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?
- Cleaner teeth
- Better digestive system
- Healthy skin & coat
- Improved eating habits
- Rejuvenation of older dogs
- Healthy & nutritious for growing puppies
- 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.
I’ve worked so hard to get Diesel on a healthy diet, and I want to make certain the treats I provide (because, let’s face it, we all need a treat when we are on a diet) are not counter-acting all of my hard work. Andy and AdreAnne have done a phenomenal job making sure that Two Bostons is stocked with simply THE BEST treats on the planet. One of my favorites is this:
Are you familiar with Pet Fairy Noshers?
This is one of Diesel’s favorite treats ON.THE.PLANET.
In fact, he searches for it every time I open the refrigerator (much to my husband’s dismay…dog nose in the fridge argh!)
This yummy little snack is very rich in fiber and moisture…and with his skin and coat problems, I’m always looking for ways to sneak more moisture into him. A prolific water drinker he is not.
Now, I’m not going to lie to you…this is not the neatest of treats; however, if you freeze it, you are going to end up with much less of a mess on your hands. In fact, I even let him have his toy on my carpet at that point. Yes, you read that right, ON MY CARPET.
Pet Fairy Noshers could not be easier to use.
You open the jar (refrigerate after opening…but don’t let your dog see you put it in there…see above)
You try to get your dog’s Kong, or in my case his Monster Mouth, away from them
You use a spoon to fill the toy with some Pet Fairy Noshers
You pop it in the freezer for a little bit…usually under an hour, but it depends on how much you put in the toy and how firm you want the Pet Fairy Noshers to get…then you pull it out and give it to your dog
Looky there…he’s on the carpet! I did not mislead you!
Some other really easy ways for your pet to enjoy this product are directly from the spoon. I mean, who hasn’t eaten frosting right from the tub…anyone, anyone…no? Just me? Well, moving on, you could also dip your pet’s favorite treat right in the jar and feed it that way.
So what exactly is in there? Pumpkin and applesauce are the main ingredients. Pumpkin is a natural digestive aid to dogs, and we all know that our furry friends can sometimes need a little assistance in that arena. So this amazing little product is fun, yummy, and packs a punch too! Bonus!
I hope you’ll consider giving this amazing little snack a try.
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!
I love my dog. He is a wonderful addition to our family. I would never, EVER, intentionally harm him.
That is exactly what I was doing by feeding him willy nilly, whatever was on sale. In my last post, I told you about how we fed him a diet of kibble. I thought since it was brand name and marketed widely, we were fine.
He was really, really gassy. All the time. And, his waste was plentiful. {A bit more than plentiful, on occasions.}
Then, I stumbled upon this wonderful new job at Two Bostons. And this wonderful new education. And I was able to change our lives.
This is what I learned. Dogs’ digestive systems, by design, are not extremely sensitive. They only become sensitive when they are being consistently fed an incorrect diet. One that includes grains. This started to make perfect sense to me as I began to think of dogs historically and their closest relative…the wolf. Wolves do not hunt for grains, they hunt for meat. Protein. And, while the food I was feeding him had protein in it, grains were typically the first ingredient.
I learned that I had the right idea, switching his diet consistently; however, I had the wrong product and the wrong ingredients in those products.
Switching the source of protein is actually a very good practice. The main reason being that switching helps keep dogs from becoming overly sensitive to one source of protein. It also keeps things interesting. Think about it…you would not want to eat the same meal every day for the rest of your life. Another reason is that there is research now indicating there are “macro nutrients”. These are smaller than vitamins and minerals. And, yes, macro nutrients will be different depending upon the protein source. And finally, switching helps with the wallet. There are times I can introduce a less expensive protein, and times I can introduce a more expensive protein. This definitely helps with the cost perspective.
Another way I have eased the cost of a raw diet is by introducing freeze dried and dehydrated food into his diet. This has been very beneficial to my family. I have been able to keep the quality of his diet high, and the cost under control. He is approximately 100 pounds. I can tell you it is not an inexpensive venture to feed him this way; however, it is not as bad one might think. By feeding him raw in the morning and freeze dried in the evening (or vise versa), or feeding him raw one day and freeze dry the next, I am able to stretch my food budget. I would also like to point out how much cheaper (and healthier) it is to spend money on quality food rather than on vet bills and prescription steroids.
Feeding him this way also helps me make certain he is getting enough water. The moisture content of kibble is very low. Many people think their dogs are getting enough water, and this just is not the case. By feeding him a diet high in moisture content, I am ensuring that he is getting enough.
Look at this mug:
His coat is shiny and full. His tail is wagging (always, always, wagging). His fur is fully grown back (courtesy of CocoTherapy which you can read about in this post). And he is one happy guy.
Next week, I am going to show you pictures of his typical diet for a day.
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.
My guy Diesel has THE worst seasonal allergies. The poor guy rubs his face raw and stops playing to scratch himself. While we have him on the best diet (raw and grain free) possible, he still suffers from these flare ups.
This is how he looked last week:
Just look at his sweet face…
He has scratched the area around his eyes raw.
It hurts to just look at.
The poor boy doesn’t complain, but boy does he look pitiful.
And, he doesn’t want to sit for a photograph. I’m going to attribute that to pure embarrassment over the way his face looks. I know I wouldn’t want to have a picture taken if my face was this inflamed. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that he’s a dog.
I had been mentioning to AdreAnne how badly I felt for him and wished there was something more I could do.
Enter Cocotherapy.
This amazing product can be used both topically and ingested. It is an all natural, human grade product that helps with skin and coat, improves digestion, and reduces allergic reactions.
Cocotherapy has these proven benefits:
Clears up skin conditions such as eczema, flea allergies, contact dermatitis, and itchy skin
Makes coat sleek and glossy
Deodorizes doggy odor
Reduces bad breath
Regulates and balance insulin and thyroid levels
Helps with arthritis or ligament problems
Speeds healing of cuts, wounds, hot spots, and insect bites & stings when applied topically
Gently elevates the metabolism to help provide a higher level of energy
We carry both the Organic Virgin Coconut Oil and the Organic Coconut Chips at both locations.
I have ended up using the oil on his face for about a week and feeding it to him as a “treat”. He loves the taste and laps it right up.
This is Diesel today:
This is after one week of use.
Notice how the redness and swelling have gone down considerably.
Notice how he has teeny tiny hairs growing back.
Notice how he doesn’t want to sit still for a new photograph. I’m going to attribute this to embarrassment over all the fuss I’m making. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that he’s a dog.
He still clearly has a way to go with healing; however, if Cocotherapy can offer him this amount of relief in one short week, it is definitely worth it’s weight in gold. I wish I had known about it sooner, which is why I’m letting you know.
If your dog is suffering, there is no need. The sooner you can start cocotherapy, the better.
