It’s no secret that Phoebe is not the healthiest dog in the world. Nor is it a secret that I firmly believe that the fundamental ticket to a healthy dog is healthy diet, and a healthy dog has a healthy coat and sparkle in their eye.

Look at her! She might as well be hairless.

Check this out. When we were feeding Phoebe homemade food her coat was shiny and thick well, thick as is possible for her.  Now that she has been on canned food, her coat is cruddy (cruddier). It is the end of winter and I have a sparse haired, itchy dog. She gets cold and practically begs for a sweater (not really, but she does seem to like it).

She runs around in a sweater. She looks cute in it, but she is a pit bull mix for crying out loud! A pit bull in a sweater.

I have been wanting to get back to making homemade food but my partner in crime (AKA hubby) thinks that Phoebe does not get enough food and balks at it. I think I would rather feed her less food, use green beans as a filler and call it even. Then there is this thing called time – or lack thereof. I used to have time to cook her food. Now, work is so crazy that I don’t even cook for myself. It makes me nuts.

I hate the look of canned dog food. Some mornings the smell makes me want to gag. I want it g-o-n-e from my life forever.

My friend told me about some freeze-dried raw food called Sojos. I was hesitant to pay $80 for a bag of food that Phoebe might not like. Strike that. Phoebe will eat anything. I meant I was hesitant to pay that much for something that might not agree with Phoebe’s tummy.

I wanted to start with a smaller bag, so I went to Pet Express (the Whole Foods equivalent in the doggy world) and found a several brands of freeze-dried food. Some were just “freeze-dried” others were “freeze-dried raw”.  I am not even going to go down the path of the new great debate of whether or not you can call food ‘raw’ if it has been freeze-dried.  Anyway, I grabbed a small bag of Sojos (freeze-dried raw) because my well-versed dog loving friend already vouched for it.  Raw or not raw if it beats the smell of canned dog food and does not result in kibble ‘saw-dust’ poop then I am all for it.

The price isn’t too bad. It was $27.99 for 2 pounds of freeze-dried food. When rehydrated it makes 10 cups (5 days worth) of food. The canned food is $24.90 for a five-day supply and the cost of homemade food fluctuates, but is about the same by the time I add in the cost of vitamins. When I went to pay the guy at the register told me if I bought three bags I could get one free. So…I bought three bags and got one free. I can always return it if I don’t like it.

30 minutes after being mixed with water.

I whipped up a batch as soon as I got home. For Phoebe’s weight and activity level she gets 2 cups dried food mixed with 1 1/2 cups of water. That is a pretty hefty serving (1 1/2 cups twice a day).

Let it sit for about 30 minutes. The instructions say to wait at least 15 minutes, but overnight is better. I can see why. After 30 minutes it still has that soup-starter partially hydrated texture. I’ll see how it looks in the morning. I had to give Phoebe a sample and she loved it – then again, she eats poop so it is hard to say whether or not a dog with discriminating taste would like it.

Now I am going to sit back and watch. I bet hubby $20 that in two weeks Phoebe’s coat will show improvement and she will stop itching. I hope I win that bet.