[Dailydrool] The Canidae Switch to Healthwise

[Basset911 at aol.com]

Hi guys - the ever wonderful discussions of poop - both eating of  it and out 
the other end.
It is rather ironic that we all share the same conversations nationwide as  
to poop - consistency, color, regularity - you name it, we all talk poop!
 
For 6 years here at Daphneyland we have fed Canidae.
When the recipe change (and also MANUFACTURING CHANGE) hit without advance  
warning, we became extremely involved in once again researching the commercial  
grades of food available on the market today.
If you think researching a self regulated industry that relies  completely on 
PR and uses the wording "Confidential" and "Trade Secret" is  an easy thing, 
then you obviously have never attempted to find out truly what is  in the food 
you are feeding.  It was not a fun month - and in the meantime  our 100 
hounds had a slowly shrinking supply room of the original recipe Canidae  - 
 
Without doubt I can say - home cook for your hounds if you can.   Commercial 
foods are NOT the healthiest way to raise a hound, its the convenient  way. 
There are many resources available for self education - please talk to a  canine 
nutritionist, get educated!
 
After all of our teams research, and understanding that here at Daphneyland  
we have an ever changing basset population of on average 100 daily -  a  large 
population of hounds that were neglected, abused, had no vet care and  rarely 
had any type of good nutrition.  We came down to 4 commercially  prepared 
higher grade foods that would help the hounds in our  rehabilitation.  Of those 
4, 1 was found to be less than superior despite  research, 1 was found to be 
hiding a company buy out and transfer, the 3rd  refused to answer any questions 
about co-packing and source of ingredients which  left us with Naturapets.com.
 
In talking with all of our experts, getting advice, and reading SEC filings  
as well as testing results - for our breed, and for our needs of high energy,  
rehabilitation and recovery, California Natural is the Natura recommendation 
of  choice.  We have gone a step further and have now transitioned the hounds  
onto Healthwise blended with California Natural.  For our kids who require  
soft food - they get either a home cooked diet, or Evangers canned.  It  takes 
30 days to fully transition a hound onto a new food - 30 days to truly see  
benefits as well as problems.  For those of you with 3 or 6 hounds - I do  feel 
it for you while runny poop is the norm during the first week or so of a  
transition - at the same time can one imagine how our first 2 weeks went with  90+ 
hounds and goopy soupy poop.  Life was truly poopy - this weekend we  began 
achieving FIRM POOP.  The cheering could most likely be heard all  over North 
America.  We are 100% on Healthwise Chicken Rice & Oatmeal  Adult as of 
Saturday morning.  The 30 days will be a long  countdown.
 
We would LOVE to be able to feed a cheap or free food, we have LOTS of  
manufacturers who offer us programs etc... - sadly, there are NONE that are  good 
for our bassets and we pledge health to our kids here in rescue. We have to  
have pallets of food - we don't buy in single quantity - yes, we have the  
incoming case who needs special food - but ironically a slight modification of  the 
home cooked diet handles these cases very well.
 
One thing I do want to say - if you are still feeding Canidae - PLEASE over  
soak your food.  It expands greatly, and despite what bloat studies say one  
year, then change the next year etc. the one thing that holds true is common  
sense.  If Bassets are prone to bloat, and documentation is confusing on  what 
to do or not to do - common sense tells us if you know the food expands  when 
wet - expand it outside of the body.  Completely remove the risk of  stomach 
fluids expanding a kibble and causing torsion.  It really is a no  brainer. In 
our circle of basset owners, we've had 4 cases of bloat within the  last 
month.  This is almost unheard of for us - we should have HUGE losses  to bloat, 
but we don't.  The only commonality in these 4 cases is food -  all of them did 
not even know Canidae had switched formulas and manufacturers -  I may be an 
alarmist here, but for me its really simple.  Good  Nutrition.  The key to our 
senior 17 year old rescue hounds.  We  see miracles every day, and they are 
nutritionally based. We are so concerned  about this problem, that we have put 
on our front page a notice about our food  transition.
 
May firm poop and calm bellies rule your lives!
Dawn of the West
Daphneyland
_www.barniatdaphneyland.org_ (http://www.barniatdaphneyland.org) 
 
 
 
 



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