Awesome! Mindy went to the vet to get her nails trimmed and she is down to 13.2 lbs. She’s lean and mean!

Yay!

She didn’t like being at the vet at all today. I made the mistake of bringing both lexi and her last time and it was chaotic! I think I ruined her for good!

Outside today, Lexi peed then was sitting at the pine tree by the door. I noticed her and it looked like she was pooing or peeing again. Her leg was kind of “up”.

Then I realized that she was sitting down and her right leg was hurt. I immediately picked her up and held her for a bit. When I put her down she seemed to be alright. She was running around chasing her ball just like usual.

I don’t know what was up but I hope it was just a one time thing and not a problem like with Mindy.

Updated from article dated Jun 13, 2009

This is so strange. I haven’t been happy with any of the other kibble choices, I was using the rest of a leftover bag of California Natural and some samples of Nature’s Variety Instinct, but I really wanted EVO….so yesterday I bought a bag. Guess what! The size of the kibble is small again. I compared it to the original smaller sized samples I saved, and they match!

And now I am wondering if I was right all along, and they messed up on a batch of food. I wish I noted the expiration date of the bag I returned, to compare. I guess I assumed that since Heather said they changed the processing, it was a permanent change. Unless of course, I have a bag that was processed before the change. I don’t know. But thankfully, this bag will last a long time, so we’ll see what happens when I have to purchase again months from now.

Oh I came so close to giving up on the RAW food diet for Lexi. She is my little Rat Terrier, about 10 lbs and 8 months old.

She was having trouble with her poop. Ha! What else is new!? It seems like that is the main struggle when feeding RAW. Trying to find a balance to make normal looking poop! Well her poop was on the soft side and many times had a gel jelly goopy coating.

I know there is a certain time period of “detox” when the body can weep and poop can be covered in that gel. But we’ve been on RAW for a couple of months now, so she should be over that. I was getting even more frustrated because she was regressing in housebreak training as well. Pooping in the house, sometimes right after she pooped outside. She even peed on our comforter one evening when she got excited and jumped up on the bed. eeek. That one was my fault though. I should have known better and taken her outside BEFORE bringing her upstairs to the bedroom.

My husband was ready to kill me (not literally!) and he was getting very frustrated as well. He kept telling me to stop, that it was the RAW food making her sick!

I really really didn’t want to stop feeding RAW to Lexi. In a million years, I never thought I would be feeding RAW in the first place, and now that I am, I am finding it very easy. And both my Ratties love eating it! Their fur is gorgeous too!

Mindy (my 4 year old Rat Terrier, 15 lbs) is doing just fine on it. Her poops are solid and small. Everything seemed to be agreeing with her.

After some deep thought, I decided to just feed RAW, with no supplements (fish oil, kelp) or eggs, sardines, etc.

I realized that it was me who wasn’t being consistent! When her poo was doing well, I would deviate from the normal, and start adding all the other ingredients and supplements, and she would get overloaded again. I wasn’t keeping good track of what was working and what wasn’t.

So, now I am just feeding her a portion of Bravo RAW twice daily and a small beef or marrow bone in the evening. That seems to be working. Today her poop was well formed and solid. No more jelly gel. Yay!

I will keep this up for another week or so, and then see what I can do to start adding a tiny small amount of the fish oil.

(note: the fish oil I am feeding is the Concentrated oil from Seapet – I have been giving Mindy 10 drops (which equals 1/4 tsp) and Lexi about half that amount)

I am happy, my husband is happy, and hopefully we can get her housetraining back on track. Things are going to get better! yay!

Updated once again…2009-08-11
Updated 2009-06-15 read below!

Even though I feed RAW food to my two dogs, I still like having a bag of EVO Small Bites. I sometimes give it for a quick breakfast meal and I use it for training treats.

I like it because the pieces are very small, and since Lexi is under 10 lbs, small is good.

Well, I just opened a new package of EVO Small Bites this morning and was surprised that they looked larger. I still had a few pieces from the last bag, so I compared the two sizes. The pieces in the new bag were DOUBLED in size of the previous bag.
What is going on?

Here’s a photo for comparison (note: the depth of each bite is still the same, even though the larger piece looks thicker in the photo, it’s really not)

I am going to try to contact them today to see what their explanation is. If this is the new size, then I am very disappointed. It’s not small enough!

Update 2009-06-15: I phoned Natura Pet, I spoke to Heather; I explained my problem.

She went on to say that they have a new processing system now and that it allows the pieces to retain their full size. She said that before pieces were breaking down in transit (to the stores) and therefor causing a lot of crumbs in the bag. She said that EVO was their toughest product to make since there were no grains. The pieces were very hard and crumbled easy.

She asked me to compare the size of the new pieces to the example on the bag. At first they did look comparable, and it sounded reasonable. I asked if I could return the bag, and she answered of course.

I hung up, and then I compared the old pieces I had to the bag example photo, and they seemed just a tiny tad bit smaller. On a second look, the new pieces were indeed a little larger than the example on the bag. Some pieces were a lot larger than the example.

I redialed Natura, and Heather answered again.

Same story, she said there was nothing wrong, and the pieces now are the way they are supposed to be. She suggested that I return the bag and try to find one that was a different expiration that might have the older size.

Okay, update #2. I just looked at pieces from an older bag of California Natural Small Bites and they match the size of the larger EVO small bites….so maybe Heather was right all along! Oops, my bad. I guess I am being too picky!

Maybe I will keep the bag and just break them in half before giving them out. Oh well! I am now remembering why I always liked the EVO better for feeding and training. They were always smaller than the California Natural. Truthfully, I didn’t even realize the California Natural was Small Bites until I looked at the bag label.

I guess "small" is relative!

UPDATE 2009-08-11: This is so strange. I haven’t been happy with any of the other kibble choices, I was using the rest of a leftover bag of California Natural and some samples of Nature’s Variety Instinct, but I really wanted EVO….so yesterday I bought a bag. Guess what! The size of the kibble is small again. I compared it to the original smaller sized samples I saved, and they match!

And now I am wondering if I was right all along, and they messed up on the size of a batch of food. I have no idea!

Lexi is scheduled for her spay surgery next Friday. I had learned previously that it’s best to stop fish oil 7-10 days before surgery, because of the anti-clotting properties. I stopped giving it the other day.

I also just realized that it’s better to stop Vitamin E as well, for the same reasons, so I will stop that as well. I am continuing to give a 1/4 tsp of probiotic powder once or twice daily.

It’s okay to start giving fish oil again 7-10 days after surgery.

Yesterday I purchased a package of whole chicken wings. Last night after their dinner, I gave Mindy and Lexi their first raw chicken bones.

First, I used a cleaver to chop them into the three separate wing pieces (including the tips) then I smashed each piece to break it up a bit. I gave each of them one piece on their special towels. Mindy was a natural. She had no trouble chomping that piece in her mouth, crushing the bone and swallowing it. Eek, it was a little scary watching her swallow such a big piece!

Lexi was another story. She kind of licked at the chicken bone, and didn’t know what to do with it. She also might have been full from her dinner meal earlier.

I ended up taking the chicken wing away from Lexi and giving it to Mindy to eat.

I gave Mindy two pieces this morning, and then one piece later on as part of her dinner. Lexi got the small chicken wing tip, and she did much better with it. She crunched it up and swallowed it.

Eventually, I hope whole chicken bones will be a part of their regular RAW diet. It’s still a little unnerving for me, but hey, I never thought I would ever be feeding RAW, so it’s all good!

Note: Currently, I am feeding a tiny bit of EVO kibble in AM to both, and for dinner, they get commercial RAW food either from Bravo or Nature’s Variety. I like to rotate between meats. Turkey one day, chicken the next, beef after, etc.

I stopped to check out a new neighborhood pet store the other night. I won’t mention the store name, since this is not going to be a positive post.

As I was walking to the door, I noticed the big “Science Diet” poster on the window. At that point, I sighed, and figured this wasn’t going to be a new place to buy pet food.

Making a long story short, I was speaking with the owner, asking her about her training programs, and we started to talk about food.

I asked if Science Diet was the only food she sold? And she said yes, along with the “Nature’s Best” which is also Hills/Science Diet. She was very gracious, and asked what food I used, and I told her EVO and RAW. She was looking into selling EVO, only if she could offer it at a lower price than other stores. (side note: I can’t imagine Natura allowing her to sell their products along side Science Diet; but who knows)

Anyway, held my tongue, until she said that when she worked at an animal hospital, Science Diet was the brand sold by the hospital; I replied that most vets don’t know anything about nutrition, but she insisted that there were other brands that would have been more profitable, but they chose Science Diet.

Huh? Okay, Science Diet is not recommended by Vets because of it’s nutritional value. It’s recommended because of the huge profit margin. And it’s the same profit margin that this store was trying to make.

I mean come on! Look at the ingredients:

Ground Whole Grain Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Soybean Mill Run, Flaxseed, Chicken Liver Flavor, Dried Egg Product, Potassium Chloride, Dried Chicken Cartilage, Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Iodized Salt, Taurine, L-Lysine, L-Tryptophan, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), L-carnitine, DL-methionine, Dicalcium Phosphate, preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, L-Arginine, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.

It’s basically CORN! You are feeding your dog corn and some chicken beaks, feet, feathers, and other assorted by products if you choose Science Diet. Animal fat? What kind of animal? Soybean Mill Run? What the heck is that? Sounds like a by-product from a soy mill. It’s disgusting, and I wouldn’t even think about feeding one kibble of this garbage to my girls.

More info on The Science Diet Scam by Sabine Contreras, BetterDogCare.com & dogfoodproject.com

Anyway, the store looked nice enough, and her training methods were positive, but I lost a lot of respect for her because of the pet food she chose to sell in her store. It was kind of sad.

It’s finally confirmed. Nutro Petfood (owned by Mars) has been making pets sick.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/04/nutro_foia.html

When are people going to wake up and realize that these huge commercial petfood companies are not producing quality products?

This morning, I was petting Lexi, and I noticed that there was a strange lump on Lexi’s right upper thigh. I checked her other leg to see if it was symmetrical, but didn’t feel anything.

I didn’t panic, because right now, I am assuming it’s just a muscle bruise; she’s always running around like crazy, and I assumed she banged into something and developed a lump/bump.

In the back of my mind, though, I am a tad worried, thinking it could be cancer or something terrible. I will see what happens tomorrow, and will call the Vet on Tuesday if it’s still there.

The good thing is she was so good today. She was out of her crate walking around loose a lot today, and no accidents, and she was calm. I have started to correct her when she begins to bite or bother Mindy when she’s relaxing/quiet. She seemed to respond well and was very well behaved today; which makes me nervous because of the lump, and I am hoping she’s feeling okay.

I just love my little Lexi!

UPDATE: 2009-04-25: Lexi had icky soupy poopy this afternoon, and there was a streak of blood in it. I had given her a raw egg and some EVO kibble for breakfast, and she never had a problem with eggs before. I didn’t know if it was serious, so I called the vet.

He wanted her to come in so they could take a sample and probably put her on antibiotic. Anyway, while I was there, I mentioned the lump I had found (which was virtually gone by today) and he said it was probably from the rabies vaccination he gave her 10 days ago. A lump can occur a few days (or even weeks) later. Phew.

The poop sample came back negative for parasites, so he said it could just be an irritation or it could be a bacterial infection. He gave us some Metronidazole for 5 days.