Product Review Honest Kitchen Base Mix "Kindly"

Honest Kitchen's base mixes are known in my mind as my "raw training wheels" or "raw for dummies". Using a base mix took a lot of the guesswork and anxiety out of feeding raw for me. Yes, I said it. Anxiety. Many raw feeding groups and message boards are full of knowledgeable members who have their raw feeding groove down but also give off this impression of "lol it's not that hard." Guess what. When you start out, it is that hard. Last summer when I tried raw I could not sleep right and two out of three dogs had issues with the transition. It's easy to get scared right back to safe, clean kibble.

When I made the decision to try a base mix, I went no further than Honest Kitchen. There are other base mixes but I have had such a good experience with HK's products that I knew I would be happy with their base mixes. Honest Kitchen offers two base mixes, we used Kindly, now called "Veggie, Nut and Seed Base Mix". (Honest Kitchen recently renamed all of their products and to be honest I thought it was more user friendly when it was just called "Kindly".)

I chose to start small with just one dog this time, the dog who did not have an issue with raw the last time: Perri. I was also curious to see if Perri would enjoy more behavioral benefits from a fresher diet since whether by coincidence or not, she brightened up when salmon oil was added to her diet. Oh and also? Perri has never really liked kibble in the first place and she has bowels of steel, she would not be likely to get diarrhea.

With the base mix, you do not need to feed or figure out the ratios of bone and organ required for a DIY raw diet. You simply need measure out and add water to the proper amount of HK base mix and then add the indicated amount of muscle meat into the mixture. You can use raw or cooked meat, I chose to use all raw. The base mix rehydrates easily and quickly and mixes well with the meat. And Perri loves it. Perri has not refused her food since we started on the base mix about a month and a half ago. She has tolerated a rotation of different meats as well as raw eggs mixed into her food. The only downside is that I do notice the carrots and flax seed seem seem to pass right through to her poop, which makes me wonder how much benefit vs. filler those ingredients are. 

During the time we used the base mix, I became a lot more comfortable with sourcing, measuring and feeding raw meat. Using the base mix was the transition that I needed and I am very grateful that products like this exist and I would recommend it to anybody who is nervous to start raw. It's a really user friendly push in the right direction with assurance that your dog is still getting all of the nutrients they need while you learn! 

Perri Medication Weeks 4-6

As of tonight Perri has been on fluoxetine for 6 weeks.   Tomorrow begins her 7th week.

The lethargy I saw in Perri towards the end of the third week, a few days after the as-instructed dose increase, has stayed away for the most part.   We certainly did not experience any "sleeping in" and not wanting to be involved in car trips or adventures.   Perri does sleep much more soundly through the night now and even goes into deep enough sleep for "sleep talking".   I give Perri her medication in the evening.   I do not feel that Perri has any issue waking up in the morning, or that her energy levels are affected at all. 

Perri's appetite suffered starting towards the end of the fourth week.   I had recently switched to a new kibble and thought that was to blame.  (American Journey Salmon and Rice - switched at the beginning of Perri's fourth week.)   Initially it was just skipping the morning meal.   Over the past week (Week 6) it has worsened to the point where Perri will not even come in the kitchen in the morning for her food, and at night she comes into the kitchen and might eat half of her dinner after much coercion from Vince.   Perri's anorexia is nothing new, it has been an issue her entire life but rarely would she go over 24 hours without at least eating a whole bowl of kibble.   One night last week Vince looked at Perri and remarked he could see a visible weight loss.   And Perri does not have much to lose, her bones have always been so palpable it almost disgusts me.   I was ecstatic to find she was over 40 pounds at her behaviorist visit. (She had been eating rather well at that time - for Perri - we were trying Purina Pro Plan Focus Sensitive Stomach/Skin. mostly to try to help an issue Ein was having with obsessive elbow licking and mutilating the skin there as well as some skin redness ands pots throughout his body.   Without success.)

However, starting this past weekend, Perri refused to eat anything at all.    Perri went over 48 hours without eating anything except the treats she was given at the agility trial on Saturday.   Now, I will say that right around the time Perri's appetite started going into decline (worse than normal), I started to feed Ein Honest Kitchen Force formula.   I am very happy with this food, and will likely review it at a later time.   I did notice Perri eyeing the bowl and looking at her own bowl of kibble in....disappointment?   In desperation I dumped a quarter cup of HK into Perri's food this Monday morning, rehydrated it and mixed it all together and Presto! problem solved.   3 meals later Perri was in the kitchen in the morning eagerly anticipating her meal and has been that way ever since.

So.   Who can say if the anorexia was caused by the fluoxetine or by Perri's general pickiness and being put off of her kibble by a clearly better option present in the kitchen at meal time.

Positive Changes

Despite water being available all night long, Perri has not had a single bed wetting episode since starting the fluoxetine.   I am happy to say that the three reusable doggie diapers that I bought are collecting dust.

Alert barking has decreased, but certainly not disappeared.   I would be curious at how much less alert barking Perri would do if not for Ein's influence (who is alert barking more than ever.   old dog rules.)

Reactive fear barking at other dogs is still happening, but I have noticed a few moments here and there where I braced myself for an explosion and it did not happen.   Most notably at a husky we crossed paths with on a walking trail, with blue eyes and staring and the whole package.   Perri just walked on by.    She did explode at the next dog we passed.   So, it is just here and there.   Nothing to grab onto and say, "This has changed." but little moments in time where Perri simply does not act as she used to.

Scanning behavior is decreasing, I think.  Whether that is accurate or optimistic or coincidence, I think it is hard to tell.    Obviously we had a better day at our agility trial on Saturday than we had in a long time, I can't ignore that the fluoxetine likely had a hand in that.   I noticed that on approaches to the building, Perri seemed less "lost" in scanning and more responsive to reorienting to me.   That is not to say we don't still have scanning behavior, I remember a specific incident just this Sunday on a geocache stop.    We were at a very quiet park but there was a man across the street practicing his golf shots.   Perri did some scanning but became transfixed by this man, almost a trance.    She did not even remember that I was there until I sneezed by accident.    There again: a swinging object presenting to her an "enormous threat".    In any case, just as I mentioned with the fear reactivity, I am seeing moments sprinkled into our lives where Perri is able to reorient to me quickly and I do expect those moments to continue to increase.

As of today, I feel very positive heading into our 7th week and excited for more continued positive change and peace in Perri's life.