dog food experiment

At the beginning of Bindi's life I had read how making dog food was better...that coyotes and wolves don't lose their teeth in their senior years or need brushing like our dogs do, have bad breath, have health problems like we do and how it's due to diet, even if you use the premium foods.

So I fed Bindi a truly nutritional homemade dog diet

Then we got the house, got busy, and I decided for awhile we'd go to organic, super premium food

Bindi's coat, that once was so bizarrely shiny that strangers commented on it all the time...developed a regular "dog" fur. coarse, not shiny...

With the new puppy I decided it's time to step it up again. I drug out the dog food bible and the way to cure all ails really, naturally: Dr. Pitcairn's Book of Natural Animal Health, 3rd ed.

I started putting the recipes together again and reading about the comparison between what happens when you cook the hell out of food for pets vs when you dont

Bindi sprung back to life...as did her fur. Almost magically.

And the fleas went away on their own...as promised.

I often tell the story of when I worked for a physician recruiting firm and I had to travel to Hereford Texas...where they raise more cattle for human consumption than anywhere else in the U.S. The diseased cattle that died in the field or had cancer were being bulldozed to one corner.

The largest pet food manufacturer in the US was in Hereford for a reason.

I got to tour that factory...and that's where all those cows not fit for human consumption went...for dog food. They were PROUD to tell me this. How brilliant that business model was.

It changed my mind about things.

When I've just seen the difference myself in Bindi's coat and energy and health...I just can't go back to bagged food; too many studies show the difference in health from pre-dog food days to what happened after bagged dog food came available.

So...Kismet arrives home from the breeder for good next week. Her food will be waiting..in the fridge, not the pantry.

It's the least I can do.