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Peggy Rose http://www.laughingrott.com/
The Darla Fund was started in
memory of our beloved Rottweiler Darla
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Here is the special diet and supplements (developed through
conversations with many herbal, holistic and natural nutrition educated
people) we fed my Darla. She lived more than twice the length of time
the vets gave her when she was diagnosed at 7 1/2 weeks old with grade
III SAS by a board certified Cardiologist using dopplar echocardiogram.
Darla was supposed to be dead by 6
months of age, she lived to be 14 months old.
We are not veterinarians and we
strongly encourage you to work with a veterinarian who is open minded
to natural and holistic methods.
We do not make any representation that
following Darla's Diet will cure your dog- there is NO cure. What I do
not want to say, but I must, Is that SAS WILL eventually kill your dog.
Your dog may live weeks, months or even years post diagnosis- but the
sad reality is that SAS WILL end your dog's life one day.
We DO NOT promise that following
Darla's Diet WILL definitely extend your SAS dog's life. NO ONE, not
even veterinarian's , can make that guarantee.
What we do feel, is that by following
Darla's Diet:
You MAY extend your dogs life,
You MAY enhance your dog's quality of
life,
You MAY improve your dog's overall
health-aside from the SAS,
You MAY slow the progression of SAS in
your dog.
This diet and supplement schedule DID
(in our opinion) extend Darla's life , and certainly improved it's
quality. Darla had a VERY fun and interesting life!
8 weeks old to 4 months old:
AM
Noon:
PM:
At 6 months old the above was increased slowly over time (between 4
months & 6 months) to the below
(only CHANGES are listed, if an item is not listed
then it stayed the
SAME as above)
At 10 months old the above was increased slowly (between 8 & 10
months)to her adult amounts
(again the only ones shown are those that changed from
the original)
We added pieces of beef or buffalo heart (about 1" square) OR 1 whole
chicken heart, to her AM & PM meals when we could get it
I also fed her about a mostly raw diet and I think that made almost as
big a difference as the supplements did. If we ran out of meat OR
supplements you could really see a difference in her energy level and
behavior.
We make our own raw diet and I will tell you how below, BUT you can buy
a premade raw diet like Oma's Pride, Halshan's, Purely Primitive, Aunt
Jeni's, or Bravo.
The important thing is few or no grains and fruits and mostly red
meat with some veggies
For one dog the prepackage, premade raw diets are the easiest. They are
a bit pricey but it takes quite a bit of work to make your own.
You'll have to decide for yourself which will work best for you.
To hand make your own version of Darla's Diet, you will need either a
good juicer or a good food processor.
These are
to grind the veggies. If you use a juicer you mix the juice and pulp
back together after grinding.
Below is the Darla's Diet recipe.
(Sometimes I fed Darla this
solely and sometimes I fed her 50/50 raw and high quality puppy kibble.
(Healthwise is the brand we
used. During rapid growth spurts is usually when
I fed her any kibble, just to keep up with her caloric demands easier)
I make this in a large container and mix it really well. Then I scoop
it out into semi packed 1 cup portions and make patties out of it and
freeze 4 patties together in ziplock quart size freezer bags. As you
will see it makes
quite a bit.
Usually dogs eat approximately 1/2 to 1 cup of THIS raw ground diet for
every 1/2 cup of dry they were eating. BUT you have to watch your
individual dog's weight because, some don't need anywhere near this
much!! Raw is much, much more digestible than kibble, so some dogs
utilize it MUCH better :)
As an example my old dog with bladder cancer, ate just 2 cups of raw a
day when she used to eat 3-4 cups of dry! So she actually ate less cups
but the same weight of food (2 cups of raw = about 1 lb, 4 cups of dry
Healthwise kibble= about 1 lb)
I mix together:
Plus an assortment of any of the below veggies (ground to a pulp or they won't digest at all) to equal 4-5 lbs- I used whichever I could find, not all at once- just make sure you have green and either carrot , an orange fleshed squash or sweet potato mixed the majority of the time (greens + a carotene producing veggie)
As you feed this to your dog add one 400 mg Calcium Citrate
tablet per every one cup/1 patty of the raw mix, plus 1 spoonful whole
milk yogurt.
DO NOT mix these in with the food ahead of time
Add the other supplements listed in the beginning of this page as you
prepare each meal.
As you can see it's a good bit of work to do it right
If you choose to feed a prepared raw diet (like Halshan's, Aunt
Jeni's, Oma's Pride, Bravo, Purely Primitive, etc), instead of making
your own, check the labels. If the mix contains ground bone then do not
add Calcium Citrate to it.
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Diane Richardson P.O. Box 31 West Chesterfield, NH 03466 603-256-6216 |
