Food glorious food...

Recently we have switched to feeding a complete raw food to the dogs called Natural Instinct. It makes raw feeding easy as it comes completely prepared and there is no need to worry about finding the right nutritional balance. I was excited but apprehensive when our first order arrived as I wasn't sure how the dogs would take to eating raw. Needless to say I needn't have worried. The delivery man came while I was washing off the mud from Scrap the Pap so I signed for the parcel, brought it inside and then dashed back to the bathroom. I must have left the package for just a couple of minutes and this was what greeted me...

Obviously the food smelt so good that the dogs couldn't wait to sample it. We've now completed two weeks switching over to BARF and the dogs have had chicken, duck and turkey meals. The little ones wolfed down everything but Balou was suspicious of the duck and turkey so took more time eating it than the chicken. At the moment we are still trying to calculate the amount he needs to eat. He is currently 48kgs - a little on the light side for a 16 month old Leo boy but the vet is very happy that he is sufficiently nourished and always points out that it is better for his joints and muscles to put on weight slowly and be on the lighter side. Needless to say there seems to be a trend with giant breed owners, especially of males, to want to have the BIGGEST and heaviest boy going - probably some weird machismo!?! So I do worry when people say how much heavier their Leo is, but then I remind myself that the are the boys who will suffer with hip and elbow problems later! The feeding guide for most dogs says 2-3% of bodyweight and more when growing but we're sticking to the lower end and seeing how Balou does.

As well as the food changeover we also had a doggy tea party the other day. I made cakes and sandwiches for the humans and a doggy birthday cake for the pups. Even some of the fussiest canines were soon munching away and a certain Leo would have eaten the whole cake (1kg of cooked ground beef, tuna and cheese filling, mashed potato icing and bacon frosting) by himself.

After all this yummy food it's little wonder that Balou has had so much energy recently!