This year we have taken our sustainability to the next level when it comes to our pup. So I thought I'd share the three biggest changes we've made thus far:
click here to see City Garden's video of how to DIY your own!
1) As I mentioned in a recent post, we've started composting his poop. So far, so good - obviously it's late winter so the process is slow, but it's under way. When the weather is dry, I'll definitely be inspired to paint the lid like the City Garden folks above did!
2) As soon as we got that into place, we asked each other "well how are we going to get the poop into the bin without still creating plastic waste?" We both agreed the backyard shovel was not going to be sensible since I didn't want Charley's poop gathering on one of my most common garden tools (nor making its way into the garage where it's stored!) and my husband was adamant we not spend any money for a pooper scooper. So, as my brain went into high gear, I asked the question I always ask nowadays "how can I DIY this?" And the internet delivered. As per the above graphic I found online, cut a plastic jug up as shown and it works marvelously! The irony of course is that we only had ONE plastic jug in the house, because we're avoid it like the plague, but fortunately it was almost empty so we made quick use of the contents and - bam!
3) And last but definitely not least, we have finally made the conversion to vegetarian dog food. While we tried it in the past back on the farm, the formula that Natural Balance used to have wasn't that great, but now that they have the new "limited ingredient" recipe (and yes, it has taurine in it for those who are concerned about these formulas), it's getting gobbled up by our old boy, and costs no more than the meat and seafood varieties out there. Furthermore, it's not just vegetarian - it's VEGAN! Unfortunately it's not marketed as such, so the search parameters for vegan dog food on the big sites never listed it, so this was a nice discovery that there are zero animal products in it. FYI, unlike cats, dogs are not carnivores, and do not require meat in their diets. So while our meat intake has lessened considerably, our dog is along for the ride and is happy as can be.
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