Sole food

I'm cooking up sole for the dogs this morning. After doing some research about the fish it is a low fat high protein source. Although because it is a bottom feeder I feel that it should only be given every so often. I've never eaten it myself and from the sounds of it; if I caught one I would not be eating it. They produce copius quantities of slime over their body which makes them hard to grab and completely gross I would imagine.

I bought wild caught dover sole; taking it out of the package it was a little fishy smelling to me. That said I have a fishy smell radar so I might be exaggerating a tiny bit. The pieces were very thin and in fact I should run down and get them out of the oven now. Back in a second.

Okay; I took the sole out of the oven and put it on the counter to cool.

Nutritional values for Dover sole

For a change it is good to add different protein sources to your dogs diet. This was inexpensive at 4.99/lb although much more than beef or chicken that I get. I have cooked up some sweet potatoe, will add spinach and cranberries and their appropriate supplements.

Bone meal

Adding bonemeal as a calcium source to your dogs homemade meals is important. If they are not eating raw bones with their meal then they need a calcium source. I buy all natural human grade bonemeal which consists of 1620 mg calcium, 540 mg Phosphorus and 18 mg Magnesium in each tsp.

Egg shells are a great source of calcium as well and is there anything cheaper than an egg shell? I typically toss mine down the garbage disposal which helps get rid of crud but I am going to dry and ground them now. They must be ground down very fine for your dog to digest them properly. And we've all seen foxes, coyotes and wolves munching down on eggs on a documentary or two right? I also only buy organic free range eggs so I know the shell is good.

This article is a wealth of info for anyone interested in taking the leap to real food.

The amazing pumpkin

If you've ever had a dog with diarrhea and couldn't seem to get it turned around; then you need to know about pumpkin. I don't know how many people I've shared this with but once you try it; you'll be hooked. Pumpkin is a very good binder when you need binding for your pooch. But; if you need loosening it works well for that too. With it's water absorption qualities it can quickly firm up loose stool and help to loosen up a dog that is having problems with constipation.

Pumpkin nutritional facts

more pumpkin info

Who knew? good for kidney stones and parasites

From everything that I have researched; dogs can eat seeds as well as the meat of a pumpkin. I know that when we carve our pumpkins the dogs are in there looking for tidbits to grab. If you are feeding raw, grate the pumpkin very well and use a small amount. For the pumpkin in a can (not pie filling) use a couple of teaspoons for an med-large dog. Pumpkin can cure diarrhea within hours; how great is that?

Good and bad

While researching fish oil lately I came across this and wanted to share it. I just bought a bottle of Canola oil and will throw it out today. It seems to be in the controversial stage at the moment but I like to always be of the safe side and go with tossing the bottle. I use mostly olive oil and haven't even had a bottle of canola oil in my home for a very longtime. Figures I just bought it when I read this article. So; I was reading about fish oil and trying to find some good info to share with you, here is one such article.

http://www.omega-3-fish-oil-wonders.com/fish-oil-for-dogs.html

Fish oil is great for us and for dogs. Luckily most dogs do not mind the taste as we humans search for the fishless fish pills for our own consumption. We can open up a can of salmon or sardines and give this to our dogs. I am going to get some good Omega 3s for my guys and perhaps that will help with little Jessie's itching.

Have a great day.

Mmmmm sardines again

Okay; I've almost got is now, the art of opening the sardine can without getting sardine juice on my hands. I really should just put a pair of gloves on but I always seem to remember that fact just after feeling the drip. If you can bare with me here; I am so careful it's ridiculous actually. I hold the weird rectangle can in my right hand and brace my left to pull the tab. I do it without any jerking; nice and smooth but presto somehow a drip of this foul smelling fish juice gets on me everytime.

So anyway; sardines are really great for your dog if you can stomach them. Fish; fishy fish is not one of my favorite things to cook. I'm just now learning to like salmon; which is what we will eat tonight, dogs too. Up until now I've only eaten lobster, scallops, shrimp and halibut but I recently dropped beef from my own diet so I'm picking up salmon. Salmon and Sardines are virtually equals as far as Omega 3 fatty acids and vitamin D. Both fish are a good source of calcium but the bones must be consumed.

Typically when salmon is served fresh the bones are removed; they are also too hard for us to digest. But if you eat canned salmon and keep the bones in; then they are a great source of calcium like sardines (eewww). But for our dogs; either works and they don't typically turn their noses up at sardines. I do though.

Bones and a scarfer

Bones are a hot topic these days. Your conventional vets who learned their canine nutritional facts from the dog food company are going to be none too happy about feeding bones. There are those for and those against as in most subjects. I am on the fence about bones; I don't think wolves in the wild eat as many bones as people are assuming that they do. Heck check out the carcass after a wolf feast and there you will see a bone carcass. Yes I agree that they eat small bones; say rabbit or other vermin but big rib or leg bones, I doubt it.

I read an article where the writer stated that chewing on bones is not a natural behavior of dogs. Now that I totally don't believe; my guys love chewing bones and again; watch a wolf documentary to see them chewing on the bones after a meal. Feeding bones can be tricky; my girl Jessie (Jack Russell) has never been a chewer, very dangerous to feed bones to. So I have bought a huge bag of cartilage which I cut into very small pieces to feed her. I also let them chew on very large pieces of cartilage. Cartilage can be chewed and digested fairly easy although you have to watch the scarfers. Both of my poodles chew; which is a good thing.

I have human grade bone meal to add to their meals which is very important if they are not having enough bone or cartilage in their meal.

Flax seed oil

I've got my dogs on flax seed oil; having researched it a great deal I want to see if I can see a difference. Most sites give a month time span before you can actually see a difference which is the average for most natural supplements. Flax are great little seeds; and they happen to be very "in" right now. Here is a great site about the flax seed.

As with many supplements; liquid form best serves the canine species. Having a much faster digestive system the oil of the flax seed has time to work it's magic.

This is one little seed that you too should eat.

Nutritional value