sllebasi

This thread is keeping me in stitches - just what i need these school holidays

i am pretty sure that they are poisonous - or at least shouldnt be eaten. under the child care regs, we are not allowed to have it in our play areas. same with the sheenas golds and geisha girls, both the seeds and flowers are poisonous.

thanks for those messages and pms. this person is a professional and and expert and has many years experience, but was just looking for another contact as importing them has not worked.

i have a friend with two shepherds who is interested in training them for drug detection work,scent training. as 'drugs' are hard to come by, are there any training methods or alternatives that can be used to train particularly the youngest who is just 12 months old. is pure bred shepherd but is small for her age as are her siblings - wont be any good in the future for guard dog work although is currently training and does 'work experience' as one

i would definitely love to be involved and that 12 month timeframe would work in perfectly with me. thanks heaps again for the opportunity

Have also nominated, would love to be involved in this project. Todays homework actually was to find out about courses and how to do it, and also to look up how to be a wildlife carer as well. Is there a time limit as to when I need to be doing practicals, looking at moving to farm, acreage in approx 6 months/12 months, although I could start helping out now. Was very moved by the story of the paraplegic man whose dog was fostered out while he was being rehabilitated, and thats exactly what I want to start doing. (Is there any extra subjects etc, which will also involve horses, and other animals?) Thanks heaps for this opportunity

she is going on 11 years and she cant have red meat so thats why i thought maybe the chicken carcass would be the way to go with chicken necks and turkey necks on occasions as a special treat. took the potato off her, would be happy to take the sweet potato off the menu as well if the general feeling is that it is loaded with carbs as well. am home all day, and the neighbours arent so know that is not a problem. this is probably a silly question but are there any calories in fish oil and flaxseed oil - could this be a contributing factor? weighed her again today and she is 22.6 kgs. have also started walk first thing in the morning, meal at around 9.30 and then another small walk in the afternoon to see if that will help (have noticed that she is not moving too well this arve though). really really need to drop some kgs before the summer kicks in when its too hot to move am more than happy to hear of any other suggestions or ideas.

no hasnt been on steriods, was on anti inflammatories for a week, but that was a month ago now. she basically has one chicken thigh and 1 cup of sweet potato, carrot and cauliflower a day. alternatively she has 125 g tuna with an egg and some veges (broccolli, pumpkin, zucchini), recently started chicken carcass but have cut them in half. is also going for 1 1/2 km round trip walk most days (have just increased this - have had big problems with arthritis) am not sure what else i can do and can hardly reduce 1 cup of food a day any further

my dog has been tested for various things, the vet has seen what foods (she asked to see how much and variety) i feed my dog and i have also given them an exersize log to see - there is no reason for my dog to be overweight and i am trying to get the weight off her, thats why i was asking why would there be a sudden and excessive weight change within two weeks, especially when i thought we were on the right track after the first week, only to be disappointed with the third week.

from my experience ticks can start as small as a pinhead but then they get bigger as they feed off the dog. you have to press down reasonably hard while you are feeling over the dog and they used to feel like a hard firm mossie bite so you will need to make sure you check in between the pads of the feet, and other small areas. I like advantix for where i live as they do paralysis ticks (according to the info i have) a bit better than frontline.

Just wondering if a dogs weight should change suddenly and all over the place. weighed my 10 year old staffy/kelpie x dog at 22.2 kgs so reduced some food and started longer walks. took weight again a week later and it was 21.8kg so have kept doing that but this week when i weighed her she was 22.7 kgs which is a bit ridiculous as i would like her around 17.5-18 kg. nothing has changed this week that could affect it

so sorry to hear about this incident. i agree with the others and not let this issue slide, particularly with the council. i had an incident a few years ago where 2 american red pit bull terrier attack myself and my dog, managed to get away from situation and when i rang the council they were out here interviewing me the following day and took photos and a statement and i think the dogs were put down the same week. have a feeling though i was complaint number 4 or 5 though cause as soon as i said the address (not even the number) they knew exactly who it was.

i am going to try on the weekend a whole roasted sweet potato and see what my dog does to that - hopefully she will treat it like a bone as she cant have any red meat bones at all (beef, roo, lamb, pork) if that doesnt work it will be back to the turkey necks.

i was wondering about the pureed bit too, i alternate my veges in between grated and cooked or pureed or chunky just to make her work at eating. my dog is a garbage guts too so i like to change it up a bit for her

haved moved her meals to closer to 1.30/2.00 pm for now, will slowly reduce that further so that its earlier in the day - will help immensly when our summer hits us. used to make chicken stock iceblocks for her so will now give her meal in morning and then the iceblock in the afternoon - sounds good enough for me she is also just on the flaxseed and fish oil at moment - very very happy with them for now. at the stage where i want to try and drop her down a capsule a day to a more maintainence level of maybe 3 of each per day or even 2?????? will wait and see i guess on how she progresses. what is a reasonable weight loss for a dog - i know people its about 1 kg a week - is 500 gr a little too much too quick?????

We have lost 500 g in the past week, have taken pasta and rice off the menu for now, and we have managed to go for some slow walks up to 1km round trip which is a massive improvement to what we could walk two weeks ago. she has either chicken breast or salmon plus her usual veges of a night, will give her chicken necks next week for something different. am very happy with progress so far.

how about beans - baked beans, kidney beans or all bran, either mash beans up into existing meals or add bran. i make all bran muffins for my dog and she loves them

is it true that in qld that it is illegal to keep rabbits without a license and there are guidelines as to only one pet being allowed???? i would be more inclined to use more roos though i do have concerns on occasions about parasites

as the topic description says i am looking for a good quality wet and dry food to store for emergencies (cyclones, wet season, power outages etc). my dog is normally fed homecooked meals. would prefer a vege based product or something that doesnt have red meat in it (lamb, pork, beef, kangaroo). anybody know of any websites i could look up or any brands? thanks

would love to take her swimming and she would love it too but i dont have access to a car and no swimming areas around here (will wait till wet season and then she can go into creek) vet just suggested to reduce her feed and walk her more, will reduce chicken by another 1/4 and see how that goes and that will get her close to the 1% of body weight. thanks for the suggestions on no pasta/rice or potatoes - had been wondering about the potatoes

i have a 10 year old staffy kelpie x who has always had difficulties with weight. she gets one meal a day at 2 pm which consists of 150 g chicken breast (no skin or fat) or small tin of salmon, and a cup of veges (whatever i have - carrots, potato, pumpkin, cauliflower, broccoli, zuchini) and 1/2 cup of pasta or rice. she used to go for 2 x 20 mins walks a day, but lately has had lots of difficulty with arthritis in one leg and not sure what she has done to the other, but has been limping, so walks have been few and far between - only just really started with 150 mt walks. she currently weighs 22.2 kg and would really like to get her down to 17 ish and i think this will really help with arthritis etc. i dont feel she is eating too much and with her limited exersize at the moment maybe need to cut down a little - any suggestions on how to get a few more kgs off her. thanks ps forgot to add she cant have red meat and have started her on flaxseed oil and fish oil which appears to be working well

thanks for that, am thinking will stick to chicken and fish as well as rice, and veges which seems to be working well with her. i make her own treats for her like all bran muffins and oat cookies, frozen bananas are another treat, but i was just looking for something else and making sure that it was as well rounded a diet i could get. was a little worried about lack of iron, but will start giving her an egg a week and i have just remembered she gets a fair bit of spinach so perhaps i should stop worrying so much. has started limping in last three weeks but am thinking she has hurt herself jumping as she is pretty much back to normal now - am loving the fish oil and flaxseed oil and so does she.

thanks again for the info. Naturally I would never do anything intentionally to harm my dog. It looks like I might have to do some more work, felt like I was on the right track keeping food diary and monitoring and changing the diet.

my baby has had pancreatitis about four times, the last attack was christmas 2008 when she had vomiting for 24 hours and ended up in hospital on drip etc. since then she has been on mainly chicken, fish plus rice and veges and has not had another attack yet. if someone gives her some meat scraps the next day she will start limping - it seems to be relatively instant. it may just be coincidence, but when i started writing a food diary and and was noticing symptoms and when they appeared it seemed that it was after a bone (was able to give lamb neck chops for a period of time until she started vomiting approx 1/2 hour after bone) or after drontal and/or heartguard. the vet told me that red meat can make the dogs form crystals and this is what gets into the gut and into the joints and causes all the problems. i may be wrong about some of this info, this is my first ever pet and am all ears

Thankyou for the information - will take it all on board.