#1292 – The Expat Files: Dog Food, Raw Diets, and Mold in Latin America

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now as I wonder Hello there all you expat wannabes. I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here. So let's get started And now a question from one of our many listeners named Dave a very cool Dave who came to one of my expat insider seminars He says Johnny. We recently adopted a stray Labrador and I remember a recipe you had for preparing one's own dog food

[00:48] Can you please send it to me or talk about that? Well, sure thing Dave though, I warn you be careful what you wish for, you know, I've had dogs all my life Though not as a kid living at home. My mother grew up on a farm and she said no dogs in the house No cats either. Well, I'm not a cat guy at all Though I was slightly jealous of my buddies who were allowed to have dogs, you know as a kid So one of the first things I did when I moved out of my parents house was get a dog Started out with small dogs because in the city, well, you know, it's tough to have a big dog But as soon as I moved to Latin America and had a pretty good-sized spread I always had two or three big dogs always a mix of Doberman's and Rottweilers and Being that I'm the inquisitive and questioning type. I always wondered about dog food

[01:34] You know cable or what they call down here in Latin America. Concentrado concentrate, you know Like Purina and all the other brands by the way They've got tons of no-name dog cable brands here in Latin America, and I don't trust any of them I don't even trust the American brands like Purina. That's all garbage snouts beaks and ears Floor sweepings and chemicals too, you know dog food in a bag or a can is simply that way You know packaged like dry or wet cereal for the convenience of the human owner It's got nothing to do with the way the dog feels about it And if you look at the history of dogs and the way they eat, you know, they're basically wolves who love raw meat They've been killing and eating fresh meat and loving it for at least a couple million years And it's only been in the last maybe hundred years that big outfits like Purina have made it

[02:21] Convenient for human owners to feed their pets in the city They found a way to package it nice clean and easy and with a long long life claiming of course in the small print on The package that it's got all the vitamins minerals and nutrients a healthy happy growing dog needs But is that really true? Well, if you do some cursory research on the internet, you'll find it's like feeding your own kids Cocoa puffs pancakes hot dogs and Wonder bread at every meal Mixed with a ton of preservatives and additives so it never goes stale In other words, no matter what kind of low or high-end dog food you could be buying whether it's the high price brand or even some Of that expensive custom boutique dog food Prominently displayed on the shelves in your vets waiting room doesn't matter bottom line if it comes in a can or a bag

[03:10] It's basically a dog's version of the standard American junk food diet making people and dogs Fat and lazy and setting the stage for allergies digestive problems diabetes and even brain fog So am I suggesting giving your dog kibble gives them brain fog? Well in dogs, I don't know if that can't be measured but they're getting all the same sicknesses and diseases their owners are getting That said quite a few years ago. I started checking in with holistic vets Coming up with the same conclusions over and over again that dogs diets the kibble and canned food diets are Indirectly responsible for a wide range of illnesses and even premature death Dogs aren't meant to eat that way But since we don't let our dogs go outside and forage the convenience of kibble outweighs the hassle of feeding them, right?

[03:58] I never felt good about it and kept questioning which is how I stumbled on that raw food diet now dogs You know when given the choice will always eat meat over vegetables and greens Of course, they are omnivores, but basically lean heavily towards their carnivore roots They eat meat exclusively every day if they could just look at what wolves their immediate ancestors eat in the wild chickens turkeys geese raccoons possums deer they kill them and eat them while they're still born just Just look at wolves foxes hyenas etc in the zoo What did the handlers feed him not kibble or grains but raw meat all the while though? I had this creepy feeling if I fed my dogs raw meat number one Maybe they wouldn't eat it at all because they're used to kibble number two if they liked it or grew like it

[04:48] Maybe they'd become savage beasts maybe turning on their owners or taking bites out of humans by the way That's the main objection I get from lady dog owners when I explain how I feed my dogs. I've heard the comments How gross doesn't that bring out the wild beasts in them now? Sometimes I milk that sentiment when I have a company over for shock value and giggles. I'd say hey I gotta feed my dogs now. You want to see something cool? I'd go into the refrigerator pull out a bag of quartered chicken parts Walk out the back door where my three dogs were already sitting waiting cuz they knew what they were gonna get Lickin their chops had attention as they were trained just absolutely salivating to get their teeth into that raw chick Funny thing too cuz you know the very first day I started that experiment feeding them raw meat

[05:37] I had that slight worry in the back of my head. They just wouldn't adapt They wouldn't like but man, I was shocked how they dove right in Man, I realized in two seconds that millions of years of instincts can't be negated or overwritten with a bag of purina dogchow Now I just didn't go at this thing haphazardly I watched more than a few videos and read a book or two on natural raw dog food diets And you know after some trial and error came up with my own system for a while in the early days I was buying cuts of beef just beef nothing else I'd go down to the big gigantic market in Guatemala once a week I'd hit the meat area where all the butchers are Slicing and dicing and hanging up their wares and at first even though my dogs are big

[06:23] I was a little leery of giving a meat that was on the bone, but man I found they love it that way and it gives them something to do for the next half hour or so You know whittling away at those bones now you dog owners have probably heard that it's not good to give your dog cooked bones Well, I don't know if that's true or not because my dogs will eat bones any way they could get them cooked or not I suppose they'd even eat a tranny's bone if you stuck one in front of them No, no, not those social media trannies a tyrannosaurus bone So anyway, my dogs loved beef in any form by the way I found if you want to keep your dog occupied for a couple of hours. I mean completely occupied Let's say someone's visiting your house and you know, they don't like dogs Well, I found if you freeze a big beef bone, you know

[07:11] Have the butcher cut a little chunk out of a femur maybe a cross section two or three inches in length Get a bunch of them throw them in the freezer And when you want to distract your dog for a couple hours You toss one of those bones out in the backyard, man Your dog will be at it till nothing's left and that for a normal dog. Anyway, we'll take hours So anyway, some years back I started my dogs off on that raw diet with pure beef And of course, you know, there are all kinds of cuts of beef And I'd try this and I'd try that they seem to love them all But as for me, I wanted to settle in on a pattern, you know, try to make it as convenient as possible So I kept doing more and more research Talked to a few vets talked to a few big animal vets out in the boonies That's right here in latin america

[07:58] And finally one of the vets said to me, you know, if you give them just beef They're probably not getting all the vitamins and nutrients they need He said they need the innards some organ meat once in a while and I said, yeah But that's gross buying cow kidneys and livers and stuff cutting them up and feeding them to your dog Nah, I don't really want to do that The vet said yeah, I get it But there is an easier way if you buy chickens whole chicken in the market They give you a little bag of their innards, you know, the gizzard kidney liver all that gross organ meat stuff But it is on a much smaller scale either way. He said your dogs go nuts for that stuff, too That's what this large animal vet told me yep coincidentally He was a very large guy. So he was a large animal vet in more ways than one

[08:46] He was a regular at my local agua picario store. That's what they call latin american feed stores There's always a large animal vet hanging out there sometimes he's been working behind the counter after all They're selling food and supplies for horses pigs cows goats They've got all kinds of medicines antibiotics and treatments So the guy behind the counter has to know what he's talking about That's why he's usually a vet or a vet student If you've got some kind of problem with your cat or dog They know exactly what to do and have something on hand to deal with it. But that's another story By the way as far as cats. I don't like them at all sneaky little I had a girlfriend with a cat Would attack people scratch the hell out of you come out of nowhere scare the shit out of you In fact when someone says to me I've got a problem with my cat i'm thinking I know your problem you have a cat

[09:37] Plus, you know, they carry that disease Taxoplasmosis you've heard of that haven't you most mothers with babies have that's for sure In fact studies showed you can look this up if you get taxoplasmosis from your cat It can often change your personality and make you more risk prone turns out. It's not rare It's pretty common, too In fact many studies have correlated Taxoplasmosis infections with impulsive and risky behavior as well as higher risk of car accidents mental health issues substance abuse disorders and suicide In fact, you might have heard or read that when mice and rodents get infected with taxoplasmosis They lose their fear of cats Which ensures the survival not of the rodent but of the plasmid sort of a protozoa That needs to be ingested by a cat to continue its life cycle

[10:25] From cat to rodent cat to rodent cat to rodent Now if that alone ain't enough to get you to swear off cats, I don't know what is But I digress we were talking about dogs, right? Anyway, after i'd experimented with lots of different cuts of meat first from cows then chickens I finally homed in on a very convenient and effective technique So the following has been my dog feeding routine for the past 10 years or so One day i'd give my dog regular purina kibble or a fairly high grade kibble Just so they get all their vitamins and minerals and stuff Because the package always says it's fortified with all the nutrients a dog wouldn't eat And whether you believe that or not, well dogs do survive on that stuff Though just imagine yourself if you had to eat the same gruel

[11:13] Day after day for your whole life kind of sad to think about isn't it? But that's a dog's life So anyway, I decided just to balance things out every other day I'd give them the kibble and the other odd days raw chicken. I know you're thinking how gross Why don't you at least cook it? Well, I found that's not as good now in researching this and i'm sure most of you know this already Raw chicken has one big problem salmonella, but that's easily minimized. Here's my technique I go down to the big market buy two or three whole chickens driveway chickens not chlorinated chemically injected Tyson style chickens. Yep, when you go to the big market, you'll find there are two kinds of chickens whole chicken chicken by The tyson style chickens and some of them actually come from the us are imported with the tyson brand believe it or not

[12:03] Isn't that pathetic kind of blows your mind, huh? How is it possible that the tyson company in the us? You can raise chickens chickens, of course whose legs are so weak They can't even walk because they're sitting in one place Their whole long life which is 42 days. Look at up 42 days How is it possible they could raise chickens in the us kill them freeze them? ship them to guadamala mexico honduras panama wherever Sell them in the markets down here right next to the homegrown driveway chickens at a much cheaper price per pound How is that possible? It just doesn't make sense So anyway every week or two I go to the big market and buy three or four or five of those driveway chickens

[12:49] Now you got to know it's easy to distinguish the driveway chickens from the tyson style chemically manipulated chickens The tyson chickens are sort of deathly white The skin kind of translucent and sick looking whereas the driveway chickens are more yellow and bigger and plumper and of course more expensive per pound So anyway, I go to the same indigenous lady because she knows exactly what to do She knows I want my chickens cut in six pretty much equal pieces She takes a few plastic bags puts three pieces in each bag for three dogs if I had two dogs I'd never put two pieces in each bag. So I walk out of that market with enough plastic bags That's dinner for my dogs for two weeks or more one bag every other day Oh, and of course, they give me the innards in a little bag too and those little organ pieces

[13:36] I throw on their dry kibble during kibble day. So anyway, when I get home, I throw that stuff in the freezer That's the trick once those chicken parts freeze solid for a day or two All the bacteria and salmonella have been killed off. Go ahead and look it up. You'll see that's the way to do it In other words, you don't want to immediately give it to your dogs or even throw it in the refrigerator part and give it to your dogs Later, you want to freeze it solid for a couple of days then on the days I feed that chicken to my dogs I'll take one of those bags out of the freezer the night before put it in the refrigerator part And by morning the next day they're basically thought out And man, if you think that dogs don't like meat raw or have some kind of aversion to it My dogs actually know the days they're going to get their meat

[14:23] Because when I get up in the morning and walk down those stairs on my way to the refrigerator to pull out a plastic bag Of thawed meat they're already standing at attention in the laundry room staring at that refrigerator as I walk to it And on those other odd days when they get their kibble, they're not there at all They're outside running around or still lounging or sleeping in their cages or beds. They're howlers. They're called in spanish Doesn't it say something that they're up and at attention only every other day when they get their meat? How do they know that oh and by the way some time ago when my big rottweiler bruce died He was something like 160 pounds I went out and got another one a baby rottweiler at the time. It was only something like three or four months old Really small maybe a foot long four or five pounds

[15:10] size of a chihuahua only twice as thick Anyway, it did go through my mind. What am I going to do with this dog? Can I give him that raw meat at that young age? How will he handle it with those tiny teeth and little jaw? Will he just give up and cry and if he does get a few bites off will he choke on it? Well, guess what i'd have to modify his pieces of chicken at all Even though they were half his size just dove right in from day one like a mania Only problem was it took him five times as long to finish his piece I'd have to separate the other two dogs put him in their cages because if not, they'd have stolen his piece of meat and about dem bones Every piece of chicken has lots of bones in it and that little guy went after those like a miniature queasy nark, too

[15:56] So in the end after feeding my dogs a raw meat diet every other day for at least 10 years The moral of that story is they only eat kibble when they're hungry and they've got no other choice But they're absolutely nuts about raw meat Which begs the question we asked earlier Does it give them wild dog or wild wolf instincts? Does it give them a taste for blood? Do friends or family or even you have to worry? They'll take a chunk out of you Absolutely, not it doesn't change the manner away. They deal with humans Not a bit though. I've heard owners say owners who feed their dogs raw meat Never get between your dog and his raw meat. Well, you know what? I'm the kind of guy who likes to have complete control over his dogs I train him up from day one and I do use a shock collar to do that So shoot me or cancel me whatever

[16:42] The thing I found is though when they're very young and you first start him on raw meat I'll train a dog to mind me over anything else He wants to do by walking up behind him putting my hand on his head and while he's chewing on that meat He'll be growling That ever happen to you as you approach a dog who's eating they'll Especially if they're eating something they really enjoy Well, I'll slowly work my hand around his head and take that piece of meat out of his mouth and man They don't like that at all. But you got to show them who's boss. I just do it very slowly and let them growl and Repeat the same phrase like drop it drop it drop it. You do that a few times. They'll know who's boss But if you don't and most dog owners won't you'll find out you don't want to get between your dog and his raw meat

[17:29] Not that he'll bite or attack you or anything, but man he'll growl It's like he's saying get away from me, man This is mine Which in a way should tell you about the value of raw meat and how much they love it When you find out they're so much more enamored with it than they are with their dry food or cable Doesn't that tell you that all these years first world dog owners have been doing their dogs a huge disservice If you just think for a second what you're doing When you're giving parina dog chow and all the other kibble brands to your dog It's like feeding them a steady lifetime diet of cheerios wonder bread and jello and every day the same boring thing, too And that for an animal that's evolutionarily programmed to kill birds and eat them raw It's like putting them on a jailhouse diet Oh and get this vessel tell you that wild dogs out in the campo, you know out in the farms and stuff

[18:19] Their teeth are almost always free from plaque and building Whereas city dogs on kibble have all kinds of dental problems and infections You know how americans up north so many of them bring their dogs in every once in a while to have their teeth cleaned Hence the well-known insult dog breath Well, oddly enough numerous vets have told me that dogs that live out in the county out in the campo in the boonies Have a surprising lack of dog breath It's the city dogs the kibble leaders that suffer most from that malady. Oh one more thing About once a week or so i'd crack open a few coconuts I'd buy them from vendors on the street. I'd drink the water then crack them open for my dogs They just love those things. It would spend hours digging the white coconut meat out of the shell In fact when they were done, it would be just the brown husk no white meat at all

[19:08] Maybe that's the reason why my dogs never had plaque or grungy buildup in their teeth or could be because every other day They're munched on raw chicken bones Now there's a good theme for a master's theses for a veterinary student The state of doggy dentition on a raw meat and raw coconut diet i'd read that white paper How about you? All right before we get carried away. Let's move on Well, maybe we did get a little carried away But it's my show and when you get yours you can get carried away on your own stupid themes All right Here's something we haven't talked about at least not for a long long time for years now By the way you longtime listeners if you think i'm repeating myself because i'm losing it I'm not well, maybe I am because they say if you're losing it it creeps up on you and you never know it You don't notice it, but everyone else does Anyway, the thing is i've got all kinds of new listeners coming on all the time

[19:57] Generally when they first start listening they listen to the newer shows as they come out They don't go back and check the archives There's so many shows there over a thousand. They don't know where to begin or they don't have time to go back So based on the feedback and emails I get I sometimes dip my toes back into waters we've been in before like today With the dog food stuff now There's another theme that I hit on before a long time ago It concerns many people who are working on their plan b thinking about getting out of dodge There's lots of concerns or at least a lot more concerned these days and questions about mold humidity and allergies south of the border I realized there are a lot of people up in the states who are stuck on inhalers and allergy meds

[20:42] Did you know that two and a half billion inhalers were sold last year? You have to wonder why is there such a first world allergy epidemic Well, there's a lot of theories. Could it be the extreme number of jabs and vaccines first world people get these days I remember when I was young. I think I got 12 or 14 vaccines in total these days school kids get more than 70 That's seven zero 70 vaccines and boosters And what about all those chemicals pesticides and herbicides in our food chain? Glyphosate, you know decades of rom-deaf being sprayed on everything which causes now they know childhood leukemia for sure What about those forever chemicals and microplastics that never existed before? What about all that emf radiation that never existed before?

[21:28] from cell towers microwave ovens computers tv cell phones Wifi, so we're all getting blasted with a crazy mix of extraneous junk that never existed before No wonder every other kid has an allergy and is on prescription meds Funny thing when I was in primary grade school in high school I never knew a single kid who had a peanut allergy though That's not to say here and there a kid didn't have an allergy kids would break out once in a while go to An allergist, but it was so rare By the way down here in latin america. There's a big lag time on allergies, too Believe it or not in 30 plus years down here. I've never seen anyone use an inhaler except Get this the odd gringo on vacation or here for his plan b And when you bring up a peanut allergies people look at you funny. No one's ever heard of them

[22:17] Yep down here when you go into a bar. They still give out free peanuts. I hear that's illegal up in the states So anyway the bad news for all you guys and gals up there in first world land Well, just know that all houses and buildings in general in latin america Have moderate to bad mold problems Especially during that six month long rainy season Now, of course, there are lots of very dry areas in latin america, too There are dry desert areas in mexico peru argentina chile Paraguay, etc, etc There's an absence of mold. All right, but i've been to a lot of those places in six months out of the year You don't want to live there. They get so dry and dusty. There's no green at all It's a totally brown ugly landscape and the wind will whip up the dust and sand so much

[23:05] It slowly builds up on everything leaves a tiny residue even on everything in your house After two or three days you wipe your hand across the refrigerator or a table. There's a coating of dust That's why i'd never want to live there permanently the other six months during the rainy season The climate's perfectly nice and the mold etc Minimal totally acceptable, but the other six months of the year dry is a bone windy and dusty Miserable now as for the most of the rest of latin america where you have that six months Very rainy and then a dry season that's relatively green because it rains infrequently, but just enough Anyway, I haven't been in a single home gringo or otherwise that doesn't have a mold problem In fact gringo is the next best complaint of the same thing eventually mold in a closet east their shoes and belts

[23:50] You see it creeping around on walls and ceilings and anything real leather too. Watch out However latinos are so used to it. They don't even bother going after it But us gregos and expats coming from cleveland and Milwaukee and new jersey We're just not used to seeing any of that and we go after it right away. We want to get rid of it It's not good for your health. We all know that So then what's the solution number one skylights, man? Normally during the rainy season it doesn't rain all day It rains for a couple hours and the sun comes out nice and strong If you've got a skylight even a tiny one a foot by a foot, let's say in a closet Any humidity that creeps in there is going to get burned off right away Also, you need a little air circulation in your classes Which is why you really should have an air vent louver on your door or a nice wooden closet door with slats

[24:39] For all you guys and girls out there who are thinking well, I know what to do when I get my plane b going and move down I'll just buy a bunch of dehumidifiers Yeah, well, they sell them down here. All right in certain hardware stores and they work But remember latin america has some of the highest electricity rates per kilowatt hour in the world And dehumidifiers are big energy hogs. So be prepared to have a giant bill That's why if you're smart you'll consider going solar Then you'll have no electric bill at all. Even if you have a couple of dehumidifiers running 24 7 Oh, and one more thing since there's four growing seasons throughout most of latin america You've got pollen and plant material 24 7 all year round, too So then how do you solve that problem if you've got allergies or are sensitive to that stuff?

[25:27] Well, that's easily solved too. Just go to amazon get yourself One or two or three of those portable little air filters has to be a hepa filter though hepa Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com and i'll send you an amazon link to the one I use and it's great I believe it's under a hundred bucks, too By the way, i've only got that little filter running in my bedroom Though you can put a few of them around the house if you like Oh, and here's some good news the newer cars if you get a decent newer car That is it'll have a hepa filter in its air recirculation system. You've got to check it once in a while though It's usually right behind the glove compartment I don't know if you know this but there are a couple of little clips Inside your glove compartment and when you unfasten them the glove compartment drops down and you'll see the hepa

[26:14] That's hepa air filter housing. You should take a look every six months or so to see if it's clogged or dirty By the way, that's why I always recommend when you're driving in your car press the button that says air recirculation You don't want to constantly bring in air from the outside that will clog your filter in a hurry You won't even know it so do press the recirculation button near the air conditioner control and keep it that way Now that doesn't mean you'll be breathing stale air over and over again Because there's always air from the outside leaking into the passenger areas of the car Coming in the cabin of your car the windows the floorboards behind the front dash etc By the way, one of the primary ways to keep mold out of your house If you're living in latin america is to have a proper vapor barrier installed before you pour the foundation

[27:01] Which is almost never done unless you insist Notice I said proper vapor barrier. You got to buy a material that's been certified by engineers as a vapor barrier Nope using a role of construction grade plastic will not do sure any old plastic will perform like a vapor barrier for a limited About a time but after a few years it'll deteriorate and the mold will start creeping in You'll first start seeing it where the walls meet the floors, especially in the closets and bathrooms Oops, we're getting to the end of the show now to be continued next week You've been listening to the expat files living in latin america If you need some help with your own plan b we can schedule a one-on-one phone or skype consult Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com

[27:46] And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week-long expat insider seminar in central america Where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan b. Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com No spammos