aatainc

The things that you have listed that she will eat are all perfectly acceptable and can easily be used to make a balanced diet. I would feed here approx 50% of her diet as chicken necks (or frames if she will eat those.) For the rest, mix the chicken or beef mince with some oily fish, some liver and as many varied vegies as she will eat. Add a little rice for energy (or rolled oats are even better) if she's thin. Mash it all together and cook it. It would be better if she would eventually eat it raw so trying cooking it less and less every day, until you are just warming it up a little. Obviously if there is rice in the mix you will always have to cook that thoroughly. Contrary to popular belief, dogs do not need to eat any dry food. If she gives you so much grief over it just don't bother with it! You're only wasting your money!! She'd be fine on a mix of the things you've listed above. BTW, when my pointer was eating 4 buckets of food a day but still underweight I fed him the following satin ball recipe (but didn't bother making it up into balls at all.) -500g fatty beef (hamburger) mince -125g cream cheese (full fat) -1/2 a large tub of NATURAL smooth peanut butter. (buy the natural stuff as the emulsifiers in the non-natural stuff can cause big problems) -2-3 eggs -4 tablespoons of oil. Believe it or not, this did not cause any diarrhea, and he is a relatively sensitive boy, digestively speaking. It put weight on very quickly. I fed it for 3-4 days before each show, once a day, on top of his normal (huge) meals. It is not a suitable long term diet obviously, as the pancreas would eventually suffer for it.

Just have to say that you guys are great. He put on enough weight to enter the show today. My goal was to beat a dog, any dog - we have never done that before - we have always either been alone in our classes or lost to the other dog. but not this time.... Puppy in Group!!! YAY! VERY excited. Thanks to Ashanali for handling him in group line-up. How typical that the one I handed him over for was the won where the judge pointed to him! Thank you all for your advice. I will now shelve the satin ball recipe till a week before our next show. His condition is good for a pet pointer I think so I don't want him to get too fat! Thanks - from Solo and his very excited mum. (Actually solo's pretty excited too - having been cramped up in a crate for most of the day!)

well I fed him 300g worth of that satin ball recipe yesterday afternoon, plus a chook frame - rugged him up really nice and warm last night - and guess what - got him up this morning and his ribs have dissappeared! i Can't believe he could put on weight so quickly - but he has a definite covering that wasn't there yesterday. Gonna keep him on a small amount of satin ball every day. I definitely don't want to go back to any dry at all. He has been fed many large meals lately trying to fatten him up - and he has bloated twice - both times when he was fed dry food. (and he's only eaten a dry food meal about 3 times so I Think that's enough.) Also, even the tiniest amount of dry food in his dinner makes his poos sloppy and stink to high heaven. What I am feeding him is definitely right - he has great muscle tone, energy , brilliant coat - just needs a few more calories - if he wasn't a show dog I wouldn't care about his weight because he is very healthy.

aha! thank you!

1 lb hamburger 1 package cream cheese 1 dozen egg yolks 1 jar all natural peanut butter about 1 cup rolled oats soaked in milk 1 jar wheat germ This is the recipe I like the look of the most, because it's not got that total stuff, whatever that is - we can't get it here I don't think. Anyway, how much of this stuff? i just fed him a saucepan full of rolled oats, 3 tablespoons of peanut oil, 2 tablespoons honey, 1/2 cup tinned peaches and 1 cup of fat trimmings from mum's raw rump steak. He gets this sort of thing occasionally - you'd think he'd be a porker by now!! Anyway, thanks for the tips, I had never heard of satin balls before. Hopefully they do the job!

Hi guys, long time no post, been busy. Anyway, I have continually struggled to keep enough weight on my Pointer (from Ashanali) who is now 10 months old. He will eat anything in sight - appetite is not a problem. We have been to a few shows (for socialisation practice) and I would like him to do well but he is always too skinny for the judge. I have been feeding him up lots of fatty lamb off cuts, chicken, BARF patties etc and he has slowly gained a tiny bit of condition. Unfortunately, in the last 3 days it has gotten a lot colder and I guess that might be the reason why his condition has dropped again and he is ribby all over again. We have a show on Friday (Rosewood - anyone going?) and I would like to put as much weight on him as possible between now and then. I would prefer not to resort to dog food. As he has a great deep chest and tends to inhale his food, he is a prime candidate for bloat - so I need to be careful about how much I feed him at one time and I would be worried about feeding dry food especially. Any suggestions for keeping/putting the weight on him?? BTW - he is really really fit and healthy, has been wormed recently (As have all the dogs) none of the others are underweight so I doubt any of them could have worms anyway, he has excellent muscle tone and lots of energy. His poos are nice and small and firm so he's using what he's fed. He gets a 5 min walk to the off leash area (across the road) a few times a week where he trots around for maybe 10 minutes. I don't let him play with other dogs there as he burns too much energy that way. We sleep him inside and I put a coat on him to try minimise heat loss during the night if I take him out training or something. Should I sleep him in his coat too? Or keep it on during the day? I'm worried he might chew it off but maybe it might help conserve energy? What do people from cold places do? I need a fatter dog!!! Any help is appreciated. My email isn't working so posting here would be great. thanks.

there is absolutely no way you can get tape worms from meat!! Tape worms come from fleas! Sam.m - you need to worm your dog and put him on good quality flea control if you are really getting tape worm - it certainly isn't coming from the meat!

adding mince without bones to teh dry food will unbalance it - adding too much phosphorous and not enough calcium. You would be much better adding chicken necks/wings or going to Lenard's chicken shop and getting pet mince from there (which also contains ground bone) because that mince is better balanced. I would also ditch the wheetbix.

:rolleyes:

I should clarify what I Said above, a vegan diet is only possible if you add supplements. Kathp, if you know a cat that is on a vegan diet, it has either only been on it for a short time and hasn't suffered the ill effects yet, or it is being supplemented with taurine, or it is getting meat from elsewhere (such as hunting lizards outside) or it is going blind. Cats cannot live without taurine. They go blind. Taurine is only found in animal products (or supplements.) period. Dogs can't live without the essential fatty acids and amino acids. These can only be obtained in available quantities via animal products - unless you buy an extracted supplement. That's why they can't live on vegan diets - without supplements.

If you are planning to feed some animal foods, such as eggs, milk, yoghurt etc, then it is possible (though unadvisable) to feed a dog a vegetarian diet. However, it is highly highly highly recommended NOT to feed a vegetarian diet to a pregnant or nursing bitch or new puppies. Also, it is NOT POSSIBLE to feed a dog on a vegan diet. I have read this many times over. they NEED some animal protein, so do not attempt a purely vegan diet. There will be vital things missing and the dog would eventually die of a deficiency. I also second the call to avoid soy foods - they are not good for dogs. TVP can give them terrible gas though your welcome to put up with that if you want. (then again, if the dog has gas it's pretty sure that he has a stomach ache too!). The majority of the dog's diet for a vegetarian dog would have to be eggs and dairy products. I don't know how you would go with a lactose intolerant dog.

Hi Jacqui, I haven't been on here much for a while so I was hoping for good news. i think you might be right that the time is approaching. At least she had some more good quality time with you. 3 kg is a lot to drop in 3 days. Is she drinking? I could only guess that a large part of that could be water. Try putting something tasty in her water to encourage her to drink. i hope she is feeling comfortable and that you make the decision that you are most comfortable with yourself. Thinking of you... Nicole

grow your toller on a barf diet, he'll be much better for it. It really isn't that much more complicated than an adult barf diet. IF you start feeding it now he won't be fussy when he gets older. IF you use dry now and start barf later he is more likely to be fussy later on as he will be used to just dry. Base the diet on chicken necks and wings and you can't go wrong. BTW - I have raised many puppies on barf - including a toller.

I am definitely planning to come and watch the consults, so skyesdalimmit could you please pm me your address?

Hi Gareth, sorry, i"ve only just gotten over the illness and have been out all week placing dexter with his new recipient. I thought if I waited until that match has finalised then I can comment on how that's going as well. I might have time this long weekend.