About

I started investigating the effects of dog food after we adopted a one year old mastiff with severe skin/coat problems. Not wanting to go with the “traditional medical” route, I dove into the nutrition that my dogs were getting.

We had adopted a Catahoula Leopard puppy about two years before the mastiff, and he also came to us itching. I added a coat supplement to his food and within two months, my dog’s itchy skin was gone.

This got me to thinking about the mastiff. Problem was, and still is, money — mastiffs eat A LOT, and the heartworm/flea/tick meds are unbelievable. Suddenly, my dog budget more than tripled.  The cost of adding supplements on top of that was just impossible.

Whenever I get to feeling like this, I stop, and think about nature and how God provided us with everything we need. If humans ate only natural, organic foods (no – I’m a junk food addict, but I know I SHOULD) there would be so fewer medical problems. And the same is true with our pets.

And nature did indeed fix my mastiff’s problems – but more than just the itching. By feeding more natural, healthy dog food, other things also started improving: her stool size and smell, her gas (she could clear a room in 5 seconds), and a large cyst on her front right elbow has completely disappeared.

I feed a combination of commercial dog food and homemade dog food – honestly, it is just easier this way for me. But I scrutinize the dog food ingredient labels and am always amazed with what I find in some of the so-called “premium” dog foods. Just remember — price doesn’t always equate with quality. You have to really look at what you are buying.