Make Meal Time Fun for Your Dog!
This post is sponsored by PetSmart®, and the BlogPaws Professional Pet Blogger Network. I am being compensated for helping spread the word the word about the launch of Natural Balance® products at PetSmart, but Dog & His Boy only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers. PetSmart is not responsible for the content of this article.
After the Natural Balance® launch party at PetSmart® stores across the nation, Edison and Co. gobbled up their Wild Pursuit kibble and canned food pretty quickly. With four dogs weighing a total of 320 pounds, we go through pooch food faster than you can sign, “Are you STILL hungry?”
This past Sunday, Edison and I went back to PetSmart to pick up some more Natural Balance goodies. PetSmart is not the closest pet supply store to us. In fact, it is, by far, the furthest away. We drive past several other pet supply stores to get to PetSmart because PetSmart is our store of choice. Gay dads and deaf dogs are the most loyal of customers. Ask a Marketing person; they’ll tell you.
Here at Dog & His Boy, we are rotational feeders. We truly believe that rotating ingredients, especially protein sources, is an important part of achieving and maintaining good health. In addition to the convenience of (finally!) being able to buy Natural Balance food and treats at PetSmart, a high-value benefit to those of us here at Deaf Dog Central is the extremely wide selection of Natural Balance food options. No matter your dog’s health needs or culinary taste, there is bound to be something he will love.
Since we were pleased with the grain-free Wild Pursuit, we decided to go all-in and apply rotational feeding principles using several Natural Balance food lines. This time, we bought the Salmon, Trout and Tuna Wild Pursuit. A food based in fish is higher in both Omega-3 and Omega-6, which are important anti-inflammatories and support a healthy coat and skin. Bully-breed dogs, especially unpigmented ones, are prone to skin issues, so we love getting as much fish oil goodness in them as possible.
This time, we also grabbed a bag of the Vegetarian formula to mix in with the Wild Pursuit kibble. It has some additional healthy ingredients that I like to include in my boys’ diet, including spinach, parsley and yucca.
For canned food, we really went hog wild. We grabbed a few cans each of the Wild Pursuit canned Lamb, Chicken and Guinea Fowl, Beef, Buffalo and Venison, and the Chicken, Turkey and Quail. Each of these has at least three sources of protein, including some novel ones, such as Guinea Fowl and Venison.
We also picked up several cans of food from the Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diet (LID) line. We chose the Duck & Potato, the Venison & Sweet Potato and the Sweet Potato & Fish flavors.
By rotating different canned foods we are meeting our goal of offering different protein sources to our deaf and hearing dogs. In addition to the health benefits of rotational feeding, I believe that this approach to nutrition meets a few other basic needs of our dogs and they fall under the umbrella of Enrichment.
Can you imagine eating the same meal, out of the same bowl, twice a day, every day for the next ten to fifteen years? As frustrating as this sounds, this is exactly what so many pet parents do. And you know what? It’s not their fault! This is what pet parents have been told ad nauseum for decades. It is only in recent years, as veterinarians are learning more information, as pet parents are educating themselves, as brands are embracing different feeding approaches, that a more holistic view of pet health including alternative, and probably healthier, eating habits has emerged.
To add insult to injury, let’s consider the sense of smell. We all know that a dog’s olfactory system is thousands of times more sensitive than ours. We see this in the way they interact with each other, with the world around them and with us. Touch another dog and see how long it takes for Bingo to figure that out!
By rotating different protein sources and flavors in Edison & Cos. food, I am easily stimulating both their sense of taste and their sense of smell. I am enriching their daily lives and I am increasing their enjoyment of food.
By offering every Natural Balance food and treat product line at every PetSmart store as well as online, I can meet my rotational feeding goals and also easily keep my dogs healthy, excited and curious about their food. No meal is ever the same here at Dog & His Boy and my dogs are healthier and happier for it.
Have you gone shopping for Natural Balance food and treats at your local PetSmart? What is your dog’s favorite? How do you think Natural Balance products will align with your feeding philosophy?
Great post. I knew about the pigmentation/deaf connection but for some reason wasn’t aware of these dogs also being prone to skin ailments. That makes sense, though. Thanks for educating me!
Being scent hounds and participating in nose work and tracking competition, we love how you included the sense of smell in your post! We rotate our food proteins too. Natural Balance has great products and we love PetSmart too!
Thanks for such a great post. I learned a thing or two here. I also say your article on Victoria Stillwell’s website. Congradulations.
Paws & Wags
Suzanne
TheDogTrainingLady
I’ve been rotational feeding Truffle and Brulee since they were kittens. One reason is because I didn’t want them to become so finicky, but another reason is that I want them to be healthy. Glad Natural Balance is in PetSmart now so I can feed them a high quality cat food.
Yay for #Rotational feeding!
Natural Balance is pawsome! We have indeed been to PetSmart to pick some up. My kitties like the Platefulls formulas. It’s great to hear that Natural Balance has such good foods for rotating diets! Who wants to eat the same old thing for every meal? My kitties like to switch it up too.
I like the idea of rotational feeding. I wonder how Henrietta would take to that. I know that Spenser would be able to handle it with his iron stomach!
Sense of smell is so important when feeding our pets. One of our cats has cat flu at the moment, so we’ve had to warm food and make it smellier to encourage her appetite.
That’s always tough with cats, getting them to eat with any type of upper respiratory tract infection. Best wishes and keep us posted!
TW tries to give me different foods and proteins but I have a favorite and that’s all I want to eat. Cats are finicky, you know. Still she feeds me the other foods in the morning and I pick. She never wanted me to only have one flavor and brand of food in case they change the formula or have a big recall.
I know that some of the foods I feed my dog recommend that you transition to it over a week or so. How does a rotational diet work exactly? Feel free to just point me to a good source.
Great info !! Many thanks 🙂 🙂 We rotate too 🙂 🙂 We also learned to come to a light flicking in case Odin gets hard of hearing in his older age 🙂
I also rotate my kitties’ canned food flavors so they don’t get bored. I have began to feed my kitties Natural Balance canned food again, and they both really like it. I was very disappointed with the selection they had at our PetSmart, though. They had only three flavors, and I know there are many more than that available. I’m hoping our PetSmart gets more flavors in – they are the biggest PetSmart in CO, so the lack of selection really surprised me.
Great post, everybody here (Liv’s house) are extraordinarily picky eaters virtually across the board so we tend to force rotation feeding lest Mom lose her mind. The addition of Natural Balance to PetSmart’s offerings will give her even more great options when we implement our hunger strikes. 😉
You are teaching so many people about the awesomeness, er pawsomeness, that is raising deaf dogs. What a fab way to celebrate with Natural Balance and shopping at PetSmart.
This is so great, I didn’t realize you could accomplish rotational feeding while remaining within the same food line. I thought I had to continually switch brands as well to be diverse enough in feeding. Terrific post, thanks!
Love & Biscuits,
Dogs Luv Us and We Luv Them
Edison & Co. are certainly getting the best care and rotational feeding is a terrific method. We practice it here on the bayou too.
Great post! I also didn’t know about the lack of skin pigmentation affecting a dog’s hearing. Thanks for sharing that information. I think it is great that you do rotational feeding. I couldn’t imagine eating the same thing day in and day out for my whole life. How boring it would be to not smell and taste something new!
Oz