Ruger’s Satin Balls Reloaded

Posted by rockcat on June 17, 2009

So after increasing the amount I feed Ruger to more than what I feed Ember (~70#) and Tana (~22#) COMBINED he still can’t keep weight on. I’m giving up, and going back to the Satin Balls I tried last year. Hey at least they worked and I could take my dog places without worrying about someone reporting me for animal cruelty.

For a recap, Ruger is a 4 1/2 year old German Shepard from Czech / police bloodlines. He was neutered at about 1 year of age and has always been skinny. A few years ago I switched him to a raw food diet, which didn’t help him gain weight, but did end the loose stool and his nasty, oily skin. Worming him brought no changes, I can’t afford to pay for massive blood tests right now. Two things have put weight on Ruger in his life: first was free-feeding a high-performance or puppy food commercial diet, and second was feeding Satin Balls (or Fat Balls) in addition to his regular (raw) food.

These are the recipes I started with, from Holistic Dog. A google search yields more results. I skipped the cereal and the molasses because of the sugar content.

Just a note, some pages say that satin balls can be a complete diet – I doubt this is true and would consider it a supplement unless shown otherwise. I do recommend a raw diet for dogs and cats. I switched my cat to raw at the age of fifteen, and it made a huge difference in her mobility and strength. She is still going at nineteen!

The recipe:

• 1 dozen eggs
• 10# cheap hamburger (I used 27%)
• 4 oz Knox Gelatin
• 2# oatmeal (not quick oats, about 6-7 cups)
• 1 1/2 cups Canola oil
• pinch of salt
• 8 oz Cream Cheese
• 1/2 small jar Peanut Butter (its fat and I have too much in the cupboards)

Mix everything – use a large bowl. I always end up using my hands. Divide it into freezer bags – some people roll it into torpedos for easy feeding. I put 1 1/2 pounds per bag. Yield was between fourteen and fifteen pounds.

Last time I fed a pound a day, this time I’m going to start with 3/4 pounds a day, and hopefully drop to 1/2 pound to maintain after he gains weight.

Nutritional Data: Just for Fun

I went to Calorie Count at About.com to get nutritional data for a one pound serving. (View the recipe here.)

• Calories: 1,059
• Fat: 534 calories / 59.4g (91% DV for a human)
• Saturated Fat: 16.8g
• Total Carbs: 29g
• Dietary Fiber: 4.6g
• Protein: 99.8g
• Iron: 63% (for a human, not a dog of course)
• Also has Vitamin A and Calcium

It has 132% for a human’s DV of cholesteral and ranks nutrition grade “B”.

I put in what Ruger gets in an “average” week and it comes out to about 1800 calories a day, 76g fat (20g saturated) and 259g protein. There was quite a bit of Vitamin’s A and C, calcium and iron. So about 33% of the calories are from fat in his normal raw diet, versus 50% for the Satin Balls. Interesting.

Hopefully it works.