February 05, 2003
A flurry of chewing!
1:30 p.m.
Yesterday, I spoke with a friend who also has a puppy. He was practically frothing at the mouth over the evils of commercial pet food - even Science Diet is allegedly made with rendering byproducts and rancid grease and preservatives.
I heard him out and told him that I would investigate this on my own (I dislike taking that kind of information at face value).
So I opened up 'Google' and started doing some research. This website in particular was very informative and offered the details I needed to understand the issue. This article was also good and this website has tables comparing the prices of various commercial foods with Flint River, a popular holistic alternative petfood.
I did my own cost analysis of Science Diet's 'Natures Best' puppy food and a Canadian-made premium food called 'Wellness,' made by Old Mother Hubbard (I already buy their dog cookies).
At PetSmart, I paid $14 for a 4.5lb bag of 'Nature's Best' - $3.11 per lb. A 6lb bag of 'Wellness' was 18.95 at Helmutt's Petstore on Queen West - $3.15 per lb (not a big difference in price, actually).
The real test for me was in the quality of the food. I opened the bag of 'Wellness' and it smelled like fish - not a bad fishy smell, just fish. Then, I took a wiff of the Science Diet food: It smelled like something that had died. Ew!
Dusty seems to like the new food, but I won't know for sure until I fully transition her to the new stuff. For now, I'm using the new food as treats and putting a small amount in her regular meals.
7:00 p.m.
Argh. She just had a peeing accident in the kitchen - totally my fault. One of those lessons learned, I guess.
I had something on the stove and I turned around and looked at her. She was standing by the door, looking at me beseechingly.
"Okay, hold on a sec, I need to take this pot off the stove - then we'll go potty."
She heard those magic words, "go potty," and with a look of relief promptly squatted on the carpet. She was probably thinking "Hot dang! Mom says I can go right now, instead of going out there in the -15 windchill."
Next time, Mom is going to be very, very careful when speaking to the dog about toilet activities. *sigh*