My Dog Lacey

Let’s talk for a minute about BARF (that is, Bones And Raw Food) and the poop that results from this way of eating.

Here’s Lacey typical diet (that she absolutely loves). Everything comes from Whole Foods or Jimbos, so if it’s not completely organic, it’s all-natural, hormone/pesticide free, cage free, etc etc.

Breakfast (after a 20-30 minute 6am walk):

2-4 raw chicken necks or backs (or drumsticks, but they’re harder to chew up). I’ve also given raw wings — so basically any part of the chicken, with bones, but MAKE SURE it’s RAW! nothing cooked.

Sometimes she gets snacks:

Usually a raw cow bone or raw lamb leg bone with meat and marrow. Or pieces of turkey or chicken hot dog.

Dinner:

Raw hamburger or raw ground lamb or some kind of organ meat. One large tablespoon raw veggies from the blender or 1/4 scoop ProGreens, depending on how lazy I am. One egg shell crunched up, shot of kelp sprinkle, and shot of flax oil. Sometimes I put in an egg. Sometimes 1/4 avocado.

Nighttime snack — when I eat a banana or apple, I give her a bite or two. She loves it. She knows now when I go to the fruit basket and pull out a banana. Her ears perk up and she saunters over to get her bite. Kevin gave her a piece of carrot the other day. She wasn’t too impressed.

Ice — she loves ice and will do virtually anything for it. Guess that’s not technically food, but she crunches it so it’s probably good for tartar control on her teeth.

Ok, so now let’s talk about her poop. First of all, there’s very little of it. For a 25 pound dog, she poops about as much as my former dog Gretchen who weighed 10 pounds. This tells me that she absorbs so much of the food. There’s not much trash in it at all.

Second, it’s chalky and kind of dry, even when it’s completely fresh. The other day she pooped in a neighbor’s yard on our walk and I wasn’t prepared (no baggie with me). I picked it up in my hand and dropped it in a bed of ivy (like I’m gonna carry it all the way home with me??!). There was no mess or smell on my hand whatsoever. I dusted off my hands and they were clean!

Third, it decomposes so fast. I never pick up poop in our backyard (which is where she goes most of the time), because it’s gone so fast. Of course, our sprinkler system is like Niagra Falls, so the poop has some encouragement to disintegrate fast!

The only thing I haven’t seen which I wish I would see is her health improve to the point that she doesn’t soak up fleas. Eventually, I hope to have her in that condition. But for now, we’re the flea magnet.

That’s the scoop — raw food, raw chicken (with bones), raw bones, raw (blended) veggies, no grain at all, some bites of raw fruit — so awesome.

What a great dog.
Anna

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 17th, 2006 at 3:25 pm and is filed under Health & Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Let’s talk for a minute about BARF (that is, Bones And Raw Food) and the poop that results from this way of eating.

Here’s Lacey typical diet (that she absolutely loves). Everything comes from Whole Foods or Jimbos, so if it’s not completely organic, it’s all-natural, hormone/pesticide free, cage free, etc etc.

Breakfast (after a 20-30 minute 6am walk):

2-4 raw chicken necks or backs (or drumsticks, but they’re harder to chew up). I’ve also given raw wings — so basically any part of the chicken, with bones, but MAKE SURE it’s RAW! nothing cooked.

Sometimes she gets snacks:

Usually a raw cow bone or raw lamb leg bone with meat and marrow. Or pieces of turkey or chicken hot dog.

Dinner:

Raw hamburger or raw ground lamb or some kind of organ meat. One large tablespoon raw veggies from the blender or 1/4 scoop ProGreens, depending on how lazy I am. One egg shell crunched up, shot of kelp sprinkle, and shot of flax oil. Sometimes I put in an egg. Sometimes 1/4 avocado.

Nighttime snack — when I eat a banana or apple, I give her a bite or two. She loves it. She knows now when I go to the fruit basket and pull out a banana. Her ears perk up and she saunters over to get her bite. Kevin gave her a piece of carrot the other day. She wasn’t too impressed.

Ice — she loves ice and will do virtually anything for it. Guess that’s not technically food, but she crunches it so it’s probably good for tartar control on her teeth.

Ok, so now let’s talk about her poop. First of all, there’s very little of it. For a 25 pound dog, she poops about as much as my former dog Gretchen who weighed 10 pounds. This tells me that she absorbs so much of the food. There’s not much trash in it at all.

Second, it’s chalky and kind of dry, even when it’s completely fresh. The other day she pooped in a neighbor’s yard on our walk and I wasn’t prepared (no baggie with me). I picked it up in my hand and dropped it in a bed of ivy (like I’m gonna carry it all the way home with me??!). There was no mess or smell on my hand whatsoever. I dusted off my hands and they were clean!

Third, it decomposes so fast. I never pick up poop in our backyard (which is where she goes most of the time), because it’s gone so fast. Of course, our sprinkler system is like Niagra Falls, so the poop has some encouragement to disintegrate fast!

The only thing I haven’t seen which I wish I would see is her health improve to the point that she doesn’t soak up fleas. Eventually, I hope to have her in that condition. But for now, we’re the flea magnet.

That’s the scoop — raw food, raw chicken (with bones), raw bones, raw (blended) veggies, no grain at all, some bites of raw fruit — so awesome.

What a great dog.
Anna

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 17th, 2006 at 3:25 pm and is filed under Health & Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.