We're a bit closer to the end of our month of Rachael Ray PEAK food trial than the middle, but I wanted to give a midway update as well as a final one next week when we finish off a full month on the food.
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| A bowl full of Peak |
The dogs are still super excited for meal time. Enthusiasm for the food hasn't gone down at all, and Ptera is happy to work for the kibbles as rewards instead of treats. (Which is just silly, given how many treats I have in the cupboard for the dogs, but use kibble instead.)
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| Ptera's one cup per day's worth of food |
Ptera's biggest issue switching foods that I have noticed since bringing her home isn't anything digestion-related. Her eyes get much more weepy on some foods, or when adjusting to a new food. We did experience an increase in tears for the first couple weeks on PEAK, just as we tend to see every time her food gets switched in a major way (eating rotational diet doesn't cause issues if the different components of the diet are the same or if a major portion of the diet remains familiar.) I did introduce this food to her more gradually to see if that would help, and it did a little, but really, she just needs to eat something for a while, and the tears either go away after a few weeks, or persist. With PEAK, she is still a little teary, but greatly improved from the first couple of weeks, and honestly she is always a bit of a teary dog. Or else I just notice more with her since she has a white face.
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I have noticed in the past few weeks that Ptera is looking much more muscular. A good part of that is likely her age, since she is coming up on 1.5 years old and that is when most dogs will start to really fill out their muscling. But I don't think the food hurts at all, even if it isn't directly related. Ptera's coat also looks amazing right now. She is shiny, and soft, and hasn't been shedding nearly as much since starting this food.
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| Working for PEAK in her Kong Wobbler, and you can see her great muscles |
Ptera also ran at the flyball tournament two weeks ago while on PEAK and put down some amazing times (I need to brag about the tournament still). She is improving with each tournament, and a big part of what I pay attention to to help make that happen is training, food, and exercise.
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| PEAK in the Kong Wobbler, mixed with a different kibble at the beginning of the month |
Overall, so far, I am very please with PEAK and how it is working for the dogs. I was a little worried at first with Ptera's tears, but I am glad that I kept feeding the food since the tears have mostly cleared up now that she is used to the new food.
I will give another update in about another week, and let you know my final thoughts on the food!
We use kibble as rewards a lot, too, because there are some days when the girls would be eating way too many treats if we didn't. On obedience class days, I put about 1/4 of Rye's breakfast in our treat pouch so I don't have to cut back her food to keep her calories down and we still have plenty of rewards.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to hear about the tears. One of my cats has this problem, and I never really tied it to anything about her diet. Hmmmm. I might need to examine that a little closer.
ReplyDeleteJean from Welcome to the Menagerie
I didn't make the connection until someone else mentioned their dog getting horrible tear stains when they changed diet. And then it clicked that Ptera's tears get way worse when changing foods.
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