A recent study found
that most dog and cat owners switch their animal's
pet food an average of once a year. Our best
guess as to the reason
for this is that people like to switch things
up a bit from time to time. Pet owners who feed
kibbled cat or dog food tend to realize at some
point that their dog or cat has been eating the
same
thing,
everyday,
for its entire life, and thus they realize that
they wouldn’t want to do that, so why would
their pet? The reality of it is that most cat
and dog food pellets are a lot more similar than
they realize, so they probably aren’t changing
things as much as they think they are by switching
foods,
not that their pets don’t appreciate
the effort.
Though Sojourner Farms
natural pet food offers
a varied complement of grains, herbs, sea kelp,
nuts, etc. -- some
of you might feel that you too are feeding your
pet too monotonous of a diet. Truth be told by
the mere fact of feeding a fresh, raw
dog food,
your pet’s
digestive system will never get bored and you
can avoid many dog
health problems. Also, you
might notice from time to time that you get
a bag with a little bit more of one ingredient
than what you’re used to seeing, which means
that you might have a bag that was taken toward
the top or bottom of a batch which will inherently
add some variety to your critter’s diet.
But at the same time you might still want to
mix things up a bit. Here’s some pointers
if that’s something you want to do.
First off, you can always
change the type of meat that you’re using
if you want to keep your pet’s digestive
system awake and challenged. Some of our customers
have said that changing
monthly between beef, turkey, and chicken works
well. We also have customers who use lamb, venison,
and ostrich if you can believe it.
The best way to keep
your pet’s digestive
system on its toes is to mix in vegetables, which
we strongly encourage. Good vegetables to mix
in include carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, corn,
peas, cabbage, squash, kale, green beans, zucchini,
and my least favorite vegetable on the planet
-- asparagus. Just typing the word takes me back
to my mom telling me that I can’t leave
the table until I finish my vegetables. I cried
and pleaded but she wouldn’t let me off
the hook. Oh well, I do need to move on. After
all, that was over a month ago!
We also encourage adding
healthy table scraps and leftovers to the Sojourner
Farms natural pet food mixes. Other
healthy foods that work well are brown rice,
beans, apples, berries, and other non-citrus
fruits -- oh, and of course any of our all
natural dog treats. Sometimes tomatoes, oranges, onions,
and other highly acidic
foods
can be
a little
hard on the digestive system. With any new cat
or dog food that you’re adding, we strongly
suggest taking your time and starting by only
adding
tiny amounts of one new thing at a time. That
way you can look for loose stool or gas to detect
if your critter might have trouble digesting
a new food, and get an idea if they like it or
not. I only wish my mom had done that with me.
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Sojourner Farms. All rights reserved.
