I’ve turned into the crazy dog lady. Really, I have. But I have my reasons. Think what you will of me.
About three months ago I decided to switch my girls from kibble to some kind of homemade diet. It seemed like a good idea that the time. Still does.
My main reason for even looking into a homemade diet was that Miss Sara, or Bitzer as she has been dubbed by me, would walk up to the bowl, sniff the kibble, look longingly at it like she wanted to eat it, and then walk away. She learned to eat what she wanted of it quickly or Dottie would take care of it. She would reluctantly eat about half of it and leave the rest for Dottie.
At first I figured she was eating until she was full and just leaving it because she was done. But frequently, at least a couple of times a week she would regurgitate part or all of what she’d eaten. I switched brands of kibble several times and then I went to Google.
While researching I learned that all Bitzer’s(I never even call her by her real name unless she’s in trouble anymore) licking and “fleaing” and puking might be because she’s allergic to grains. I’ve since learned that she is.
Now, raw feeders swear by a raw diet. And, for the most part I do, too. It is closer to how dogs in the wild eat. They are carnivorous. Or omnivorous. I’m not sure which because there are so.many. different ideas about what they are.
I looked into the Bones and Appropriate Raw Food model. I looked into the Prey Model Raw diet. I researched as much as I think I can about what is appropriate for my dogs to eat. I’ve settled on what works for me and, more importantly, my dogs. It’s a homemade diet consisting of boiled eggs(the whole thing including shell), some vegetables(cook and mashed or raw and pureed), meat of varying kinds(pork, beef, chicken, goat, etc.), and bones. I’m not going into a great deal of detail here about the percentages of each because this isn’t an advice post about how to feed your dog. This just works for me and my dogs.
You might be scratching your head by now wondering what this has to do with extremism. Stay with me, here.
I joined a raw feeding facebook group and a Yahoo! group. This is a group designed to teach the ins and outs of raw feeding because you can’t just toss your dog a chicken leg every meal. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
They are also extreme.
You see, at first I had settled on the Prey Model raw diet, which is only muscle meat, bones, and organs. So joining a group that helps people with that seemed only logical.
What I quickly learned is that anyone(I wasn’t the offending party) that asked any questions about feeding anything other than muscle meat, bones, and organs received a written flogging. If they asked another question or mentioned that they fed their dogs any other “unapproved” food they were banned from the group. No, you may NOT use ground meat. You may NOT cut your dog’s meat up. It has to be a hunk of meat bigger than your dog’s head.
They are SERIOUS. Now, I know that groups have to have rules. I know that they need some structure, but whew! And so I unceremoniously un-joined the group because they do have it as part of their mission statement that discussion of anything other than their approved feeding recommendations WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. The will freak out on your ass. Never on mine, mind you. Because I saw how they treated the ‘others’.
I probably wouldn’t have joined the group had I read that before joining, but alas, hind-sight is 20/20. And Bitzer just looks at those big hunks of meat and then looks at me like, “Seriously? You’re kidding, right?” So I cut hers up. Sue me. Dottie? She’ll eat anything! I even resorted to giving them *gasp* vegetables.
It just goes to show how any group can become extreme about just about anything. And I’m pretty averse to extremism in just about any form.
As you might have guessed, since I’m the crazy dog lady, this entire post has been a pretext for working in some photos of Dottie and Bitzer.
Out From Under the Umbrella 