RAW Dog Food Diet - The beginning!

For a long time now I have wanted to write a blog that focuses a little on Albie, until now they have all been about what life can be like for a small business (well other than the one I snuck in about the snake on kizzies walk!). We have had such a fantastic time learning about him the last few years, discovering force free training and now his diet, that I would like to share our experiences with everyone. I want to give you all an honest account of this next stage of his life and some of the highs and lows. 

For anyone who doesn't follow Albie on twitter or chat with us elsewhere..... Albie is a 3 year old Golden Retriever with colitis, if that wasn't enough for him to deal with he is also quite an anxious dog in certain situations. During a behaviour consult for him with a good friend Kate Mallatratt (Contemplating Canines), she suggested we speak with Dr.Sarah, a homeopathic vet that she has worked with before. Although I do like to try and use natural remedies as much as possible, when it comes to homeopathy I can be a little skeptical but that isn't Albies fault and really we would try anything for him. So we had our consult and after a VERY thorough, lengthy discussion all about our wonderful boy we had a plan in place. 

Dr.Sarah recommended a switch to a RAW diet to see if it helps both his colitis and his temperament (along with other remedies). She suggested a few RAW food producers but highlighted Honey's Real Dog Food (no she isn't working on commission!). Honeys RAW food can be purchased as sausages with the meat, bone and vegetables all ground up together. Apparently some companies sell their RAW as chicken (for example), which in relation to the meat is quite true, but the bone which is ground up to be mixed in can come from any animal, meaning you are now feeding chicken with beef bones! But Honeys don't do that, they only use bones from the same animal to mix in with the meat so everything really is all beef, or all chicken etc. For Albie this will be just perfect.

Under Dr.Sarahs guidance I called Honey's and received my quote back within 48 hours. I won't lie, yes it is expensive. More expensive than what we were feeding him by more than double, but he clearly doesn't like that food anymore and when we brought him into our home we took responsibility for his wellbeing and we feel we must honour that commitment to the best of our ability.  

Yesterday it arrived!

We are waiting to speak with Dr.Sarah again before starting the transition. This is just in case we encounter difficulties and so that we can do anything additional to help support him through the change of diet (Albie is quite a.... well unique and special boy!). 

As you can see Albie was very excited at the presence of the boxes and seemed to instantly know that there was food in the box... and he wanted it!

The food comes as frozen 'sausages' all pre-prepared with the bone, meat and vegetables mixed up for you so no need to worry about feeding a balanced diet as Honey's take all that worry away and do it for you, the perfect starter kit!

The sausages have used a LOT of room in our freezer, to the point where we now have half our normal space to keep food for ourselves! If Albie takes to his new RAW diet with no tummy difficulties we will be on the search for a new freezer! (the photo is one half-full drawer, it actually filled two entire drawers!)

Our girl Kizzie looks quite bemused at what is happening. But as you can see, Albie is really very interested in these 'sausages' look at the tongue licking them! I can't wait to see what his reaction is when one is defrosted and in front of him!

We will update this fairly rapidly over the next week to let you all know how he is doing so do check back for updates! 

(Don't worry about Kizzie.... she will get to eat some too and probably be switched as well)