Fruity days

Following yesterday’s cherry popularity, I did a lot more reading up on the advantages of feeding fruit. We’ve always fed fruit and vegetables, mashed or pureed if they’re not cooked in order to help with break down in the gut and digestion but yesterday I came across an interesting article that explains why fruit in particular is perfectly in line with taking a natural approach to canine nutrition.

Annoyingly, and isn’t this always the way, I can’t now find the link to the piece, but if I do, I’ll put it here. A basic summary was that in their natural environment, dogs would eat an omnivorous diet, sourcing their prey when they could, so meat and bone would be staples. However, they would be unlikely to eat meat every day, there would be occasions when prey wasn’t easy to come by, so their digestions would have a rest day, or they would forage for plant foods like berries.

Giving our dogs fruit mimics this and the article went on to say that by giving mashed fruit as a complete meal, no meat, it would mimic the rest or fruit day of the natural diet. This idea resonates with me for Susie-Belle, she enjoys the fruit smoothies she has, I might just omit from time to time for an odd meal, the extra meat and offal that I usually add. It will help her weight and be good for her digestive system, providing it with a rest, plus useful enzymes found in fruits.

Now, whether I’ll get away with it with Renae is another story, she’s not a great fan of fruit unless it’s flavoured with tuna, sardines, chicken, lamb, beef…..you get the picture.