mademoisellemika

Natures Gift & My Dog gets my vote(s)!

I met someone at the dog park during the weekend who loved his pet loo. Got me interested as I'm in an apartment but I was worried about the smell... now that some of you are saying that it does stink up the place, I'm very reluctant to blow hundreds of dollars for it and decided to stick with the training pads (they don't stink one bit!!!).

Try boiling the chicken breast with carrots, pumpkin, abit of chicken stock + sea salt - my girl loves this! :D

omg Archie is gorgeous!!

I always boil chicken breast with carrots, pumpkin and abit of cabbage... feed that mixed with rice and it never fails to do the trick!

I gave a teaspoonful to mine, stuffed in a puppy kong. She was only interested in it for 5 minutes! I tried giving it to her a week later and she was not amused one teeny bit

Yep That's what dogs are meant to do- consume bone/meat/skin/tendons etc from their 'prey' Phew!!!! Now Mika can get her bones more regularly now without me praying that I won't murder my girl each time.

Thanks for the replies so far Mika is my first pup... I almost got a fright when I gave her a raw wing tip to chew on and after chewing on it for almost 10 mins, I turned around and it was gone! I wasn't too sure whether it was okay for them to eventually consume the bones... She had no problems then (this was 2 months ago when she was 3 months old). Last night, I gave her another chicken bone to chew on and after a few minutes, it was gone again (this being a bigger bone)! I would like to let her chew on bones quite regularly but wasn't sure that when people say they feed their dogs raw meat on bone, do they mean that they also consume the bones eventually...

yeah I was sent a sample pack of Artemis and I was SO happy that my girl liked it at the start but after the third/fourth/fifth/sixth time of giving it to her, she refused to eat it. arghhh

Hello everyone... would like to get a general feel of how many owners here are comfortable with their little ones swallowing raw (chicken) bones?

Mika has been out and about since we got her at 8 weeks of age. For the first few weeks, just on concrete areas outside. We also attended puppy pre school at the start but stopped going as we don't think it was enough socialisation for her (only 5 mins of play each time!) and we got bored of the classes. When she had her 2nd vac, we started walking her around the block on pavements... staying away from grassy areas. Then we went all out with her when she had her 3rd Mika is now growing up to be a very confident pup and she doesn't seem to be too scared of bigger dogs (she's a small breed) - definitely attributed to us socialising her everyday... whether it be taking her to the market (we carry her before she was fully vaccinated), going for short car rides, we bring her out in her crate and just let her listen to the sounds, slowly introducing people to her etc I also received really good advice from the people here in terms of socialising my girl. As they pointed out, it's too important during her age to keep her "quarantined" at home (our vet was also against Mika going out until she's fully vaccinated).

my pup goes CRAZY over boiled chicken with a lil bit of stock. ABSOLUTELY CRAZY!! She also loves yoghurt drops n carrots!

I thought it was complete rubbish when I saw the ad! The dogs and cats looked so.... "hynotised"... esp the cat! I bought the PedEgg and am so annoyed that I wasted money on that. I trim my pup's nails when she's asleep

I give my girl raw bite size carrots and Yip Yaps - http://www.ozpetshop.com.au/product_info.p...roducts_id/1025

Hi everyone! I just want to give you a positive update on lil Mika But firstly, thank you to all of you who gave us advice... it was very well received and we appreciated all the comments. Mika is growing up as well as can be expected. She is still on the breeder's kibble of choice - Hill's Science (we bought a 3kg bag). At the start, she would only eat once it's been soaked. I mixed it occasionally with beef mince, green beans and carrots. Now, she loves her kibble dry (so much easier!!). She's just over 9 weeks now and steadily putting on weight, as a growing pup would. As training treats, she gets carrots (in bite size), yoghurt drops and now Artemis kibble which she loves (I'm using the sample pack)! We gave her Schmacko's but she wasn't too fond of them but I supposed that's a good thing! She's also not a fan of the Pedigree Puppy Biscuits We're also pleased to let you guys know that she has now trained to "Sit" and lie "Down"!!! After a few mistakes, she now knows where to do her business At night, she doesn't wake us up to go "Toilet" - she sleeps in her pen and goes to her training pad by herself. Needless to say, we're extremely proud of her and fingers crossed, she'll only get better!

My pup (9 weeks today) has grown accustomed to the Simple Solutions training pads - we tend to leave one pad inside her play pen and she never fails to use them. At the beginning, we had to let her sniff the pads for a while and on the first day, she did make a few mistakes by going on the carpet but now we only let her out of her pen after she has peed on the pad. We used to take her out to our BBQ courtyard (we live in an apartment) to let her poo outside and she's very comfortable in going there too... but alas, I think a few people complaint to the body corporate so we stopped doing that. Now, our pup poos on the pad as well (we were surprised!!). At night, she sleeps in her pen and never once woke us up in the middle of the night when she pees because she always does it on the pad! When she's old enough and have had her vaccinations, we will be taking her out for her businesses more often. But yeah, would highly rate the Simple Solutions training pads. $55 for 56 pads through ozpetshop.com.au and we only need to use 1 a day (she's a small breed). Hope this helps!

Hey jin When Mika first got home, she didn't seem to like kibble much as well. So I soaked it in warm water for a couple of minutes and mash it up... as a variety, she normally gets straight kibble for breakfast, a teaspoon of beef mince + mashed kibble for lunch and for dinner, I sometimes mix kibble with abit of mince and vegs (she is taking a liking to carrots n frozen green beans). We vary her meals every day but the base of the meal (like 70%) is still puppy kibble. It's only been a week since we got her so we're still feeding her what her breeder fed her (Hill's Science)... after a few more weeks, I'll be gradually switching to Artemis for her kibble. I've got a sample of Artemis that I've been itching to try out on her :D As for treats, surprisingly she's not a fan of schmackos! We give her yoghurt treats and cold carrots... and of course, lots and lots of love!! :rolleyes:

Yep I second that - Judith sent me a sample pack within 2 days! :p

Thanks for the advice Erny... I guess I'm still not 100% sure when she REALLY needs to go and we live on the 15th floor but what you say makes sense too so I'll ease her gently into going toilet when she's used to a lead. At this point, she keeps biting the lead when we it on her.

Why do you carry her out .... and why in a "blankie" ??? I read somewhere that she'll least likely go toilet when being carried, seeing that she's still so young and her bladder control is not the greatest. Her blankie calms her whenever she goes out (she's still getting used to our place - it's only our 3rd day with her!)

We take her out as soon as she eats by carrying her in a blankie - let her run to us a few times outside and the poop comes out within minutes!

I understand your frustration! Just got our puppy this morning and we've lined up 2 training pads in our apartment - everytime we catch her in the act, we'll let out a stern "No!" and quickly pick her up to put her down on the pad... but unfortunately everytime she gets to the pad, she doesn't seem to want to go. Tried it 4 times and each time half of the wee still gets onto the carpet... :D The first time we confined her to the toilet area for over 15 mins and she still doesn't want to go. Oh well.... hopefully it gets better - she's already napping in her crate!

thanks for the warm welcome, CockerLover! : deleted rant :

I'm really liking the idea of giving her both chicken and beef mince as separate meals to mix it up a little. Guess I'll be heading to the pet store this weekend to get a small bag of either EP or Royal Canin and stock up on 'em chicken necks. Are frozen necks better for the pup?? 7 more sleeps till she's home with us! Thank you all for your suggestions!! You guys have been great with the advice. Feel free to keep them flowing in

Thanks for the suggestions so far @ Huski - She's a Cavalier! Will definitely post some pics up when she's finally in our home. SO excited - I've waited over 3 years to get a dog!!! @ settrlvr - It's just hard and very frustrating in order to decide the diet. I know that everyone will have an opinion and it's just better for me to hear it from pet owners rather than succumbing to the pet foods' marketing ploy. All I want to make sure is to make informed decisions with my pup and knowing the risks - then again, there's only that much preparation I can do prior to having her. Thanks for the advice though. Oh, her name is Mika by the way!