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| Walter the Farting Dog stuffed toy |
I have a Walter the Farting Dog stuffed toy that makes a funny gas-passing noise as you squeeze his tummy. When I lived in Las Vegas, the kids at Desert Torah Academy loved it when I brought Walter out. Walter the Farting Dog is the star of a series of children's books written by William
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| Image from Amazon.com |
Kotzwinkle. The series includes about eight books including
Walter the Farting Dog,
Walter the Farting Dog Farts Again,
Walter the Farting Dog and the Windy Day and a Latin version titled
Walter Canis Inflatus.
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| image from crazyabouttv.com |
I wish Mr. Jansen would have let us read that book in high school Latin rather watch I, Claudius. Viewing I, Claudius was supposed to be something fun; while other foreign language classes went on trips, held bake sales and had folk festivals, our Latin II class slept through BBC's adaptation of the Robert Graves novel.
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| "What's that smell?" |
I was thinking about Walter because our three dogs have been passing a lot of gas for the past 3 to 4 months. A number of things can cause gas in dogs including eating too fast, a change in diet, eating something they shouldn't from the woods and food allergies. Because all three of our dogs had been consistently flatulent since we ran out of their Costco dry food and switched to something else, we suspected the food, rather than their occasional eating indiscretions.
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| image from Costco,com |
We have tried a lot of different dog foods over the years, but we try to stick to those with 100 points or more on the K9 Food Grade chart. This chart was published on our Weimaraner club's Internet site
K9FOODS and I think they got it from K9cusine.com
k9cuisine . Kirkland brand from Costco scored very high (110 pts) and you can't beat the price at about $26.00 for 40 lbs.
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"PHEW!"
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The problem we have up here, in the Northwoods, is the nearest Costco is about four hours away. So when the bag was empty we switched to another brand, Canidae, which scored even higher (112 points) and could easily be obtained locally in Hurley or Minocqua. With Canidae came a hurricane of doggy wind.
We weren't really sure if it was the food, the adjustment period to the food, or something else. Then, just after Christmas we had another Weimaranter, Aja, stay with us for a few days. She fit right in; she played with Asher, ran with Gracie, snuggled with Pete and added her fragrant flatulence to the pack.
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| Aja, in blue, with Asher |
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| Aja running |
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| Aja with Pete |
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| Oh, Aja - PHEW! |
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| image from www.canidae.com |
I had a conversation with Aja's owners and found out that she was on the same dog food. Amazing. Since then we have both switched brands. I brought back two bags of Kirkland brand from my Christmas trip to Milwaukee and Aja is on something else from a local organic feed store. I just opened the second bag of Kirkland and I thought, "What next?" I decided to call the Canidae folks and find out if they could help me. I talked to a very nice customer service representative, Sarah, who suggested that the rich meat content of the lamb and rice formula may be the problem. Canidae has a lot more meat than most brands. I asked if it would be better to switch to the chicken and rice, but she steered me to their All Stages Life Formula. This formula has lamb, chicken, turkey and fish, in fact, it seems to have more protein (24%) than the other. Still, Sarah thought it would be the better choice. We may try it or I may revisit the K9 Food Grade list. Any suggestions are welcome. I have to make a decision soon so that I can mix the new in with the old and transition properly.
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"I am NOT a Weimaraner."
image from Amazon.com |
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| And I am NOT a farting dog! |
Our Weims - Sir Asher the Flatulent, Gracie the Gaseous, and Maddie the Malodorous do make breathing a challenge, especially at night when the pack all sleeps in the same room with us.
ReplyDeleteSince switching back to the Costco food we are less scared of open flames inside the house, as before we risked a major conflagration or methane explosion. Being distracted by the paint curling off the walls led us to carefully read the Canadae food ingredients. It states that a fermentation method is used as part of the processing. This leads me to ponder that yeasts or other cultures used in the process could still be active in the food. This would explain the gas and its particular oder. Wether or not this is true, intentional, or unintentional it makes sense to me as to the cause.
And don't be fooled by Gracie's seemingly ladylike innocents to the farting going on. Gracie the Gaseous can do her share of knocking down an elephant at any time. Wish we could bottle the stuff to be used as a natural alternative to poison gas when tenting houses and ridding the place of small rodents.
I'm reading your blog from the most recent posts, on back to this one so far. Just wanted to say that we tried Canidae in the past with the same kind of results. We had two goldens at that time, and they were real gasmatics! Ya. Now we only buy Fromm's (Chicken A La Veg) dog food which is made right here in Wisconsin - Mequon to be exact. Daisy is gone now, but they both loved it ... and no gas. It's a little pricier than the food you've mentioned ($22.75 for 15#), but it's super great quality. So it may be another one to try if you can find it in your area.
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