Monday, November 25, 2013

Keeping your Pooch busy this winter ..

Winter.. yes its here in most parts of Canada by now and brr its chilly out  there ! If you're not the outdoors type person and want to keep your pooch busy this winter, here are some easy tricks: 

Get a Kong - fill it with pureed sweet potato, or pumpkin and freeze it. You can also stuff it with plain yogurt, also freeze it so it does drip everywhere. 
- sweet potato crumps are also a really great thing to put inside the Kong. Just roll them up and they will puff back out once inserted, and your pooch cant crack them like cookies so this will keep them entertained for hours

Bones - smoked or raw, these are good for chewers. After they are done eating all the marrow or whatever type filling is inside, you can stuff it like a Kong 

Deer Antlers - these are fantastic, very long lasting chews for dogs. They are naturally shed off each year, and contain marrow in the middle. Just make sure not to give to puppies, unless all their puppy teeth are gone since you don't want them to break a tooth (see picture)

Bullwrinkles - 100% digestible chew. This a tendon, and your dog will chew the entire thing most likely. Not extremely long lasting, however some dogs do chew on it for days, others are done very fast. They will chew like a rawhide will, however these will not cause any bloat and not grow 3-4x its size when in the stomach




Salmon skin rolls/bones - Very healthy, just as it sounds, the skin of a salmon rolled up into a bone or roll

-Another healthy trick is to take a large carrot, clean it off, soak it in cold water for about 20 minutes and then put the carrot in the freezer. Give to your dog when its fully frozen 




Sunday, November 24, 2013

Healthy Treats

Treats ! Treats ! Treats !

We all feed them to our pets, but are they healthy ones? Packaging and marketing of treats really do deceive the consumer into thinking that they are feeding healthy treats to their family pets.

Look for treats with NO corn or by-products in them for starters, and healthier ingredients for example such as, oatmeal, barley, quinoa, coconut, banana, peanut butter. 

With overweight pets in the house its can even be a more daunting task since we still want to show our love by giving a quick cookie. Look for low-fat, low-protein treats. And more importantly limit the amount be given. A great alternative to a cookie would be blueberries, broccoli, carrots, even apple.

Northern Biscuits makes a great 4% protein, 1% fat crunchy treat, and they have a great selection of other healthy treats. 
  • Pumpkin pie
  • Liverlicious
  • Turkey cranberry 
  • Grilled venison
  • PB banana
  • Canadian bacon
  • Peanut crunch
  • Smoked fish 
  • Grain Free beef tripe
  • Grain Free grilled bison
  • Grain Free glazed duck
  • Grain Free grilled wild boar  
Other great treats are pure beef liver snacks, Salmon skin rolls made by Snack 21, Orijen freeze dried, K9 Granola, Darford Holistic, Old Mother Hubbard, Natural Balance, and Zukes.