We’ve now got over 110lbs of REEL Puppy Chow carefully stowed away in the freezer today. The munchkins aren’t ready for it yet, but I’m ready when they are!
I’ve been feeding raw diet since 2005 after my then breeding bitch was diagnosed with breast cancer at 7 years (See NINA in OUR FAMILY page for details). She was given a 6-12 month prognosis and it was recommended to do surgery, chemo and radiation. I opted for the lumpectomy but declined the other conventional interventions. Instead I did a controversial Laetrile/omega home therapy, among other natural therapies and switched her to raw diet. She did not live the 6-12 months they suggested… she lived 8.5 more years and passed at 15.5!
Consequently, I’m pretty passionate about why I do what I do with both diet & treats.For the record, this REEL Puppy Chow recipe was formulated by a canine nutritionist and is considered to be very balanced and built for growing puppies. It is not where I began in 2005 and there have been several recipes in the interim. This version contains about ten different pro
teins spanning feathered, furred and finned species (including organs & bones). The idea is that by continuing to inoculate the body with a little bit of a lot of species, we reduce (if not eliminate) the opportunity for intolerance or allergy developing. There are a few changes that occur to the recipe once they reach 10 weeks of age and if I continue to rear them as my own, they stay on this revised formula til they are 18 months.
How long will this batch last? Hard to say. I free feed three meals a day on a time clock. This means the bowl goes down and they eat until they abandon the dish or they stop and don’t return for ten minutes, whichever happens first. I always want to see a little food left in the bowl which tells me tummy is full. I find that feeding this way gives the puppy the sense that they live abundantly. They do not need to gorge themselves or speed eat. Their relationship with their food is healthy and they see no need to resource guard (and we also do further exercises to promote that). They are good pudgy growing puppy weights but they are not anywhere near obese.And, just because this is what I do does not mean everyone else has to. I do not impose my nutritional practices on others — I simply explain why I do what I do and let people do what’s right for them.
As these puppies leave in May they will get a transitional stash of this food to start their new homes. This is for a couple of reasons. Leaving their birth homes is stressful for a baby puppy… new house, new people, new routine, new rules. Having 7-10 days of same-ole-home-cookin’ reduces that stress. Secondly, as their new puppy homes transition to their new diet plan they have an option to mix old with new and allow tummies to catch up (hopefully) without gastric upset.
I choose to prepare my own recipes because I know what goes into it, I can adjust it as needed, it makes it more cost effective than commercially prepared raw diet and I truly believe it is more balanced. There was a short stint in 2022 when we had supply chain issues and I had no choice but use some commercially prepped food. I chose several proteins from supposedly reputable brand that were each marketed as “complete meals”. All three of my dogs went through major sheds, their poops became rabbit like and overall they looked terrible. It was then that I renewed my conviction that what I’m doing is best for my dogs given other commercially prepared options readily available at a higher price.