I’m Pretty Sure We Feed The Pets Better Than We Feed Ourselves

Have you ever seen the things that go around Facebook periodically, poking fun of how some people feed their pets better than they feed themselves?  They usually say something along the lines of “The dog had organic free range chicken for dinner.  I had a frozen pizza.” Or maybe something along the lines of “The cat had poached salmon for dinner.  I had instant ramen.”

I always find them funny, and I can identify with them in a lot of ways.  I know a lot of people, myself included, who usually put a little more effort into feeding their fur babies well than they do in feeding themselves well.  I’ve realized that’s definitely the case for me during some of the food recalls.

Happy Day!

Have you heard about the potential issue with romaine lettuce right now?  Nick’s mom sent us an article about it early on.  While we have ultimately made the decision to stay away from romaine lettuce for the time being, I have to admit that wasn’t my first thought.  Initially I was focusing on things like the fact that there haven’t been any reported cases in North Carolina, that the CDC hasn’t issued an official recall, that we need to eat more vegetables, and that salads are an easy way to do that.  Finally we decided that it’s just not worth the risk, and we’re holding off on eating any romaine until there are some better answers as to what happened, and some assurances that it is safe to eat.

This is the one I’m really not proud of.  Do you remember when Blue Bell ice cream had the big recall a few years ago?  They completely shut down the factory, people were told to get rid of their Blue Bell ice cream, and you couldn’t buy it any grocery store.  Sam’s Club even had an automated system calling members who had purchased Blue Bell ice cream telling them not to eat it, and to throw it out.  For the record, I think that’s the saddest automated call I’ve ever received.  I had two gallons of peppermint Blue Bell ice cream sitting in the freezer. 

Well, Blue Bell is my absolute most favorite ice cream in the world.  With the exception of Graeter’s, I usually just pass on ice cream if it isn’t Blue Bell.  It’s that good.  I’d rather have no ice cream at all than what I consider to be a mediocre substitute for ice cream perfection.

Anyway, during the Blue Bell recall I was incredibly tempted to keep right on eating the ice cream.  Add in the fact that a small Blue Bell black market sprung up online, and the temptation was nearly impossible to resist.  Ultimately, Nick was the voice of reason on that one.  And he was nice enough to be the one to throw away the ice cream we had.  It would have broken my heart to put Blue Bell ice cream down the drain.

Happily, they’re back in production, and it has been available here since the end of 2015.  My friend Alex is also a huge fan of Blue Bell, and we always text each other whenever we find one of the harder to find flavors.  I took this picture of it and sent it to her the first time I saw it back in stores after the recall.

Pet food recalls have been an entirely different story.  You don’t want to know how many hours I’ve spent researching pet foods, which brands are affiliated with each other, who has had recalls, and anything else I can think of.

Any time there has been a recall on a brand we’ve been feeding our fur babies, I have immediately thrown it away and switched them to a new food.  I’ve also contacted various pet food companies who have had recalls and informed them that due to their recklessness they’ve lost a customer for life. 

Our poor vet’s offices probably dread hearing from me any time there’s a pet food recall.  If it’s a brand we’ve been feeding, I always call and ask if the fur kids need to be seen, what we need to look out for, and ask for a recommendation as to what to feed them.  On a side note, this is one of the many, many reasons why we always take our vet’s offices something at Christmas.  They deserve it after putting up with me.

During the height of all of the dog food recalls, I think it was 2006, I seriously considered switching Emma over to a home cooked diet.  I talked to her vet about it, and he talked me out of it on the basis that it was extremely complicated to do right and ensure that she would be getting all of the nutrients she needed, and that it would be very expensive and very time consuming.  He felt that I would be biting off more than I could chew, and that Emma’s health could suffer for it.  I listened, and went with a brand of dog food he recommended.

One of Emma's bison dinners

Ultimately, we did switch Emma to a home cooked diet for a short period of time, with our regular vet’s blessing.  It was after she was diagnosed with Cushing’s, and we were trying to manage the various symptoms of that.  Her vets put us in touch with a veterinary nutritionist who created a diet for her.  It consisted mostly of bison and sweet potatoes. 

Emma’s home cooked diet was everything our vet warned us it would be.  It was expensive, it was time consuming, and it was a lot of work.  Not every grocery store carried bison, it never went on sale, and cooking, weighing, and measuring her food took a lot of time and effort.  There were a lot of nights we’d cook Emma’s special dinner and then open a can of something for ourselves, or pick up fast food.  She was definitely eating better than we were for a while. It was worth it, and even though the home cooked diet didn’t provide the results we were hoping for, we both felt better for having tried.

So I think it’s definitely fair to say that in some ways we feed the pets much better than we feed ourselves. 

What about you?  Have you ever been tempted to eat a favorite food that is part of a recall?  Do you put more effort into feeding your pets than you do into feeding yourself?