The reality of kibble

So, what's actually in the food most ppl feed their dogs? What do all those scientific-sounding names means? Well, let's take a look at the ingrediants of a popular dog food and find out....I'm choosing Iams because it's so well-known and respected. (Not to mention expensive. ;))

Iams Proactive Health Chunks

(this is one of their basic formulas, from what I can tell.)

Chicken, Corn Meal, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Chicken By-Product Meal, Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken Flavor, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Potassium Chloride, Dried Egg Product, Brewers Dried Yeast, Salt, Caramel, Calcium Carbonate, Flax Meal, Choline Chloride, Fructooligosaccharides, Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Carbonate), Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin A Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Niacin, Riboflavin Supplement (source of vitamin B2), Inositol, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid), L-Lysine Monohydrochloride, DL-Methionine, Rosemary Extract.


#1: Chicken. That's not too bad, right? Well, yes and no. It's bad because the label does not indicate that the water has been removed from the chicken prior to it's addition to the food, (if the water had been removed, the label would have said "chicken meal") so guess what? A whole lot less chicken ends up in the food then that label wants you to think. After all, our bodies are composed of about 70% water; I doubt a chicken is much less. So after the cooking/extruding process, you end up with approx. 30% of what the label is saying you have....so that's not good!! You pay for something you never get!! Also, it's been highly-processed, which is never good for anything. ;) The good thing about it is that you know exactly what it is: chicken. Your dog isn't possibly eating feathers or other inedible parts.

#2 Corn meal: this ingrediant is a really big bad one. Grain is not on a dog's list of edibles, and corn should be on their list of "don't touch", IMO. It is well known that corn is a major cause of allergies. Enough said I think...:D

#3 Ground Whole Grain Sorghum: another no-no; it's a grain; that makes for two grains now. Add those two grains together and you end up with a grain-based food. Tricky, huh? You have to think outside the box with these sly manufactorers...another common thing you'll see on ingrediants labels is this: "Ground wheat, ground wheat hulls, ground wheat middlings" or something similar to that...again, add all those together and you've got a food that is basically bread!! If I want to feed my dog bread, I get some from the refridgerator and give her a bit...;) I certainly don't want her to eat it everyday, month after month, year after year!

#4 Chicken by-product meal: again, good and bad. Good because it is a meal (you get what you pay for!), bad because it's a) highly processed and b) has who-knows-what in it. Sure, it probably has the usualy liver, kidney, brain, etc. that most ppl think of when they see the word "by-product", but who's to say that it doesn't have feathers, hair, hooves, etc. in it? A dog may eat that stuff normally, but his tummy certainly doesn't keep it down! It comes right back up (I know this from experiance...just the other day my dogs ate a deer leg, complete with hide. And believe me, every last bit of hair came back up. I got to clean it up off my bedroom floor...:P)...when it's all mashed into a kibble though, the dog's body has no choice: the stomach must push it through. That can't be good for the dog! Digesting the indigestible is hard on everything. ;)

#5 Dried Beet Pulp: this is competely unneeded. It's basically just a filler and cannot be used in any way by the dog.

#6: Chicken flavor: who knows what that flavor came from!! Probably not a good ingrediant...

#7: Chicken fat: even with the tocopherols as a preservative, that stuff is going to be rancid by the time your dog gets it. Fat doesn't keep very well.

#8 Potassium Chloride: salt. Your dog doesn't need that. Likely he's getting plenty from the other ingrediants, whether they be good or bad.

#9 Dried egg product: not sure about this one...I don't exactly remember what the word "product" means; I doubt it's good though!

#10 Brewers dried yeast: dogs don't need that! In fact, there is evidence that extra dietary yeast contributes to yeast infections in the body. Makes sense!

#11 Salt: again, more salt! combine that with the potassium chloride and you've got quite a bit of that stuff!

Skipping #12, onto #13...

Flax meal: this is probably meant to add healthy oils to the diet. Well, the only way the dog's body might use those oils would be for his owner to feed him flax oil, not meal. Otherwise it'll just go straight through without being digested...

The rest of these ingrediants are just vitamins/minerals. The problems I have with that? A) Most of them will be destroyed by the time doggie eats them and b) I'm sure that some/most are artificial. So that pretty much makes them useless!


So, there you go: that is one of the "best" foods out there. IMO, it made a pretty low score! See http://pets-n-me.blogspot.com/2009/09/species-appropriate-raw-foods.html to read what I feed my dogs in place of kibble.

Well, hope you enjoyed it!

~E

How to clip your bird's nails.

It's a lslightly strange subject, I know. But many of us have birds, such as parakeets, and sometimes their nails need to be cut! Preferably before they get hung up in a toy, etc. ;) So, here's how to do it.

Method 1:

#1: First, get your supplies. All you need is a small towel and nail clippers; the human kind work just fine. (BTW, this "how-to" is not for finches/canaries; they don't need their nails clipped. I'm talking about the parrots here. ;))

#2 Catch the bird. Throw the towel over her, place your hand over her body, and pick her up. Yes, she'll fuss!! Don't worry, she's not dying. ;) Place her head in between your thum/forefinger knuckle (it's in the pic!) or in between your forefinger/middle finger knuckle. I do it the former way.

#3 Grab a foot with the free fingers on the hand holding the bird or don't hold at all, just clip; that's how I do it!! Most of the time you can get their feet to relax to where all the nails poke out. Check for the quick (a little red line; it's pretty easy to see as long as the bird's nails are white.) and cut just a teensy bit before it. If you do happen to nick it, don't worry, it'll stop bleeding. I've done it several times!

Method 2

#1 Perch your bird on your finger.

#2 Clip her nails from that position.

M2 is easier on the bird, but you can't always do it that way...Pal, the yellow girl, is tame enough for me to do it that way. Pippen, OTOH, is not. ;)

And here is a video on it...hopefully the quality is OK!

You're done! The pics and video aren't the greatest, but hopefully you'll get the idea. :)

~E

Pepper's vet visit.

On Sunday, I took Pepper to the vet to get that lump checked out. Thankfully, it was nothing more then a puncture wound (we think. ;)). I figure it was from her playing around with Dusty; dogs (for some reason!) bite each other's mouths when they play, so that would make sense. Pepper is now on two wks of antibiotic...don't know if she really needed it, but hey, I don't figure it'll do too much damage; this is the first time she's ever had any medication other then an aspirin for a sprain or cramp. I'll just keep feeding her raw meat and perhaps I'll give her some yogurt or some other substance with good bacteria in it when the antibiotics are done.

Here are some really cute Dusty pics! Can you believe that he's now a whole 14 lbs?! He was just 7 lbs when we got him. They grow soo fast!!

~E

Dusty and Pepper

At last, Pepper accepted Dusty!! She still snaps at him some; I'm not ashamed to admit that I encourage her. He's buggy and doesn't know when playtime is over! >:( Oh well...but here's a cute vid of them playing! (Excuse the giant walking across the screen; that's my brother. :D)


~E

OK, it's back!! Sorry for it not being up. Read my main blog to find out why!

~E

Update...

Yay, I'm finally back on here!! I think some pics are in order. :D







First, the finch babies. Two of them are pretty much out of the nest. They fly, hop, cheep, etc. The only thing left now is weaning. That should come soon. The other two are no where near ready to leave the nest! They get out because they others do, but really they should stay in their beds. :D Anyway, they're all terribly cute and sweet!!




























Sadly, I found a big lump in Pepper's mouth this evening....I'm probably going to have to run her to the vet to find out about that. :-\ Hopefully it's nothing serious!! Pray that everything goes well with whatever I decide to do. :)

OK, I think that's pretty much it!! Not too much has been going on around here lately.
~E