it’s a fuzzy fuzzy world…

My niece, also known as “the really cool teenager who lives upstairs from me,” has started a neat new blog. She’s writing a teen advice column, Ask Jaqi, and you should check it out (and recommend it to the teenagers in your life!).

She’s got a lot on the ball, so I think she’ll give great advice!

I’ve fed Eagle Pack Holistic for several years, and until recently I was happy with the results. The boys maintained good weight and had great coats.

Since the move, though, and especially since fencing the yard, Drummer’s on the skinny side and Thunder is positively gaunt. The Eagle Pack doesn’t seem to be nutrient-dense enough to keep the BusyBoys at a good fighting weight while they’re running running running in the new yard. I’ve also been unhappy with (not to put too fine a point on it) the volume of doggy “output” that I’m having to pick up in the yard. Since our standard lamb & rice formula didn’t seem to be suiting Thunder, I first tried a different Eagle formulation, but the fish & oatmeal didn’t help, so the next phase of the quest was to find something completely different. This time the goal was no grain, minimal carbs, and more protein and fat.

[lj-cut text="food, food and more food"]

The last time I read all the bags at my favorite purveyor of pet food, they didn’t have anything substantially better than what I was already feeding. This time, though, I found two possibilities, one with 10% more protein than the Eagle Pack and the second with 20% more.

COMPARISON

               EAGLE PACK          BEFORE GRAIN 3          EVO RED MEAT
Protein        22%                 32%                     42%
Fat            15%                 15%                     22%
Fiber          4%                  3%                      2.5%
kcal/cup       403                 383                     487
1st ingred.    lamb meal           buffalo, deboned        beef
2nd ingred.    ground brown rice   chicken meal            lamb meal
3rd ingred.    ground white rice   potato, dehydrated      potato
4th ingred.    chicken fat         turkey meal             egg
5th ingred.    oatmeal             canola oil              sunflower oil

So… current plan is to feed a mix of the BG and Evo, starting w/ mostly BG and converting over to mostly Evo by the time the current 6.6 lb bag of the BG runs out, then I’ll feed the Evo for a couple of months and see what happens. Since both have more fish oil in them than the Eagle Pack had, I’ll reconsider which supplements I’m adding. I think I’ll keep adding probiotics for now, at least until Thunder’s perpetual yeast infection in his ears finally clears up.

[/lj-cut]Things I like about the Evo Red Meat: After the five ingredients listed above, four of the next five are meat (and the fifth is oil), and four of the next five are fruits and vegetables. Only thing I don’t like about the Evo, at least so far? It’s 50% more expensive than the Eagle Pack, which was already pricey. Ouch. I hope they do well on it!!

Entertainingly, this experiment in food means that the dogs are now eating a higher-protein kibble than the cats, who are of the opinion that the dog food smells really really good now.

So, dog-people… what do you feed, and why? (And yes, I’ve heard all the arguments for feeding raw, and that’s not a path I’m ready to go down.) Anybody with experience with either the BG or Evo Red Meat?

… if your vote counts…

Tonight I know for sure that my vote made a difference, at least on a micro scale. My little county in Indiana, with 100% of the precincts reporting, went 49.6% Obama and 49% McCain.

And as I was in the midst of typing this, McCain made a very gracious concession speech and the electoral college projections moved up to 306 votes for Obama.

It’s been a good day.

I scored a major stash of Pixy Stix in the run-up to OVFF and Halloween, then I only had four trick-or-treaters, so I left a big bag of Pixy Stix on the cabinet outside my office yesterday.

Entertainingly, all the blue and purple ones are now gone, leaving just the red and orange.

In this week of “Will Indiana be a blue state or a red state?” I’m amused by the fact that the color of our Pixy Stix-coated tongues in my workplace seems to be voting in favor of blue.

If you’re a registered US voter and you haven’t voted yet, go.

Do not pass Go, do not collect $200, just go.

Worried about the lines? Take a book, or for the digitally enabled crowd, catch up on your email or your websurfing from your phone. In some areas, you may be surprised… with 10-20% of registered voters having voted early, lines may not be as bad as you expect! (I drove past my polling place this morning… there were maybe a dozen cars there. Apparently I could have voted faster this morning, way out in the country, than the time it took on Saturday… but that’s okay… I’m just happy that it’s done!)

No transportation? Call a friend… ride with a neighbor… take a cab or a bus.

Just go. Please? It’s important

In an effort to start using the blog on my website, I’m going to start cross-posting from reddogs.com to LJ. With luck, this will all just work. Of course, that would be somebody else’s luck. With _my_ luck, smoke will start billowing from the laptop at any moment!

[lj-cut text="testing the cut-tag, and a gratuitous cat photo"]If this all works, this bit, including this lovely picture of Gorby, will be safely hidden behind a cut tag.

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Comments will be enabled in both places, so you can comment at reddogs.com or on LJ… whichever makes you happy!