about our gang
With our old man Mike getting up into his later years, Odette's allergies, and the adoption of Maia -- on an anti-inflammatory and a pain killer daily for her two blown ACL's and arthritis in both her back legs causing her to limp and cry out in pain if she moved quickly -- we began to really pay attention and research thoroughly all of the ingredients in our dog food and dog treats we were feeding them. It was an eye opener! Ingredients like sugar, corn syrup, large portions of ground meals and words we couldn't pronounce made us scratch our heads. Dogs don't need sugar? Right! We learned that if the first ingredient is a type of meat, that meat is about 75% water, according to the FDA and that without that water weight, the meat probably would fall lower on the ingredient list. *
Anyway, you get the idea...it just seemed dogs foods weren't the solid nutrition we thought they were -- even the expensive ones we were feeding. First, we started just reducing the amount of kibble and supplementing with
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 Odette aka Yeti Deti aka Ode Do Do's |
 Mike |
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 Maia |
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cooking for them, then when our favorite dog food changed it's formula -- causing some much undesirable funny bottoms -- we decided to abandon all pre-packaged food in favor of cooking a good protein + veggies + fruits + supplements + steam basmati rice. Within a month, the most significant change we experienced was less "toots" -- and I will tell ya Mike could clear a room -- then over time Maia began to have more movement; she started running and jumping chasing the squirrels in the back yard and being able to go for walks and runs like a regular dog; she no longer needed the daily meds either! With Odette and Mike we still have allergy issues but nothing like before where we had to travel to the vet for allergy shots and pills.
Now, we're not saying it was a cure-all or that other dogs will have the same results, we're just saying it worked for our dogs and that we think there should be an alternative to pre-packaged/manufactured dog foods. Along this journey our friends became interested and then their friends and then friends of friends of friends... and out of this interest we created Toot's Dog Food Co. It is a HUGE responsibility to start cooking for your dog(s) and this takes time that most people do not have, so we started doing it for them. We would like to do it for you too!
Thanks for reading and visiting. We hope to see you soon at the many farmer's markets we participate in.
*https://pets.webmd.com/dogs/guide/how-to-read-a-dog-food-label#1
https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/ResourcesforYou/ucm047111.htm