Tag Archives: kibble

Using Dry Dog Food for Healthy Holiday Fun!

The basic component for the majority of your furry family members’ meals is most likely dry food, aka kibble. (Check out the stats on which are the best dry dog foods for your pups over at the SlimDoggy Dog Food Database.) But at this time of year it can become tricky to keep your pets interested in their kibble when there are so many delicious smells coming from the kitchen. Today I’d like to share a few ideas to keep your pet happy and satisfied with their own healthy food during the holiday season.

While many pet parents discourage their dogs from sitting by the table during meals, personally my family prefers to have Sadie take part in our family dinners. But eating bits of human food definitely goes against Sadie’s diet. So to include my dog as part of our holiday meals, I use her dry dog food. I give each family member a few pieces of her kibble, so that whenever Sadie visits a family member to see what goodies they have to offer, they have a dog-healthy option at the ready. Sadie feels like she is participating and getting some of our holiday dinner, while still keeping on her kibble diet.

But having dog food at the dinner table may not appeal to everyone and may lead to some annoying begging behavior. So another way to keep your dog focused on their dry food during the holidays is using food dispensing toys. You can fill up the toy with kibble, give it to your dog, and then go enjoy your own meal knowing that your dog is happily distracted from the human food. (I frequently use treat dispensing toys as a good distraction when I’m working as well.) Sadie has different treat dispensing toys that I use specifically for each holiday. That way it’s a new challenge to figure out how the toy works since she only sees it a few days each year. For the Christmas season Sadie has a festive light bulb that dispenses treats/kibble.

My favorite way to make sure Sadie eats her dry food during the holidays is to make little dry food presents. I take a handful of kibble and place it in the center of a square of wrapping paper. Then I ball up the wrapping paper so that it holds the kibble in place. Then I hide the little kibble presents around the room/house. I like to put them under the tree among the other presents, but that might cause problems or damage for those of you with bigger or more destructive dogs. I always place one little kibble present in plain sight so that Sadie realizes what she is looking for. Once she has opened and eaten the contents of the first present, I tell her to go find the others. That keeps her happy and occupied for quite a while, with the bonus of making sure she eats her healthy dry food.

I also want to mention an adorable holiday craft that can be done using dry dog food from one of my fellow bloggers, Jodi at Kol’s Notes. Click here to check out her kibble/treat filled ornaments and advent calendar!

“This post is a partnership with Nakturnal.”

Portion Problems

As you all know, Sadie is a picky eater. Some days she acts like she’s starving and will eat anything in sight. Other days she will only eat her dog food if I spoon feed her a few bites. At the moment, the most frustrating aspect of these eating habits is portion size. Of course Sadie’s vet has recommended the appropriate amount of food for Sadie’s dinner. But when I prepare the half cup of dry food mixed with a little wet food that the vet recommends, Sadie barely eats half of it. So the next night I give Sadie a smaller portion, which she finishes immediately and begs for more food. So the night after that I give Sadie a larger portion, but she won’t eat any of it and it all gets thrown out. I just can’t predict how much Sadie will be willing to eat at any given time. Some nights I give her a full portion and she eats only half. I wake up the next morning planning to throw away the leftover food, only to discover that Sadie has gotten up in the middle of the night and eaten every bite. Sadie is certainly talented at keeping me on my toes and making sure our life together never gets boring.

This post is part of the Pet Parade blog hop hosted by Rascal and Rocco, Bionic Basil, Love Is Being Owned By a Husky, and M.K. Clinton.

Fun With Doggy Blocks – #ChewyInfluencer

Our friends at Chewy.com recently sent Sadie a fun new treat puzzle! It’s called Doggy Blocks from Outward Hound. Doggy Blocks is a circular treat seeking puzzle with eight treat containers and four blocks.

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In general treat seeking puzzles are wonderful activities for any dog. They are easy ways to exercise your dog’s mind by providing a problem your dog must solve to earn his or her reward. Doggy Blocks is a great puzzle because it has two different puzzle elements, with eight containers for rewards. You can place treats under the four Doggy Blocks and in the four internal containers, creating a long lasting challenge for your dog to retrieve all of those rewards.

The two levels of treat compartments also make the Doggy Blocks puzzle a fun way to feed your dog his or her dinner. You can put your dog’s kibble in the larger four compartments under the blocks and place a few treats or pieces of treats in the smaller internal compartments for dessert. This puzzle is perfectly setup for this because you must first remove the yellow blocks and eat your dinner before you can access the inner compartments to eat your dessert.

Sadie did have a bit more trouble with this puzzle than she usually does with other puzzles. This could be considered a good thing if you really want a challenge that lasts a while for your dog. But Sadie did get frustrated a few times and might have given up if I didn’t keep encouraging her. There are a few possible reasons she may have had trouble with this puzzle.

The yellow block portions of the Doggy Blocks puzzle are most likely meant for a dog to grab with their mouth to remove. Sadie is strangely picky about what she puts in her mouth, so she wasn’t willing to play correctly. If your dog has trouble with these blocks like Sadie did, just put the blocks in at a slight angle, making it possible for your dog to push the blocks with their paws or noses.

Also because Sadie prefers to attack a puzzle with her paws, she occasionally felt resistance from the aeration slits on the puzzle. It’s important for any successful treat seeking puzzle to have some type of holes in the payout compartments so that dogs can smell what they are searching for. But Sadie’s nails sometimes hit the slits in this puzzle at a funny angle and she would get scared and pause in her play. She never actually got stuck or made any kind of whine or whimper, but it kind of jarred her out of the treat seeking zone. I would just remind her to use her nose and smell what was inside and she happily resumed trying to solve the puzzle.

In contrast, Sadie had a very easy time with the inner layer to this puzzle. In order to reach the inner four treat compartments, a dog has to first remove all four Doggy Blocks and then rotate the spinner to gain access to the final treat compartments. The beauty of this puzzle is that the difficulty of the inner layer can be changed to fit your dog’s needs. There is a tension knob located on the underside of the puzzle that makes this inner spinner easier or harder for your dog to spin. That way you can help a frustrated dog solve the puzzle faster or give your bored dog a tougher challenge. And you can change it up each time you play so that your dog won’t know what to expect.

In this video you will see that I added a surprise element to one of the Doggy Blocks treat containers – one of Sadie’s beloved squeaky balls. She was almost more excited to try and rescue her ball than to find any treats. It just shows you that this puzzle can be fun even if your dog is on a diet.

The Doggy Blocks puzzle by Outward Hound is made of a durable, food safe plastic that is BPA, PVC, and phthalate free. You can get your own Doggy Blocks puzzle at Chewy.com for $14.99.

This post is part of the #ChewyInfluencer blog hop hosted by Sugar the Golden Retriever and Oz the Terrier.

I received a free product in exchange for my honest opinions. All views expressed are strictly my own. I did not receive any monetary compensation for this post.

#KickStartYourKibble with Stella & Chewy’s Meal Mixers

As many of you know, Sadie is a very picky eater. She eats a prescription kibble for weight control and joint support as suggested by our vet, but she won’t eat just plain kibble. Typically I mix her kibble with some canned food, but I know that canned food can cause problems with her teeth. So I’m always searching for new, healthy options to mix with her dry kibble to make it more palatable. That’s where Stella and Chewy’s Meal Mixers come in to solve all of these issues. According to a study at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, 9 out of 10 dogs prefer kibble with Stella & Chewy’s Meal Mixers to just plain kibble. That seemed to me like a pretty good reason to give Meal Mixers a try.

First off, Stella and Chewy’s Meal Mixers are made with raw, freeze dried ingredients sourced from the USA. I’m personally a little grossed out when I hear about raw feeding, but these Meal Mixers are not like the slimy raw meat pieces I envisioned. Since Stella and Chewy’s Meal Mixers are freeze dried, the pieces are sanitary and easy to handle. Each package even comes with its own scoop for easy portion control. All you need to do is mix a scoop or two (depending on your dog’s weight) of Meal Mixers with a portion of your dog’s kibble and your dog has nutritious meal that takes you only seconds to prepare.

The freeze drying process also seals in the flavor, keeping the food tastier for a longer period of time for your pet. By using freeze dried, raw food like Stella and Chewy’s Meal Mixers, your dog can receive the raw nutrition they instinctually crave in an easy to handle way for dog owners.

Stella and Chewy’s Meal Mixers come in four varieties and three sizes – Stella’s Super Beef, Chewy’s Chicken, Tantalizing Turkey, and Savory Salmon in 3.5oz, 9oz, and 18oz resealable bags. We were given the chicken to try, which is great because Sadie loves chicken. But Meal Mixers contain more than just nutrient-rich meat. There are also organic fruits and vegetables and healthy probiotics and antioxidants mixed in with the freeze dried meat. You won’t find any grain, gluten, fillers, preservatives, antibiotics, hormones or other artificial additives in Stella and Chewy’s Meal Mixers.

Meal Mixers also work great as a reward. In my house, if I try to give Sadie some pieces of her kibble as a reward, she looks at me like I’m giving her brussel sprouts for dessert. Sadie considers her dry kibble as health food, something she must eat every day if she hopes to also get a treat or two. But Sadie gets excited to see the bag of Stella and Chewy’s Meal Mixers. She will happily perform tricks in exchange for a piece or two of the Meal Mixers. It’s a perfect, healthy, nutritious reward!

At Stella & Chewy’s, they go above and beyond to ensure the quality of their products. The Wisconsin-based company utilizes a test and hold process with their food. A sample from each batch of food is sent to an independent lab to ensure the quality and safety of the food before it leaves the production facility. You can even go online and read the test results from your dog’s specific bag of food!

The company was founded in 2003 by Marie Moody, who wanted to share the success of her raw diet with other pet owners. The company is named after the founder’s own dogs, Stella and Chewy, whose health issues were greatly improved by a raw diet.

Learn more about Stella & Chewy’s and Meal Mixers at stellaandchewys.com. You can also interact with Stella & Chewy’s on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

This post is sponsored by Stella and Chewy’s but opinions are my own. Stella and Chewy’s is not responsible for the content of this article.

This post is part of the Thoughtless Thursday blog hop hosted by Ruckus the Eskie, Love Is Being Owned By a Husky, and M.K. Clinton.

This post is also part of the Thursday Barks and Bytes blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like A Dog.