Liz's Life, Aspergers, Gluten Free & Raw Fed Aussies: How I feed Indie's kibble

As I have mentioned before, Indie eats a kibble diet due to health conditions. He is currently eating a mix of I and Love and You Poultry Palooza and Acana Lamb and Okanagan Apple. Below is the Acana kibble. I decided randomly to show you how I feed Indie's food. He eats 1 cup of kibble twice a day.

I add in his three medications: gabapentin, soloxine and novox. I then add his dasuquin and *Extend (*only in the evenings). I then put on one scoop of Nupro Gold. I will write a review on the Nupro later. Nupro is a powdered vitamin.

I then add 1.5-2 cups of water to the food for multiple reasons:

Indie has laryngeal paralysis & since the Nupro is a powder, there is a high risk of aspiration, the water lowers the risk immensely
It helps keep him hydrated
Helps him lap up his medications
Creates a gravy along with the canned food and makes the food more enjoyable
Slows down his eating! It actually works!

While the food doesn't look appetizing, Indie does love it. I also change proteins in kibbles every time we buy a new bag. he does get 1/4 can of wet food and I switch the protein source every two days. This keeps his food interesting and new.

Indie once weighed an astronomical 111lbs. He ripped his CCL at five and we worked on getting him down to a healthy weight. (Yes, that is baby Mac in the photo). He was placed on the weight loss medication, Slentrol and got down to 85lbs. He was unfortunately eating Hills Prescription R/D. We took him off of the Slentrol and within 8 months, he was back up to 105lbs while ONLY eating R/D. The food was disgusting. I knew something was wrong. I dragged my mom to Petco, to their healthy section and went through the kibbles. We found Wellness Healthy Weight and placed both Gwen & Indie on it. Indie's weight began to go down. Then we found Wellness Core Reduced Fat and placed all three dogs on it and the change in Indie was amazing. Indie went down to 80lbs within several months and has stayed between 74-80lbs for over 8 years now.

Here is a photo of Indie after getting a bath on our deck last summer. He has been a healthy weight ever since and we are so proud! Yes, I am neurotic about everything my dogs eat and for good reason. Indie does not do well on a kibble with grain. He seems to gain weight immediately and still feel hunger pains. On raw (for a year and a half) and on high quality grain free kibbles, he doesn't act hungry and stays a healthy weight. Always base what you feed on the individual dog. Mac did not do well on any kibbles, but Gwen & indie did. Mac thrives on a raw diet. I will tell his story another time.

Please take your time to compare the ingredients and guaranteed analyses for in the three foods mentioned above.