Ziggy reviews the sensitive dog program
At Healthy Active Pet we focus on the heath, nutrition and wellbeing of cats and dogs
And we have LOTS of recipes, meal plans and programs that our pet nutritionist has created - you can see them all here
But today you can see the review of our Sensitive Dog Program, Recipes and Meal Plans.
Ziggy is a gorgeous little dog who has a hugely sensitive tummy as trialled, tested and reviewed the program below.
"Last year, Ziggy had colitis, and part of his recovery was chicken and rice for his breakfast and dinner. After he recovered, I continued on it for a bit because he seemed to like it but noticed that he was extremely itchy.
After discussing it with my vet, I put him on an elimination (single protein roo) diet.
It worked like a charm for him, and we discovered an allergy to chicken. Since that I’ve stuck with single protein diet, but he’s proved to be a fussy eater and together we’ve gone through up to a week (or more) of him not eating his kangaroo.
So I’ve been slowly incorporating other proteins into his diet – no chicken, and minimal lamb and bef (as my vet reminded me at a recent appointment, dogs can be allergic to these as well). This is why the Sensitive Dog Program was so informative.
I prep Ziggy’s roo every Sunday, and have been dreading another bout of fussiness that leaves his food untouched. So I decided to go with a Fish Only receipt and roo for his first week.
I’ve included tinned salmon and tuna as toppers on his food from time to time and he’s enjoyed both thoroughly, but never thought to add a basa fillet to his diet.
For the first week, I got a bag of Basa fillets from Aldi, along with blueberries. The roo was from Woolworths, as was the frozen pumpkin.
I also added salmon and tuna to my basket as well, both on sale as they often are. (Handy tip, I shredded some of the steamed pumpkin and blueberries together in a vegetable shredder and mixed it in with his roo to make sure he actually eats it)
The program advises starting a dog gradually on a change in diet, so for this week, I made enough for two fish only meals for Ziggy to see how his tummy handled the food, before I made more for him.
I also kept the extras to a minimum for now because he was recovering from an upset tummy the week before after I was too slow to stop him from eating things he shouldn’t have at a Saturday market we went to!
An important part of the meal prep for me was the time it took to prep his food as I chose to cook or in this case steam the fish.
Between the roo and the fish, it took me just over an hour to prep and steam his fish and cook his roo (slightly), along with preparing the additions.
After that, I weighed and got his food ready for the week so all up, I would say my easy week of dinners for him was a lazy 90 minutes on a Sunday afternoon.
Ziggy isn’t sedentary but he isn’t as active as for example a working dog, so I decided on a 180g (he is 7.7kg).
The fish only diet called for mussels and oysters as well, but I only added salmon and a taste of tuna to see how his tummy handled the change before I’ll gradually add more like the program guide advises.
I started with adding a ¼ of fish to his usual roo dinner, and he loved it! His tummy has adjusted well, so I will increase fish for his second dinner before going cold turkey and prepping more fish for his dinner later this week.
We have a winner!"
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