Eating Raw, Eating Better

Last year, I THINK my New Year's resolution was to take Cabana to a beach at least 10 times. Since I can't really even remember if that was my resolution, it should come as no surprise that I didn't follow through on it. I might have made it to a beach about 3 times. Sorry, Cabana.

Resolutions, goal setting, or introspection of any sort, are not my thing. I'm much more of a do-er. I don't think I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants person necessarily--but I'm really not sure what I am, obviously because I don't introspect!

But this year, after being motivated by all the other bloggers who have set goals and made resolutions for themselves, I would like to try to be more conscious of food. I'd like to eat healthier for sure, but even more than that, I'd like to be better at cooking. I'm not a bad cook, but cooking is WAY down on my list of things I like to do. My tendency is to make the same 5-10 things over and over again. Most of my meals are from scratch, but they usually take 15-30 minutes to prepare--fast and simple. I like to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible. We are vegetarians, so that limits our choices somewhat--or maybe that's just an excuse, since there are so many "new" grains and unlimited veggies out there now. This year, I resolve to break out of my rut and expand my repertoire.

A few months ago, when we were fostering Velveeta, the obese cat, the shelter vet recommended a raw diet to help her lose weight. I felt like I couldn't just buy the good stuff for Velveeta and not buy it for Cabana, so I bought them both some Nature's Variety frozen raw food, which is 95% meat (they have a lot of great meat varieties, as pictured above) and 5% vegetables. Zero fillers, zero grains. I was really impressed with the quality and how easy it is to feed. I had always thought raw diets would be a lot of work and hassle, but I was completely wrong.

Cabana now gets a mixture of raw food and high-quality kibble. She gets 2/3 cup of kibble and 2 oz of raw food for each meal. Nature's Variety has a great online tool that tells you exactly how much of each to combine, depending on what percentages you'd like to feed. Although it would be great to feed 100% raw, not everyone's pocketbooks will allow for that, mine included.

On my last trip to the pet store, I decided to try another brand of raw food. I picked Tucker's because the clerk said her dogs love it. I love how Tucker's patties come individually wrapped, which keeps them from getting freezer burn. Sometimes, the Nature's Variety patties looked a bit freezer burned from sitting in the pet store freezer too long.

Every other day, I let a patty thaw in the refrigerator, then cut it into fourths. When I put it in Cabana's bowl, I break it up into pieces, or else she'll eat the whole chunk in one big bite. When I break it up with my hands, I can feel an oily residue on my fingers with the Tucker's, but I didn't with Nature's Variety. For that reason, I think Nature's Variety might be a higher quality product and will probably go back to it. Or maybe I'll try another brand (maybe I DO fly by the seat of my pants).

I have always struggled to keep Cabana from being pudgy. With the addition of raw food, it's much less of a struggle, and I feel like Cabana looks leaner. Her coat is softer, and she sheds slightly less (still more than I'd like but what can you do). Of course, Cabana LOVES the raw food, but what doesn't this dog love to eat? Picky is not a word that describes Cabana.

Nature's Variety offers a coupon, if you want to give raw food a try and add that to your goals this year!

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Random Updates

After much coming and going of our family members in the past few weeks, it's comforting to have everyone under one roof again. With the new school year nipping at our heels, I'm hoping we'll all have a chance to catch our breath in these final weeks of summer vacation.

As for Cabana, she has been enjoying our cool summer. Temps have barely topped 80 degrees here--but I am sure we're in for a sweltering September and October. Below, Cabana found a softball in the grass last week, thankfully one that was not being currently used by softball players (she has been known to steal a ball in play a few times, much to my horror!).

The ball is way too big to fit comfortably in Cabana's mouth.

But it serves its purpose, since keepaway is the name of Cabana's favorite game. Keepaway is much more exciting to her than boring old fetch.


I feel like I don't get back to subjects of past posts, so I thought I'd give a few brief updates today.

Vizsla incident - Cabana seems pretty much back to normal after the scare with the Vizsla a few weeks ago. After being fairly convinced that Cabana had not been hurt but was barking/reacting for other reasons, about a week later, I found a dried scab maybe an inch long, on Cabana's side. I don't know why I hadn't been able to see the cut before, and by that time, it had healed completely. But it answered some questions I'd had. So she had been hurt, not badly, but maybe enough to make her flinch when being towel dried.

Shopping with Cabana - I appreciated everyone's input about taking dogs shopping. Overall, it seemed that blog readers are cautious about taking their pet dogs to stores, which is probably wise. One question that was raised was why we would want to take our dogs to stores. For me, the answer is that I still consider Cabana to be in training. I hope to get her into a therapy dog or reading buddy program--so the exposure and experience of being around strangers is important to me. In fact, I just turned in the paperwork for the Paws for Healing/Paws for Reading program. We will start class at the end of October!

Health issues - Several months ago, Cabana had some funny bumps on her paws. We thought they might be histiocytomas, which are benign tumors that are fairly common in the GDB population. They went away in a couple weeks and never caused any pain or further incident. I took Cabana to the vet last week for a routine check-up, and the doctor said Cabana looked great. I asked him about her weight (54.5 pounds) because I am now always paranoid that she's too plump. He said that her current weight is fine, but that she should not be allowed to get any bigger. Sigh. I try to be so careful about how much food/treats she gets, so I guess I will have to keep on being careful. I wish I could let her eat as much as she'd like! Must be a vicarious desire. I have more to say about food/treats, but since it's a mouthful, I'll save it for my next post.

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