Rebanne

Thanks Grossco57 for the offer but all my research indicates that man made food is not natural and that is what I prefer to feed my dogs - natural food that they evolved on.

dog biscuits are not natural, they are human made. Dogs fending for themselves in the wild do not find biscuits scattered around for them to eat. My dogs are fed raw meaty bones every day and get cut marrow bones about 3 times a week. Never had a problem. They also get the occasional pig ear but they are very fatty so it is a rare treat for them. I have been feeding a raw diet for over 11 years now with no problems related to the diet.

Stormy I was so sorry to hear about Angel. I thank you and your family for wanting to take her and spoil her. I'm sure she knew she was loved even from afar. Sweet is the sleep that ends all pain. Run free Angel with all who have gone before you and tell Sam I miss him.

Tatum is 10 months old and never had a proper bath. Her coat is beautiful (long coat GSD), no smell and she sleps on my bed most nights at the head! Piper and Emma would have been bathed sometime at the height of summer. Emma is the only dog I have ever owned who has a doggy odour. She has it all the time including straight after her bath LOL

Animals adopted from animal shelters do not automatically contribute to the large amount of unwanted pets. Bad owners do and thye do not adopt from shelters! There were very, very few animals that were not desexed at the required time at the shelter I managed and I was there 10 years. Most pets can come home the same day they are desexed. I understand why shelters do the early desexing but I don't agree with it and got my 2 kittens from a "free to good home". Getting a pup or a kitten from a shelter is no longer possible for me because of the early desexing. My vets do all the shelter's desexing but they don't agree with it.

On the container of joint food powder that is my choice for dogs it clearly states that it can't be used in orange juice or other acid juices. I always fed the vit C at a different meal and just used human tablets broken up.

Acupuncture can be a good help too. My GSD had gold beads inserted into her acupuncture points which gave her constant pain relief. Zoe also had human joint food powder and for the last 3 years of her life 1 or 2 disprin a day. We practicually live at the chiropractor but it all helped her get to 11.

Not so according to Billinghurst himself. I have lent out my copy of his original book so am quoting from memory. "Egg white does inhibit the uptake of Biotin. The good news is the yolk is full of the stuff so overrides the the egg white. Feed the whole egg and your fine." or words to that effect.

I fed/feed Tatum a mixture of raw chicken parts, lamb bits, offal, tinned mackeral, beef heart, minced beef/chicken, eggs. I also bought one 4 kilo bag of supercoat puppy as she was used to that in her diet. Once it ran out that was it. She also got/gets small amounts of vegies - both cooked and raw, rice, pasta, fruit and left overs.

Totally agree Louise. I will re read the book, it's been a couple of years since I last read it but I didn't think it was for me I have a Piper too, but mines a boy

I've got this book too, haven't read it for a while, must re read again soon. How closely do you follow this book? I thought it a bit hard to do what was suggested. Goats milk for breakfast, burying the meat etc. How have you adapted it for more "modern" times? Would love to know.

Darien it depends who you talk to or what you read. Some will say no commerical food while feeding raw, some say half and half is good, some say never cook, some say do. Your diet is not the diet I would feed but it appears to cover all bases. Even though I feed raw I also make up cooked stews in the winter time because I like too! I still think the best thing people who ask about BARF can do is for them to join the list at Yahoo, the big one, can't think of it's name. And keep reading. I no longer consider I feed BARF but more the Prey food model, different again, but I read as much as I could and made my choice. edited to add: my freezer played up yesterday so what have my dogs just got to eat? Some breadrolls and some hash browns! and there is more stuff for later.

Opps, I knew my maths would turn around and bite me! Sorry. It certainly shouldn't be any more than this IMO.

Hi Fin, IMO only, I think having half and half vegies/necks at the night meal is out of whack. Trying to add up all the amounts and it seems your boy's vegies count for nearly 1/3 of his meals. This is too high for my liking. When I fed ah la Billinghurst my dogs got a vegie meal every 3rd or 4th day, pups every 3rd or 4th meal. Often less. But if your pup is doing fine, and your breeder is happy, don't worry, Just add more meaty bones as the pup grows without upping the vegies too much. edited to add: try joining a barf list too. Lots of support.

12 years old today. RIP my sweet Zoe 27/01/93 - 3/2/04 My heart and soul dog

I had the kennel cough seperate to the C3 and it cost $40 each dog.

Had two dogs done with it before boarding them, no apparent problems.

I personally don't use either product. I don't like using stuff that does everything in one hit. I prefer to spread my chemical usage, if needed, over time. I use a basic monthly heartworm, appropriate worming, and flea treatment as needed, which is not often at my place. Don't know why I don't have a flea problem but I don't

Have you tried digetive enzymes? Not sure if they would help or not.

Rewards are part and parcel of postive training. You can not train positively without giving the dog some sort of reward. You can however train negatively and give food as a treat. Plenty of the jerk and pull brigade think they are training positively because they also give out a bit of food occassionly. Postive training is way much more than offering a food reward, it's a lifestyle! And yes, our dogs are our guinea pigs. We improve with each and every one of them.

I must be a dummy because I thought food rewards was positive training along with any thing else the dog values. If the dog is still reliant on food way off into the future than the food has not been used correctly. Same if it only performed if you had a toy in your hand, or continually told it what a good dog it was. You have to educate your dog to keep doing what you want it to do and if it does this, sometimes it will get a reward, sometimes it won't but the dog keeps working because it wants that reward, and sometimes you pay out! The dog never knows when you'll pay it so it keeps working.

My greyhound lasted 3 weeks after being diagnosed with bone cancer. Sam was 8 and had a strong family history of it. I opted not to treat it except for painkillers. When the painkillers failed I had Sam put down. If it ever happens again I will have the dog put down straight away. When the pain killers failed, they failed in a big way. Just stopped working. I would never ever again put a dog through that. Many, many greyhounds have had this awful disease and a lot have survived for 12 months or more with good quality of life. Some dogs have chemo, some have amputation, some have both. And some, like my Sam, have none. It is a personal desicion and not an easy one. You can only do what you think is right for both of you. I wish your friend the best of luck, it will not be an easy time for him

not on the prey diet they're not :rolleyes: Reasoning being if you feed grass fed animals to your dog, they get what they need from the meat of said prey. You are right though in this, my mistake; in the original book it is stated 2 or 3 vegie meal, in a 2-3 week span, 1 or 2 milk meal, grain meal in same time frame. Big difference from nowadays.

You don't have to feed vegies. I don't, I just feed raw meaty bones, liver, hearts, tinned mackeral eggs etc. Only vegies, rice or pasta my dogs get nowadays are left overs from our plates. If you read the original book by Billinghurst, vegies were not fed every day. This is something that seems to have crept into the barf diet.

But my dogs are fully immunised. My vet agrees. They just don't get yearly boosters nor do they get kennel cough. Kennel cough doesn't cover all the varieties that are out there, only a couple of strains, as far as I'm concerned it just like a flu shot. And some times vaccines fail. No one can guarentee their dog is 100% fully vaccinated against disease. Tatum is in a different boat all together because of her vaccine reaction but as she is not trialling etc I don't have to worry about it.