Some days it is really hard for me to believe that I’ve only been feeding Diesel a healthy diet since July. In the short four months that have past, I have noticed a distinct difference in his behavior, energy, and frankly, the amount of waste that we have to pick up.
He turned six in October, but his energy level is as high as it ever was as a puppy. His coat is beautiful. His allergies are under control. He smells better. He has less gas.
So, what’s the big deal? What took me so long to change his diet?
I’m going to be honest here. First, it was lack of education on what “healthy” exactly was. And second, it was cost.
We had always been the type of family to purchase whatever was on sale. He never had the same type of kibble in a row. I must admit, this made the transition to feeding him his new diet very easy on us, because he was used to rotating food. This makes changing his protein source quite painless. Although that part was unintentional, it did work out to our advantage. But, raising a family in this day and age, it was difficult to see how I could feed a 100lb dog a raw diet and afford to continue to feed us all.
Also, I bought into the hype that if we continued him on the “healthy” dry food, he would be fine. And I thought he was. However, he was itchy, and smelly, and lethargic at times, and the dog run was a mess…literally.
So, all that being said, I am going to start a mini-series here on how I made the switch. I will tell you how I overcame my fear of the cost, because, honestly, feeding him the proper diet is going to end up saving me thousands in vet bills. And, seeing him now like this, makes me wonder what took me so long.
