# Benefits of Our Diet Change



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

If you have followed these threads you already know that I have decided to make diet changes for all three of our dogs in the hopes that I can resolve some chronic and low grade health concerns for them.

http://www.poodleforum.com/29-poodle-health/220722-nutriscan-summary-interpretation.html

http://www.poodleforum.com/29-poodle-health/217889-nutriscan-results.html

They have now been eating their new cooked meals for over a week and all of them love their new food. More importantly I think I am starting to see benefits from making these changes. 

For both Lily and Javelin they have virtually no morning eye boogers anymore. Both of them had morning goop in the corners of their eyes all of the time.

For Peeves his runny nose seems to be drying up and he has definitely had less urinary dripping.

All three of them have good firm stools (after occasional pudding moments from all of them).

I had BF make Peeves dinner last night since the poodles and I will be away for the weekend and he has to know how to make the meal. He grumbled the whole time about how scooping kibble was so much easier. I suspect he will scoop out some of the left over kibble we have here in the hopes that he can skip making up the fresh food along the way. His surprise will come when he realizes that Peeves doesn't want to eat it.

I will update as I see and have clinical evidence of other benefits (Lily and Peeves have their annual check up coming up in a week or so). I am also interested in knowing if others of you have clear evidence that diet changes have benefited your dogs overall health, so please share your experiences.
http://www.poodleforum.com/29-poodle-health/220722-nutriscan-summary-interpretation.html


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## Caddy (Nov 23, 2014)

It's great that you've seen positive changes already. DH also use to complain about the extra effort feeding home cooked (still does sometimes), I try to make it as easy as possible. Their dishes are licked clean at every meal around here. A friend got a moose and deer this year and gave us a lot of meat for the girls, which is great and they love it. DH also recently came across lamb roasts in Costco priced as regular ground beef, they were being snapped up quickly and he managed to get 10 of them. We don't care for lamb, but Abbey and Dolly love it!


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

Are you making enough to store in the freezer? That way BF can just defrost and put in Peeves' bowl. We ended up buying a new freezer.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I will probably have to get a freezer. Since it is just two humans in this household I never felt the need of a freezer, but I would love to be able to order chicken hearts and livers (at least) in bulk and store them. I can also foresee that putting up frozen portions measured for different dogs to make things easy for BF or other care providers will be a great option.

Here is another visible benefit already realized, Javelin's ears were really clean today. His ear wax was so excessive that it would form streaks down the inner surface of his ear leather in addition to helping him to form potato clumps of hair in his ear canals. I just did a quick pre hit the road groom on both of the spoos and his ears were fabulous, hardly any wax in the ear canals, none running down the ear leather and less hair too (I think).

Mfmst, what size freezer do you have and is it just for dog food?


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

I'm glad to read of the improvements. As you know I've been following closely. We're doing more of the traditional approach introducing new foods slowly while I was waiting to read about your success from the Nutriscan. 

I've been preparing Babykins food in bulk and freezing it in Ziploc baggies. Even for 1 minipoo it's a ton of work doing it in large batches. DH recently pitched in to help me which is great because now he appreciates the amount of work it is. His job is to flatten the meals in the bags and run them down to the freezer. By flattening them we make them easy to stack, store, remove and less time to defrost. Each bag holds 4 of Babykin's meals - probably with a spoo it would be two meals. It's hard work on your hands and I'm buying already cooked meat (hormone, antibiotic filler-free turkey breast) at Costco - just cooking the veggies that are added to her meat. I used to cook the meat for my tpoo but I decided that I had to draw the limit to how much time I was going to commit to this effort. It is a whole lot easier to open a bag of kibble.

When we went on vacation - I prepared her food as single meals in Ziploc baggies - it was easy to hand over to the person who watched her in her home doggie day care.


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

I dedicate 1/2 of our Viking freezer to Buck's necks. We were lucky enough to find a floor model of one that was being discontinued. My kitchen refrigerator has a freezer drawer at the bottom and that is not enough. I like to make huge portions of dinner entrees, divide and freeze. I do not like to cook every night. Ha! Most nights!


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## Asta's Mom (Aug 20, 2014)

Glad to hear that you are already experiencing positive changes in all the dogs - your dedication and hard work were really worth the effort. Keep us posted on how it is going. I wish I had room for a freezer - if I did I would probably try the same approach for Asta.


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## oshagcj914 (Jun 12, 2016)

I have 4 freezers for dog food and only one for human food  Lily, check Craigslist for freezers, you can often find pretty decent deals there. Scratch and dent models are also a good deal. Asaah has been raw fed all her life, but I switched 2 cats and a dog to raw from Fromm kibble (dog) and Tiki Cat canned food (cats). 

Cat 1: previously had frequent episodes of blood in his stools. Couldn't find a cause, he'd get antibiotics, it would go away, it would come back, rinse and repeat. That was on kibble and never improved on a high quality canned food. Since switching to raw, not a single issue. Plus his teeth were previously kind of dirty...ever tried to brush a cat's teeth? Now they're sparkling white. He also has much better muscle tone and a beautiful shiny coat. 

Cat 2: Previously was a poor eater, hard to keep weight on her. Ex husband once brushed her while watching football. He was using one of those stupid furminators and not paying attention, and he went over the same spot too many times and pulled all her undercoat out. It never grew back in fully for years, and was always a little coarse. She would get eye boogers and tear stains frequently. After switching to raw, she loves her food and eats everything I give her except beef (pukes it up every time) and ground venison, although whole is apparently fine for some reason. She gained weight and didn't look starved all the time. Her coat FINALLY grew back in, thick and full and is now amazingly soft and curly (she's a Selkirk Rex). No more eye boogers and tear stains disappeared, and her teeth are also very clean. She'll never need a dental. She also sheds more than any cat I've ever seen, but it did get a little better on raw. Of course she still sheds, but there aren't a million little white tumbleweeds floating around the house any more. 

Dog: I switched him to raw at 5 months old, so not really long enough for a before and after, but I've noticed beautiful white teeth, shiny coat, and lovely muscle definition. I compared his growth for the first 2 years to some littermates who were kibble fed and his overall growth rate was a little slower and steadier, without the big spurts. Much better for giant breeds to grow slow and steady, which is why they're often fed adult kibble. My ex husband put Finn back on a pretty good quality kibble in July, Earthborn Primitive Naturals. After about 3 months back on kibble, I saw him and his coat is a lot less soft and shiny, he was shedding more, and his teeth look so gross  plus I watched him for a few days, and omg, the amount of nasty smelling poop was just amazing. All I did was shovel  for 2 days. You could not pay me to go back to kibble just for that reason


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

oshagcj914 since you mentioned teeth I have to say I actually had a much more successful effort at cleaning Javvy's 4th molars this morning too. I'm not sure if it is because I am getting better at doing it or if the tartar somehow has changed with the diet change, but one more thing for the good for them.

I was always interested in Selkirk Rex when I had cats! I had a Persian (black) and two Maine ***** (sisters). BF has asthmatic responses to cats, so as long as I keep him around no more kitties. :-(


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## Streetcar (Apr 13, 2014)

What great results you are already seeing, Lily CD RE!! Javelin's ear change is stunning, and you are barely into this new regimen. Congratulations, it is so good to see your testing, research, and planning pay off so well. Thank you for bringing PF along on this journey, because you are helping many people and pets, now and in the future.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Streetcar thank you for your nice words. I do hope that it will give others the courage to try innovative solutions to managing their dogs' health. When I got Lily and Peeves onto Blue at about their first birthdays I swore I would never change foods again unless medically necessary. It took months to totally change the two of them from one good kibble to another (all because of Peeves getting loose BM every time I changed the portions). Well here I am with a medically motivated reason to change and it has been pretty easy (although BF told me Peeves didn't eat breakfast today). And I am thrilled with what I am seeing so far, especially with Javelin's ears. I wish I had before and after pictures so you all could see how well he is doing.


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## oshagcj914 (Jun 12, 2016)

lily cd re said:


> oshagcj914 since you mentioned teeth I have to say I actually had a much more successful effort at cleaning Javvy's 4th molars this morning too. I'm not sure if it is because I am getting better at doing it or if the tartar somehow has changed with the diet change, but one more thing for the good for them.
> 
> I was always interested in Selkirk Rex when I had cats! I had a Persian (black) and two Maine ***** (sisters). BF has asthmatic responses to cats, so as long as I keep him around no more kitties. :-(


Well, you definitly wouldn't want a Selkirk Rex then. They shed horribly, so there's fur (and dander) everywhere. Plus it's a lot of coat care for a cat. They need frequent brushing because they shed so much, but brushing takes out the curl, so you need to either wash them or spritz the, with water and scrunch them back up. Has BF ever been around Bengals? My ex brother in law has asthma and bad reqctions to most cats, but not to my Bengal. I believe they're pretty low dander. They're super smart and active too, although also super loud. 

Here's Bella


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## oshagcj914 (Jun 12, 2016)

And loudmouth Asher the Bengal


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I love both of your kitties! I miss having cats, but since BF is so sensitive to them and none of my current dogs has any love for cats I don't see another cat in my future. What I really want is a few more chickens this spring.


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## oshagcj914 (Jun 12, 2016)

lily cd re said:


> I love both of your kitties! I miss having cats, but since BF is so sensitive to them and none of my current dogs has any love for cats I don't see another cat in my future. What I really want is a few more chickens this spring.


My allergies to cats don't seem to be getting any better, so I won't be getting any future cats either. I'm hoping to buy or build some time this year, and I really want to get a few chickens. Gotta do some research first as I've had ostriches, but not chickens...maybe it's similar? :lol:


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

You will enjoy having chickens. I like them as pets much more than I thought I would. I got them really so that we would always have eggs if we ever got stuck in the situation we were in after superstorm Sandy and hurricane Irene (no power, no food in stores, etc). If you want them to be like pets then it is worth getting hatchlings as they will imprint on you. My birds think I am like the pied piper.


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## pudellvr (Dec 1, 2016)

We have backyard hens as well, 13!! They are all different but the more you handle them while chicks the easier they are to care for.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

pudellvr, what breeds do you have? I have a buff orpington and three blue ameraucanas, but am interested in getting a couple of marans and another orpington next spring.


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## pudellvr (Dec 1, 2016)

I have Black Copper Marans, Orpingtons, Cochins, Legbars, Auracanas, Easter Eggers. I started w the chickens but then my husband took over!! He is obsessed with them now!


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## oshagcj914 (Jun 12, 2016)

Anybody keep ducks as well? Found a nice house on a small private lake that looks amazing...it'll probably be gone by the time I have enough money saved, but if I can find a place with a water source I want some ducks.


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