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Vet bills, grooming, gourmet treats, buying all those cans and bags of biscuits .... the cost of keeping a dog just gets higher every day. Hold it right there! Let's go back in time to the days when there wasn't a pet product industry. What did it cost to keep a dog thirty or forty years ago? Very little - and yet dogs were still healthy and active, they had good lives and generally lived to a ripe old age. So how was it done?
Remember that this is a fairly recent business - whoever shopped for dog food forty years ago? A few companies made plain biscuits and they were used to accompany scraps of meat from the butcher. The pet food industry has been a phenomenal success and what we should all realize is that what it's all about is money. Not for us. Not for the dogs. But for the companies who run it. Millions are spent on advertising and hype but we should always remember that this is convenience food - ready meals for pets. A lot of the information we have about our consumption of made up food, relates to dogs as well. We're told that they're not good for us and that fresh is best. That goes for dogs too. Our canine chums are carnivores - meat eaters - and that's what they've survived and thrived on for thousands of years. Not food in cans or packets or pouches. Just meat. They're not vegetarians no matter how much some folk would like them to be - their systems are designed to cope with a sudden rush of any sort of meaty fur and gristle. So scraps from the butchers and the sort of meat we humans don't want to eat, are just fine for the dog.
If you read the label on the next can of chunks or bag of dry complete mix - you'll no doubt be suprised to find out just how little of it is actually meat - only 4% in some cases. There's a lot of animal derivatives and by-products in there. What are these? Ground up feathers, slush high pressure washed off bones, food that isn't fit for human consumption. By the time it arrives on its pre-shaped, formed and additive blended journey to the can, it has had a complete make over.
So fresh food may be better but is it any cheaper? Definitely so long as you buy scraps, the left over bits that we normally wouldn't eat. Local butchers or market stalls often have cheap meat suitable for the dog. If you have to shop at 'super'markets - then head for the freezer cabinets and buy the cheapest stew meat, mutton, breast of lamb, rabbit. Your dog may like to eat raw, in which case just toss the meat to him and that's it - the dog's been fed. How energy saving is that! If you'd rather cook the meat, then only do it when the stove is on already - pop in the oven in a casserole dish and cook alongside your meal. Or slow cook or boil, whatever, your dog will enjoy it. And so will Planet Earth because you will have avoided the costly cans and foil pouches and huge amount of production in the vast pet food production business.
What about biscuits? Meat on its own doesn't seem much. Why not make your own? Left over bread (brown wholegrain is best) popped in a roasting tin with a bit of olive oil and crisped when the oven is on, turns into great dog biscuits. You can do all sorts of extras - butter it first, spread with left over fish or meat paste or dip in egg. Very tasty.
Most dogs like vegetables and they're good for them, especially for older dogs. Research has shown that dogs who eat up their greens will live longer and be less likely to suffer from arthiritis and doggy Alzheimers. When you're cooking do an extra portion for the dog - carrots, peas, cabbage are all fine. Stay clear of onions or garlic though as these can have side effects for dogs. In their natural state a dog would eat the stomach contents of an animals it had hunted and killed and these would normally consist of grass and leaves. Feeding veg provides valuable nutrients so long as you remember that the basis of the diet should be meat or fish.
Feeding fresh is time and energy saving. You don't have to go out specially and lug all those heavy cans and bags home. When you shop for yourself, add on food for the dog. A lot of the cost of dog food goes on production, packaging, advertising and marketing. Fresh food is not only cheaper, it helps save the environment too.
You don't need to give up ready meals altogether - they are canine convenience food and as such are occasionally useful. Over the past fifty years they've taken over and the public has been persuaded that their dogs won't survive unless they get their daily fix of chunky dunks. They managed fine before though. The queues at vets surgeries nowadays do nothing to persuade us that dogs are healthier in present times. You are what you eat - and that goes for man's best friend too.
coming next - toys, bedding, doggy clothes and treats
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