Maddy

we do . If it was for the dogs, I'm sure I could find the time. For myself though.. meeeeeh, stock cubes. Having said that, if feet are involved, hell no. Everything about chicken feet makes me want to vomit up everything I've ever eaten plus some future food.

I always get really weird looks when I rock up to the chicken shops and ask for 30 chicken frames :laugh: It's usually "how many, 3?" "No, 30 - three zero" followed by this look that makes me think they think I'm going to sit down and eat them myself or something. I go to the same place nearly every month, she's never asked me what I use them for. But I wonder what other people use them for, if not for dogs I think people use them for making chicken stock (same with necks/heads and feet). Personally, if I wanted chicken stock, I'd buy it in the nice little cubes but I guess some people care enough about their chicken juice to want to spend hours boiling up random chicken parts

I don't feed my dogs vegetables (for a number of reasons). My raw diet is pretty simple to prepare and the dogs look great on it- a mince mix (currently beef and minced wallaby frames) stuffed into a chicken frame and then frozen. A few days a week, they get big, meaty pieces of sheep (on the bone) and the odd bit of tinned fish. I guess you could fancy up the chicken frames by adding a bit of diced organ meat and a small wad of fresh hide/skin to make it into a more complete "carcase" but with so many mouths to feed at the moment, I don't have the extra time. I supplement a little bit with some Livamol (great for their skin and coat) and a dog multivite (Vite Amino or Feramo-D) if I feel they need a bit extra. I also make my own treats- dried liver (easy but a tad smelly) and chicken or beef "jerky" using just the oven. Occasionally, they also get to go egg hunting (I buy some eggs, hide them in the yard and the dogs forage them out and eat whole). I used to make complicated barf mixes involving vegetables and dairy but the dogs didn't really do any better on it compared to the current diet. If anything, I think they do a lot better with the unnecessary stuff removed. If you're down in Hobart, there are a few good places to check out. Aussie Discount Meats sells the frames very cheaply (usually $10 for a ~10kg box) and the pet meat place at Glenorchy near the dog track sells a decent range of mince mixes and bones. You could also mix raw with kibble- plenty of people get good results doing that. You could just measure out.. say, a quarter of a day's worth of Ziwipeak and then top up the rest of the diet with raw. Alternatively, if you ever come up to Launceston, there's an amazing pet meat place just near us- if you ask for it, they'll get it for you. I was getting huge sacks of fresh, green tripe for a couple of dollars (until I misplaced my most awesome boning knife) and they also sell organ meats, a huge range of minces, lots of different types of bones/meaty pieces and homemade treats. Raw can be really easy if you know where to look :D

Hygiene aside, collecting protected species (which is most of what we have down here) is not legal. The only real exception there is species listed as vermin (hares, rabbits, feral cats, etc) but those animals rarely appear as roadkill anyway. Having said that, putting aside the hygiene issue is a dangerous and very stupid idea, even if you were able to find vermin species to collect. Would the average person know how to inspect as carcase for hydatid cysts, for a start. If you couldn't identify those cysts, you definitely shouldn't be feeding your pets wildlife that you've scraped off the road. Game meat is absurdly cheap and plentiful down here anyway so there's no real need to risk health and safety foraging from the side of the road. Back on the actual topic.. FANG, I've read through the article about inulin and there's a lot of guessing and no actual evidence of any harmful effects. Just the website itself immediately makes me wary (sensationalist and out to sell something) so I wouldn't be relying on data collected by someone with any motivation other than expanding our knowledge of nutrition. If you absolutely don't have time to feed raw (I feed raw for five large dogs and it takes me an hour per week to prepare 35 meals so it's not that time-consuming), I'd suggest Ziwipeak or something similar. Anything is going to be harmful if you feed to excess- I'd spend less time worrying about the effects of minor additives and more time looking for something that your dog likes and that he does well on. Those are the things that actually matter.

If you can't be bothered reading things properly, perhaps you ought to refrain from commenting? Also, do you not think it's a tad hypocritical to whinge about being attacked and then.. attack someone?

Didn't bother to actually read that too well, did you? Let me explain it for you.. for the second entry for SBT, there's an asterisk against it (you know, one of these -> * ). When we look down at the bottom of the list, the asterisk is explained as.. This means that the fifty one SBTs were identified as crossbred and so not included in presumed purebred numbers. If you bothered to actually read it properly, you would have noticed that several breeds are listed twice to include crossbreeds- six others, to be exact. Almost half the breeds listed.

Retain the packaging and you should be fine. We've brought over dogs and never needed a vet certificate, just proof that it was done. When we fly dogs over, we get the transporter to tape the Drontal packaging to the crate so that it arrives with the dog.

It's not so much the potential side effects that are the concern, it's the high risk of antibiotic resistance developing. That problem is already fairly serious in humans (with things like MRSA) and that's just from use of ABs for legitimate medical treatment, not pointless cosmetic use.

Especially not the Devonport branch of the RSPCA. Not a nice place.

We've actually had a fair bit of interest recently, after a few months of things being quiet.

I think some people just honestly don't know what to look for. I'll admit I've become wary of helping out other groups as the last transfer we accepted had tapeworm, ringworm and KC. The KC he was supposed to have been treated for (but he still had it) and because they didn't inform us of the ringworm, I had to boil/bleach/F10 everything he'd touched and then watch the other dogs like a hawk to make sure it didn't spread. It ended up being a VERY expensive exercise and could have been entirely prevented by the dog being quarantined before the rescue sent him down. Personally, even though we don't have much space, I don't have too many problems. Greyhounds have always received at least a C3 so never had parvo here. I check for worms/fleas before the dog is allowed past the second gate and if they do have worms, they toilet on concrete until they've had at least two goes through on two different brands of wormer. KC is something we've only seen once and that was from the dog mentioned above (all the other dogs were C5 vacc'd so it didn't spread). Dogs generally stay on our property until we get the C5 done, even if they've had a fairly recent C3. I'm paranoid about contamination so I keep a calendar in my dog room with marked dates for worming/flea treatment and each dog has its own folder containing its vaccs card and any health notes. Frankly, I'd be mortified if a dog I was transferring to another group was found to be carrying anything. I wish I could be surprised that other people don't feel the same way but.. I'm not that naive.

Surely keeping your cat contained within your own property would prevent this? But there aren't any laws stating that cats HAVE to be contained to their own property... stupid, I know, but that's how it is. Keeping your dog from exercising it's prey drive in a public place is probably the best bet - whether that be a muzzle or other device, so be it. T. Obviously. But accidents can and do happen. Sure they do - but we can minimise their occurrences too. If your dog is likely to home in on a smaller animal as prey, then maybe a muzzle in public is a worthwile investment... and that way accidents are less likely to happen, yes? T. Again, obviously. But a muzzle only goes so far in stopping a dog from hurting another animal and if it fails to protect a roaming cat, the dog owner still ends up with their dog declared dangerous (that's the law here, anyway).

Surely keeping your cat contained within your own property would prevent this? But there aren't any laws stating that cats HAVE to be contained to their own property... stupid, I know, but that's how it is. Keeping your dog from exercising it's prey drive in a public place is probably the best bet - whether that be a muzzle or other device, so be it. T. Obviously. But accidents can and do happen.

I could not disagree with you more. Generally speaking, it's a completely different thing. Dogs chase cats because of prey drive, there is no aggression behind it at all and the dog is just as safe as a dog that will chase rabbits or other small prey species. If you believe that cats should be regarded as dogs, would you be okay with cats being PTS if they were caught killing other animals? As an owner of dogs that would kill cats if they got the chance, every walk is a risk for us- most cats owners let their cats wander and I've had several close calls with cats dashing out of driveways past my dogs. If you give more than half a sh*t about the safety of your animal, don't let it wander to start with?

Exactly, it's like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted. Councils don't enforce the laws now, which is why there are still dog attacks, enforce leash laws & proper fencing, dog attacks would drop significantly. I'm also for people having to get a license to own a dog. If I had one wish.. We see it all the time at the area we walk- there's a fenced offlead area about two minutes walk from the carpark, the rest of the area is onlead as it's also a native water bird reserve but people get out of their cars (right next to the multiple signs about dogs being leashed) and let their dogs off, as if the law just doesn't apply to them. Sick of seeing it, sick of my (leashed) dogs being rushed, sick of hearing "oh, he's friendly, he just wants to say hello" as their dog starts to posture at mine

I took that to mean that she "fled the scene" but by walking away, if you get what I mean?

I think it has the potential to be a very good piece of legislation, depending on how it is enforced. As has been said already, owners are the ones at fault so it makes a lot of sense to punish owners, provided they've been given an opportunity to learn how to be a better dog owner. If that fails, go ahead and ban them. Of course, in some cases, I think an immediate ban is appropriate (like the staffy/pom story) because it showed a level of negligence in regards to public safety that can't be excused. The laws would mean that the average dog owner has to be more careful about what their dog does in public but frankly, I feel that's a good thing- there are plenty of clueless average dog owners out there who make walking dogs in public (especially dogs who need a bit of space), very unsafe and unenjoyable.

There'd be some pretty strong evidence to that effect, I'm sure. Personally, I'd like to see not just fines but permanent dog ownership bans so that idiots can't do it again.

I have three dogs of my own (as well as fosters) and I guess it depends a bit on the dogs concerned. I've have seven dogs at one time (mostly fosters) and it's been an absolute breeze because the dogs all got along well and each had a good, sociable temperament. In contrast, I've had single foster dogs who made management very challenging for various reasons. If I was in the OP's situation, first step would be to introduce all the dogs and see how it went from there. Making a bit more time for dogs is easy, managing dogs who hate each other.. not so much.

Once again, sounds like a job for hotwire ;) (it's nearly as useful as duct tape hehe) Very tempting.. only to keep the sheep in, of course

Personally, I think governments would be better off spending money on educating parents and children about why it is not okay for kids to trepass, even for "innocent" reasons. Recently, I almost lost my sheep after the kids next door to the property came over to retrieve a football. The fences are solid (better than a lot of rural fencing) and the sheep had never escaped before. The kids told their parents that they did nothing but get the ball and go straight back over the fence, the neighbour on the other side mentioned seeing the kids chasing the sheep, which would definitely be enough to panic them into going through fencing (we were very lucky that people nearby saw them and were able to catch them and put them back). The same kids have been been getting into sheds on the property and doing other damage. We tried to bring this up with the parents but they were very dismissive of our concerns "oh, kids will be kids, no harm intended". If one of my sheep had been cornered with no way of getting past, he would use his horns and very possibly injure a child. Unfortunately, sheep aren't covered under insurance so I would likely have to pay any medical bills for them, even though they were trespassing and caused the injuries anyway. Way to teach children to be responsible for their own behaviour. Legislating away the need to be responsible for one's own actions does not seem like a wise idea and has some very nasty potential ramifications.

If state and local government simply withdrew funding, there'd be no need to sack anyone- the RSPCA Tas would be forced to fold. Frankly, I don't think that'd be a bad thing, either. They are notorious for wasting money (on anything but animals) and not seeming to give much of a sh*t about animals generally, fobbing people off at the expense of animal welfare. A good example was the wallaby hit and injured by a car only a few hundred metres from their shelter down south. Did they send someone out to grab the wallaby? Not their problem, apparently. The RSPCA is for all creatures, great and small except wallabies. And brushtail possums. And pitbulls. And feral or unowned kittens/cats. And greyhounds. And horses. And other livestock. And injured native wildlife. And so on. typo

I haven't tried the vetbed gold (couldn't see enough difference to make me want to cough up so much extra) but Petz Central down in Hobart were selling it. They've sinced closed down the web store but I think you can still email them orders http://www.petzcentral.com.au/products/Vet-bed-Gold-%252d-White.html Before they closed, I used to buy a fair bit from them and they were always really good. Their vetbed was pretty pricey (for the large amounts I need) so always got it from Peperoni instead.

Enabler *fist shake* Although maybe I did need some more anyway.. :rofl: :rofl: Maybe I should ask for commission :) Ordered myself some of the charcoal with grey swirls :D We're having a really awful winter down here- half the house is draped in vetbed so that no hound need ever have a cold bum.

Enabler *fist shake* Although maybe I did need some more anyway..