Recent Content by prairiepanda

I have had to avoid vague ingredients such as "natural flavors" with Jonesy. I have encountered a few foods that have no other allergens in them but still cause problems, and it seems likely to be due to mystery ingredients like that. (Note that we are unable to confirm 100% whether it is the...

Actually, Jonesy has his own tablet that we could put the app onto! I'll give it a shot, thanks!

I'm glad to hear Zylkene has been helping Buddy! And thanks for the suggestion of a white noise machine, I bet something like that would be good for Jonesy. I've thought about getting cat music for him too, to play when we're away.

I've seen a couple pet insurance providers that cover routine checkups and the like, but they are reimbursement-based and increase your premiums every year as your pet ages, so it would be more cost effective to just pay for the checkups yourself. If you want to break up the cost, just put aside...

Jonesy has had an extremely poor appetite since we moved from a house to an apartment, and seems to be quite stressed by all the sounds of strangers in the halls, loud children, etc. He has even started a habit of sleeping completely hidden under covers, whereas he always used to sleep...

Is it legal in the US for meats to not be labelled?? Here in Canada, any kind of additive needs to be listed on the label, even if it's just added water. So most producers don't try to enhance their meats because it makes the label less appealing to consumers. The kosher ones have no choice...

Make sure to set your crock pot to its highest temperature. With some crock pots that would require restarting it every few hours, as they normally default to their lowest temperature when set to very long time periods. The bones need somewhat high heat to soften up.

With very bad reactions like blood/mucus in stool and intense vomitting, you can tell within a couple days. If it is just diarrhea without any more serious symptoms, then you'll have to stick with the food for a few weeks to see if the diarrhea resolves or not. As others have suggested...

Much of the weight of the meat is from its water content, and a lot of the water evaporates during cooking. You'll notice that the physical size of the meat is reduced during cooking as well, for the same reason. Evaporated water shouldn't leach away significant nutrients, but you should try to...

I try to save as much liquid from the meat as possible, and incorporate it into the vitamin sauce I make. Any water-soluble nutrients can leach out that way, not just taurine, so I try to minimize my losses.

That software looks pretty promising. It claims to allow customization for specific pets, but is that limited to weight/energy level, or can it also accept special health considerations?

It seems that even with using MCHA as a calcium source, zinc and copper are still deficient according to AAFCO. I'm hesitant to supplement zinc, but will look into the research more.

Thanks for the data! I wasn't planning on using it as whole bone data, I actually wanted to add MCHA as an ingredient in my calculator. I'm still hunting for a good source on raw whole bone data. As for vitamin D, you are correct! Cats do possess pathways for synthesis of vitamin D, but their...

I wanted to include MCHA in my calculator, but couldn't find one with sufficient composition data. Would you be able to share yours? It's a shame that MCHA is so prohibitively expensive; it would be the most controllable mineral source....

Using a variety of meats takes care of the thiamine and choline. Chicken and pork, for example, contain a lot of thiamine, as do some other meats. Pale-coloured meats seem to be highest in choline. Egg yolks also provide a lot of choline, and can be used to supplement meats that are deficient...