My Little Canine Carnivore

This post is for all of you dog lovers out there. You know who are -- you dote on your dog's every move like he was your firstborn child. "Isn't he the cutest boy you've ever seen?," you say to the chagrin of your friends and neighbors.
Well, we're that couple and we have a dog that has a very delicate appetite, and one that should make for an interesting (and pathetic) read for all of you out there.

Here's a picture of my little one. Instead of having a baby boy or girl to dote on, we have Oliver, our 3-year old bichon frise. In fact, we just had his third birthday party complete with printed invitations to all of his neighborhood friends. We had (10) dogs, (1) cat and (25) adults there to help celebrate. Three Dog Bakery in Newport Beach catered the cake for all of the pooches as well as their take-home party favors of freshly dipped dog bones.

From the time we brought Oliver home, he has made us think he is human. He has never liked his dog food and when he did eat it, he would never eat the rest of the can. He always preferred a fresh can every day. He eats when we eat and enjoys having company when he eats.

Oliver has a lot of allergies, a sour stomach and a particularly finicky appetite. We have purchased every known type of dog food recommended by veterinarians and friends. Frozen dogfood made organically at Whole Foods didn't even pass the "sniff" test. His best friend, Jesse, a dauschund, eats fresh "muttloaf" from his veterinarian, which we started to give to Oliver. (See photo of best friends, Jesse and Junior.) He liked it at first, and then after we purchased a potpourri of various canine delicacies made by this vet (chicken and dumplings, spaghetti and meatballs, etc.), he decided he didn't like that either.

This past January, his allergies became more severe than usual and we were having an awful time getting him to eat. So, our groomer recommended that we visit a local animal dermatologist. After an allergy test, it was determined that Oliver was allergic to (5) different kinds of grasses, many weeds, some trees; all in all, he was tested positive for (28) different allergies. We said, "He's a dog. How do we keep him away from grass?" Without going into the long saga that continued for a couple of weeks, we tried him on some medication to help ease the allergies. Wouldn't you know -- he was allergic to the medication as well!

So the only other thing we could try was a change in his diet. The animal dermatologist told us that we should start a diet with only the following things (sit down, you'll need it for this menu): buffalo, ostrich, venison and duck for protein; quinoa, oatmeal, turnips, yams and sweet potatoes for carbs and vegetables. Lo and behold, we seem to have struck something that he likes and has curtailed with many of his allergies.

Yes, you read that correctly. I prepare fresh meals for my dog. I go to Whole Foods once a week or more and purchase freshly ground buffalo, fresh buffalo stew meat, frozen ostrich filet, frozen venison mediallions and buffalo New York steak. Venison medallions and the steak are his favorites, but he doesn't like it too many meals in a row. Again, he likes variety.

Here's how he likes it:

A small layer of vegetables (ground peas, mashed sweet potatoes/yams, etc.)

A small layer of heated oatmeal (to warm up the vegetables below)

Diced meat (or any variety listed above)

Heaven forbid, you mix the meat with the oatmeal and vegetables. Like a typical child, he doesn't like his food touching. And thank goodness that I work from home now so that I can prepare these gourmet meals each morning and evening.

Oliver was recently given a gift a book called, "Pup Snacks," along with a bone-shaped muffin tin. Now that I have started this blog, I am going to start making some of the recipes in the book and will share them with you in future blogs.

If you have any canine food stories to share, please leave a comment. Or just leave me a comment about how silly Oliver, Brad and I are!

"Ode to Everything Food" travels for a week to Scottsdale for a meeting. I'll then have (2) days to shop and try some new restaurants and will report back with another travelogue.

Until then, "Eat Well!"