Daisy's Diet

If it were up to her, Daisy would probably live off a diet of roly polys. This morning I caught her trying to off an entire family sleeping in the grass. But puppy cannot live on roly polys alone so in trying to be the best puppy mom I could, I overwhelmed myself with too much research. (If anyone says there's no such thing as too much research, they probably haven't met me.) I'm the type who does so much research that any clear choice I had in the beginning becomes obscured by new details or conflicting reports. It took me months to do research on a new camera I wanted and by the end of it, I was so torn about which had better, usable features that I decided not to get any. Deciding on a new cell phone is even worse.

 But I digress. I googled "best puppy food" and read all the top stories and analyses and why one was better than the other and why grain-free was best or why raw was the best. I read about nutritional needs and how raw food diets require raw bones for calcium but that you had to match calcium with phosphorous or vice versa. It was daunting.

I finally chose Orijen Puppy Food. It was supposed to imitate a puppy's natural diet by focusing heavily on meats. The first several ingredients were meat products and the rest were all ingredients I recognized. I mean, I could eat this food in a pinch. 

 

I brought it home and mixed it in with Daisy's old food (Science Diet) and she gobbled it down. She even went so far as to pick out most of the new food from her bowl so it definitely got the stamp of approval from her.  

 

I then decided the expensive food wasn't enough, I would make her food. I did a ton more research on homemade dog food before finally deciding on simple things that she'd eat. I do mixes of chicken, quinoa, carrots, apples, brown rice or green beans. I make up a batch in the beginning of the week and feed her about a tablespoon with her kibble every meal. She loves it. The first time I fed her she ran over to me afterwards and gave me a lots of love and happy kisses and tail wags. My work has thus already paid itself off in spades. Nothing beats a happy, healthy puppy who loves you.