It's All About Creating Good Poop

After devouring a ton of veterinary and nutritional journals (paid, online access) and borrowed textbooks, I've reached a point where I know enough to properly care for the dog, armed with sufficient knowledge. This means that I don't have to randomly panic or rush to the vet clinic. It also means I have solid facts to back me up against dumb crusaders of whatever 'right' thing to do for dogs. Right-wingers have no place in my life.

Choya has been with us for one year and four months. She'll soon be with us longer than she has been at the kennel. It took ten months to properly wean her off the kibbles she was fed for the first 1½ years of her life at the kennel. I round it up as one year of weaning-off because I judge it by the quality of her poop. She's eager to eat, but her poop tells me another story. It has been inconsistent until we were nine months into fresh foods, pre-and-probiotics, and freeze-dried raw meat, bone and organs (I gravitate towards New Zealand products). 

Her diet now is varied and balanced. Her stomach and gut flora have been merrily exposed to different proteins. She's all good with both raw and cooked beef, venison, crocodile, lamb and goat. She loves all types of fish seared, as well as freeze-dried- cod, salmon, mackerel, whole sardines, pilchard and sprats. Shellfish of cooked prawns, scallops, mussels are fine too. She's okay with duck but isn't keen on turkey, chicken, pork and kangaroo. Hahaha. I doubt she has full-blown food allergies. While she seems fine with chomping on raw chicken feet, she has intolerances to chicken breast meat. I'm not moving her to a fully raw diet, because if I do that, caregiving and feeding is going to be an issue when travel opens up. I'd rather not do that. 

The dog's poop tells me the whole story of what's happening in her intestines. She generally poops once every two days. Daily pooping is not a given. Zzzzz. She produces so little poop that sometimes she deems it unproductive to even bother to squat and squeeze out a tiny lump. Her poop has finally reached the consistency I want. She still has issues with anxiety and excitement pooping (liquid). But those episodes are few and far, thank goodness. I'm quite proud of her poop now. Hahaha. With the gradual exposure to different proteins and a rotated schedule of food that goes into her weekly meals, she has been producing ideal poop for months now. Whewwwww.