Home Cooking

I haven't really blogged about home cooking for Chuki yet. So here goes -

When we first got the pup we were feeding him Purina Puppy Chow because, well, because it was a brand we knew from home and it was moderately priced. It wasn't the cheapest but it wasn't the most expensive. We had taken him to the vet for his first round of shots but at about 6 weeks I found a worm in his poop (gross, I know) and we took him back to the vet for a more detailed exam.

There's More...

They did blood work and found out he was anemic. Now, the guy we bought Chuki from didn't have the cleanest of homes for the puppies and so we figure he'd had worms since we got him. The doctor suggested we switched his food to Eukanuba Puppy and so we did. At $27 for 5 kilos this was a much pricier option. I mean Chuki was a puppy so he physically couldn't eat that much but looking down the line $27/5 kilos for a full grown dog would be mighty expensive.

Anyways, we knew that Eukanuba wasn't sustainable for us so we started to look around. We quickly found out that Puppy Chow is about the worst food you can give your dog. Websites like this website, and like this one, and this one rate American dog foods. You might be surprised with what you're feeding your precious pupster.

Now bear in mind that in March we had been here about 3 months. We were eating a ton better and were conscious of the effects it was having on our bodies. We were eating lots of fruits and veggies; we were feeling better and more energized; we were losing lots of Grown in the USA (read corn product) weight.

We had talked about cooking at home for Chuki first, because that's what people have done here for years. The traditional Ecuadorian meal for dogs is oatmeal or rice with the left over meat and bones from the family, or some variation of that. It sparked our interest and we started looking into home cooking for dogs. Come to find out there's a pretty widespread movement, especially in the USA, for home cooking and RAW diets. I knew that raw wasn't something that I could bring myself to do. I know it's healthy and safe for dogs, but steaks here are expensive. And we were looking for a cheaper option.

So I bought a couple of books from Amazon. I would have bought more, but there were only 2 available for Kindle. And I read a bunch online about what you HAVE to avoid. And basically we just started home cooking for him.

What we've found is that there is no real science. For a while, I was measuring everything out and really conscious about everything. But now, I'm much more lax about it.

Definitely more to come on the How Tos of home cooking but this is how we came to the decision. And we're really happy about it. A lot of people ask or assume that now Chuki won't eat dog food because he likes human food too much. And it's just not true. There have been times when we've been in a bind (like we've run out of gas on a Sunday and can't cook him anything or we've been travelling all day) and we'll feed him dog food. He gobbles the stuff up! He doesn't digest it that well but he'll eat it, thats for sure.

MULUB,

Taylor