Integrity Golden Retrievers

To pick up where we left off, during Juliet’s first pregnancy she was on 3 rounds of antibiotics within a one month time span.

A few months after this Juliet began to itch and get these scabby spots. You know how it is with scabby spots, you pick at them. Poor Juju. She scratched at them and I picked at them. Probably not a great combination.

Well, this intense itching lead me down a path of research and I discovered Dr. Karen Becker and Rodney Habib. I ordered Becker’s book, Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats. I read it cover to cover at least 3-4 times and was completely mind blown by what I was learning. After lots and lots and lots of research learning how to balance recipies I started making DIY raw dog food. I made a basic organ slurry that contained beef liver/kidney/spleen/bullfry. Then I purchased regular meat at the grocery store; ground beef, turkey breast with bone (and I deboned it), and boneless pork loin. I primarily used with turkey neck, chicken back as my bone source.

This making DIY dog food went on for multiple years. I bought my regular muscle meat at Valli Produce here in town and then my organs I got from Park Packing in Chicago. Every few months I’d make a trip in to Chicago and stock up. I dreaded dog food making day. It was EXHAUSTING and EXPENSIVE.

I’ve got spreadsheets galore with calculations, recipes, pricing, sourcing and all kinds of info. I got really good at this. I purchased an upright freezer, a large meat grinder, lots of large aluminum catering pans and lots and lots of 16 ounce deli containers (that’s what I used to portion her food). While I did dread dog food making day, it got easier. More streamlined. Work smarter not harder right.

Until next time….