Aside from a Flying Dutchman burger, Tripawds Spokesdawg Wyatt Ray prefers Honest Kitchen’s tasty homemade dehydrated dog food as his meal of choice. But this week, we ran out of Honest Kitchen! Now what?
You see, Tripawds’ dog house on wheels is camping in the desert this month, and we’re far from any utilities, services or shopping. Without the convenience of Honest Kitchen, it looks like we’ll need to prepare some home cooked meals for our voracious eater.
Recently we asked members how they picked their dog’s diet (see “How Do You Pick a Dog Diet for your Tripawd?“). Now, we’ll share how we choose what Wyatt eats on the road.
Wyatt Eats Like We Do
Three year-old Wyatt gets the benefit of what we learned about supermarket-grade dog food several years ago, when Spirit Jerry started having seizures. Although we can’t trace his seizures back to the suspect dog food, coincidentally they stopped once we upgraded Jerry’s diet by feeding him better kibble and more raw meaty bones.
Now that we know better, Wyatt regularly eats a Dog Food Advisor-approved, higher grade of commercial grain-free kibble, such as Earthborn Holistic or Taste of the Wild. There are higher rated dog kibble brands on the market, such as Orijen or Wysong, but Earthborn and ToW both fit into our budget.
Each day while we’re camping, Wyatt will get more than kibble. As usual, a rotating selection of unprocessed fresh foods is on the menu. We attribute this as the main reason fleas stay away from his shiny fur.
Although he won’t get his usual cup of Honest Kitchen added to his kibble, Wyatt will get to gnaw on raw chicken, a mish-mash of finely grated fresh veggies and when we can find them, raw buffalo bones. Buffalo bones are much stronger than beef bones. They’re more expensive but they last longer and unlike with cow bones, the marrow rarely causes less digestive upset in his sensitive belly.
We sometimes home cook large pots of stew for Wyatt, but not when we are dry camping in our RV without full hookups. Since water is a precious commodity, making a huge mess like this isn’t an option.
When we’re camped out in the desert, Wyatt eats much of the same foods that we do; lots of veggies, occasional meat and of course, kibble. We also supplement with eggs, fish oil and a good probiotic to keep his system running smoothly.
Feeding healthy foods to your dog doesn’t have to be expensive. Our own philosophy for Wyatt’s diet is the same as it is for ourselves: while organic is preferred, it’s not always affordable or feasible, especially when we’re in rural, remote areas.
We just do the best we can to eat a healthy diet, with few processed foods and bad fats. In the end, eating well won’t be as cheap as a bag of Ol’ Roy, but ultimately we’ll likely have fewer health issues.
What’s your approach to feeding your Tripawd? Do you have multiple dogs? How do you feed them? Tell us about your meal plan below.
YAY!! My favorite topic. I feed two meals a day…high-quality commerical dog food for breakfast (mix of canned and dry) with a dollop of yogurt (probiotic) and some wild fish oil sprinkled in.
Then we do home cooked meals for dinner…some combo of brown rice and pulverized veg…plus either partially cooked chicken or ground beef. I supplement with calcium powder in the veg/rice mix and both get a multi-vitamin. Both eat the same thing, but in different quantities. Chaz (the Quad) weighs 70lbs and our Tripawd Pegz weighs 43lbs. I am very focused on her calories, so that she does not gain any extra lbs. (In addition to missing her front left leg…her back left leg is severly damaged.)
I also stopped giving them tap water…the smell of chlorine in our city water would blow your hat off. If I can’t stand the smell, I am not going to make them drink it. Spring water only.
Lots of folks tell me I am crazy. But the truth is that once you develop a routine…this process is no big deal. It takes me 1/2 an hour…2 or 3 times a week. I travel frequently for work, so advance prep is a must. But the results are worth it. And I like to cook. I did a price comparison..if I were going to feed 100% high quality commercial food, then this method is NOT that much more expensive. The big differential in price is the supplements…which you really must do if you are going to do any home cooking.
I actually started all this by trying to cure the “evil squirts”. And I slowly realized that when I did the boiled meat and rice routine…the better BM’s we had. Then I started to read up on commercial food and became convinced that the more “whole” food I could give them the better they would do. We have not only cured the squirts…but we no longer have “doggie dandruff” and Pegz is a NEW dog in terms of energy. When she gets too feisty and rambunctious, I have to tell her….”That’s it!! No more vitamins for you!” 🙂
Wahhhh! My long-winded response never showed up. It is me…I am a tech disaster. 🙁
Don’t be silly! No disaster, and it’s not your fault. The comment just got marked as spam. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
Oooooh that diet sounds so yummy!
We don’t think you’re crazy at all….nopawdy here at Tripawds does that’s for sure.
Do yo have photos of the food you make? We would love to put this in its own separate blog post here. Can we?
We don’t have any but we can sure take some! When mom gets home from her biz trip this weekend she will take some pics.
She has been reading lots of stuff…. But seeing is believing. The doggies in this house are thriving. Sometimes the “experts” are critical of the home cooking stuff … But the proof is in the Pegz Pudding. Look at your dog and judge the results !