Tasty Tuesday-Summer Time Saute

Sometimes plain old kibble

gets a little......well dull.

Ugh, more boring old kibble.  Sheesh!

At times like these you need a kibble topper.  Mom's secrete formula is pretty simple: a meat, a fruit, and a veggie.  Since its summer mom used turkey, yellow summer squash and cherries.  (Note: there is some internet talk that wild cherries are bad for dogs, the pits are definitely bad as they contain trace amounts of cyanide.)  Apparently too many cherries can cause GI upset, but other information says a few cherries are good, if mom was making this again she would use blueberries.  If you do choose to use cherries make sure to pit them first.

Summer Time Saute

1 

 1 1lb ground meat (like turkey)

Diced summer squash


1/2 cup of fruit, blueberries are a good choice.  We used cherries but you have to be sure to pit them first.


Saute the meat, veggies, and fruit together and perk up the kibble!

Tasty Tuesday Fish Delish-Sardine Brownies

What with our graying muzzles and advancing years Mom likes to keep us all loaded up with healthy foodables.   One of her favorite foods to give is us is Sardines.  These stinky little fish are loaded with heart healthy Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Coenzyme Q 10, great stuff for aging hearts and brains, and they have DHA which is good for both older and developing puppy brains (so it should help Weasley work on  his smarts).

In fact Sardines are one of the Whole Dog Journal's five steps to upgrading your dogs diet.   So now that we have sold you on sardines what should you do with them? They are great just dumped atop a bowl of kibble which is how we usually eat them, and trust us even the pickiest dog will rarely turn them down, but why stop there?   We wanted to explore the baking possibilities of sardines so Mom made super easy sardine brownies for our Saturday Northern New Jersey Pug Extravaganza Meet Up.

Sardine Brownies

 3 3.75 oz cans of sardines in water, dumped into a bowl and mashed (do not drain)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups Brown Rice Flour 
1 Tbsp garlic powder

Preheat the oven to 325.  Stir all of the ingredients together until a smooth dough forms.  Spray a 9 inch square baking pan with non-stick spray and pour the brownie batter in.  Bake in the oven until cooked through, about 25 minutes.

Note: In the opinion of humans these brownies are STINKY our dad came home and said what is that smell! He thought mom had spilled are 64 ounce gallon of Salmon Oil Supplement  on the kitchen floor again.   So if your peeps bake these you may want to tell them to open some windows.   

Tasty Tuesday-The Rotation Diet

Ah meal time, a hungry hounds favorite part of the day 

 
Some of our favorite bloggers like Tucker the Crestie, Southern Fried Pugs, and Kol's Notes have detailed their super healthy diets prey model raw, home cooked, and raw respectively.   I've tried a bunch of different diets with my guys from the Iams I fed Norbert and Tubby when I first got them (shudder) to pre-made raw and home cooked.   

I personally believe that fresh raw food is the healthiest choice for dogs.  However, I have to consider cost and practicality too.   The hounds dad has an aversion to raw feeding and we split care of the dogs 50/50 so when we did try raw it had to be pre-made and with 5 dogs that was a bit of a cost no-no, though we tried it for awhile.  When I tried all home cooking I became a bit of a crazy lady boiling up pots of meats and veggies and struggling with tables and calculators in an attempt to balance the meals.  The last straw broke when I spilled a 2 lb bag of bone meal on the kitchen floor.   

So in an effort to feed my dogs a healthy diet and save my sanity I've settled on the rotation diet.  The basic concept of the rotation diet is that we all living things need variety in their food and that no commercial food is 100% complete.  By rotating through a variety of high quality kibbles you get a range of ingredients and help balance out flaws.   For years vetrinarianas told clients to avoid changing their dogs food as it might cause stomach  upset, but eating the same diet for years is not natural and Ive found that with my dogs as long as I switch to grain free formulas there is no tummy upset when we start a new bag.   Plus, the rotation diet is believed to help prevent allergies as overly limited diets can be a factor in food sensitivities.

 You can customize the rotation diet to your own needs easily, some people switch foods daily or weekly or monthly and some mix foods together.  We order grain free foods from Mr. Chewy 

 and use brands from the Whole Dog Journal's  list of approved dried foods, including Orijen, Wellness, and Solid Gold.  Since we have five dogs we order the largest bags and freshness is still not an issue (we always store the food in the bag as that helps retain the nutrients).  We make sure to rotate through protein sources alternating primarily chicken, fish, and beef based kibble.


In order to give the kibble an additional healthy boost I make sure to add some fresh foods.   I regularly add yogurt, cooked eggs, sardines, cooked ground meat and fresh fruits and veggies.  In a few minutes I can cook up ground turkey with a nutrient rich vegetable such as kale and some antioxidant filled berries and make a kibble topper much healthier then canned food, and for less.   


I also add plenty of supplements (we have a whole counter full).  I rotate the supplements too, but I always give salmon oil, Glucosamine, digestive enzymes, a green food supplement, milk thistle for the liver, and usually Curcumin for its antioxidant benefits.

This diet isn't appropriate for ever pup but it keeps us smiling!