Tigey

hi! I know what you mean! My mastiff was only 6 mths old last year at the walk, and walking him with my rotti x was exhausting this is the first year ive met with people i dont know so far ive said meeting at the end of coode street, a little north of the path below the boat shed http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=218140029171662368379.0004a293715fc7e6d8be3 we're meeting up with a lab & retreiver and a bunch of french mastiffs so look for those doggies! will try and remember a time, still unsure of that yet

Hi, any other mastiff owners want to meet up for the Million Paws Walk on 21 May? I have a small social group of mastiff owners, consisting of mastiff x, dogue de bordeaux and english, but interested in any mastiff we also meet up for BBQs and doggy play dates. anyone else from DOL who would like to meet up is also more than welcome

well we can only get a 900g tin of divetilact. with my husband's staff discount we could get it for $30 (though the orders arent coming in till tuesday so till then its $45 a tin and it lasts 2 days max) whereas 1L of longlife goat's milk is $5 from the supermarket. according to the instructions on divetilact solution B is 200g per L, so that's 4.5 litres for $45 of divetilact. or ~$19 for 4.5L of long life goat's milk or ~$16 for 4.5L of fresh goat's milk. i am tired, so i could be wrong. maybe if we could buy the divetilact in bulk, but we cant. they are eating the kibble, but if i put down a bowl of hydrated kibble and a bowl of milk, they'll go to the bowl of milk. im sure the situation would be different in a week

yep from what i can see goats milk is just goats milk so i'll give that a go when i picked up a tin of divetilact yesterday the vet nurse who breeds labs was chatting to me about the messy feeding.. she suggested baking dishes, but that isnt really working they are silly little things. they stand there and cry for my attention because they forget that there's a huge dish of milk there. ive even seen a few of the puppies pushing their paws in and out of the kibble mush massaging it like mum's teat, trying to get the milk out that it was soaked in

i posted in here with questions about feeding and nutrition. i was asking a question about goat's milk. i know they need to be wormed, i know they need food, i know they need vaccinations, i know a litter of puppies costs money, i know the mother needs extra food. i care a ridiculous amount for these puppies. i'm going to cry my eyes out every time one leaves. however, our plan of using divetliact until they're completely on kibble is too expensive and a lot of people have said they used goat's milk anyway. so before i give something to my puppies i source as much information as i can. is it fresh? is it powdered? is it from the supermarket or pharmacy? is it sold specifically for babies and toddlers in a formula or is it plain milk? can they drink it in the same way as divetilact? and thank you persephone, that is a neat idea.

in the end i wasnt comfortable with them being outside at this age so we are bringing them inside at night.. and of course we wouldnt put them outside if it was too cold. i should mention that when our mastiff was a puppy and being kept outside it was an incredibly hot summer. goats milk... is this powdered or the stuff that comes in the bottle fresh just from coles etc? if we keep feeding them di-vetilact we'll go broke with the amount they're eating now it seemed mum just had some sort of 12 hr bug, she was fine after the first dose of antibiotics i just wanted to make sure we werent doing something wrong with them getting covered in food, but if thats standard then okay we're worming them on saturday when my husband goes back to work to get the worming meds. mum was wormed a few weeks back we're incredibly lucky - my husband works at a pet supply store and a friend works at vetwest nextdoor and we get discounted vet bills. we get 20kg bags of puppy kibble for free

they are mastiff/rottweiler/bullmastiff. i posted in the breeder forums about 4 weeks ago for advice. i think they were slurping rather than lapping at 2 weeks. but boy do they make a mess they're so eager, they get covered in it. they climb in the bowl and then climb over each other, making it worse. thats why i hope they'll munch on the hydrated kibble. we have them in a puppy pen in the lounge during the day and a puppy pen in the bedroom at night to contain the mess. so maybe better to let them roam free in the lounge so they have better access to mum? i give batches of 4-5 during the day to mum for about 30 mins at a time. we were planning to put the 2 pens together and keep them on the back patio shaded by tarp after that so they could go to the toilet on the grass. that's how our mastiff was raised and it was a breeze toilet training him when we took him home

yep we've gone through kilos and kilos of it. i'll see if we can source a 10kg tin, biggest we've been getting is 2kg for $50 might see if they'll eat the soaked kibble without blending it, i think my blender is about to die. it feels like it took ages for them to learn how to lap the milk rather than choking on it. this morning they dove into the bowls of milk/kibble and took me half an hour to towel wash/dry them all (and now im late for work) also how long does it take for mum to dry out if no puppies are on her?

yep we supplement mum with the puppy formula too with eggs and yoghurt as well, she loves it. cool thx for the replies

thanks, had a feeling it was about time. hubby works next to a vet and he's popped in there today to see what they say too. the tinned food is nutro, apparently one of the best and specifically designed for younger puppies and to mix with puppy formula. its 75% water i read in other posts in this forum raw wasnt good for young pups? or is that just straight raw. anyways we have another 2kg of di-vetilact to keep us going.. we used so much we had to source from 3 different vets lol. i dont think we'll use cow milk at all though we soaked the dry and then blended it after and added even more formula but they must have been too young and yep, weeing a lot, pooing a lot. *edit: you're right about the tinned food by the way

Hi - wasnt sure whether to post here or nutrition, but anyway. I have 13 puppies who have reached 3 weeks old today. Mum has had enough of them already and barely tolerates even 1 pup on her. We tried blending puppy biscuits and mixed it with puppy formula and puppy tinned food but they just sucked the milk out. They will however eat the tinned food & milk until they fall asleep with their heads still in the bowl. She recently fainted from exhaustion and had a tummy bug with a fever, she is having a very hard time. Just wondering when is a good time to start feeding them hydrated biscuits as well as the tinned food and when to stop giving them to mum altogether? We have been bottle feeding them all twice a day since birth but when it's time to go on mum they never get enough - we put 4-5 on at a time over about 3 hours. Thanks

i completely understand the concerns of professional breeders and fully expected such replies. i have been to my vet several times for advice ans xrays but the advice he gave was nowhere near as knowledgeable as the advice i have received here, mixed in with whatever else was said. i have already said im getting her desexed after this and i regret i didnt put my foot down with my husband when we knew her heat was coming up i would rather put up with things like people calling my beloved family member a mongrel and receive excellent advice from other very helpful people than not post here at all. i have obviously misunderstood the forum notes when it said "anyone can post here but only registered breeders may reply" i myself disdain people breeding purely for money but i can assure you this is not the case, and believe me finding good homes for these guys is a concern but i would never ever dump the responsibility onto someone else. i appreciate this has happened a lot and its a serious problem, but theres no need to classify me straight away with those people just because my cross breed got pregnant unplanned. i considered aborting the pups but im sorry that's something i simply dont believe in thank you again to those who have given me great advice. your experience is appreciated

butcher pet mince is always different, depending on the butcher. if the stuff you get is boney then by all means do not cook it. i serve/mix the meat with my hands and have never felt anything to worry about from the stuff i get from my butcher and have never had problems. this is a personal choice though

i totally feel your pain. mine wont touch his biscuits at all - i have to mix something else with it, such as canned food or cooked pet mince. its recommended he gets 6-10 cups but he eats about 2 with meat. we've mentioned this to the vet and he isnt underweight; you can easily feel his ribs but they arent sticking out in my opinion its not whether or not you SHOULD be giving her other food as to whether you want to. i feed mine chicken carcasses in the morning and biscuits/meat at night. i cook my meat to get a lot of the fat out of it, as pet mince from the butcher, especially chicken, is loaded with fat. Advance is a decent brand so she'd be getting a lot of nutrients out of that. you could try giving her a 15 minute window to eat her food and then take it away (i feel the same way as you though, im nervous my puppy wouldnt reach his optimal weight and size so i dont do this but i know this has worked for others) if you feed her twice a day feed her the 2nd time at night when you eat. sit down and have a few bites, then give her her food as if you were in a pack: you eating first as the leader and then her. this worked a little better with mine, especially since they'd start drooling over the smell of my dinner. they'd then realise they were hungry and go eat theirs. then they'd eat the rest overnight if they didnt finish. and yes, i wouldnt be surprised if she had a little more growing to do

well we have the air con on full blast as well as 2 other fans going, one pointed at her favourite couch. its relatively cool in the lounge. she pants constantly regardless of the temperature - its more her size that seems to make her so uncomfortable. but for random reasons she would go lay in a hot part of the house but then come back after a while and yes, she is incredibly barrel-chested.. her nickname is barrel with legs. gave her some ice to chew on but she wasnt interested.

funny you should say that because on the first Xray he couldnt see skeletons, so from the size of the uterus he predicted 10 puppies, and she is rather large. only from the second xray a week later he counted over 6 skeletons. what makes you think 10? we are friends with the vet nurse at our vet and she gave us the emergency card of the best emergency vet in our area my anxiety is more about her timing, as we have something happening on friday and it would be the worst timing in the world if she went into labour then.. but i am more reassured from the info i have received here that she has more than 3 days left now. so thanks again this heat is not helping, its over 40 degrees here today.. looks like she is so uncomfortable being so large, she just lies there panting all day and i feel bad for her because she just looks so tired

yeah, its odd because he actually likes his feet being played with, likes shaking paws and what not and always lets me wipe them with a towel when he gets sandy yes it my bullmastiff x that is the one having the litter and no i didnt get some very friendly responses but i needed advice wow people really read through these forums. both dogs love sleeping on their backs too. i've gotten them once or twice while asleep but its like they've developed a 6th since when they're sleeping now. i will try the treats/peanut butter, thanks

Thanks for the quick replies. Yes, this is my bullmastiff x rottweiler bitch; she is 3 years old. We did try to keep them separated but this being her first heat (she has gone on heat like clockwork every 6 months) since we got our boy her timing was a little off and we turned our backs for 5 seconds and we have a small house... Yes, i did realise this is a breeder's forum but read that anyone could post, and where better to get the info than from experienced breeders? As I said, this was her first heat (she skipped one, must have been because of when we bought the puppy) since we got our boy. I stupidly listened to my husband when he said he wasnt old enough to know what to do. She will be desexed after this. i also forgot to mention that the room where we built her nesting area is half full of storage and we couldnt sleep in there if we wanted to. from all the helpful answers ive received it looks she has longer than the originally predicted 2 days left, especially considering the extra 2-5 days for time to conceive, id still feel much more reassured if she slept with us every night as usual and have her nesting area in there i read about the temperature indications and mentioned that to our vet but he dismissed it casually saying we should be able to tell from the milk coming through and nesting behaviour. from her Xrays the vet estimated at least 6 pups, possibly 7 if there are some hiding behind the others. i realise a non purebred pregnant bitch would probably make a breeder's skin crawl and to be honest i was nervous about the answers id get, but thank you for the advice, i appreciate it. i tend to get slightly detail crazy from my anxiety

i could be wrong, but we're pretty chatty with our Lenards manager because we have similar dog breeds, and he has told us the chicken mince is just ground up chicken carcasses what i do anyway (cos my mastiff is so freakin fussy) is cook the fat out of it. you can then see how fatty it is. would be good for a puppy though pretty sure it would have all the nutrients in there too. we mix in puppy biscuits (which he wont eat on their own) and tinned puppy food and sometimes human grade beef bought in bulk our butcher does beef mince, not sure what goes in that but the Lenards manager said that it bulked up his mastiffs way better than the chicken mince, more protein i suppose

Unfortunately my mastiff never got used to us clipping his nails and now it's barely possible. He is 14 months old but starts struggling and whines like a 2 month puppy whenever I try to clip. same goes for my bullmastiff x rottweiler.. who puts up even more of a fight at 40kg any hints/tricks? or are they destined to have 1 inch claws? good thing he is too big to jump up and she has grown out of jumping up...

Hi This is my bitch's and my first time with a litter of puppies. I have read ridiculous amounts of material, watched videos and have spoken to my vet several times. I started taking some medication around the time my bitch tied with the male so even though I wrote it down I'm finding I doubt the due date i calculated, even though the vet calculated the exact same day. I'm very nervous about when she's going into labour, so just wondering: How long before she is due do the puppies start moving? They started moving about 5 days ago (so gorgeous!!) Is it one day or a few that milk is able to be squeezed out of her nipples? Do dogs ever go past their due date or 63 days? Her front nipples, only just enlarging a few days back, arent nearly so large as her back, which hang down - do they stay like this or is this an indication she still has about a week for the front nipples and glands to enlarge? I set up her nesting box in her own room but I was a little surprised to read that people sleep next to the nesting box, but considering the possibility of her rolling on top of the puppies it makes sense. She is a large breed so that is a dangerous risk, and a first time mother, so I'm considering moving her nesting area into my bedroom. Is it too late for that? She doesnt go into her nesting area now by herself anyway because its a spare room we used to just keep closed.. she is SO attached to me that she follows me where ever i go. She is under my desk at the moment. And how long, if at all, does the male need to be kept away from the pups? He is quite young himself, only 14 months (we were surprised at how well he picked up mating.. this was unplanned because we thought he was too young) I have read about/asked these questions already but want to be sure sure sure to feel better. Thanks