Thursday, August 19, 2010

I'm Learning Again

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Ok so it's my first video. I didn't have the record button on for the best part. The best part was 4 month old Roman getting the water out of the bowl and onto the floor so he could lie down in it and play. But you get the idea.

The other thing I am learning about is dog food.

Oh dear.

I suppose if manufacturing plants don't mind feeding us garbage their is no objection to what is put into  feed for dogs and cats.

But using euthanized animals? Cannibalism. Yep, I'm serious as a heart attack.  I'm mind blown really. There are no FDA controls on animal food. It gets worse. The pentobarbitol that they use to euthanize animals is not broken down, so each bowl of dry kibble has a little bit of this drug in it. Not to mention the salmonella, diseased animals, road kill, and waste from meat manufacturing plants.

You know I really have to wonder just who has the sick minds to dream this stuff up?

Some wacko's that sit around a table and say to each other, "Gentlemen we have a problem with animal control and what to do with all these dead bodies. We can't burn because of air pollution regulations, so what shall we do"?
And some brilliant guy says," Grind them up and make pet food out of them, we can call it, MEAT BY PRODUCTS AND BONE MEAL".

That's my imagination about how this started. Anything that solves a problem and makes a profit.

It's makes me want to puke.
All I could think of was how glad I am that we buried Rasmus in our yard.
I would be hysterical about now.
I realize this may be causing some upsetting thoughts for you.
But wouldn't you rather know?
Especially if you have pets now?

You know we just need to get back to home and hearth. If we are the keepers of our own families and pets and do the providing for them ourselves, we don't have to worry. Processed stuff is all crap. I'm really sick of this.
My dog died of cancer at a young age. Lots of animals are dying of cancers. Lot's of people are dying of cancers. When you start looking at what is being done to the food supply for all living creatures it is absolutely revolting. Gee it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that maybe eating has a relationship to illness, does it?

Anything for a buck.

There are SOME good pet food products out there now. Yeah they are expensive but you get what you pay for. I have been using Blue Wilderness dog food and then I started wondering where do they get the salmon from?  I'm thinking about getting a dog food cook book and feeding my dog myself.
That's what people used to do.  I'm going to have to figure out the cost too.
I'm thinking that with the price of the expensive food I probably can feed him cheaper myself.
Not to mention KNOWING what he is eating!

Back in the "old days," families cooked.
In the country they made a pan of "dog bread"  corn bread made with water, and put all the table scraps in. But the dogs ate pretty good! They sure didn't eat each other.

I found a couple of free recipes on line. Sounds like dogs need what we need! No sugar or salt, and 2 parts of protein, 1 part carbs, 1 part veggies. Imagine that.

Here's a sample recipe

Buffalo loaf for canines. (or any meat)
3 cups ground buffalo
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. oats or brown rice
1 1/2 c. grated veggies- choose from carrots broccoli, squash, sweet potato, spinach.
1/2 c. cottage cheese.

bake at 350 for 40 mins.

There is also free info about how to calculate how much to feed your dog and if you need supplements.
There are lists of foods to avoid.
I'm giving my dog cod liver oil for his dry skin which has rapidly improved it. The breeder fed them pretty cheap stuff and he had dandruff.  The vet said, "mild dermatitis". I could just imagine the skin issues we would be facing in the future. You know me, I'm going to nip that mess in the bud. Cod liver oil coming right up!

The people who feed their dogs claim that the dogs don't get bad teeth, bad breath, and that their poop isn't so nasty stinky. Wow, isn't that a surprise?   Good nutrition is important for everybody.

I did read it is important to SLOWLY change your pets diet over to avoid big diarrhea blow outs. So mixing some home made food into their current food and changing it slowly is always a good idea.
Do some research on this yourself, just use google.
You will be shocked really, I'm not making this up.
And we all need to do our own research.
That's how we come to believe something is true, when we check into it ourselves.

I think maybe we don't want to know because it means we have to work harder. OR maybe because of the cost, but how expensive is cancer? Skin allergies? Vet and doctor bills? Medications?
What price can we put on suffering and grief?

Yeah, exactly that's what I think too.

10 comments:

Julie Harward said...

Some of it really is awful, you have to really read whats in it for sure! Your dog is so beautiful too :D

Kat said...

I think about all of this with human food (no wonder cancer is so out of control) but I've never thought about pet food. Egad!

Jeanie said...

Shocking and a lot to think about.

Michelle said...

The pet food businnes is pretty gross, really. I have had to make "dog food" before for my Jack Russell for her skin problems.

Rosie_Kate said...

Have you ever looked into raw feeding? If you think about it, a dog's natural diet consists of raw meat-- no grains, vegetables, etc. I've heard really great things about feeding dogs that way-- the dogs are far healthier and actually need less food because the food is all usable without fillers. Some people can get post-dated meats and make it a very affordable way to feed. I know there's all kinds of info about it out there on the internet...

Karen Deborah said...

I don't want to do raw. To much junk in the meat. In a perfect world or if my husband hunted. I think game would be perfect. Bag a deer and grow sweet potatoes. We have the sweet potatoes growing but somehow I don't think I'll get my hubs into hunting. I think 1 chicken will last a week so that's not bad.

Chris H said...

WTF? REally! I am sure my dog food is made with nice stuff... It says made with chicken etc... off ot check right now!

Chris H said...

OH forgot to say.. it looks like your puppy would love a paddle pool to play in!

Bluebird49 said...

Maybe your hubby knows someone that hunts, though. I know the hunt clubs around here always have deermeat "scraps" when they slice it. Although, for Roman, I'm not sure how far 3 cups of deer and the other things would go! He looks like a pretty big boy!

Can you imagine people actually THINKING of putting dead animals in animal food? Un-REAL! (Wonder what's in the ground meats and cereal for humans?!) I never know what I'm going to read next. I saw where the eggs that have been recalled for salmonella were from a chicken "farmer" who had been cited for leaving dead chicken carcasses in with the laying hens. Is that awful or not! I hope they bust him. 1,000 people have been affected, and he's getting away with this?

I think I'll start buying eggs from our little neighborhood couple who have about 4 laying hens. I'd help them out, and I'd at least know where the eggs were coming from.

By the way, I hope I'll see MY dry hair and skin helped by the cod liver oil you told me about! I'm anxiously awaiting--to see if it helps me as much as just the fresh fruit first thing in the A.M. have. That's really made me feel better. The barley-max just doesn't get any better-tasting, though! Maybe I'll put it in applesauce!? What do you think would happen then?

Mental P Mama said...

Dora eats better than we do, too. I sometimes make her chicken, rice, carrots and cottage cheese, too. But Innova makes a great human grade food she loves;)