October 27, 2017
How to Keep Your Jack-O’-Lantern from Rotting
Halloween is in a few days and I’m sure you have at least one pumpkin on your front porch. The method is a bit different if you have a pre-carved pumpkin vs. a post-carved pumpkin. Both methods use bleach to delay the decaying process.
If you haven’t carved your pumpkin, use two tablespoons of bleach per gallon of water and make a pumpkin bath. Bathe your pumpkin with the bleach water for about ten minutes and let it dry completely before carving. Make sure your pups don’t chew on this jack-o’-lantern.
If you’ve already carved your pumpkin, don’t worry. Make a spray with the same bleach conception you used before and spray both sides of the pumpkin regularly until you are finished using it. Don’t let the pumpkin get wet or too cold . . .basically treat it like a Frenchie.
Side note: pumpkin treats can be good for Frenchies and other furry friends prone to chubbiness. Try some out this fall instead of your usual treats. Me and Arnie loved ours.
-Sally
October 11, 2017
How Track Your Calories If You Cook Your Own Food
Maybe you are trying Whole 30. Maybe you are sticking to a paleo diet. Maybe you like to be rational and save money by cooking instead of eating out. How do you know how much food you are eating and what the calories are?
My treats and active older dog food have nutritional information on the bag. But what about that time I ate a piece of cooked hamburger that my human dropped on the floor? Here are five tips to track your calories if you make your own food:
- Use an app to enter ingredients and take the somewhat lazier way out. Apps like my fitness pal can track calories based on the information you provide to the app. Good news is this app makes tracking ingredients and calories a breeze. Bad news…you usually have to enter each individual ingredient and do the math yourself. Math is hard even when you use all four paws.
- If you want to make sure you are getting the cakes correct, you can enter he information based on the packaging and do some real calculations using excel or numbers (iOS). You enter the information for each ingredient provided on the packaging and compile all the ingredients per serving size. Just remember, some packaging labels are a bit off. Manufacturers get wiggle room in terms of caloric information and serving size suggestions. For example, my dog food says I should get 3/4 cup at each meal, but the vet said I really need a bit less than that. I’m not sure I believe her, but debate fuels knowledge 🙂
- If you are cooking with meat or other ingredients that are more difficult to measure in standard measuring devices, you can buy a digital scale. I like to use my digital scale for coffee grinding and for cooking meats like chicken and beef. Digital scales can use Bluetooth to connect to your smart phone so you can pet me on the floor and weigh your ingredients at the same time.
- Once you start cooking, remember that estimating isn’t the rational way to cook. Tools were created for a reason. A rounded scoop or a larger portion can throw off the caloric information and lead you to overeat. I myself am guilty of this if my human gives me a bit too much in a scoop.
- Stick to serving sizes and get good advice about how many calories you need per day. Jut because the nationwide average is a certain amount, this doesn’t mean this amount of calories is the correct amount for you. As our world struggles with obesity, remember those extra pounds put added stress on your joints and bones just like it does for Frenchies.
-Sally
October 9, 2017
Can you Clean a Sponge? Should you?
Today, after a short hiatus due to my humans moving to a new home, I am going to talk about sponges. Scientific Reports published a recent article about the number of bacteria found in an average household sponge. Let’s just say I won’t be chewing on that sponge as a toy any time soon. Side note . . . puppy Halloween toys are out now at Target and I do love me a good soft chew toy. Back to the sponges. The Scientific reports report also explored the effects of cleaning a sponge, either through soapy, warm water or by microwaving the sponges in question. The results were thorough and pretty thoroughly gross. All of the sponges found in the report contained massive amount of bacteria. Some even had bacteria similar to a toilet seat! All of this sounds really concerning, right? One NPR reporter decided to do some further research into these claims. Her research found that sponges probably aren’t as bad as this original study suggests. If you follow some common sense cleaning advice, you shouldn’t be growing green mold anytime soon.
So here are her tips for sponges:
- Keep sponges (and puppies for that matter) away from raw meat. Using paper towels or disposable rags to clean up meat juices. If you cook the meat, always remember that dogs like hamburger too. Ok, I added that last part, but the fact remains!
- Replace your sponges every one to two weeks. You can get sponges for less than a dollar a sponge on Amazon and at Walmart . . . Buy new sponges!
- Finally, clean your sponges every few days by running them through a dishwasher with heated drying or by wetting the sponge and microwaving it for a few seconds.
Having bacteria in kitchens can harm a puppy’s (or cat’s I guess) digestive system. With these simple steps, you can avoid tummy issues for pups and humans.
Happy sponging!
-Sally