I was sent a bottle of Green Mush™by Health Force Nutritionals for my dog. I decided to test it out on 4 dogs (3 were my mom’s and 1 was mine). It’s basically a green powder loaded with nutrients that helps keep your pets healthy. According to Health Force Nutritional’s website…
Green Mush™ is a pesticide free, whole food, green plant based combination. It is completely unlike traditional multi-vitamin/mineral products in that it is truly effective, totally non-toxic and exceptionally absorbent with no toxicity (not excreted as expensive yellow urine or settled out in the tissues as toxic deposits). There are absolutely no synthetics or isolated nutrients whatsoever in Green Mush™! The nutrients are exactly as they occur naturally in whole plant foods.
My first attempt in getting them to try it was in a dish of organic soy yogurt.
Only 1 dog seemed to like it and another dog (mine) made an attempt to like it, but didn’t finish it. The other 2 dogs wouldn’t have anything to do with it and looked at me like I was crazy. I thought yogurt would be a good idea because I was pretty confident I’d have to hide it somewhat. I used the recommended amount of Green Mush™, but I think it was probably too much for their taste buds.
The next attempt was sprinkling much less of it onto their main meal. They all seemed to gobble up their food as usual and didn’t mind the Green Mush™ being in there. Even though it’s a small amount, over time it has to be better than nothing, right? I sure love the idea of getting some of this into my dog’s diet, which is pretty healthy anyway (mostly homemade organic vegan food) and only on rare occasions does he eat organic vegetarian dry dog food. There are a few days here and there (not very often) when I feed him raw, organic grass fed meat and an occasional bone. I’m a vegan at heart and although my vet supports my dog eating a vegan diet, there is a tiny part of me that recognizes if he were in the wild, he wouldn’t be loving up the roots and tubers, and would more likely go for meat. Still, because my vet supports our vegan lifestyle, he eats that way 90-99% of the time.
He’s not a fan of raw veggies like I hear about some dogs loving. I sure wish he were! Some examples of foods I make for him (all organic):
- Tofu or meat substitutes sprinkled with hemp seeds
- Soy or coconut yogurt with hemp seeds, hemp powder and/or hemp oil
- Pasta with marinara (update 5/4/10 – tomatoes aren’t looking like a nutritious option for dogs, so I’m scratching that from the diet)
- Black beans, lentils, quinoa (or other grain-type foods) mixed with some nuts, seeds, veggies, etc
- Veggie burgers
- Baked potato with a little Himalayan crystal salt and a little organic soy butter
- Peanut Butter (or almond butter) and jelly on sprouted whole grain toast
- Some days I hide juice pulp in his food
- Whole grain cereal with rice milk
- Oatmeal with maple syrup, nuts, and rice milk
- And, on days that I make cooked vegan food for my husband and myself, I make him a plate
I’m not sure what the overall verdict is for Green Mush™ because we only just started using it, but I have to believe that it’s a good thing and I’m glad he’s getting it in his diet!
*I’ll note that my dog is great and healthy with this diet, but I’m not a vet so I’m not prescribing that you feed your doggies or pet friends the same way. Please check with a vet before changing your pet’s diet. For example, some dogs might not handle almonds well, but the few occasions mine has all natural, raw, organic almond butter, he is fine.
Update: For those of you caring individuals who get your panties in a bunch are concerned because of what I feed my dog: 1) I have had the support of 3 different vets, 2) there are many thriving vegan dogs from my research – heck, the Humane Society of the United States just came out with a plant-based organic dog food, 3) his health is amazing, 4) as you can see from my post, he is not 100% vegan (I guess he’s technically a flexitarian). He does get meat in his diet, it’s just not usually his staple. I’ve done the all raw meat thing for him in the past and he doesn’t thrive like he does with this diet, so go figure.