Blonde By Nature

TimberWolf came to us a healthy 14 pounds of craziness with a little care package from the breeders. The package included some reading material such as “Meet Your New Puppy”, “Keeping Your Puppy Healthy” and one that I still haven’t been able to read yet called “When Is It Time To Say Goodbye?” It also included a small bag of the Kirkland Signature kibble and a courtesy PetPlan Insurance 3-month subscription. One last fact you should know: he also came to us with the poops…day in, day out, night in, night out he shat and shat hardcore (thank goodness he came toilet trained).

Thinking it was the food causing the stomach upset, I did a bit of research on dog food (kibble) and thought that I would switch him over to something else to try. It led me to a dark, dark place of trial and error on following foods:

1. Go Natural Grain Free Formula – Still bad
2. Medi-Cal soft food Gastro Formula – Improved, but I instinctively felt it didn’t provide enough of natural ingredients for a growing pup
3. Innova Evo – BAD, BAD behaviour and poops worsened
4. Koko’s Gourmet Pet Food (a local, human-grade cooked diet) – OK, but still not perfect

*note: we roughly gave each food a 3-4 week attempt and progressively changed the brands over a course of 4 days.

Amongst all this, numerous vet visits to check for parasites, fever or illness and of course nothing. At this point the Wolf was 7 months old and very very skinny. He drank a lot, scratched a lot, chewed a lot, had runny eyes, chronic ear infections, ate 6 pairs of my precious Hanky Panky underwear (pooped out 2 at the office picnic, lovely) and acted like he had canine version of ADHD. (By the way ladies, if you have never tried Hanky Panky underwear just trust me, put the $25 out and TRY IT).

One beautiful Sunday afternoon, we wandered on down to the local Dirty Doggz Bath House to get him spiffy-pooed up when the owner kindly asked by the Wolf was so skinny. I had to explain our situation at which time she suggested I check out In The Raw about 3 blocks away. Interesting concept…so we did just that.

Upon entering, the owner Rob gave me a some clear and precise information at which point I felt the heavens open up and the angels sing. Hallelujah! OF COURSE this makes sense! But to be honest at that point I was desperate for a full nights sleep – damn husband could sleep though a hurricane – and started the transition immediately. Despite already making the decision to try it, I developed a very unhealthy relationship with my laptop and began to Google every single thing I could on the raw diet aka BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food). The rest is history.

Stay tuned for the next article which will delve further into the raw theory, the transition and the lessons learned…

Bookmark It

Hide Sites