Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Recipes of the Pugs

We have had many e-mails lately asking for our current pug feeding schedule & meal plan. Since it has changed a bit in the last few months, we felt it would be a good idea to post a blog about it, rather than just responding to the people that have asked. (Having been a teacher before, it is our school of thought that for each person that asked there are a few more that wanted the same answer, but never asked the question…)

Here, is our “secret” recipe:

1/3 cup of browned ground turkey (97% fat free)
1 teaspoon of fat free yogurt (plain, vanilla or strawberry)
1 heaping teaspoon of plain oatmeal
1 tablespoon of canned pumpkin
8-10 green beans (unsalted variety)

This meal is given 3 times a day. They eat breakfast around 6 AM, lunch around 3:30 PM and dinner around 8:30 PM. Additionally, they get a snack of a teaspoon of yogurt or applesauce and a few cheerios around noontime. So, they eat 4 times a day. They are obviously very well fed pugs. Henry is the heaviest, weighing in at a hefty 27 pounds (and he could afford to drop a pound or 2.) Benjamin is in good shape at his 22 pounds and “little” Luna is a curvy 13 pounds. Luna doesn’t get quite as much, though. Where the boys would get the full 1/3 scoop of turkey, her measuring cup wouldn’t be all the way full and she would get just a little less pumpkin and a couple less green beans but for the most part, it is pretty darn close to what the boys eat.

Also, since Henry has a pretty serious acid reflux problem, he gets 1/8 of a teaspoon of Baby Acidopholus in powder form added to his meals. When his reflux gets too bad, he may need to have a Pepcid A/C added to his food bowl, too. Benjamin also used to have the acid trouble, too but as he is getting older, it seems to be improving dramatically. Actually, Henry’s has improved tremendously, as well but his does act up from time to time.

Of course, with anything else that you feed or medicate your own dog with, we strongly advise you to consult your veterinarian first. The diet that the pugs are on was recommended to us years ago by our holistic veterinarian. We have made some modifications through the years after consulting with her along the way. And please, be fully aware of the time and the cost of a special diet like this if you are considering offering your dog something similar. It really can be a real pain in the neck to get it all put together. Even though we have it down to a science, it is still time consuming. On Sundays, we cook about 11 pounds of ground turkey and then scoop 21 bowls of food per dog (so a total of 63 food bowls), cover them with plastic elastic lids and stack them in the fridge for easy feeding throughout the week. The whole process takes a good 3-4 hours. And at $3 for 1.25lbs of turkey, well, you can do the math. Needless to say, the dogs literally eat better than we do.

We really appreciate everyone’s feedback, commentary & e-mails on the subject. We hope it gives some insight to what it’s like to offer a home cooked diet for your dogs. We will say this, though, no matter what the cost in time and effort, there was no exchange for the level of comfort we felt when the word about the tainted pet foods came out in the news. We felt a huge sigh of relief that our precious pups were protected.