On May 5th, the horrible and upsetting news broke that Proctor & Gamble were purchasing the Natura Pet Food company. Word spread like wildfire online, and there weren’t too many dog parents that were happy about the announcement. Most were in agreement that Natura Pet food would not be the same once P&G took over.

From the Natura Pet web site:

Natura Announces Change In Ownership, But Not Philosophy or Commitment to Quality

You may have heard Natura expects to be acquired by The Procter and Gamble Company sometime in June 2010. By joining the P&G family of brands, our intent is that we will have more resources to raise awareness for the benefits of natural and holistic pet foods. Our hope is even more pets will then experience the benefits of Natura’s high-quality, super-premium brands.

P&G has assured us of their commitment to this business and to the people who have been our partners and our advocates over the years. We will continue to deliver the high quality products that have earned consumers’ trust.

For more than 20 years, Natura has dedicated itself to producing healthy, high-quality pet foods, and we will remain true to that philosophy. As we move forward with this change in ownership you can continue to find Natura pet foods at your local independent pet specialty retailers.

Thank you for your dedicated support and advocacy for Natura Pet foods. We have genuinely appreciated your support in the past and we hope we can count you among our valued customers in the future.

Sincerely,
Don Scott
President

My favorite is this line:

P&G has assured us of their commitment to this business and to the people who have been our partners and our advocates over the years. We will continue to deliver the high quality products that have earned consumers’ trust.

Okay, come on! Why on earth would a company that supposedly cared soooo much about pets in the past, believe the same company that destroyed other petfoods like Iams and Eukanuba? Do they think we are stupid? Or is it just that their definitions of “commitment” and “high quality” have changed?

The Natura president even released a video explaining their reasons for partnering with P&G
http://www.naturapet.com/video/don-video-c.swf

It’s laughable. They’re either delusional or plain just don’t care! I can’t imagine how they could think P&G has a commitment to excellence and animal well being. It’s truly a shame!

As soon as I heard the news, I thought, darn, okay, maybe I need to stock up on EVO kibble. I felt relieved that I just purchased a bag the previous day. But as I thought about it more, I became more and more worried.

What if even now, before the sale is even finalized, there was quality issues with Natura petfoods? How could I possibly trust a company that wants to be affiliated with such a poor pet food company. Yes, I totally understand a need to sell or find new partners, but come on, why would you pick the bottom of the bottom?

So, I returned the new bag I bought, and decided to make a clean break from them.

I have been trying to decide which route I am going to take with regards to my two ratties’ pet food. Thankfully, I only feed a small amount of kibble in the morning, their main meal is dinner when I feed commercial RAW (Bravo, Stella & Chewy)

I really would love to try Orijen, but my regular retailer doesn’t carry it, and it’s doubtful she will be able to in the near future. They manufacturer in such small amounts that they keep their retail options lower than most pet food companies. There are at least two other stores in my area that do carry Orijen, and I might look into them in the future.

In the meantime, I have a bag of Petcurean Go Natural on order from my local pet food store. No, I am not 100% convinced that this is the best brand, but I will give them a chance.

I have been using freeze dried Stella & Chewy for their AM meal, which they absolutely love, but it’s expensive. I also really would like to try Honest Kitchen dehydrated. Both are great options for when we travel!

I’ll post regular updates on how their food situation plays out.

Other Links:

• Our Dogs Online forum – P&G acquiring Natura
• Our Dogs Online – What do you feed?

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!

Found a whole mess o’ Pet themed podcasts over at www.petliferadio.com

I am starting out with the Wynn With Dogs podcast. The latest episode #15 includes an interview with a wonderful holistic health expert and author of The Healing Art of Pet Parenthood, Nadine M. Rosin. I follow her on Twitter and she’s awesome. Looking forward to hearing the show. I downloaded and it’s ready for my drive to work tomorrow!

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 have been giving Lexi raw recreational beef bones for a couple of weeks. We have a play gated pen area set up for her. It’s next to useless now for keeping her in, since she jumps/climbs out of it very easily. But it’s great to keep her with her bone and away from Mindy, since they both seem to have “bone possession” issues.

So I always put down a huge garbage bag on the rug in her pen, along with a towel on top, so she has a clean place to chew. Well the other day (Tuesday) I was setting down the garbage bag and all of a sudden, I felt something near my arm. It was her! Climbing INTO the pen because she knew the routine already! This was only my THIRD time giving her a raw bone, so I was surprised…but then again, she is a smarty pants, so nothing should surprise me!

Anyway, she was very excited to get her bone this week! I just thought it was funny!

Mindy and Lexi had their first RAW dinner tonight. I purchased a bag of frozen chicken medallions from Nature’s Variety. I defrosted 3 medallions in the fridge this morning, and they were still a bit “cold” this afternoon, but they were soft enough to smoosh and break apart.

I gave Mindy two and Lexi one. Keep in mind I feed Lexi by the sink and Mindy’s bowl is around behind the kitchen bar.

It was funny, they both stared at their bowls, kind of sniffing and examining the food. Then they each ran to the other one’s bowl to check out if the other had something better. haha, same thing, sniffing.

Finally, Mindy started to take bites from Lexi’s bowl, and I brought Lexi and the other bowl over to the sink area so they both would be together (and I could watch both of them.)

Mindy was the first to finish, so I added some more to her bowl from Lexi’s. Mindy finished that and was coming over to Lexi’s bowl and Lexi gave her a growl (which she has done only once before when something really delish was in her bowl) – I lightly scolded Lexi’s behavior and allowed Mindy to have a tiny bit more.

So all in all, I think they are liking the new RAW diet. I still have a lot to learn, so it’s going to be a slow transition. I will still feed kibble and canned, and I don’t know if I will ever be 100% RAW or if I will ever prepare the diet myself. We’ll see.

So for now, I am going to feed them the commercially prepared RAW food (either Nature’s Variety or Bravo) and for the first month or so, I am giving each a digestive enzyme pill with the RAW meal.

I found the Raw Dog Food (by Carina Beth MacDonald) book at the library and I will see if that answers some of my questions and concerns. The #1 concern right now is contamination between Mindy’s & Lexi’s mouth to us. How long does it take for the raw food to digest before I can accept a lick kiss from them? Or will I have to worry about bacteria on their fur and mouths?

I will keep updating when I find out more information!

I have been thinking again about a RAW food diet for Mindy and Lexi. I am afraid of the commitment though. It’s a lot of work, and I don’t know if I will be able to keep it up. One choice is purchasing a commercially prepared RAW diet like Bravo or Honest Kitchen.

Or I am also thinking about feeding RAW one or two times a week, instead of full time.

I have some research to do.

Links:

• Nature’s Variety
• Bravo
• Barf World
• Google “barf raw diet”

By coincidence, the same time I was researching new food choices for Mindy (and her weight loss challenge), the Menu Foods pet food recall was just hitting the news. So my online research into pet foods had an even greater importance.

What my research has taught me:

• I had already known that any pet food sold in grocery stores is sub quality, but I also learned that there are no true premium pet foods sold in any “big box pet stores” like Petco or Petsmart. I love my veterinarian dearly, but I do not trust her pet food recommendations. Regrettably, a lot of vets push the foods that can be sold at higher profit margins.

• Sadly there are many pet lovers that purchase sub-quality brands like Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Alpo, Beneful, Pro Plan, etc. Product ingredients include questionable protein amounts, lower quality meats, meat by-products, corn, wheat, soy, unhealthy preservatives (BHA, ethoxyquin), hormones, Menadione (a vitamin K supplement), antibiotics, sweeteners, and dyes (just to name a few.) Family and friends rave about Purina and Iams, stating their pets are thriving and healthy. Yes, of course it is possible for a pet to live a long and happy life eating food of a lesser quality. Some humans smoke and live to be 90, and on the other hand, some strict vegetarians can develop cancer and other illnesses. There are no guarantees.

• Think about human vs pet grade ingredients. I watched the TV news story of an Ottawa woman who became sick after eating some of the recalled food. She was trying to coax her little dog to eat. In the TV news report, she said when she later spoke to Iams, they recommended that she never eat dog food. But why? If the pet food companies are asking us to trust them to create quality foods for our pets, shouldn’t that quality be high enough for human consumption? It doesn’t make sense.

• Pet food production is self regulated in the US. The FDA (in my opinion) does a deplorable job keeping humans safe, so even if pet foods were regulated, how trustworthy would they be anyhow? This is why pet owners must do the research on their own.

  It is up to the pet owner to carefully scrutinize all pet food companies and the products they sell. Even though Nutro Ultra dry food was not included in the recall, I started to doubt Nutro’s business ethics and practices. In the back of my mind, I never fully trusted that Nutro Ultra was the best brand of pet food to be feeding my Mindy, but just as many other pet owners thought, why fix what ain’t broke when she was thriving and healthy.

• When deciding on a pet food company, broaden your research. Don’t exclusively rely on the reviews from Amazon, Petco, or Petsmith. There is no way of knowing who added the reviews and if there was an ulterior motive or bias. Take time to read discussions on pet specific forums where real pet owners post about their experiences concerning not only pet foods but also the companies that manufacture and sell the products.

• It is not true that premium food is always a lot more expensive than non-premium food. In some instances, it is slightly more expensive to purchase a much higher quality food, but because the feeding guidelines are less, the net cost is actually less or equal.

I am sure the Menu Foods recall will eventually fade from our minds, just like the last Diamond Foods recall was forgotten. People will continue to feed their pets products from Nutro, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Alpo, Purina and other brands. But make no mistake, there will be future recalls and more pet deaths and illnesses. I am taking steps now because I am unwilling to take the chance that the next recall could affect my precious Mindy. By then it will be too late.

Interesting web resources:

• Dog Food Analysis – Is your pet’s food a 6 star food, or a 1 star food? Interesting, as the quality gets lower, the quantity of reviews gains. From 11 reviews in the 6 star category to 265 poor choices in the 1 star category.
• The Dog Food Project – Excellent advice, along with a terrific and informative discussion forum.
• All Dogs Gym
• FDA is MIA…

Mindy had her annual physical recently, and we were shocked to realize that she gained over 2 lbs since her last vet visit in late November! She is now over 17 lbs.

After we returned home, I thought about the real reason for her sudden weight gain. Besides the lack of outdoor exercise due to the cold weather, I think I was over feeding her. I didn’t measure her food, I just dumped a little in her bowl whenever it was empty.

Mindy is a strange eater. She will not eat unless we are with her, so we have two food bowls set up. One in the dining/kitchen area and one additional bowl downstairs in our family room. The majority of the time, she eats downstairs in the evening while we watch TV.

The vet suggested we slowly switch to a weight management recipe and it sounded like a good idea at the time, until I started to read the ingredients for weight management dog food. A carbohydrate is listed as a first ingredient, not a protein. This makes no sense to me.

So, I am going to research more online, and perhaps learn more about cooking food for her. Not the raw food movement, but perhaps homemade, or at least occasionally homemade.

Here are the links I have found that have been very helpful:

• The Dog Food Project – Identifying Better Products
• The QualityDogs Forum – Dog Food Choices
• The Pet Center – Natural Pet Foods
• The Pet Center – Overweight Dog or Cat
• Pet Food Comparison Wizard- Natura Pet and all of its petfoods are absolutely not recommended anymore, since the company was heartlessly purchased by Proctor & Gamble. No matter what they say, any Natura food will not be the same!
• Dog Food Analysis with dog food ratings

I think if we monitor her food intake and watch her snacks, she will do okay. I just hate to start her on weight management dry food if it will not be as healthy as regular adult food.

Mindy began was developing picky eating habits when it came to her kibble. I tried a few ideas, like adding a few handfuls of kibble inside her chew Kong or in an empty water bottle; she loves to work for her food. But after a couple days of constant filling the Kongs all day, I was tired of it and knew it wouldn’t work.

There were days that she would eat better if I hand fed her or dropped the kibble bits on the floor, but I wanted her to learn to eat normally.

Then one day, instead of putting a half or full day’s worth of kibble in her bowl, I put just a 1/4 cup. I found she liked having just a small amount of food available to her. Once the bowl was finished, I would add another 1/4 cup.

Eureka! This seems to be working for the last week or so.

UPDATED 2009-06-17: oh how much I have learned in the past few years. Mindy is now on a RAW food diet, and she has no problems eating. Back then, I was feeding her all day long, instead of just twice a day. She ended up getting overweight because I was feeding her too much.