Two Bostons' Pet Blog

What is Cranimals? (Not garanimals for those of you who love to mix and match your children’s clothes)

Cranimals is a supplement that will make your dog very happy. It is made from organic, raw cranberries and comes in an easy-to dispense powder form.

Here’s a bit of info on each of the varieties Two Bostons carries:

Cranimals Original: Great for dogs and cats that suffer from urinary tract infections (UTI’s). Cranberries contain a substance called proanthocyanidins (PAC’s) which inhibit the attachment of E. coli, the most common culprit in UTI’s. For the same reason, this is great for dental health because it also prevents attachment of bacteria in the mouth. And, hey! February is National Dental Health Awareness month, so there is no better time to give this amazing little supplement a try!

Cranimals Gold: Another great option because in addition to the above, it contains DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) which is naturally found in breast milk. In the case of Cranimals, it comes from vegetarian algae. DHA is extremely important for brain development, as well as eyes, skin, and heart. Cranimals Gold is especially good for puppies. Hmmm…do you know of anyone who might need this? I’m pretty sure I do!

Cranimals Very Berry:  Is just what it sounds like…Very Berry because it contains blueberry and raspberry extract in addition to cranberry. This creates a one-two-three punch of powerful antioxidants which have been shown to have anti-carcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and anti-viral properties.

This awesome supplement sure packs a punch. Check it out for yourself today.

Ok, here it is…the last post on canned dog food. Today I am opening Beef Tripett by Tripett.

What is this particular type of food? Well, it is green beef tripe. No, it isn’t the color green…it just means that the tripe is pure and unbleached. Tripett contains the highest quality human grade sources of tripe and, honestly, if your pet was a wild animal, this is what he or she would instinctively want to feed on.

What are the benefits to feeding your pet Tripett?

1. Cleaner teeth
2. Better digestive system
3. Healthy skin & coat
4. Improved eating habits
5. Rejuvenation of older dogs
6. Healthy & nutritious for growing puppies
7. Solution for sensitive stomachs.

I’m going to be completely honest here, the scent of this particular canned food is NOT for the faint of heart. AdreAnne warned me, and boy oh boy, she was not kidding. There is a strong and distinctive aroma to this particular food. That being said, Diesel WENT WILD when he got a whiff of it and I almost couldn’t finish taking pictures because he kept trying to get the food.

It’s also not the prettiest food I’ve shown you. It is certainly a solid consistency and easy to break apart; however, you will want to do that quickly and walk away. But, it does have my favored pull top tab opener, so at least opening the can was a snap.

One of the most amazing things to me about this product was that I couldn’t even get an action shot of Diesel eating it. By the time I adjusted my camera, he had licked the bowl clean. So, in terms of the aroma, at least is was very short lived in my house.

Although this could certainly be mixed with kibble, it wasn’t as wet of a gravy as some of the other cans I’ve opened for you. It was solid enough to feed as a stand alone, and clearly from his reaction, I am going to have to rotate it into his diet.

I certainly hope this series has been informative for you. If you have any questions, please feel free to either post them here or stop by either of our Two Bostons locations and our team members can get your dog on the right food path.

As part of my efforts to keep Deisel’s diet and my wallet healthy simultaneously, I have added freeze-dried food into the rotation. As he weighs in at almost 100 pounds, he requires 4 patties of raw food daily. That can get rather costly for my family; however, I am not willing to skimp on his diet since I became an educated dog owner. I like feeding him freeze-dried food over kibble, as the moisture content is much higher when re-constituted.

Now, nothing beats the ease of having his next meal waiting for him in the fridge (I simply remove two patties from the freezer and place them in the fridge when I feed him the ones in the fridge…that way they are defrosted and ready to go when I am ready to feed him), but, I have to say that I find preparing freeze-dried food ridiculously easy…almost as easy as defrosting raw patties, or scooping kibble for that matter.

Let me show you how this works. I start with his food bowl, a 1 cup scoop (this will vary for you depending on how large your dog is…but the feeding guide is written directly on the bag of food), and a bag of Grandma Lucy’s Artisan Freeze-Dried Food. This week he is eating Venison.

Next, I scoop two cups into his dish…it is kind of flaky:

Then I add two cups of warm water. Grandma Lucy’s calls for equal parts water to food; however, you can add more or less if you like depending on how thick or thin you would like the food to be:

Then I set it on the counter and wait five minutes. This is what it looks like at first:

This is what it looks like at 2.5 minutes:

This is what it looks like when it is ready:

This is the biggest problem I have with preparing the freeze-dried food:

Is it ready yet? How about now? Is it ready? Mom! Mom! Mom! Is it ready? How about now? Now? Is it ready now? How about now? Mom! Mom! MOM! IS IT READY? YET? HOW ABOUT NOW!?!?!

And then it is ready and it is going, going:

G.O.N.E.

There you have it. One very happy and healthy dog, and one very happy and healthy wallet. By alternating his meals between freeze-dried and raw, I am able to make that bag last roughly two weeks…which you would not be able to do feeding a strict diet of only freeze-dried. However, it does stretch things out nicely when you alternate. You can even choose to make half the amount and supplement the other half with raw in the same meal. It is ok to mix the two. The only thing you can’t mix raw with is kibble. And, there is nothing wrong with feeding your dog a high quality grain-free kibble or can food. I simply wanted to include more moisture in Diesel’s diet.

I am so glad that I tried this type of food. And, honestly, so is Diesel!

Guess what! Just a few more days until my party.

Here is my Top Ten Tip Number 4: It is important to stay active!

One of my favorite ways to get enough exercise is to play with my Dad. My favorite toy is the Chase It. I love to, well, chase it!

I love how fun this toy is! You can see how much fun I have in this video:

Daisy and Dad Playing

Isn’t that cool! I’ll talk to you tomorrow!

~Daisy

Hey there! Daisy here with my Top Ten Tip Number 5:

Keep that coat CLEAN!

I love to soap up with Gorgeous Dog from the Bobbi Panter line. It is very gentle as it is sodium laural sulphate free, but it keeps me smelling amazing — like peaches! YUM!

I adore lounging in my bubble bath and really appreciate that I have such a great shampoo to keep me clean.

My Mom and Dad have a very large variety of superb products to make bath time a great experience. Check them out here.

Talk to you tomorrow!

~Daisy

Hello Everyone! I have a very special birthday coming up and I’m letting you all in on my beauty secrets!

A girl has got to eat right to stay in shape.

I love to eat raw food. It helps to keep my weight down. Eating grain free is very important too.

Ahem, older (and wiser) joints sometimes get a little inflamed. Grains in food can really exacerbate inflammation in my joints. So eating well helps me to stay in shape and keeps my mobility at it’s peak.

My Mom and Dad have done a lot of research on this and they have really been good about letting the whole team down at both stores in on all the information too. They know that each pet has a different digestive system and that food is not a one-size-fits-all situation. Be sure to stop in or call and anyone there will be thrilled to help you figure out what type of food would be best for your pet’s diet.

You can check this page out to see some of the different type of raw foods they have. And check this page out to see some of the different types of grain free foods they have. Like I said, it can be confusing, so don’t be shy about asking questions.

Well, that is my first tip for Aging Gracefully. Check back tomorrow for number 9!

~Daisy

Many of you may be thinking about moving your pet into a more holistic approach to attain a healthy lifestyle. You feed your pet the best food available, you may even be known to slip in a bit of cod liver oil to boost Omega 3′s.