Feeding RAW

So, there is one little canine who has been left out of this entire discussion/drama (well, sort of....) Baby Waldo has done his best to keep out of the way, somehow knowing that the Old Man needed to take priority for a while. Although he still displays puppy tendencies (he's only 1 year old), he's done his best to be on good behavior.

For the past week, I've witnessed him look for Watson around the house. When he's first let out of his kennel or first enters the house, he runs to the living room where he usually would find Watson asleep in his bed. He still does it and, upon not finding the Old Man, will search from room to room looking for him. He will also sit at the bottom of the stairs and cry, as if telling Watson to please come down so that they can play. Poor guy....

One thing I have learned from the short but intense month of Watson's illness is that canine nutrition is so very important. While I have never fed my dogs supermarket brands (like Mighty Dog, Alpo, or store generics, etc), I did feed them "premium" brands like Iams and Nutro. Once I discovered that these foods were manufactured in the same plant that produces brands like the Wal-Mart store brand, I began looking for other alternatives that contained true premium ingredients. After all, Rich and I try to eat as natural and organic as possible so why shouldn't our dogs??

I had written before about the Canidae and Innova EVO brands of food that I found at the local pet store. Both Watson and Waldo seemed to transiton well onto both brands and like the mix of Canidae dry and Innova EVO wet. The Innova EVO is 95% meat and what Rich noticed is that, unlike other wet foods, the cans rinse out easily since it's more like regular people food that miscellaneous dog paste.

Many folks on the Canine Cancer Yahoo board have switched to a raw diet after finding out that their pets had cancer. I had heard of raw before Watson got sick but honestly never had the inclination or motivation to find out more about it. After doing more reading, I have decided to switch Waldo's diet to a raw-based diet supplemented by the Innova EVO.

I chose the Nature's Variety because it was the highest quality brand sold at our local pet store. I also chose the medallions over the patties or rolls so that Rich the veggie didn't have to handle them. He can just invert a baggie and grab them that way, rather than peeling apart patties or scooping out bits from a roll. We're on Day 2 and Waldo seems to be liking it. I plan to transition him over the next few weeks so that he can slowly acclimate to the new food.