Coping with the heat for the first time

As I mentioned yesterday, there has been a late onset of hot weather after a strangely cool and wet start to summer. I had  read that one way to help a dog cool down is the use of a gel mat.

It was a surprise to see how quickly she got started on using the gel mat - because it was quite a bother to get Penny to adapt to it and she hardly ever used it.

At first Peppa lay near it. I had read that it's a good idea to show her that a new gel mat can be a nice place, where you find toys and treats, so I tossed a couple of Ziwi treats onto it.

That worked nicely, especially when I added her high-tech toy (the insert from a toilet roll.)

So, there she was lying on it within minutes.

And soon she was stretched out with her belly on the cooling surface.

Here's hoping she continues to use it.

ZiwiPeak dog foods do not have carrageenan in them

I emailed ZiwiPeak and got this reply about whether they still have carrageenan in their products.

This is the reply:

Thank you for your enquiry about the carrageenan in ZiwiPeak canned food.As from October 2014 all canned food was produced with the new formulation that excluded the use of carrageenan.Of course it takes many months for the new formulation stock to filter through to all retailers in the marketplace but by now I would expect it it be all carrageenan free.

So that's good.

pet food with carrageenan in it - is it too dangerous?

Long ago, someone pointed out to me that our favourite canned pet food has carrageenan in it, and said that ingredient is reported to be carcinogenic. I decided not to worry about it, because I thought  ZiwiPeak, the brand I'm talking about, is ethically produced.

However, today I was reading a report by a cardiologist about carrageena. He says he wouldn't eat it himself. Reluctantly, I decided not to buy this terrific brand of food any more.

And then...

In researching this post I found they don't include it any more! Hooray!

Two things occur to me:
1. If they have taken the trouble to replace carrageenan with what they say is a safer ingredient - agar agar - then they must have concluded that carrageenan is indeed dangerous to our pets.

2. Why is carrageenan still listed on some websites as a ZiwiPeak ingredient?


I reckon it's worth looking at the ingredient list on anything you give your dogs - and on any human product - to check for carrageenan.

cooking for your dog

I've always been an advocate of a raw diet, but over the eight years of Penny's lifetime I've softened in my approach and now go with the theme of 'everything in moderation'. (Unless a food is actually unhealthy for dogs, of course.)

It can become tricky to source a variety of raw meats, but I think the list by Dr Bruce Syme at the bottom of this old post of mine is a good general resource.

In general, we'll continue with the raw diet, but I've come across a new book that has a convincingly clear explanation of many aspects of diet for pet dogs. It's called Feed Your Best Friend Better.

One of the things I like about the guy who wrote this book is that he's more about what to feed your dog for good health rather than focusing on what not to feed.

Another feature of the book is that it has the clearest explanation I've come across of  how much to feed your dog in terms of activity level...

and a clear diagram of how to estimate whether your dog is at a healthy weight and how many calories a day she requires for her level of activity and age.

Because the recipes and information are for US measurements, I've had to adapt them, but as you can see from these pictures, I'm getting myself organised, lol.

[If you click on the photos of the book, another window will come up with a large photo that makes the pages more readable.]

At first, I felt a bit overwhelmed by the discussion of what supplements a dog needs if you are preparing meals at home, but it's reassuring to see that the author, Rick Woodford, is not dismissive of commercial foods. If I've understood correctly, he says that commercial foods are supplemented so fully that even adding half commercial food to the dog's diet will result in sufficient nutritional extras.

We add Sasha's Blend (or Glyde) to Penny's bowl each day, for joint health, and  Melrose Omega-3 Liquid, plus Vet's All Natural Complete Mix a few times a week. I think that covers most of the nutritional requirements that she might miss on a home--prepared diet. She gets ZiwiPeak canned food some days, also - the label says it has 'added Vitamins and Minerals'. I love this food, even though it's expensive, because it's mostly meat (or fish) and has a variety of meats and organ meats we couldn't easily access from the butcher (venison and tripe for instance).

In the photo above you'll notice some eggshells. I used to crush up eggshells and include them in Penny's food occasionally, until a friend told me about the time her labrador retriever got a bit of eggshell stuck to the lining of his bowel. So I stopped adding eggshells! But Rick Woodford suggests washing eggshells, drying them and them baking them in the over until brittle, after which they go into a food processor to be ground up to a powder. I'm collecting the shells and I'll try his method when I have enough shells to make it worth the trouble.

frozen food and tricks

Now that the hot weather has finally hit, it's time to think of some entertainment in the house.

For one thing, I've frozen half a can of food for Penny to eat tonight. (My favorite brand is ZiwiPeak, from New Zealand.

And I made a discovery. I just can't throw anything out, and those little tinfoil patty pans that Christmas mince pies come in looked as if they might be useful. I was planning to try putting them around seedlings because I've heard that snails don't like sliding over the metallic feel of aluminium foil. But in the present heat I think the reflected heat would cook the little plants.

But the foil pans are just the right size to cover a half-used can of dog food.





And I think it might be just the weather to practise some tricks in the house instead of being outside in the heat. I don't know if we could conquer such a demanding one as Johann's 'suitcase trick', though.