I've Been Cooking

I've been cooking every afternoon for our standard schnauzer. I should say that perhaps a more appropriate term is "preparing food." Right now our feeding policy is an amalgam of philosophies, in the hope that he reaps the benefits of each:

Philosophy #1: What's wrong with dry food? He eats a high quality dry food in the morning, when we are too asleep to com up with anything more complex. It has the supplements he needs for the day. It does not contain wheat. And if he goes to day care, we pack a portion for the afternoon , but this is rather infrequent.

Philosophy #2: The BARF diet. He eats raw food half of the time. We buy a bag of raw chicken medallions that we defrost inside the fridge until feeding time, because we do not give him raw chicken or turkey parts to eat. He does also eat raw meaty beef bones about twice a week, but no pork bones and very little bone marrow (too fatty). Now that he's a year old, he digests these raw foods a lot better. No more gas! We do not feed him dairy or human food like sweets.

Philosophy #3: The anti-cancer diet. Kafka has loved fruits and vegetables since he was a small puppy. He eats these separate from his meals, as snacks. Very seldom do we give him biscuits or processed dog treats. because we want to equip him as best as possble to fight infections, cancer and other diseases with a variety of fresh food. We also feed him cooked proteins such as eggs, sardines, organ meats, and hamburger, mixed with barley, rice or potatoes.

Philosophy #4: The anti-obesity diet. Kafka is 22.5 inches at the withers, and 58 lbs. He is a big SS who would like you to think he's starving all the time. But with the snacks we give him, it's hard for his weight to exceed the 60 lb mark. We also measure his food with dishes made to hold exactly the amount of food he's supposed to have at each meal. When we want to do something special for him, we don't feed him treats, we take him to the beach.

I would have liked to completely follow one or another, but the tweaks have happened because of my experience with Kafka, and my realization that lots of breeders are actually paid to promote one or another brand. The good news is that he has a great appetite. This is not a breed that refuses anything edible, and that's why it's up to us humans to be careful.