Dog food

 

Dog food

Through the generations of dogs we’ve had the joy of living with, feeding them has been an ongoing topic for thought and discussion.

I realise this is a First World issue, and am only too aware that many people in this world have not enough to feed themselves and their families. That doesn’t mean that we, more fortunate, should not pay as much attention to what we feed our animals as we do to our own diet.

Our first dog was Whisky, our rehomed three-year-old Labrador. The first meal we gave her was lights. Lights are offal, mainly lungs, heart, stomach (tripe) and other bits and pieces that butchers can extract from a carcase and that might not otherwise be commercially viable. These days, for the nose-to-tail cooks, everything is on the table, or at least in the cooking pot.

She loved her meal, but we did not appreciate the digestive disturbances it caused, so after that she had tinned food, which she inhaled at great speed.

Through the years, we tried dried food, wet food, and raw food. At one time, for a few years, frozen raw chicken, turkey necks, raw bones, and tripe were delivered regularly, and we had a dedicated freezer for it, known as the dog freezer. They really enjoyed it and looked tremendous on it, but there was always something of a question mark over whether they were getting the right proportions of protein, vitamins, and so forth. Raw bones, too, though greatly enjoyed, could be a problem. They might splinter and could not be left in the garden for wildlife to infect with bacteria.

Eventually, the supplier could no longer supply in the quantities we wanted – he was selling to kennels, and our order was quite meagre by comparison. So ended the evenings bagging up frozen meat, to our secret relief. Then we went to dried food.

We didn’t want food that was full of fillers and additives – junk food for dogs - so consulted a site – https://allaboutdogfood.co.uk – a comprehensive and boggling site about many of the commercial dog foods available, and discovered one that seemed good.  We have just discovered that the company providing it, formerly Canadian, has been sold to China, and the ingredients have been tweaked. The dogs are not turning their noses up at it, but we are unhappy not knowing what ingredients are now being used. It’s increasingly difficult to escape the clutches of China, but at least we can still source our own food, and that of our animals.

We found a German company, www.gentledogfood.co.uk and were sent some free samples to try out, to see if the dogs liked them. They are Labradors! They like everything, so it was hardly a rigorous test. They are not at all discriminating in their tastes and wolfed down the samples, and looked around for more. We shall see how they fare on their new diet.

In common with doctors, vets are not given much teaching on the value of good nutrition. Medical students receive fewer than twenty-five hours, often significantly less during their years of training. Veterinary students have about twenty hours.

Thus, it is up to us to research, and refine our diets according to our health, taste, and purses.