Back in the day

While in high school I worked for a vet. Among my jobs was feeding animals staying at the clinic as well as the vet's own animals.

He kept an excellent supply of prescription foods for his clients, but never used them for his own animals. This may sound as if he was a cheapskate who didn't want to spend money on his own cats and dog, but in fact he had some good reasons for feeding the way he did.

He believed dogs were really omnivores rather than true carnivores as cats are. Back then dogs were labeled carnivores and fed high amounts of meat sourced products. He believed dogs needed at LOT more fruits, vegetables and grain in their diet than the up scale companies provided. Eventually I came to agree with him. After all it's hard to disagree with someone whose animals habitually live to ages near the ones recorded in the Guiness book of records (wasn't around then, but later...)

For many years now I've followed his policy of feeding "cheap" dog foods. Some of my dogs seem to be overweight, some have looked underweight, but most have lived to be OLD. Those that haven't were either stolen (we lived in an area where someone came through every fall and swiped small purebred dogs) or met with untimely accidents. In one case a seventeen year old dog was digging after a mole and dug under a support pier of our house. The corner of a house landing on you will cut your time on this earth short. We will not discuss the bill to repair the damage to the house.

Currently I have a 21 year old Rat Terrier, Sassy, who has been on the "cheap" diet all her life. Every time she went to the vet I heard "She needs to lose weight. She'll live longer if she carries less weight." The past few times that's been trotted out I've retorted that she is old as dirt now.

When Sassy developed pancereites (sp?) I tried the prescription food but she quit eating entirely. She would have nothing to do with either canned or dried. So I went on a hunt for low fat, low protein dog food. I had to read a LOT of labels but eventually found some brands that contained the low amounts of fat and protein she needed. That was three years ago and she's still perking along on her "cheap" diet.

Lazy Trainer Tip

When we are caring for our animals we want the best for them, but we need to remember the best for them may not be anything close to what is best for humans. Our animals enrich our world and meet a lot of our needs. We need to be sure we return the favor by meeting their critical needs.