An Eclectic Post

We are concluding the taste test of the Tasty Treats today.  The fishy breath was just an aberration ... maybe Kenya caught a fish that day and ate it ... after all she caught a mouse in a neighbour's garden  this week.  So ... the nubbly little Tasty Treats were a success ... clean breath and customer satisfaction.  Stay tuned for the next treat on the list tomorrow.

Today is a busy day ... Jim is coming to make my square foot gardening box this morning at eight,  and Dan is bringing Remi to stay for a few days a little later this morning.  Then I have to make a town run after that to shop at Costco for groceries and a new kettle.  If I continue to use a pot and wander off and forget it for much longer I will burn the house down.  And now is not the time to do that!

I will try to use up the Crunch'n'Cleans on Remi while he is here.  I have offered them to Kenya occasionally this week and she just leaves them lying wherever I have put them.  Too bad because I had a whole box of those whereas I have sample sized amounts of all the others.

On finding cookies everywhere ...

I am afraid that this day will tell whether Kenya continues to test the Crunch'nClean.  She seems to have gone on strike. 

First thing this morning I asked whether she wanted her cookie or whether she wanted to go out and pee first.  She made it clear that the front door was her goal ... not the treasure trove of treats above her crate.  When she came back in out of the damp cold I offered her the treat.  She allowed it to fall to the floor.  I played her game where she has to let a treat sit on her paw till she is told to take it.  She picked it up in her mouth and I went off to make tea.  Later I discovered it sitting on the floor and Kenya sat looking longingly at her food dish.

I fed her and she ate her breakfast ravenously ... as if kibble and yogurt was the best possible taste in the world.  The Crunch'nClean  lay on the floor nearby.  Rejected.

First Taste Test Report on Crunch'nClean

The first one we are trying is made by Hartz, the people who make all those products for birds.  If they can sharpen birds' beaks with cuttle bones, they should be able to create a doggy tooth brush, right?   I examined the big box of Crunch'nClean for dogs under 20 pounds ... maximum for that size: 2 per day ... Kenya can have 8 per day.  There are 35 calories in each biscuit so 280 calories worth of this treat for teeth in a day.

Then I read " not for human consumption".  That led me to check out the ingredient list.

wheat flour ... not an auspicious beginning for my dog whose digestive system is not good with wheat.
ground whole wheat ... hmm ... or this ...
chicken meal
wheat germ meal ... more wheat
sodium hexametaphosphate
poultry fat
salt ... as well as sodium?
poultry digest
whey
malted barley
molasses
calcium
brewer's yeast
choline
sodium metabisulphate ... more sodium?
chlorophyl               
colour
ferrous sulphate
vitamin e
2 zincs
vitamin b
vitamin a
2 coppers
niacin
calcium proteinate
manganous oxide
manganese
riboflavin
vitamin d
thiamin
another 2 sources of vitamin b
calcium iodate
sodium selenite ... yet another sodium
folic acid


That seems to be it ... an awful lot of wheat and sodium ...but  only 35 calories ... just a little for a 90 pound dog.

Kenya's reaction to the taste of #1: 

She liked the taste, but the next morning she stuck her nose up at this substitute for her Dentistix. As the day progressed I tried her again and she actually left it sitting on the staircase despite my attempts to convince her that it was a tasty treat.

Her breath is still okay ... perhaps not as nice as with Dentistix but not unpleasant.

Other effects noticed: She has farted a couple of times and Sadie (the puppy)  has been very interested in the smell of her bum.  Kenya is not a farter usually, likely because she has yogurt with every meal. In fact she looks shocked and turns around to sniff her own bum when the unexpected does happen, so this might be the result of the  Crunch'nClean, but I doubt it since she is so reluctant to eat any of them and they are intended for such small dogs.


By the end of today she had actually chewed and ingested 4 of the 8 permitted.

She prefers the taste of her regular treats, and her regular food wins paws down over this treat.  (Her regular food is usually way down on the list ... a mix of two types of Kibble: Gastro from the vet and lamb or chicken without wheat from Costco.)

We have been asked to try each dental treat for a week so we have 5 1/2 days to go before we try the next one.  Either Kenya will acquiesce and accept this one or she will stop eating it entirely if it is bad enough, I guess.

Will keep you posted.

Kenya has a job ...

Of course, Kenya often has a job ... after all we dog sit here and she knows the rules and passes them on  ... not always graciously, I might add.  And Dan's puppy, Sadie, has some rules to learn when she visits ... specifically not to scratch with muddy paws on my doors and windows.

But now Kenya has another real job, one that she was sought out to do.

We have been asked to do some taste and breath testing on four different brands of oral hygiene treats.

Her current favourite ... the one she gets every morning ... and the one I can always retrieve her with ... because she LOVES them,  is DENTISTIX,  which is not part of the test.

She will be testing four treats as soon as they are delivered: one week per type ... and we will report on her desire for the treat, the effect on her teeth/tartar ...and her breath ... which incidentally, with Dentistix, is lovely.

Here they are ... stay tuned ...

-          Natural Defense Oral Health Treats

-          Iams Tartar Treats

-          Arm & Hammer White Bites

-          Harts Crunch + Clean

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