the ones who can afford to advertise the most on television, get the good stuff, the really good stuff.

I highly recommend the following book; Raw and Natural nutrition for dogs by Lew Olson.  It is my "go to," with feeding questions.