mushka

At $12/night I'd be worried I was seriously underpaying and that therefore you wouldn't be taking good care of my dog. $12 is very cheap.

Could you see another possible perspective on this: a woman was outside with her little dog and a couple walking their reactive dogs approached the house, the little dog displayed a typical territorial response and the reactive dogs started growling and lunging, little dog's owner chased her dog and restrained it whilst the reactive dogs were not removed but instead held on-leash continuing to lunge and growl. The reactive dog's owner then had the audacity to complain that the little dog was not on leash on its own property. I'm not faulting you and I understand it is difficult to walk reactive dogs but I just wanted to provide another viewpoint that might help you understand the other dog owner's response.

I'm also looking forward to an Australian-made grain free kibble.

I hope Missy is feeling better today. I'd also guess that the meal was too close to training time -it might have been te car ride rather than the exercise that upset her. I feed my dog at least an hour in advance of training/exercise. I'd also feed a smaller and much simpler meal eg. 2 chicken wings. I balance meals out over time so a smaller meal is fine.

You can do raw without a food processor. The method is going to depend on what style of raw you want to do. The Tom Lonsdale method is based on RMBs or whole carcasses and does not involve any vege purees: http://www.rawmeatybones.com/petowners/feedyourdogrmb.php Vets All Natural is a muesli grain-base that you just add meat-mince to. http://www.vetsallnatural.com.au/ I do a BARF style of feeding that does include vege purees but the veges are only about 20% of the diet. And I use a mix of fresh, frozen/thawed and cooked veges as well as soft fruit and sa small amount of VAN muesli. The freeze/thawing and/or cooking breaks down the cell walls so most of the stuff I use could probably just be mashed rather than processed. I do like to puree liver though as otherwise my dog picks it out and leaves it on the lawn.

I've been making up raw food for my dog for the past few months and been surprised at how cheap it is. Do you have a Tasman meats anywhere near you? Tasman meat regular prices: chicken wings or chicken pieces $3/kg, chicken carcases $2/kg, lamb ribs $4 kg, beef mince $4/kg, chicken liver $4/kg. And I also check out the reduced for quick sale buys which are always good. This is all human grade meat. The only other dog food items I buy are the cheapest cans of salmon and frozen spinach from ALDI and roo mince $8/kg from woolworths. For the veges I just save freeze all the leftovers from our meals and salads and then add the spinach.

Thanks for the succinct reply. I feel a bit foolish for needlessly obsessing. I don't think freezing kills hydatids though.

I just read the heartworm thread and was reminded of a slew of questions about hydatids that I've been meaning to ask for a while. Does anyone have any numbers on how common hydatid infections are in sheep, dogs and/or humans in mainland Australia? Is this something that really only affects farm-dogs and hunters-dogs or is it a general concern for any dog eating offal? How concerned should I be about hydatids when feeding a raw diet to my dog? Do those of you feeding RAW feel comfortable feeding raw sheep/beef offal from a human-grade source? And what about commercial BARF patties - do they somehow guarantee their food free of cysts? I have lots of little children hugging and snuggling my dog on a regular basis and I can't count on them to not lick their fingers afterwards.

Gorgeous video.

200 ml of water weighs 200 grams. So, 200 g of VAN + 200 ml of water = 400 g.

I am considering using the CM as the vege component of a BARF diet. If my dog has a morning meal of CM/meat and an evening meal of RMBs would this still be considered a balanced diet? So, I would half the CM/meat amount recommended for the day and feed about 300-400g chicken necks/wings in the evening (20 kg young dog, using the puppy mix)?

What is the ingredient list for the "premium choice" adult mx and how is it fed? How much product/water/meat would be combined for a 20 kg dog? This info doesn't seem to be on the VAN website?!

we went there. It is very good. The instruction is one-on-one. The area is all off-leash and unfenced but it is a very large area and all the puppies get separated out and have plenty of space.

We would maybe be interested in a meet-up. We're in Mordialloc. 3-month old poodle & 3-year old daughter. But we can only do weekends.

I am trying to decide whether to have my dog insured - the policy I am looking at would cover illnesses and injuries not routine vet check-ups or vaccines. Can anyone give me an idea of how much they have forked out in vet fees at one time and then later been reimbursed by insurance? I am trying to decide between taking out a policy or just banking the fees against any future mishap.

I've had Hanu and now have Juno. I really like Loki.

Okay, so opinions were mixed on my canned food question - thanks for all the replies. Here's my next question: can anyone recommend a grain-free food dry or canned that is Australian-made? And further to this, what do people think of grain-free dog food? The argument that dogs don't need grains makes sense to me but then all the grain-free dog foods contain potatoes as the carb and I'm not convinced this is any better. I am feeding a large-ish puppy and she gets 50% raw but I'd like to have some sort of commercial food as the other 50% just to make sure she gets all the nutrients she needs to grow healthily. When she's adult I will probably shift to 100% raw along the lines of a BARF-diet.

I should have mentioned that I am considering canned food as part of a diet that is about 50% raw so the canned food is for variety. I don't think kibble is better for teeth than canned food - it just seems wrong; do your teeth feel cleaner after eating biscuits? I'd accept that kibble gives a better jaw work-out. I guess I am wondering whether including canned food is any better/worse than including kibble or if its the same thing just in a different format with a higher price tag? Thanks for the heads-up about Nature's gift, I'd never heard of it. I'm currently feeding Optimum which definitely stinks, and am considering switching to a better brand like Canidae or forgetting canned food altogether.

As far as I can tell, they are not available here. I thought I'd bump this in the hope that someone will see the interest and either start importing it or (even better) make an Australian version.

So, would a high quality brand of dry food be expected to have an equally high quality of canned food? I.e. Are dry food and canned food fairly equivalent apart from the water content?

I've seen a few posts about people not feeding canned food, so I have a question, why not? Is it just the poor value for money or is there a reason to be more suspicious of the ingredients in canned food versus dry?

You can try boiling water with a squirt of detergent - follow the ant trail and pour it directly into their nest.

Hi, I took my puppy in for her puppy vaccination and got a bit overwhelmed with flea/worming options. I chose Sentinel chewables to cover everything but I think the vet preferred the yearly heartworm injection and separate worm and flea treatments. So, what does everyone else do? Do you use preventatives or do you treat if you see evidence of a problem? Do you treat for heartworm in winter? Do you use monthly heartworm treatments monthly or on a 45-day cycle?

Is it okay if I download soem of these photos (and maybe post them in the poodle thread?)

Loving all the photos. We had a great day. Juno is all tuckered out and put herself to bed early tonight.