You are what you eat.

You are what you eat and your dog is what they eat; what you feed them on a day to day basis.  Nutrition for dogs can be mind boggling to say the least.  Your Veterinarian will tell you one thing, the pet store owner another, friends something else and then there is the internet.  So much information to wade through; what is a person to do?   As far as I am concerned, you go real as much as possible.  So what does that mean?  It means real food.  The way that food was meant to be eaten.  Food that is the least processed as possible.  When food is processed it loses nutrition quality.  Real food is where it is at.

Variety is another important factor for me when feeding my dogs.  Feeding a variety of high quality foods is the best for our dogs.  The very old thought of just feeding one dog food and only that which we have all heard is not a good idea.  There are many people out there that proudly state "our dogs only ever get dog food, we do not feed people food."  Well, that is sad to hear and probably sprung from what their Veterinarian told them many years ago.  Not all Vets. think this way, many are realizing the benefits of a real food diet.  One very serious fallout from feeding only one food all the time is that the dog will most likely be easily upset.  Their digestive system is not capable of handling any sort of change in diet.  This digest upset only engrains the idea of not feeding anything else. 

When dogs eat a variety of food, they can eat a wide variety.  In the wild, wolves do not eat the same thing day in and day out.  No, they eat whatever they can.  Their daily diet may change drastically from day to day yet they are fine.  Do we eat the same thing every day of our life?  Nope.  I eat differently every day as do most people.  We have many options as far as what we eat; there are just as many for us to choose for our dogs.  My general rule of thumb as far as feeding processed dog food is that if there is a television advertisement for it, don't buy it.  If you can purchase it in a big box store, don't.  Research, research and research some more to find a quality dog food.  I choose real food over processed for my dogs.  I prefer canned over dry but keep dry on hand for when I'm in a pinch.

A dog will survive on low grade dog food; but they will thrive on a real diet.  I am a big believer in feeding the best that you can afford to feed.  If you want to feed kibble then buy the best that you can find.  I shop many different locations for specials on meat.  I have a deep freezer and fill it when I find a great deal.  I also buy things like BahiaBlue dehydrated Smelt as a treat and supplement to Luke and Elsa's diet.  They eat many different forms of animal protein and veggies.  I grow organic grass in a pot for them to much on and share much of my own meals with them.   I also have raw freeze dried Stella and Chewy patties to supplement their diet.  Lots and lots of different things. 

My goal when feeding my dogs is to do the best that I can.  Feeding the best does not mean spending a fortune on prime cuts of meat.  Dogs don't care if meat is tough, in fact tough is good for teeth.  If a food product says "not for human consumption" on it, should we really be feeding it to our dogs?  I can eat the food that I feed my dogs; of course I'm not into eating raw meat or sardines but if I wanted to eat it I could.

So, what's for breakfast this morning?