Prepped Ragù & Choya's Appetite

We made a batch of ragù for dinner, with enough portions to be frozen for another meal, and a portion for the BFF (since she asked). This is damn good ragù. I don't bother eating pasta bolognese outside. The worst is the type where the kitchen just uses minced beef and dump tomato sauce all over it. Arrrgh. We use lean mince for a mix of 50% beef, 25% pork and 25% lamb. There's even a bit of chicken liver in it.  The pieces of raw liver are always soaked in milk first before going in with the other meats. I wonder when the BFF would realize that. (She doesn't eat innards or offal. Not for religious or health reasons. She finds them eeky.) I'm never telling her, and she only sporadically reads this blog, so she might never find out. 🤣

When the meats were unwrapped and went into the pot sizzling, the dog bounded over to the kitchen counter, obviously attracted by the smells. When we ignored her, she brazenly walked INTO the kitchen and sidled up to the stove. When she got chased away, she went into the larder and laid down, looking hopeful. She knows how to ask for food. HAHAHAHAHAH. Her expression! I had to take a photo of that face and sent it to the BFF a.k.a Choya's Godma. She got two mouthfuls of raw lamb mince. And relished it. She's not on a completely raw diet since I wasn't sure if I want to transition her fully (in case of she goes boarding and for her caregivers' convenience, but now......). She gets some raw meats on some days if the fridge has stocked lean cuts and quality meat sourced from legit farms- chicken feet, grass-fed beef, and lamb.

The dog's appetite is back, although that’s subject to her moods too. Thank goodness. She's overall a small eater and not motivated by food. If she had a big dinner and a short morning walk, she doesn’t want breakfast... and wants lunch. During the weeks when she went down to one meal a day, she still ate within the recommended caloric intake for her weight, so I wasn't worried. Her poop (excellent) and every bodily movement was normal. No weird symptoms, discharge, puking or anything. It was either her fear of thunderstorms that killed her appetite or she was a tad unwell from dunno-what. 

After giving her behavior and reactions careful analysis, and a quick chat with the vet who agreed with my initial findings, we decided that her lack of appetite was due to the higher levels of cortisol in her system that she couldn't bring down due to the spate of thunderstorms on consecutive nights. The efficacy of methods of managing her anxiety are entirely subjective since her triggers differ from time to time. The vet decided that he had no further contributions to this aspect since I have many creative solutions. Oof. 

This was before she got raw lamb mince to nibble on.