Posts filed under ‘Food’
Trying out a new food: K9 NATURAL
K9 Natural is a brand new dog food from New Zealand (so far away!) and recently I ordered a bag of the Lamb diet via Urban Pet for Boogie to try out. It also sold online at www.bestbullysticks.com
My impressions:
- Expensive.
- Very convenient to feed. You mix it with warm water, as you do with The Honest Kitchen food, except that…
- …this hydrated food looks and smells like rich brown meaty stew! Unlike THK’s greenish oatmeal appearance.
- I watched Boogie eat. Then he licked his empty bowl for ages… then sat next to his bowl, and looked up at me… “More, please”.
Sigh. Unfortunately for all this food’s grain-free, filler-free, authentic-looking meatiness it is REALLY EXPENSIVE.
[…looks like stew to me, but according to the website, the liquid is “reconstituted blood”. Eek]
K9 Natural is less expensive that the Proportions food that we sampled last month, but more expensive that Boogie’s usual The Honest Kitchen combo, and the K9 Natural website advises against mixing their food with any other (cooked) food. So, going by Boogie’s weight and the ‘how much to feed’ calculations on the back of the bag, this $35 small bag will last only two weeks…
Compare this to how much I am spending right now:
10lb box of The Honest Kitchen KEEN ($55) or ZEAL ($108)
Approx total cost of meat & veggies – $20
TOTAL: $75 – $130
TIMEFRAME: 3-4 months
A 8.8lb bag of K9 Natural costs $200!
If only it were cheaper.
Sampling a new food: Proportions
Two free samples of Proportions dog food arrived in the mail last week. Ages ago I signed up for these on Dogster…
Wow, this is fancy schmancy dog food indeed! There are three separate pouches of stuff that you mix together to create a multicolored and textured meal that looks edible to humans (if you ignore the kibble).
Hand-carved Chicken?
On the website you fill out your dog’s details… breed, weight, level of activity etc. and they calculate the ideal number of calories that he should be eating per meal and these perfectly-measured portions will be shipped out to you every month if you sign up.
I can imagine that Proportions would be easy to feed when traveling… but the whole program seems expensive to me – about $90 per month, when I can cook Boogie’s food for much less.
Boogie loved it. But of course he would. Just look at it! And it smells like fresh cooked chicken!
I decided to order another sample ($5) after registering Boogie on the website, uploading a picture and entering his details …
Ha! This arrived in the mail today:
Anyone else sampling/feeding Proportions? What are your thoughts?
Double Chicken Cheese cookies
I would love to buy some fancy treats for Boogie like the stuff from the Barkery – but for now, homebaking it is.
These Double Chicken Cheese cookies are cheap and fast to make, as I am using ingredients that I already have in the house mainly the food that I already feed Boogie.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup The Honest Kitchen THRIVE (chicken formula)
1/2 cup The Honest Kitchen FORCE (chicken formula)
1 cup of warm water to hydrate
grated cheddar cheese
grated parmesan cheese
1 egg (someday I may substitute this with canned pumpkin or sweet potato)
granulated garlic
I would also add ground chicken or ham or some other meat but I don’t have any right now.
Hydrate the THK food first, then mix in the rest of the ingredients. Spoon onto parchment paper on a cookie sheet and bake in a 350F oven for about 20 minutes. I store these in a container in the fridge and chop them into smaller pieces for training sessions.
Boogie: “5 stars!”
A very happy day for Boogie
1. Sarah came to visit! Sarah is of course, Boogie’s favorite person. When Sarah comes to visit, there are games to play and lots and lots of yummy home-baked tuna treats, all for repeatedly standing on a cushion/bed. We did a “Relax On a Mat” game with Boogie’s new bed, and a more active “Go To Your Mat” game with his Mr. Roboto cushion. I have homework to do and so I made some…
2. Dream Drops training treats from The Honest Kitchen Recipe book. While I was chopping up the ham and cheese, a little dog got lucky. He loves the treats too… and for some reason, mine don’t look anything like the ones in the book.
3. A new plush toy! I knew that it wouldn’t last, but hey, it was on sale for only $2.99 from ROSS and it was a MAILMAN! How could I resist! 😉
Rate your dog food, and we have a perfect score!
The questionnaire: http://www.k9cuisine.com/RateYourDogFood.aspx (Warning: There are 31 questions)
We have a score of 100. GRADE A!
This is what I feed Boogie:
KEEN from The Honest Kitchen + home cooked meat & veggies. (roughly 50/50)
Home cooked food recipe:
- 1 lb lean ground turkey or beef or chicken
- 1 large yam or sweet potato or rice
- 1 clove minced garlic
- 1/2 cup of peas or green beans or broccoli (whatever I have in the fridge that’s green)
- pinch of thyme & salt
- water
As for The Honest Kitchen – I have blogged about this food many many times – almost obsessively …here’s an illustration of the THK feeding process that I did way back – and I have been feeding this food to Boogie EVERYDAY for over 2 years, either alone or mixed with other foods. The Honest Kitchen is the first commercial dog food that Boogie has eaten which doesn’t make him throw up, produce squishy poos, and emit super stinky gases. No fillers, no weird byproducts, no allergens like corn and wheat, and Boogie loves it. He has tried all the formulas – Force, Embark, Thrive, Preference, Verve and Keen… with the exception of Prowl, which is for cats. I read somewhere that THK will soon be coming out with a new formula with haddock (Zeal) which I am excited for Boogie to try.
In fact I am such a fan that I joined the THK’s Allies program a few weeks ago with the promise to continue feeding and blogging about this food. To my surprise, a HUGE BOX arrived on my doorstep tonight. I can’t believe it! I now have a gazillion samples of THK food, information pamphlets, a t-shirt and free treats!
I don’t intend to hoard all these food samples for myself (ahem, as tempting as it may be) and I plan to distribute these to friends, rescues, anyone who comes into contact with many pets and their owners.
Interested in trying some free The Honest Kitchen samples? Please get in touch! Seriously.
Recipe: Roast Livers and Sweet Potato
Positive Reinforcement training requires lots and lots of treats. Sarah has suggested that I use Boogie’s food (the stuff that he eats at mealtimes) as treats. I would then feed him slightly less during mealtimes. This way, Boogie won’t get fat and I can be assured that the treats are healthy, not some doggie equivalent of “junk food”.
In this case, sloppy-type food (like The Honest Kitchen) isn’t going to work.
Here is something I cooked today which is really easy. It smells really really good too and I can’t stop picking at it!
Ingredients:
1 lb chicken livers ($2 at Jons)
2 sweet potatoes – diced
garlic powder
1 cup peas and green beans (frozen kind)
olive oil
I put the raw chicken liver pieces and diced sweet potatoes (boiled first) on a parchment-lined baking tray. I drizzle olive oil and sprinkle garlic powder over everything, then roast in the pre-heated oven for 15-30 minutes until thoroughly cooked, turning the liver pieces over halfway in the process. Meanwhile, I steam the frozen peas and green beans until soft. When the livers are cooked, I stir everything together in a container with the greens, and store in the fridge. <- Will be fed with Honest Kitchen KEEN.
I will also cut up some liver pieces into teeny tiny portions for training sessions.
P.S. Sometimes I think this dog eats better than I do.
Recipe: Tuna Training Treats
I have had enough of chicken livers! Never again do I want to puree raw chicken livers. Blech! So this week, I turned to FISH. Last night I tried out a recipe that I found online for Baked Tuna Training Treats.
Ingredients:
2 x 6 oz cans of tuna (in water)
2 eggs
1.5 cups of flour
1 tbsp garlic powder
parmesan cheese
water
I mixed the tuna (including the water inside the can) with the flour, garlic powder and eggs, adding water until the consistency was like cake batter. Then spread this into a greased cake pan and sprinkled liberally with parmesan cheese. The recipe calls for baking at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes but I forgot about it and it baked for 20-30 minutes. I ended up with something that resembled a “rock solid tuna pizza”, which I sliced up into smaller pieces.
I am glad Boogie loves it because if he didn’t, he would be a very spoiled and ungrateful little dog 🙂
Wes: “Boogie, why are you so much trouble?”
Me: “But we still love him, right?”
Tune in to Boogie Today to read Boogie’s daily walking/training log.
A special week for little dogs
I don’t have heart-shaped cookie cutters so my version doesn’t look very Valentine-y.
In fact my version doesn’t even look pretty! 😛
I used quick oats instead of quinoa flakes. And only a few dried cranberries because I know Boogie isn’t crazy about them.
This is the first time I have baked anything for Boogie (or for any dog). It was quite a surreal experience seeing pureed chicken livers in the same blender that I use for frozen desserts. (eek) And then the weird aroma of chicken liver wafting out from my oven and filling the apartment. We weren’t thrilled but Boogie was. I gave him a small piece and he loved it.
Anyway, there is another reason to celebrate because Feb 14th is also the start of the Chinese/Lunar New Year. And the very next day – Feb 15th – is the Birthday Of All Dogs! (See this page or this Wikipedia entry)
Cancer Diet recipe, from The Honest Kitchen
Tonight I cooked up the “Cancer Diet” from the Honest Kitchen recipe book. This is a recipe that has higher protein than others and is suitable for both dogs and cats.
I started with this recipe because I already had all the ingredients at home: ground turkey, yams, green beans and yogurt. I sauteed the turkey with a combination of extra virgin olive oil & virgin coconut oil (which I read is really good for skin issues) and boiled the veggies first because Boogie is fussy and will only eat them cooked. (He also doesn’t eat fruit, except watermelon). I think this big bowl will last 3-4 days if I feed him 1.5 cups per day.
Home cooking
In my attempts to save money, I am going to cook for Boogie more often.
Here is something I prepared last night.
Beef risotto + Honest Kitchen KEEN
BEEF RISOTTO INGREDIENTS
– 1 sausage chopped
– 2/3 cup brown rice
– chicken broth and water
– 1 sweet potato chopped
– a few cauliflower florets chopped
– handful of green beens
– 2 cloves garlic chopped
– salt
I love that this pot of dog food is easy to prepare and much cheaper than buying canned food and will feed Boogie for maybe 3-4 days (in addition to THK Keen or Halo kibble)
I have just received the new recipe book by The Honest Kitchen, which includes meals that both dogs and humans can share. The recipes are all labeled – some are for dogs, some are for cats, some are for all of us. Check out this fish and sweet potato recipe on the Honest Kitchen website.
I am pretty excited. I will probably tweak the recipes because Boogie’s dad is a fussy eater. Here are some photos of the book. I will definitely share photos when I start cooking!
Boogie's blog 