New Bread For Gracie

As mentioned in previous posts, I often include whole wheat bread in Gracie's meals. Either homemade (click here for a recipe for homemade Doggie Chef Bread) or store bought. Click here to see my post about the store bought bread (Brownberry Natural Wheat) I've fed Gracie most often in recent years.

Cooked grains, like oatmeal and brown rice, are a lot cheaper (and probably a lot healthier) than store bought bread. Yet sometimes the convenience of store bought bread can't be beat.

I recently learned about sprouted grain bread made by Food For Life and decided to give it a try. I bought two different loaves: Seven Sprouted Grains bread and Ezeikiel 4:9 Sesame bread. They're both in the freezer section at my grocery store. I suppose they're frozen to maintain freshness, as they contain no preservatives. I prefer the Ezeikiel 4:9 Sesame bread because the Sprouted Grain bread contains corn. I'd rather not feed Gracie corn. I don't think she digests it well or that it offers her much nutritional value.

Brownberry Natural Wheat bread contains no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives. That's why I've used it for so long. However, I always thought it contained too much sodium and sugar.

Here's a comparison of Brownberry Natural Wheat bread and Food for Life Ezeikiel 4:9 Sesame bread:

Brownberry Natural Wheat Bread,  1 36-gram slice:

Sodium: 240 milligrams
Sugars: 2 grams
Dietary Fiber: 2 grams
Protein: 3 grams
Calories: 100
Plus added vitamins and nutrients like Vitamin A, the B vitamins, Vitamin E and Iron.

Food For Life Ezekiel 4:9 Sesame bread, 1 34-gram slice:
Sodium: 80 milligrams
Sugars: 0 grams
Dietary Fiber: 3 grams
Protein: 4 grams
Calories: 80

The Food for Life Ezekiel 4:9 Sesame bread contains less sodium, less sugar, more fiber and more protein. Any nutrients the Ezekiel 4:9 Sesame bread contains comes directly from the ingredients. To me that's a big plus even though, overall, the bread  contains less Vitamin A, Calcium, Vitamin E, Iron, etc... than Brownberry Natural Wheat Bread. I think nutrients naturally occurring in foods are better for the body (canine or human) than nutrient supplements added to foods.

The Ezekiel Sesame bread is made from: organic sprouted 100% whole wheat, filtered water, organic sprouted barley, organic sprouted millet, organic malted barley, organic sprouted lentils, organic sprouted soybeans, organic sprouted spelt, fresh yeast, organic wheat gluten, sea salt and organic sesame seeds.

It's always a bit scary to change my dog's diet. She's been doing so well for so long. Yet I believe every good Doggie Chef should strive to constantly improve their pet's diet. I was never comfortable with the amounts of sodium and sugar in the Brownberry Natural Wheat bread. I'll still use the Brownberry bread sometimes, but I feel better about feeding Gracie the Food For Life bread when I don't have time to make homemade bread.

*** POST EDITED/UPDATED MARCH 23, 2011

Blueberries

I started feeding Gracie blueberries as an occassional snack. When I was eating some blueberries recently, one fell off my plate and rolled across the floor. Gracie gobbled it up and made it clear she wanted more.

I never felt inclined to include fruits in Gracie's Doggie Chef meals. I think they contain too much sugar for regular consumption. Yet I know Gracie thinks some fruits taste really good (she loves dates). And many fruits, like blueberries, are considered health-enhancing superfoods. So blueberries are now on Gracie's occassional snack food list (click here to see a post about other snacks Gracie enjoys).

I did some Internet research and didn't find any reputable sources claiming blueberries are bad for dogs. In "Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats (see my review of that book here)," blueberries are recommended for occassional snacking. Any produce I give Gracie (or eat myself) is thoroughly washed first. When I share bluberries with Gracie I give her no more than three or four.

Ricotta Cheese For Extra Protein And Calcium

This week I discovered Lamagna Ricotta Cheese -- a good food supplement to add to Gracie's meals for extra protein and calcium.

Gracie likes it. I like its simple ingredient list: whole milk, skim milk, vinegar and salt.  And it doesn't contain a lot of salt like the cottage cheese I sometimes feed Gracie. One Gracie-sized serving contains 27.5 milligrams of sodium, or 1 percent of a human's recommended daily value for sodium (based on a 2,000 calorie-a-day diet).

One Gracie-sized serving of Lamagna Ricotta Cheese contains:

Protein: 3.5 grams
Calcium: 7.5 percent of a human's recommended daily value for calcium (based on a 2,000 calorie-a-day diet).
Sodium: 27.5 milligrams, or 1 percent of a human's recommended daily value for sodium (based on a 2,000 calorie-a-day diet).
Sugar: 1.5 grams (which seems like a lot for a Gracie-sized serving)

I wish Lamagna Ricotta Cheese contained less sugar. However, it does contain less sugar than one of the two yogurts I regularly feed Gracie (click here to find out what they are) and more protein and calcium than both of them.

It doesn't contain less sugar than the cottage cheese I sometimes feed Gracie but it contains significantly less sodium, the same amount of protein and more than three times as much calcium as the cottage cheese!. From now on, instead of using cottage cheese in some of Gracie's meals I'll use Lamagna Ricotta Cheese. I think it's a good dairy supplement to add to Gracie's meals a few times each week.

When There's No Time For Homemade Dog Biscuits

It's been several weeks since I've made Homemade Doggie Chef Biscuits (click here for the recipe). Time constraints and some warm weather days prevented me from baking a batch. Yet Gracie expects a crunchy treat after breakfast and dinner, and when she comes in from her afternoon backyard break.

When there's no time to bake Doggie Chef Biscuits, or when the weather is too hot to bake, I try to substitute one of the treats pictured above. The treats shown are, clockwise from the top: sliced French baguette bread (dried out in a paper bag for a few days until crunchy); plain, rye crackers; and Melba round crackers.





Gracie's Snacks

In addition to Gracie's homemade meals and doggie biscuits (click here for a Doggie Biscuit recipe), we often share our snacks with her.

Whenever we have a snack Gracie, will usually have one too. Some of her favorites are:

Crusty Italian or French bread

Pancakes

Ice cream (vanilla or butternut pecan; no chocolate or coffee)

Popcorn

Cereal and milk

Medjool dates (no more than one whole one)

Any canned fish

Peanut butter (especially if it's stuffed into a rubber Kong Toy -- click here for a photo))

And if we're eating potato chips, walnuts or pecans, raw apple or blueberries, Gracie will eat some too. However, these foods don't excite her as much as the snacks listed above.

Frozen Peanut Butter In A Kong Toy

I occasionally give Gracie a special treat: peanut butter treat in a rubber Kong Toy. Using a butter knife, I smear about one tablespoon of peanut butter around the inside of the Kong Toy. It takes Gracie a while to lick out all the peanut butter and it keeps her happy and busy while we're watching television.

Recently someone told me to freeze the peanut butter in the Kong Toy, to make the treat last longer. Last week I smeared peanut butter in Gracie's Kong Toy and put it in the freezer for a few hours. It looked like this:

She loved it!

I'm not sure if freezing the peanut butter in the Kong Toy actually makes the treat last longer, but Gracie did enjoy it for quite a while. It's sure to be a welcome treat on hot summer days!

Homemade Doggie Chef Biscuits

I don't like feeding Gracie too much of anything, including dog biscuit treats. Everything in moderation, with the aim of sustaining the best health.

I give Gracie one large crunchy biscuit in the morning after she eats breakfast, and one at night after she eats dinner. She gets a small crunchy biscuit in the late afternoon when she comes in from her “bathroom break.”

Gracie receives additional biscuits at specific times:

Bath Day: She gets a large biscuit to coax her into taking a bath, and three small biscuits to coax her into shaking herself dry --- and to thank her for enduring the bath!

When Training: Gracie gets an additional small biscuit or two, broken into pieces, if I’m training her.

Manicure Day: She'll also get a small biscuit, broken into pieces, when I’m clipping her nails (one piece of biscuit after each clip).

Several years ago I came across a dog biscuit recipe in the back of a Fanny Farmer baking book. Gracie loves these biscuits. She literally jumps around in anticipation when I’m getting her one and she eats them with noticeable delight:

Homemade Dog Biscuits

(From Fanny Farmer with some Doggie Chef modifications)

This recipe can be doubled

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2 eggs

2 Tablespoons soy flour (okay to omit; I rarely use it)

2 Tablespoons wheat germ

2 Tablespoons nonfat dry milk

4 Tablespoons water (approximate; add more, in small amounts, if needed)

2 cups whole wheat flour (or unbleached, all-purpose flour; or a mixture of both)

Slightly beat eggs in a large bowl. Add soy flour (if using), wheat germ, dry milk and water. Stir until smooth. Add flour and mix with hands. Dough will be stiff and dry. Pat dough into a rectangle one-half inch thick and cut into shapes with a knife or cookie cutter. Or roll dough into logs (3/4 to 1-inch diameter) and cut log into 2-inch segments. Flatten slightly to keep from rolling off cookie sheet. Or just break off biscuit-sized pieces of dough and flatten each between your palms to form a disk. The resulting biscuits won’t be as attractive, but your dog won’t mind.

Place shapes 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 325 degrees F, about 20-25 minutes on one side. Turn each biscuit over and bake about another 20-25 minutes. Turn off the oven when biscuits appear done. For hard, crunchy biscuits, leave them in the oven to cool for an hour or more. The longer they cool in the oven, the harder and crunchier they’ll be.

For extra hard, crunchy biscuits cool completely in the turned off oven. Then bake again at 325 degrees F for 5 to 7 minutes and cool in the oven once more.

While baking dog biscuits is pretty easy, it’s much more convenient to buy them ready-made. Especially in the summer, when baking heats up the kitchen. All Gracie's meals are homemade, but I fed her Milk-Bone traditional, unflavored dog biscuit treats ("small" and "large") regularly before I discovered the homemade dog biscuit recipe (shown above). And I've given Gracie Milk-Bones when I don't have time to bake biscuits. Milk-Bone traditional biscuits contain no artificial colors or flavors and their ingredient list isn't too complicated to investigate. However, they do contain preservatives. Now that Gracie's older I've decided to stick with homemade biscuits only.

**** Post Update: Here's what I do (click on the following phrase) When There's No Time For Homemade Dog Biscuits.

**** New Homemade Dog Biscuit Recipe -- Posted Jan. 19, 2011

Store Bought Wheat Bread

Since becoming a Doggie Chef, I've mostly used store bought bread to provide the carbohydrate/grain portion of Gracie's meals.

In recent years I became more aware of the high sugar and sodium content in even good quality store bought bread. Also, most store bought bread contains a long list of ingredients and preservatives I can't pronounce and never heard of.

I finally settled on using Brownberry Natural Wheat Bread in Gracie's meals. Out of all the breads available in my grocery store, it seems to contain the most healthful ingredients and the least questionable ingredients. Plus, I like the way it tastes as much as Gracie does. Yet in the last year and a half this bread has almost doubled in price!

So I started using store bought bread less and instead use more home-cooked grains in Gracie's meals (oatmeal, barley, brown rice). I also make homemade Doggie Bread much more frequently than I used to (click here for an easy Homemade Doggie Bread Recipe).

I realize you can't beat the convenience of store bought bread. Especially if you're pressed for time or taking your dog on a trip. If you do use store bought bread in your dog's meals, read the ingredients list carefully. Some wheat breads contain concentrated raisin juice. Raisins are toxic to dogs, so I wouldn't take a chance feeding my dog these breads.

According to the Brownberry Natural Wheat Bread ingredient list, the bread contains: cracked wheat, water, unbleached enriched wheat flour [flour, malted barley flour, reduced iron, niacin, thiamin mononitrite (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), folic acid], sugar, soybean oil, salt, yeast, cultured wheat starch, nutrient blend (tricalcium phosphate, maltodextrin, vitamin E, vitamin A, niacin, reduced iron, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin, thiamin mononitrate, folic acid, vitamin B12), grain vinegar, soy lecithin, whey, soy flour, nonfat milk.

Calf Liver

I very rarely feed Gracie beef liver. I find it unpleasant to handle and cook (it doesn't smell very nice when its cooking). It's also loaded with Vitamin A, which can be too much of a good thing if fed too often. So I only buy it for Gracie a few times a year, just for variety. She eats chicken liver more often, whenever I buy a whole, fresh chicken.

When I do make beef liver for Gracie I prefer calf liver to regular beef liver. My guess is that because calves have (unfortunately) not lived as long as older cattle, they've accumulated less toxic substances in their organs. On the rare occasion I buy calf liver I get it from my grocery store's frozen food section. It probably would be more nutritious purchased fresh.

I fry the calf liver in a pan with a little oil and water. I try not to overcook it but that's hard because liver tends to look pink even when it's cooked through. I don't like the idea of feeding raw meat to Gracie.

Once the liver is cooked I'll give Gracie one meal with liver as the main protein source. The rest goes in the refrigerator to add (just a small piece) to a few meals later in the week. Gracie seems to like it but I prefer to feed it as a special treat rather than a regular part of her diet. 

Chicken Organ Meats

Whenever I cook a whole chicken I save and cook the organ meats for Gracie (heart, liver, gizzard), along with the neck. I remove the meat from the neck bone after cooking and discard the bone. Most of the time Gracie eats the kind of meat I usually eat: poultry thigh, breast or drumstick meat; beef muscle meat, ground beef; canned or fresh fish, etc....

Yet organ meat contains healthful vitamins and nutrients too, so I cook it for Gracie when I have it. I don't go out of my way to buy it regularly for Gracie's meals because I find it unpleasant to handle and prepare.

Some dog care enthusiasts are in favor of feeding organ meats regularly because, "in the wild," dogs devoured the organ meats of the prey they brought down. I suppose that's true but I'm guessing Gracie is many generations from living, "in the wild." I don't feel like she's missing out by not eating organ meats all the time.

Yogurt

I believe in the health benefits of yogurt so I include some in Gracie's diet. She eats it happily.

I used to feed Gracie full-fat yogurt. As she's grown older I've switched to nonfat and fat free yogurt most of the time.

My favorite is Greek style yogurt and I usually buy the Stonyfield brand. It's unbelievably thick and creamy for a fat-free yogurt.  A serving for Gracie equals about 2 tablespoons, or 1/8 cup.

One Gracie-sized serving of Stonyfield Greek style yogurt contains:

Protein: Close to 3 grams

Calcium:  3.75 percent of a human's recommended daily value for calcium (based on a 2,000 calorie-a-day diet).

Sodium: Close to 12 milligrams, or .5 percent of a human's recommended daily value for sodium (based on a 2,000 calorie-a-day diet).

Sugar:  1.125 grams (which is quite a bit of sugar).

According to the Stonyfield website, it's Greek style Oikos yogurt contains, "five live and active cultures including L. acidophilus, bifidus, and L. casei."

I also feed Gracie Dannon All Natural Nonfat Plain Yogurt. It's not as thick as Greek style yogurt. I sometimes strain it in a yogurt strainer to make it thicker.

One Gracie-sized serving of Dannon All Natural Nonfat Plain Yogurt contains:

Protein: About 1.5 grams of protein

Calcium: 5 percent of a human's recommended daily value for calcium (based on a 2,000 calorie-a-day diet)

Sodium: 20 milligrams, or just less than 1 percent of a human's recommended daily value for sodium (based on a 2,000 calorie-a-day diet)

Sugar: 2 grams (even more sugar, per ounce, than the Greek style yogurt).

According to the Dannon website, the yogurt contains, "active yogurt cultures including L. acidophilus."

Since the sugar content concerns me, I don't feed Gracie yogurt every day. I add it to her meals a few times each week, whenever we have yogurt in the house. It provides extra calcium and protein and I think the active yogurt cultures are good for her digestive health.

****POST UPDATE****: I discovered a new dairy food to add to Gracie's meals. It provides more protein and calcium than both yogurts mentioned above, and less sugar than one of the yogurts mentioned above. Find out what it is in my November 16, 2010 post.

Cottage Cheese

Cottage cheese is a good source of protein so I include it in some of Gracie's meals. However, be aware most brands, including the one I use,  contain significant amounts of sodium. I use Daisy Brand Low Fat Cottage Cheese, small curd, 2% Milkfat. It contains no additives or preservatives and a very short ingredient list: cultured skim milk, cream, salt, vitamin A palmitate. Most other brands of cottage cheese at my grocery store contain a long list of additives.

One Gracie-sized serving of Daisy Brand Low Fat Cottage Cheese (small curd, 2% milk fat) contains:

Protein: 3.5 grams
Calcium: 2 percent of a human's recommended daily value for calcium (based on a 2,000 calorie-a-day diet).
Sodium: 90 milligrams or 3.75 percent of a human's recommended daily value for sodium (based on a 2,000 calorie-a-day diet).
Sugar: 1 gram (which seems like a lot of sugar for one Gracie-sized serving)

****POST UPDATE****: I discovered a new dairy food to add to Gracie's meals. It provides more protein and calcium than the two yogurts I feed Gracie (click here for more information) and significantly less sodium than the cottage cheese mentioned above. Find out what it is in my November 16, 2010 post.