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When we adopted Sassy, her foster mom, Mary, had been feeding her Wellness Grain-Free.  She told us Sassy was picky about it, and often would only eat it after it had been mixed with water.  To this day, we are not sure it was because she was still scared or if she didn't like it.  The evening we adopted Sassy, we stopped at a pet store (and I can't remember which one) to pick up food.  They did not have the Wellness Grain-Free, so I chose Nature's Recipe Grain-Free with Chicken, Sweet Potato & Pumpkin.  Sassy chowed it, so she has been eating it ever since.

Merlin had been on Wellness Super5 Mix for Puppies when we adopted him.  We tried him with the Nature's Recipe Puppy since Sassy had been doing so well on the adult, but it's made with lamb and his tummy couldn't tolerate it.  So he remained on the Wellness until about 3 weeks ago when I began transitioning him to Sassy's food.

Angel was on Pedigree Puppy, which we kept her on until about 3 weeks ago when we transitioned her to Merlin's puppy food.

Merlin and Angel were fine during the transition phase, but once solely eating the new food, they began having tummy issues.  Sassy and Merlin have both had sporadic tummy issues since adoption, which resulted in me cooking them boiled rice and chicken for a week until the issue settled down.

After looking at how much dog food costs us, knowing what I do about the pet food industry, and considering all the tummy issues, I made the decision to cook their food myself.  This is not something I entered into lightly or without research.  My first foray into homemade pet food was in Fall 2007 after the death of Oliver, one of our cats.  He had intestinal cancer due to an intolerance to grains, which we discovered too late.  At that time, we still had 3 cats and no dogs, so my focus was on cat food.  I still feed my cats commercial food because I am just not comfortable with the idea of making their food.  The primary reason is the fact that I am very much afraid of not giving them enough Taurine, an essential nutrients for cats.  Without it, cats can go blind and even die.  Another reason is the fact that cats really should have a raw diet, and I'm pretty squeamish about fixing it.

Once we adopted Sassy, I started researching again, this time on homemade dog food.  I wanted her to have the best food possible.  Once again, I was not entirely sure about doing it, mostly from the standpoint of providing enough nutrients, so I stopped researching.  After Merlin and Sassy began having the tummy issues, I began researching again, and for a third time, I set it aside.  Finally, after all the tummy issues since adopting Angel, I made the decision to make their food beginning May 12, 2011.

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I forgot to mention that one of the reasons for my decision was Sassy's weight.  On April 6th, she weighed 55 pounds at her vet visit.  Because of concern about her hips, I reduced her food by 1 cup per day.  On May 10th, the day she had her x-rays, she weighed 56 pounds.  She had gained a pound in just over a month despite her food intake being reduced.  

This was definitely not good and we asked the vet about it.  The vet could not give us an answer because all her bloodwork and such was perfectly normal, which meant there was no indication of an underlying problem such as thyroid.