Freeze-dried Salmon for Choya

When Choya came along and the man asked me to start an IG account for her, I was like... erm... fine. I was introduced to the world of fur-influencers. What the. I'm like, NO. I'm not going down that road. I'm certainly not judging people who choose to have their cute pets secure sponsorships for food, toys, accessories, et cetera. Raising and caring for a pet is hard work, so if sponsorships take a bit of stress off fur-parents, why not. Maybe some find it fun to have their pets become paw-dels.

I'm Choya's social media manager. I'm not going to work so hard to get her sponsorships and work at keeping them, or securing new ones, and put in some effort to do sincere posts. I don't view it as 'fun'. All these are obligations that I've got no interest in adhering to. This isn't what I do. I'm keeping her account strictly 'personal'. I'll post whatever content I want to, whenever. I pay for everything that the dog and I use. As it is, I already look at a brand's philosophy before I buy anything for Choya. To have us stand with a brand means that we have to agree with its ethics and philosophy, and likely the people behind it before we subscribe to its products. A fancy website usually doesn't tell me much about what I want to know. 

We went to NUDE Grill at Marina One. Choya was pleased to run into Taki, the Boss Shibe at NUDE. They went off for a pee together. Hahahahaha. So random! It was such a thrill to receive a gift for Choya from NUDE. It was a generous fillet of freeze-dried Norwegian salmon. I was like, are you sure you wanna give us this??! NUDE said they were experimenting with food for dogs, and everything is still in trial stage. They're doing small batches of freeze dried salmon fillets according to demand for interested pawrents. So they were happy to let Choya have a pack. It was given out of pure goodwill, and not because they expect anything in return.  

I don't usually give Choya a whole fillet of salmon for one meal. Just in case her fussy gut flora doesn't like it. That fillet is split into two or three meals. And it usually sits together with another portion of meat and eggs. Balance in a dog's diet doesn't have to be done so for every meal. (70% muscle meat, 10% edible bone, 5% organs and liver and so on.) As long as the food intake fulfill the recommended ratio, balance can happen over a period of a month. My meal mix for Choya is more of catering to her fussy palate and stomach. 

I didn't ask NUDE if this fillet has been gently seared before being freeze-dried. I can't tell either. But I think it was uncooked. Otherwise it wouldn’t keep the shape. Freeze-drying typically removes moisture and while it doesn't do a microbial kill, it reduces the microorganisms present in dead meat. It makes feeding raw a little more palatable. I generally don't feed Choya raw salmon unless it's sashimi grade. Wow, it was a good quality fillet! That fabulous fishy smell! She couldn't wait to eat dinner. Tonight, she had an awesome dinner with a third of the freeze-dried salmon fillet, chicken gizzards, egg and flank steak.