Worst Advice a Vet Ever Gave Me | Why Feeding Your Dog the Same Food Every Day Is a Mistake

Welcome back to Mimi's Organic Eats. My name is Mimi and today I'm going to share with you the worst advice that a vet ever gave me. So if you're a crazy dog mom or dad like me and you're obsessed with your dog then you definitely want to watch this video. And so I've always treated my dogs like babies because let's be honest that's exactly what they are. So I've always listened to everything that my vet has said and I've always trusted them because I want the best for my dogs. But this piece of advice is something that I got from a vet that I had a while ago when and he told me that I should be feeding Otto the same exact dog food every single day for the rest of his life. We had always kind of mixed up his food and given him different proteins and different things and I even cooked for him sometimes but not for every single meal. But my vet told me that I should be giving him the same exact protein. He said pick one salmon, beef, chicken. Pick one, stick to it and give it to them every single day. And now this is the worst advice that a vet has ever given me and here's why. Now that I've gone down the crazy rabbit hole of cooking homemade food for my dog and I am never going back, I have done a ridiculous amount of research and I've even written a course how to cook homemade dog food that is even vet approved from a different vet we'll just say. But here's why giving your dog the same exact food every single day is not a good idea. Dogs are so much like humans and I talk about this in my course. And so if you want to cook homemade food for your dog, think about how you would cook homemade food for you. You wouldn't eat the same exact meal every single day for the rest of your life, would you? Think about it. If you ate chicken and rice and carrots for your whole life you would be missing out on so many nutrients. Nutrients that other vegetables provide, iron from beef, omega-3s from salmon and eggs. Your dog is the same exact way. So not only should you not feed them the same exact food every single day, you should switch it up. Dogs need variety in their diet just like we do. They need a healthy mix of different proteins, different vegetables and even some different carbs. And so now you may be wondering, well what should I do? So here's some easy action steps you guys can take right now to make sure your dog is getting a variety in their diet. First you need to start with making sure that you're rotating proteins and this is how we do it for John John. He gets the main protein of chicken and turkey pretty much every single day because he does better with lower fat meats. And all dogs are going to be a little bit different there as far as the fat content goes so you just need to figure out what works best for your dog. And then we add in salmon just a couple days a week, just tiny small amounts here and there. And then we do what we call like a beef week where instead of ground turkey I'll make him ground beef for his meals and he gets so excited. Or instead of beef food we'll make up our one ingredient beef dog treats and he eats those for his treats instead of chicken. Then he gets pork on very special occasions but that's just like a little bit too fatty and he doesn't need to get that all the time. But I'll be honest my husband gives him little pieces of bacon here and there and he absolutely loves it. He also gets a little bit of egg in his food every single day which is another added protein which is great. If you can rotate between two to three proteins a month you're going to be in really good shape. And if you are feeding dog food you can also cook up your dog some plain chicken, some plain turkey, or even a steak and cut it up and put it into their food a little bit at a time. This is going to ensure they're getting a little bit different protein and the benefit of fresh food. No matter how much fresh food you can feed your dog it is only going to benefit even if you can't do fresh every single day. But if you can do fresh or you want to learn how then you should download my course How to Cook Homemade Dog Food. I'll link it in the description. And if you are doing homemade dog food good for you and you can switch it up just like I do with John John. You can choose a main protein that works best for your dog and give that to them for the majority of their meals but then you want to make sure you add in all the other proteins whenever possible. And so if your dog eats beef in the majority of their meals that's okay just make sure they're getting in some turkey, some chicken, some lamb, some salmon, you get the idea. Then as far as fruits and veggies go we just mix up his fruits and veggies just like we would for us. So any dog friendly fruits or veggies that I'm cooking for me I just cook up some for him. And John John has his favorite vegetables and two of his favorites are carrots and bell peppers. He absolutely loves those. Then he also likes green beans and broccoli but he tends to not go for those if he had them too many days in a row. So that's actually him telling us hey I needed to switch it up. So another way you guys can incorporate variety into your dog's diet is by sharing your food with them. This is what I mean. There are so many foods that are dog safe that you probably already have in your kitchen, pantry, and or fridge. I have a very extensive list of dog safe foods in my course but I'm going to share some of my favorite ones with you that you guys can share with your dogs starting today. So the first one is blueberries. Blueberries are such a super food for your dog and they have cancer fighting properties. If you have blueberries go ahead and give your dog a few. They don't need much just like a few a day and that's going to give them so many benefits. Another one is apples. John John loves apples. They're his absolute favorite fruit and he and I share one every single day. Just make sure you don't give them the seeds or the core. But don't peel the skin off because the skin is where tons of nutrients are. So let them eat the skin. Carrots, bell peppers, any color is fine and cucumbers are all dog safe. John John will not eat cucumbers. I have tried so many times and he just does not like them. Broccoli and cauliflower are also safe but I like to make sure that those are cooked. It's a little bit easier for them to digest. You can steam some up so that they're free of seasonings and anything else and you can add that on top of their food or just give it to them as treats. They can also have raspberries, blackberries, strawberries. Just make sure you remove the stems. And if you guys have any seeds in your pantry, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds are incredibly good for dogs. Pumpkin seeds are a natural dewormer and so John John eats both of those every single day. I make my homemade dog granola and I just add him into the granola and he absolutely loves it. You could sprinkle a couple on top of their food. And then of course any kind of meat. They can have plain chicken, plain pork, plain salmon. You just want to make sure you're avoiding excess salt and any seasonings. And another ingredient that John John and I share every single week is sweet potatoes. We make our dog-friendly sweet potato fries and John John loves them and those are actually the fries that I make for myself multiple times a week. When sharing sweet potatoes with your dog, you just want to watch out for a couple things. You want to make sure that you fully peel the sweet potatoes. While the skins can be beneficial for humans, dogs will have a hard time digesting them and it can cause their tummy to be upset. So you want to make sure you remove all the skins. Next, you want to make sure the potatoes are cooked completely. And if you're going to make fries so you guys can share, you want to make sure you're using a dog-safe oil. I recommend coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil. And then in our dog-friendly sweet potato fry recipe, we use nutritional yeast too. This is such a super food for your dog and it's going to give it a delicious cheesy flavor that you're both going to love. So if you guys want to learn more about how to cook homemade dog food, be sure to download my course, How to Cook Homemade Dog Food that is vet approved. And you can get 25% off if you use code John John. Make sure to stay tuned for the next video and don't forget to hit that subscribe button.