The Koa Chronicles: Weighty Issues

by | Tuesday | August 24, 2010 | 13 comments

When I put my daughter to bed tonight, she was sobbing. “What’s wrong?” I asked, giving her a hug.

“I’m sad because Koa’s going to die,” she cried.

“Koa’s not going anywhere for a long time,” I responded. “Why do you think she’s going to die?”

“Because she ate a grape my brother dropped on the floor today!” she said, hiccuping at the pent up emotion this confession was eliciting. I admit, I may have slightly exaggerated the immediate consequences of grape ingestion with the kids in order to keep them from feeding them to the dogs, but I hadn’t meant to cause this level of hysteria.

“One grape?”

She nodded, overcome with distress.

And this is how we introduced the topic of LD50. After learning that one grape would be OK, she felt much better, though I made a mental note to have a talk with her brother in the morning. Besides which, grape, apple, banana, or Cheerio, girlfriend is on a diet.

Koa has been on her new Nulo diet for about 12 days now. She is happy.

When we left for vacation, I did two things: pack her bag of food on our rooftop compartment, and then I measured out two days’ exact amounts to leave inside the car for the travel days. I did the same for Brody: Honest Kitchen on the roof for use at the cabin, and kibble in the car for the trip.

As I’ve mentioned, I rotate Brody’s food regularly. The kibble that I bought for the trip was one that he hadn’t had before, but it is one of the “super premium” brands that’s been around for a while, one I have used and recommended often. I thought it would be a treat.

So imagine my surprise when we stopped at the first hotel, and Brody wouldn’t eat his food. Nerves, I assumed. Perhaps the cerenia wore off during the trip and he was feeling a bit seasick from the car ride. I put his food aside and brushed my teeth, only to hear the crunch-crunch-crunch of Brody licking Nulo crumbs off the floor like a Roomba.

I gave him a nibble of Nulo. He gobbled it up. Other brand: wouldn’t touch it. I tried, on three separate occasions including dinner after 12 hours on the road, and he apparently would rather starve. This is a dog who eats anything: crummy food, good food, non-food. There were actually a couple of squabbles on the road about who would get to eat Koa’s food, since has now figured out the Nulo is hers and doesn’t want to share. She didn’t have a choice, at least for those two days. Nulo: Koa tested, Brody approved.

When we arrived back home this weekend, we both had to face the piper. I got on the scale and blanched. Koa has no such anxieties or fits of self-consciousness, and happily plunked her butt on the scale at work today: 78 pounds. (I am not telling you how much I weighed in at.)

So, she’s lost one pound. I haven’t figured out if the Nulo online system has a way for you to change the amount of food you are feeding- it’s not surprising that an older female spayed lab who doesn’t tear around the yard all day will have lower energy requirements than other dogs. I’ll be cutting her back a bit and we will go from there.

As for me, I continue my wildly inconsistent approach to healthy eating. Koa and I, we’re in this together. Pass the grapes.

Filed: Blog, Dogs, Health Tagged: ,
  • http://furrydancecats.blogspot.com Teri and the cats of Furrydance

    Yay for diminishing numbers!…Disco isn’t so successful so far but then, I haven’t yet started walking him on a leash outside—I am going to though! Here’s his blog post for week #2
    http://furrydancecats.blogspot.com/2010/08/disco-n-nuloweek-two-up-1-oz.html

  • Lisa W

    I’ve been trying to decide which food to get next — Sophie needs to lose 10 pounds or so, and Mr. Picky (aka Oscar) needs to gain some weight. She, of course, will eat anything, so I’m not so worried about her, but he has been quite the challenge… Maybe Nulo is the answer!

  • http://canisbonus.com/canis-blogus/ Laure-Anne

    Such a cute story. It reminds me of an episode of Malcom in the Milddle in which the mom gives her (previously filthy) youngest a germ obsession in her attempt to get him to wash more often, LOL.
    But it touches on an interesting issue: public knowledge about the everyday food that could cause trouble for our dogs, and in what quantities.
    I’ve followed a couple of canine first aid qualification and I’ve been wanting to write about this for the longest time.
    This is a nice article on the subject: http://www.petroglyphsnm.org/covers/hazards.html

  • Tiffany S

    I’m curious as to what brand of food he didn’t want to eat….I have fed a variety of super premium brands to my cat and dog, and both of them hated Evo. My dog would even run away and hide when I poured him the Evo red meat formula kibble.

    • Leigh

      I’m curious, too! I am switching my cat to premium or super premium canned food, and he hates most of it. I know that most cheap brands have lots of flavor additives to make their cheap ingredients palatable (sort of like McDonalds does for us…) so I know that at first, he won’t be interested in the healthy stuff. But I have given him 10+ cans of a few different foods, and many times he’d rather not eat!

  • http://peggyfrezon.blogspot.com Peggy @Peggy’s Pet Place

    I like the saying “If your dog’s overweight…you’re eating too much.” This is true for me and my dog. We started dieting together, walking more, etc and have done pretty well. Now we need to learn how to keep it off.

  • http://averagejane.blogs.com Average Jane

    I’m due to write a blog post on my cats’ progress. Xena has obviously lost weight already, although my scale is proving to be rather unreliable. Still, her belly looks smaller and her legs look longer.

  • http://ofcowstailsandchewtoys.com Ashley

    I caught my younger cousin tempting Prudence with a grape once. I definitely took advantage of his gullibility by telling him that if Prudence even licks a grape she’ll keel over and die. Now I feel kind of bad.

  • Liz

    Brody sounds like my cat….when he first came to me, he’d eat aaaaanything….burritos, mushrooms, pizza, noodles, you name it. Now (thankfully) he only eats his ‘super premium brand’ biscuits and tuna….maybe the more secure pets are, the more fussy they are?

  • http://www.ablogfromthedoghouse.com/ Amy

    Awe, the grape discussion reminds me of my 6-year-old nephew. We were talking about why its not ok to give the dogs treats from his plate and I mentioned that some foods can make the dogs sick, such as grapes. He looked at me with the fear of God in his eyes, and said so scared, “Even one grape?” and I said it would be ok, but for future, not to give them any. He sighed the biggest sigh relief and just said, “Oh ok, because I don’t want Butters to die. I love him.”

  • http://www.nulo.com Brett H.

    Lisa W., you and friends, and any of Dr. V’s readers!! are welcome to try Nulo foods — here’s an e-coupon — 30% OFF and your first purchase ships FREE. Just shop http://www.Nulo.com, and enter nucampaign1010 at checkout.

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  • K

    Aww, poor kid. I think we all do that tho with the cautionary tales. My grammy used to tell me if I swallowed my gum, my insides would stick together. One day when I was about 6 I was outside playing and took a tumble…involuntarily swallowing my bubble gum. I vividly recall the blind fear ….A neighbor thought I broke something because I ran in the house screaming bloody hysterical murder…. LOL. My poor grandma had to make my mom the nurse assure me I wasn’t imminently going to go to heaven. Some memories stick with you (no pun intended!)

  • Erin

    That picture is so freakin cute!