Hijacked!

No crafts this week.  Instead I've decided to use this weeks' post as a shameless plug for pet food.  Why? A.) Because it's my blog and well...I can. And B.) Because I've come to believe that this stuff has really made a difference, so I wanted to share all the goodness with you.

Of course at this point I'm probably supposed to mention that I am not in any way being sponsored or paid by the makers of the product I'm going to review for you.  Also, I am not a veterinarian.  Please don't go swapping all your pet food just because I said so.  If you want to give it a try, fantastic! But you know your pets better than I do.  Use some good judgement and give them what they need. Now that's that's over with...

A couple of months ago I stopped at my local Petco store.  They were having an event for natural pet foods where you could get free samples so I picked up a couple for Moose.  They sat in his food bin for probably another month before we even touched them since Nick and I aren't really into the whole organic/natural foods thing.  It's all a little too woo-woo for us, and we've both worked on a farm before where pesticide use was a common thing, so that doesn't bother us. In fact, we still maintain that fruits and vegetables are fruits and vegetables...they're just as nutritious whether they were sprayed or not.  So when we got the samples it was like, yeah. neat. they're organic. big deal. we'll take some since they're free. And so they sat.

In addition to our dachshund Moose, we have 2 house cats, Whiskey and Ivan.  Whiskey is a large cat to begin with, but he was starting to look a little more portly than usual (and that's putting it nicely.) I was playing around with the new Wii Fit game that has the fun little option where you can weigh your pets.  I grabbed the fat cat and we hopped up on the board together. Wouldn't you know it, but that chubby fur ball weighs just over 17 pounds! I decided right then and there that he needed to go on a diet. Not ever really caring what he ate before, and just buying the cat food that was on sale, putting him on a diet required some research. So I turned to the internet. 

Unfortunately it's been a while since I looked all of this up so I don't have specific websites to reference, but the gist of my research is as follows. I found an instructional page about reading pet food labels and how to compare them. (Don't worry...I checked more than one to cross reference the validity of the statements made on each page.) And then of course there was a section about the ingredients in pet food. I was appallled by what was allowed to pass for food products in some of those listings. Some weren't even food, but byproducts of manufacturing processes like making tires! Along with the ingredients on one page was a listing of some common pet ailments which can be caused by those ingredients or the preservatives that are added to make them last in dry pet food. Dandruff, itchy coat, upset tummy...hey Moose has some of those. His food is getting swapped too.

That's when the comparing began.  I looked at the ingredients and nutritional analysis of over 30 different pet foods and finally decided that Wellness was the brand we were going to go with. All of my boys have been eating it for about 2 and a half months now. Moose is eating Wellness Core, which is grain-free and protein focused. The cats are eating Wellness Indoor Health.  I debated about starting them on the healthy weight formula, but Ivan is pretty much the opposite of Whiskey and he could stand to gain a few pounds, so I didn't want to take away ALL the calories.

This food has made a HUGE difference in all of them. Most noticable is their coats.  All my boys are soft and shiny. When you pet them it feels like they have just been brushed out and Moose doesn't have dandruff or itchy hot spots any more. The second big difference is the lack of (forgive me if this is TMI) vomit on the living room floor.  With the old food, one or both cats would tend to throw up their breakfast at least twice a week.  We had always thought it was just because they ate it too fast, but now we know it was the food itself upsetting their stomach.  Neither of our cats have thrown up their food ONCE since we've started them on Wellness, not even during the trasition phase when we just started to swap them over to it. Also, because it's more nutritionally sound, they are better satisfied with the food. They tend to eat less at a sitting and don't come begging for more right after they've been fed.  Many times they still have food in their dish when I go to give them their evening portion. I haven't weighed Whiskey, but you can tell he's lost weight just by looking at him. That belly pooch beneath him is more loose skin than fatty flab now. Best of all though, our animals are getting along better because they feel better.  There's a lot less "fighting" since nobody is crabby about the food in thier bowl now.

My only con to this stuff is that it is UNGODLY expensive.  But all of the pet foods with natural ingredients are.  I decided on Wellness because it was the most reasonably priced for the ingredients I wanted my boys to have. If you find coupons...LET ME KNOW! I am one of the biggest skeptics about new and "natural" things, but I can honestly say we are never going back to generic pet food again.  Seeing the changes that have come about in my pets just from swapping their food has convinced me it was the right decision and paying the nosebleed price is worth it for that fact alone. I'm also going to confess that it has made me wonder about those sprayed vegetables, and all the other processed items, that are in my food too.  It's one of those things where you start to think, "Could this allergy be from that ingredient? How much better would I feel if I went organic too?" I don't think Nick and I are ready to take that leap yet, but seeing my little fur babies happy on the new stuff has warmed my heart.

So now I challenge you.  You don't have to switch to Wellness, or any other pet food for that matter.  But do this: Learn what's in your pet's food.  Where do the ingredients come from and how does it affect your buddie's body? What you find just might suprise you...