Pocket's In for a Change

As many of my long time readers know, my hubs and i are proud parents of one 20 pound almost-two year old..... who is covered in fur.  Isn't she cute?

Pocket's first whiff of sea air at the Oregon coast

Since before we brought Pocket home, we've been planning for her long, healthy, well educated life. I'm a bit of a task master when it comes to her training, but i also bring all my nutritional savvy to her dinner bowl as i do in our own kitchen. As a pup, we fed her Nature's Variety kibble and raw diets. This very expensive, and very high quality dog food was the best we could get in the city, but we want even more wholesome food for our fur-baby that will in turn more reasonably fit into our budgets.  Even Nature's Variety, with its probiotics, grainfree and well balanced ingredients, and raw options doesn't quite get it. Kibble, for so many reasons, is so off the mark. Dehydrating, sapped of nutrients, not very tasty, and far removed from what nature really intends for our dogs to eat: kibble just isn't a great option.

For all the reasons kibble is a poor choice of dog food, i've been supplementing Pocket's food from the beginning with homemade, grain free treats, veggies from the garden, and chunks of human grade raw meat and bones, plus guts and old meat scraps not as appealing for human consumption that i sourced from local farmers. Even with her fairly high quality food, Pocket has had problems with itchy ears to the extent of requiring medication. Moving forward, we will continue to feed Taste of The Wild kibble in small quantities: i'd hate to go backpacking and have nothing to feed the pooch without swerving her diet off its normal course. But i'm talking small quanities, like less than 1/4 of a cup. What will we be feeding her instead?  Real, raw food: raw meat, raw and cooked veggies and herbs, plus homemade yogurt and local eggs.

Once we're raising our own animals for meat, milk and eggs, (and living more rurally with access to squirrels and buns to hunt), we'll have even more options for feeding our pooch. For now, we have to source what we can from local farmers and butchers, and have so far found some great resources. I'll be posting even more about Pocket's new and improved diet in the following weeks here at AAH and over at Not Dabbling in Normal. I welcome your questions and suggestions... i am aware that the subject of what to feed your children: furry or otherwise, can be source of some contention and disagreement and i welcome the conversation!

What do you feed your pets? Do you think your pet's diet or health has room for improvement, and have you noticed any ailments in your pets that could be due to allergies?