 Dehydrated veggies
#242998 - 06/08/2009 11:42 AM |
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I have been using HK to supplement Lucy's diet with natural balance dog foods and to help Hambone.
So, based on conversations on this site about dogs NOT digesting vegetable matter and having spied whole chunks of veggies in the poops, I have taken to blending (using a blender) the dehydrated foods prior to mixing and feeding. Once it is mixed with water, I also mix in a small amount of digestive enzymes that contain the ezyme cellulase (among others) . Poop inspection: no visible veggies.
So, am I a nut (don't answer that)... am I "nuts" to worry about the ability to digest dehydrated veggies or should I continue to do what I am doing? (Okay, we all know I am going to continue, but for the sake of others who come behind me with this question, please answer it so they don't waste their time if blending isn't necessary).
Look! I DO fit in the bag. |
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Re: Dehydrated veggies
[Re: Jo Harker ]
#243001 - 06/08/2009 11:52 AM |
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You see whole chunks of THK vegetables in the poop? I don't even see
them in the box. 
Which THK are you using?
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Re: Dehydrated veggies
[Re: Connie Sutherland ]
#243002 - 06/08/2009 11:57 AM |
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Chunks is relative. Force I believe has potatoes, celery, sweet potatoes, apples, alfalfa, organic kelp, honey, zucchini, green beans, cabbage, bananas, papayas. Bananas are large,sweet potatoes are largish squares, etc. Also use Keen...Organic Oats, Potatoes, Organic Flax, Carrots, Cabbage, Alfalfa, Organic Kelp, Apples, Honey and Garlic. Oats come out like they go in...whole rolled. Hydrated they get larger. Carrots are kinda chunky squares, Poop can look like a rainbow. So, I blend.
Anyway....would dehydrating vegetables be enough to make their cellular walls fragile enough for digestion?
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Re: Dehydrated veggies
[Re: Jo Harker ]
#243004 - 06/08/2009 12:07 PM |
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Well .... heaven knows I don't have a leg to stand on to call someone else a phobic pheeder. 
I use THK fairly regularly as a kind of gravy to introduce a little extra variety to the raw diet in winter, and I have never seen "chunks out."
But if I had, I might have blended it too.
P.S. That is my test, though (chunks out), and how I know that freezing breaks a lot of produce down sufficiently, etc., and which produce needs nothing much done to it.
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Re: Dehydrated veggies
[Re: Connie Sutherland ]
#243007 - 06/08/2009 12:14 PM |
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Well, I have said before, Lucy and Hambone both have some type of digestive problems. With Luce, food comes out whole it seems, so THK has really made a difference with her (as long as I blend it), along with dygestive enzymes and soaking her kibble with the HK for 10 minutes. Hambone is keeping on muscles now instead of dry skin and loosing muscle and muscle tone, so I just have to assume I have freak dogs and continue to do what I am doing.
Look! I DO fit in the bag. |
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Re: Dehydrated veggies
[Re: Jo Harker ]
#243008 - 06/08/2009 12:22 PM |
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Sounds like you are doing exactly what they need!
And truly, if I had seen chunks out, I'd probably have done it too.
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Re: Dehydrated veggies
[Re: Connie Sutherland ]
#243009 - 06/08/2009 12:23 PM |
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Good. Thanks, Connie!
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Re: Dehydrated veggies
[Re: Jo Harker ]
#243027 - 06/08/2009 03:23 PM |
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I know you asked a serious question, Jo. But I had to say I found this thread very entertaining!
My completely uneducated guess is that dehydrated vegetables would have tougher cell walls than fresh. And if dogs cannot break down cell walls of fresh, it makes sense that they can't digest dehydrated. When I fed raw, I heard that dogs needed prepulverised veggie matter, so I would run the veggies through a juicer and then recombine the juice and pulp on their food.
I've never fed Honest Kitchen, so am just trying to picture what you are doing. Blending the HK into a fine powder and then adding water? Is this easier/better than rehydrating then blending?
P.S. I'm socking this tip away for in the future if I add HK to my dogs' diet. 
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Re: Dehydrated veggies
[Re: Angela Burrell ]
#243030 - 06/08/2009 03:40 PM |
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Ummm...I didn't try to blend it after I hydrated it. I do know I have to smack the side of the blender a few times because the powder cakes into the bottom under the blades...it could be better to do it after I add water...but powder dumps so nicely out into a container and I get this visual of green goo all over me and being attacked by 2 dogs and 1 cat.
I think I will stick with blending it down dry. I still can see color, but not chunks of banana chips and stuff. (I pick out the bananas anyway now because they never get soft and I don't want my pups to get a cut tummy) They (Lucy )shares my bananas and cantaloupes.
Edited by Jo Harker (06/08/2009 03:42 PM)
Edit reason: added oxygen to brain cell and found typos
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