labsrule

I give my boys the Salmon heads as is from the seafood shop and they love them When I buy whole small fish like sardines, whiting etc, I give them the whole fish as is from the seafood shop. ETA - I give them the salmon heads or fresh small fish once a week.

So sorry for your loss of your beloved Lucy :mad Some days are just worse than others and on those day, the grief can really get to you and just be overwhelming and all you want to do is curl up and cry your heart out as you miss them so much. It is hard because you love them so much, you miss them so much, you want them back with you so much To me it is a normal part of the grieving process and it is early days for you, so I feel for you and give you lots of :rofl: Only time will make the pain bearable, but you will never stop loving your Lucy and her memories will be with you forever

So sorry for your loss of your beautiful Shine :rolleyes: :rolleyes: he sounds like he was such a lovely boy and obviously well loved - my heart goes out to you during this devasting time RIP Shine and run free with all those other beautiful retrievers

So sorry for your tragic loss of your beautiful Honey and my heart goes out to you what a beautiful photo, she's a real stunner. RIP beautiful girl and have fun with all the other rotties at

So sorry for your loss of your beautiful Sandy :) and I know you are so heartbroken to lose your loving and devoted companion and friend of over 16 years . She lived a great long life and has left you with such cherished, lifelong memories and will be forever in your heart Time will heal the pain of your loss, but never remove the memories of your Sandy as they will be forever etched into your heart and mind. RIP Sandy

So sorry for your tragic loss of your beautiful Lucy I know how devastated and heartbroken you must be only time will heal the pain, but your memories of your beautiful and well loved little girl, will last a lifetime and she will be forever in your hearts :

My heart goes out to you on your terrible & heartbreaking loss of your beautiful little Boz - such an awful tragedy to be taken at such a tender age, poor poor baby RIP Boz and run free at with all the other lab pups who you can play with until your little heart is content and get up to all sorts of mischief as only lab pups & youngsters can.

Yes, god forbid someone trying to be helpful! I'm not really sure what the point of the original post was? If not to gain some opinions about the diet? I think the point of the original post was to seek compliments on the dog's diet and for all us dolers to be eternally grateful to the poster in being so generous in enlightening us with their expert knowledge on BARF diets as none of us feed our dogs BARF as we are all dumb, ignorant and totally against BARF :rofl: Come on guys don't be ridiculous, why would the poster want opinions, when they know so much about BARF diets and they accuse dolers of being "totally against" BARF Methinks the poster should google the meaning of BARF as clearly they have no idea what it means, having virtually eliminated the essential component of a BARF diet - the BONES which should make up 60% of the BARF diet :rofl: I won't even comment on the rest of Floyd's diet Oh well on the bright side at least little Floyd won't suffer the fate of my dogs and many millions worldwide with their damaged teeth, splintered intestines and bowel obstructions all because their ignorant dumb owners had the audacity to feed them beef bones

At the beginning of February I changed my black labs over to Artemis Fresh Mix for med/large senior breeds and normally they only get fed 1 cup of dry food 4 mornings a week and a variety of raw food for their evening meal on these days as well and on the other 3 days, I feed only raw food for both morning and evening meals. About a week ago, I put them all on a diet as 2 of the 3 needed to lose a couple of kilos each so I put all 3 of them on one cup of Artemis for morning meal and 1 cup of Artemis for evening meal as I find it easier to use dry food when I want them to drop some kilos as easier to measure. Since I have changed them over to Artemis and particularly this last week when they have only been eating Artemis, 2 of them have dandruff and one of these two is quite itchy and scratching himself frequently. I could kick myself for changing over to Artemis as I was just saying in another thread that I had changed from Nutrience because 2 of my labs had developed itchy skin and dandruff and I changed from Nutrience to Natural Balance (not the Dick Van Patten Natural Balance, but the Australian Natural Balance from WA) and found that the dandruff and itchiness had disappeared after a couple of weeks of eating Natural Balance. I thought I would change over to Artemis as had read some good things about it and I went against my own advice in another thread on dry food, where I said if you find a good dry food that your dog(s) do well on, then stick with it and what did I do This morning, I placed an order for 2 bags of Natural Balance and will start the swapover for the 2 with skin problems when the Natural Balance arrives, as I still have a 13.2kg bag of Artemis left so will leave my other boy that doesn't have any skin problems on the Artemis until it is finished and also convert him back to Natural Balance with a half and half until the Artemis is finished. I am extremely disappointed in the results from Artemis as there is so much hype about this food and coupled with the price of $111 for a 13.2 kg bag plus $7 postage, I definitely did not expect such a poor outcome with the itchiness and danduff in 2 of my labs . At least with Natural Balance, I know the itchiness will disappear after a couple of weeks and the cost is much lower at $76.00 for an 18kg bag and $6.00 for delivery no matter how many bags I order. I will not swap dry food again ( why oh why did Nutro have to be banned , my dogs did brilliantly on it). I will probably also increase their raw only days from 3 to 4.

Yes they do, they eat everything with both the salmon heads and whole fish :rolleyes: the eyes only bother us humans. One of my labs dropped one of his salmon head on the lawn and it fell neck down with the head facing up and my boy was licking the salmon's lips, it looked like he was kissing the salmon, so funny, wish I had a camera at the ready

Yes - thats from salmon from the Pacific Northwest of the USA The salmon we get here is fine Exactly. It amazes me that people quote/link to articles that are not applicable in Australia and end up scaring dog owners unnecessarily.

Salmon heads are for real dogs only you know the large gutsy ones that have real jaw power like my Labs for example when I introduced these to my boys it was a scream watching them tackle them. Fitzy, no problem, as he just loves chomping on bones and has a real strong jaw so knew he would have no problems with a salmon head and he didn't. Thomas, who isn't allowed animal bones due to a gastropexy, took to the salmon heads with relish and was so good to see him lying down chomping away for ages on this salmon head, took twice as long as Fitzy to eat but he loved it. Tournie didn't quite know what to do with it and had a nibble here and there and kept rushing up to the door and giving me that look, mum how am I meant to eat this I ended up having to cut his up with a cleaver, more like hammer it as it was bloody tough to try and cut through. He didn't finish his off completely, so gave the scraps to the other two, but now he tackles the salmon heads no problems, must to the others disgust, as he doesn't leave them any scraps now . I give my boys either salmon heads, whole sardines or whiting or any other small fish that is reasonably priced once a week also.

so true

Hi Labsrule, out of curiosity what are the other symptoms of bloat? Is there always repeated attempted vomitting? Check out this website it has a fair bit of detail on symptoms as well as causes of Bloat and yes as Stormie has stated, attempted vomiting is the most common symptom: http://www.globalspan.net/bloat.htm

No you haven't misunderstood, as one of the main symptoms of bloat is that they "Attempt" to vomit and are usually unsuccessful and this can occur every 5-30 minutes. "Unsuccessful vomiting" means either nothing comes up or possibly just foam and/or mucous comes up. There are many other symptoms, but I am only responding to your query re vomiting.

These are the ratios from Dr Billinghurst's book"The Barf Diet" The overall BARF diet should contain: 60% raw meaty bones - these bones can be Beef, Lamb, Chicken, Pork, Kangaroo, Rabbit etc 15-20% fruit and vegetables 10-15% offal 5-10% human food scraps and/or other supplements ETA How Much to Feed: Adult - Take 8% of bodyweight as a starting point for really tiny but active dogs and work towards about 3% of bodyweight for large and active dogs. On that basis, the Total amount to feed daily would be as follows: 1-5kg - feed 90 - 350gm 5-10 kg - feed 350 - 600gm 10-25kg - feed 600 - 1100gm 25-50kg - feed 1100 - 2000gm Above is a rough guide or starting point only. Every dog is different, feed what you need to maintain your dog at a healthy weight. Older inactive dogs may require less and younger more active dogs may require more. Average weight of a chicken wing is 85gm & Average weight of chicken necks is 42.6 gms

I got the Aussie one, but thought it was the DVP that was why I ordered it and when I got it and there was nothing on label regarding DVP, I found the Natural Balance website. As mentioned in my previous posts, when I tried Nutrience, my dogs got really bad dandruff which has since cleared since they have been on Natural Balance, but I have also increased their raw food as well. That is why I say, if you find a dry food that your dogs do well on then stick to it as different dogs seem to have different results on the different dry foods. I am still pi$$ed at not being able to get Nutro which my dogs did extremely well on, beautiful shiny coats they all had .

I purchase from this website s they have fantastic pricing for flea and heartworm products: http://www.pricelesspets.com.au/natural_balance.php3 I have copied the following from their website in regards to shipping Natural Balance as I note you are in SA, so you will need to contact them: Super Premium, Regular Energy, Human Grade Quality Lamb & Rice Available to all customers in Queensland, New South Wales and metro Melbourne. For all other customers could you please contact us to discuss freight arrangements LabRat - out of interest what price did you pay for the 15kg as Priceless Pets is still $76.00 which is what I purchased my bag for a few weeks ago

Really sorry to hear your 15 year old GSD boy is not well and is in hospital. Thinking of you both and sending lots of healing vibes and thoughts his way. :cheer: I know how worrying this must be for you. As our dogs get older, we are reminded of their short time with us and our need to treasure every day we have with them.

So far so good and the dandruff that they had whilst on Nutrience has actually gone since they have been on the Natural Balance I actually stumbled on Natural Balance by accident thru the Priceless Pets website that I purchase Advantix and Heartguard thru. Apart from the following info they had on their website about this food, it is also extremely well priced at $76.00 for a 15kg bag and I didn't have to pay any extra for postage as I had ordered the Advantix and Heartguard and the postage for those item is their standard $6.50 regardless of the weight. Super Premium, Regular Energy, Human Grade Quality Lamb & Rice Available to all customers in Queensland, New South Wales and metro Melbourne. For all other customers could you please contact us to discuss freight arrangements. We usually can supply High Energy and Lite Energy as well. Price, postage, bag size etc. are all the same. Simply manually adjust your order form if you require. We have made this food available on our website because we know no better food. We know of three other super premium foods which are of similar quality but they are over $110 a bag and the bags are a smaller weight for example only 13kg compared to 15kg. * Has your dog got funny skin? (itchy, scratching all the time, chewing paws, has hair loss, hotspots, dull coat, other skin problems) * Has your dog got funny ears? (flicking its ears, smelly ears, moist, waxy or sore ears) * Has your dog got a funny tummy? (soft motions, wind, bad breath) * Has your dog got funny waterworks? (urine smelly, contains blood or kills grass) Then use our dog food recommendations! After I received the bag and was doing some more internet research, I realised I should have ordered the Lite Energy, but wasn't overly concerned as I only feed my boys 1 cup of this 4 days a week as their morming meal and raw for their evening meal and raw only on the other 3 days as I have in the midst of changing them over to 100% raw when I finish the current bag. However, I am tossing up whether to purchase a bag of Lite as a backup, particularly for one of my boys that is not allowed bones and in case I ever run out of raw food or forget to defrost . Also will probably be a good idea to give my other boys infrequent feeds of the dry in case I have to go away and leave them in kennels.

What sort of complications? and what do you mean by "unbalanced natural diets"?

Thanks for the advice, as I said I'm new here and only realised how much info there is on this subject when I did a search! I have read that some people have probs with Eagle Pack so not sure about that one. Going to try the cat on Artemis soon and was thing I might get Kei a small bag when I order and see how he goes... Right now he is doing well on Nutrience (seems to like it) Just opened another 20kg bag last night so we will need to get through that before making any major changes. Just want to give him the best we can My advice is if you find a dry food that your dog does well on, then keep your dog on it. Over the years my dogs have been fed on dry and raw and I have progessively increased the amount of raw food they have. The best dry food they have been on is Nutro which was banned last year from being imported into Australia and since then, I have tried different types of dry food, including Nutrience because they had a senior large breed type with a large kibble, but unfortunately my dog's coats suffered with dandruff and itchiness whilst on Nturience, so have had to change again to a different brand Natural Balance. I am so sick of researching all the various dry foods and having to chop and change to find one like Nutro that my black lab boys did so well on. I have now decided that after this current bag of Natural Balance is finished that I will go to 100% raw. You will find heaps of info on dry foods in this section, but also lots of conflicting advice as well, so that is why I say, stick to a dry food that your dog does well on. The photo of your pup is gorgeous, he is extremely cute

I feed my dogs separately to allow them to eat in peace and hopefully slower without the others hanging around. I have on the odd occasion fed them together in different areas outside and they have been very good in that they don't try to take each others food, but they tend to woof it down that much faster, probably concerned that one of the others may try to get their food . I have greedy labradors and whilst all my boys get on fantastically, I know that if there was ever going to be a fight, it would be over food, so I just don't give them any opportunity. Saves my dogs and myself any potential grief. When I give them treats, I do give at the same time, albeit in a particular order and I always try to make sure it is not in a confined space and two will take them outside to eat on their respective favourite parts of the lawn and the other one, I take outside with the treat still in my hand and give to him outside on the patio, otherwise he will just eat his inside, as that is his favourite spot ;)

Some Preventative measures for Bloat: * Feed the dog alone, in a quiet area. * Split the daily diet in two meals a day, in order to avoid the stomach to be too much dilated. * Choose a high digestible diet that will be distributed in smaller quantities compared to an ordinary food. * Choose a food presented in large croquettes, in order to slow down the ingestion. An object put in the middle of the plate can act the same way, because, it obliges the dog to turn around to be able to eat. * Slightly rehydrate the food before feeding. * Respect a 2 hour resting period after each meal. Physical activity when the stomach is full can make it move. Moreover, stress inhibites the emptying of the stomach. Also there are these bowls available at the following links which will slow down their eating. http://dogpause.com.au/catalog/Products-3-1.html http://www.petsplus.com.au/pet-shop.asp?id=1437 I have ordered some from dogpause.com.au for my Labradors, two of which eat extremely fast, one of these fast eaters has already had bloat, prior to me adopting him and has had a gastropexy, but I am very conscious of bloat and try to follow the above preventative measures, particularly feeding dogs separately so they don't feel compelled to eater faster and I also feed two meals a day to ensure they do not get one big meal. I also limit their water intake after meals as one of them (the fastest eater) also has a drinking problem I also never exercise them for at least 1-2 hrs before and after their meals.