snips canine diet and nutrition

The diet you feed your dog determines his health and life expectancy more than any other care!

The food you serve is not just something which has a few vitamins and passes through your dog's system. What you feed your dog becomes your dog! Why not consider a natural home prepared diet. This method of feeding offers you complete control over the quality of the ingredients. Home prepared diets are fun, easy, and cost less than premium commercial foods. They are easy to make and use simple ingredients found in every home. This method of feeding offers complete canine nutrition and is not to be confused with feeding 'table scraps'. A simple meal for your dog is made from rice, vegetables, and a quality source of protein like chicken, turkey, lamb, tofu, eggs, cottage cheese or beef. Herbs, vitamins and oils are added to make the meal 100% nutritionally complete. (For recipe specifics and supplements visit www.naturalcanine.com) Home prepared diets allow your dog to 'thrive' and not just 'survive'! They reduce your vet bills in the long run, prevent many diseases, produce a beautiful coat, keep the teeth white and gums free of tartar, increase energy levels, stamina, and improve temperament.

Why not re-discover what dog owners have known for thousands of years - a home prepared diet is the best way to provide your dog with natural, healthy, nutrient rich food- free from chemicals, additives, preservatives, fillers, artificial flavorings, colorings, bacteria, drug residues and other toxic ingredients commonly found in commercial food. Feed a home prepared diet and expect good things to happen!

Why home cook?
Diet is extremely important in treating your dog's condition. Your dog IS literally what he/she eats! The food that goes in BECOMES YOUR DOG. A natural diet is the foundation for good health. Any disease or

condition will benefit directly or indirectly from a home-prepared meal. You may wish to consider home cooking for your dog to provide the best, healthiest, natural food nutrition. It is easy, inexpensive and takes about 10 minutes every few days. The 'batch' you cook up keeps in the fridge for 3 or 4 days. Once you get started and see the difference in skin, coat, general health, temperament and energy level you'll be amazed. You'll wonder why you didn't make this discovery sooner!

Understand that most commercial dog foods (even 'premium' brands) use poor or low quality, non human grade ingredients which are heated, highly processed, and are held together with a wheat paste 'food glue' which is like wallpaper paste. It also has NO living elements to provide enzymes, vitamins, and other important nutrients found naturally in vegetables grains and meat. Commercial food is 'sprayed' with chemical vitamins during extrusion when the food nugget is still hot which destroys most of the vitamins. Your dog receives about 20% nutrition from this food plus the 'dry' food toxins accumulate in the digestive tract, organs and joints (arthritis). This accumulation then becomes an aggravation and is the beginning of the disease process. Skin conditions are generally the first sign of trouble lurking inside as your dog tries to eliminate indigestible metabolic wastes.

Homecooking on the other hand lets you know exactly what your dog is eating. You're assured the ingredients are fresh and 'alive' with nutrition. There is no better way to achieve excellent long-term health than by home cooking. While we make no claims that it will 'cure' all ills- it is so important as a first step to aid your dogs natural healing and immune system to function at it's best. We cannot stress this enough.

We have an excellent hypoallergenic human grade 'age specific' (puppy, adult and senior) vitamin and an herbal blend (Hokamix 30) as well as an Organic EFA oil blend and digestive enzymes (for the senior dog). You add these to the food to cleanse and detoxify and they are perfectly balanced for a canine. The recipe may be adjusted for your dog's particular condition if necessary. (Heart, liver, diabetes, pancreas, etc) For protein you will add a variety of meats (not all at once!) including, cooked chicken or turkey, beef, lamb, tuna, tofu, cottage cheese or eggs. This gives you so much latitude to use what's generally available around the house. The basic recipe has peas, carrots, brown rice cereal, and oil which cooks in one pot in about 10 minutes!

Basic Home Cooking Recipe
Here is a recipe- you will find this costs less than commercial feeds. I'll give you a basic recipe, which is easy to make. In a short time you will get a 'feel' for the diet and come up with variations based on what you have around the house. Home cooking is easy and inexpensive but it's not just about throwing table scraps into your dog's bowl!

Ingredients list- (hopefully you have a food coop or health food store in your area) You will notice also that we recommend 'organic' ingredients whenever possible. In the long run this is important because many commercial foods have pesticide and fumigation residues. If you cannot get organic you might try rinsing or using a specially made vegetable wash to remove surface contaminants. (This is for produce - not grains) It's a good idea to rinse any vegetables. Arrowhead Mills 'Rice & Shine' organic brown rice cereal. (Cooks in 5 to 8 minutes and is brown rice) You may also cook whole brown rice, this is less expensive but takes longer and may be more difficult to digest. When cooking whole brown rice add sufficient water or broth to make it fluffy (well cooked) Organic quick cooking oats - available in the 'bulk' section of most health food stores. Make sure you get the quick oats and not the regular rolled oats. 2 medium organic carrots ½ - 3/4 cup frozen organic peas or green beans 1 tsp. oil (see our oil blend below) 1/4 tsp. salt or a dash of soy sauce. 1 can NO FAT NO SALT chicken broth (optional) For protein any of the following - cooked (skin-removed) chicken or turkey, lamb, cottage cheese (low salt, low fat), tofu, eggs, beef, or fresh fish. For the chicken we recommend Bell & Evans brand which is available at most supermarkets. This brand has NO antibiotics or hormones - and Coleman Beef for the beef - raised naturally with NO hormones or antibiotics) You can use ½ broth and ½ water in the recipe or use your own homemade chicken stock (skim the fat) if you poach the chicken or turkey or cook ground turkey. Poultry should be cooked through and beef or lamb may be lightly cooked (rare). Cooking kills surface bacteria. In a single pot put 4 cups (or 2 cups water/2 cups broth). Grate 2 medium carrots and put in the peas/green beans. Add the salt/soy sauce and bring to a boil. Add 1-cup rice cereal and 1 cup quick oats. Stir and cook for 5 - 8 minutes. You may have to adjust the liquid if it gets too thick. The consistency should be like cooked oatmeal. That's it! You could also cook whole brown rice, which is fine, but you have to allow about 50 minutes for cooking and add the vegetables about 10 minutes before the rice is finished. This reduces the cost considerably but increases the preparation time. Some dogs have difficulty digesting whole grain brown rice. The Rice & Shine Cereal is whole grain but as a cereal we have found it very digestible. Remember this new diet must be introduced gradually to the dog. Begin by adding 2 -4 tablespoons a day for the first 2 days then gradually increase this over the next week. Allow about 1 - 1 ½ weeks to completely change over. All dietary changes are stressful and should be made gradually. To serve- allow cooked rice/veg mixture to come to room temperature. Put 1 - 1 ½ cups rice vegetable mixture into the bowl. Add ½ to 1-teaspoon oil, Herbs and vitamins (see below) and 1/4 to 1/3-cup meat. Mix together. Larger breeds would require 2 - 2/1/2 cups rice vegetables mixture and 3/4 cup meat. Every dog is individual -you have to adjust the portion size based on breed, size, metabolism, activity level and how many times a day you feed. There are no hard and fast rules! Your dog should finish the meal in about 5 minutes. If they don't, take away the food and adjust the portion at the next feeding. If they finish in 2 minutes you may need to add a bit more next time. We always suggest feeding 2 times a day. It is important to watch the stools. At first softening of the stools is common and OK. If you get diarrhea then you've added too much of something or introduced some new element too quickly or maybe even started the whole diet without GRADUALLY introducing it. Generally, there is no problem. Here are a few guidelines - Puppies need more protein (about 25-30%) Adult dogs need 18 - 25% Senior dogs need 14 - 18%. It is best to feed your dog 2 or 3 meals a day rather than 1 big one.

The basic home cooking kit includes: Hokamix 30 herbal supplement 1 pound $23.95 (lasts 1 -2 months) Age specific vitamins puppy/adult/senior - $10.05 (lasts about a month) Digestive enzymes - $15.05 - (lasts about 3 months) Organic oil blend (fish/flax seed/soy oils) $13.95 lasts 2 months Individually these items would cost $63.00- Our price for the 'kit' is $58.00. The 11 herbs and sea kelps in Hokamix 30 add naturally occurring vitamins, trace minerals, chlorophyll, enzymes and hormones. The herbs themselves aid digestion, cleanse and detoxify, promote healthy skin, and keep the internal organs healthy.
The multivitamin is necessary to make sure all canine nutrition is met. We use age-specific vitamins for puppies, adult and senior dogs. The digestive enzymes facilitate absorption of nutrients so your dog gets the maximum benefit from the wholesome ingredients you add. The Organic oil blend lubricates joints, helps solve skin rash problems, add EFA's (essential fatty acids) and is nothing short of amazing when you see the shine and condition of the coat! (Takes about 2 weeks to notice)