Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Canine Gastronome

Recently, we have been having some issues with dog eating disorders. Booker has always had issues with bulimia. It comes and goes. Right now we've (and by we, I mean Craig) been cleaning vomit up at least once a day for several weeks. You're probably yelling, "Why haven't you taken him to the vet!?" We know it is because he inhales his food sans mastication and then vomits it all up 15 minutes later. He's always had the problem. We think it is from his early life of living on the streets. We never yell at him for it, but recently he has started trying to hide it by covering it with whatever he can. The other day Craig found some under a washcloth and I saw him pulling a blanket and a towel over it.

Chewie, on the other hand, has never had issues with food. We got him much younger and he's always had the bin of food in the corner that he knows that he can get into in case of "emergency". He likes to graze rather than binge. However, he recently decided that he really doesn't care one way or another if he eats. He just sniffs at it, takes a kernel, drops the kernel, sniffs again, walks away. He'll eat when he's hungry but it makes it a challenge when Booker stakes out Chewies dish waiting for us to look away so he can steal a few gulps before we catch him.

In light of these issues, we decided to go to the pet store and browse the dog foods to find an allergy food for Booker. We read and compared the bags and finally decided on Natural Balance Potato and Duck Ultra Premium Dog Food. No soy, corn, wheat, rice, eggs, or dairy; especially for dogs with allergies or sensitive stomachs. You've never seen happier dogs! Booker hasn't hurled in 24 hours and Chewie picks thru the mix of old and new food for all the new food and then resigns to eat the rest. Then they beg for more. Apparently, our dogs are as big of food snobs as we are. Who'd've thought?

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