sandgrubber

In kennels I find that dogs who won't eat raw foods are often happy to eat them when they pinch them from someone else (little buggers). Once they get over the initial prejudice, they usually take to it big time. Could you convince the dog that the cat is getting the stuff and allow her to pinch it from the cat bowl?

In my kennel I find that many 'little fluffies' go mad over chicken carcass IF you first smash it to bits with a meat cleaver. I prefer to start with carcasses because it's much clearer what you're feeding. I think some places, perhaps some Lennarts branches as well, throw the skin and fat into the mincer, which could end out with a pretty fatty mess. Not to mention guts. As for cooking Lennarts mince, I beg to differ. The problem with cooked bones is that they splinter. If they are previously ground reasonably fine, I think that takes care of the splintering problem. (Happy to be corrected if someone has evidence to the contrary.) I am more comfortable with cooked chicken mince than raw -- particularly for pups -- because chicken is notorious for carrying Salmonella.

I don't understand why you want to blacken snow nose. It is deceptive to do so if you are showing and you could get thrown out of the ring. They should evaluate the dog, not the dog's makeup. I can see no health benefit. But then, I myself don't wear makeup and I can't see putting it on dogs. Different strokes for different folks :rolleyes:

In my experience, "kennel cough" might better be called a "doggie cold". It's a virus, and while you can ameliorate the symptoms with various concoctions to soothe the throat and make phlem come up easier, the infection doesn't respond to treatment. It may open the way for bacterial infections -- which respond to antibiotics (Vibravet preferred, except for puppies). In many cases it isn't serious, and if symptoms remain mild, I wouldn't bother with the vets (but I've got nine dogs and a boarding kennel, and am in regular communication with a vet who often advises me that treatment is not necessary and "let me know if it gets much worse").

I have had pups GET kennel cough from the C5 vaccination. . . and pass it on to the next litter. But on the other hand, I C5 all my dogs regularly, and the pups didn't pass it on to the adults. That's something. I wish someone was doing quality control on K9 vaccinations. Can you imagine the furor if school kids caught full-blown measles from their measels vacs?

"Vets" are an extremely diverse group of Homo sapiens. Some of them know more than others :rolleyes: Some of them were asleep in class when the one lecture on canine body weight was given or failed that part of the exam. To my knowledge, there are no institutions in place to ensure that vets do learn the things they didn't pick up in their short time vet school.

Pumpkin got Kennel Cough from her 12 week round of vaccinations. From there the virus turned up in the next litter of pups, starting when they were 5 weeks old. Lark, who comes from the affected litter, is now 13.5 weeks old and still coughs a few times in the early morning. No other dog on the property has come down with KC though I think some unvaccinated dogs have been exposed. (I run a boarding kennel and recommend C5 but will accept C3). Question: Is Lark still contagious? Can she go to puppy training classes?

I don't remember exactly, but it was around $3 including GST (they quote prices without GST because they sell wholesale). They have beef, mutton and roo.

I have an 11 yr old Sibe in the boarding kennel who loves Mandarins. They haven't killed him yet. Also had a tenant whose dogs used to eat not only the oranges and date palm fruit, but also whole LEMONS with no apparent bad effects.

There's an active thread on cheap dog food meats in Perth. . . lots of good SOR suggestions.

South St has always been a great source, but not always the cheapest. But if you're feeding one or two dogs, low prices are good enough, you don't need to travel distance and buy 20 + kg at a time for rock bottom prices. Leonarts is often the cheapest source of chicken frames. Phone ahead and have them hold them for you. Different branches have different prices/availabilities. Better Pets and Gardens gives discounts to registered breeders, and is often very competitive with City Farmers for a lot of things. I haven't tried them for meats. City Farmers isn't bad for mince. Jurien Pet Foods mince is top quality, but they have a minimum of 40 kg and they have just upped their prices.

Where are you in Perth, and how much do you buy? There are a couple outfits that deliver to the kennel areas . . . varying products of varying quality. Even if you don't live in a kennel area or buy 20+ kg at a time, you can often get a breeder or kennel manager to add a bit to their order and on-sell to you.

Sounds to me like you've got the bases covered. YOu didn't mention the obvious . . . fever, lethargy, looking sick. If she seems to loose the fighting spirit, doesn't eat, or otherwise changes behaviour, I'd be in touch with the vet, pronto.

My first girl got a localised deep pyroderma. Nasty. Scary. A breeder suggested putting her on BARF diet. Six years later and she's never had another serious incident. Or perhaps I've gotten better at dealing with the problem. At the slightest sign of pyroderma on any of my dogs, I get out the clippers and leave a bald spot around the patch and pour on whatever I've got on hand to get rid of bacteria and keep the area dried out.

I think the quality of the walking is as important as the distance. By all means, avoid forced walking. And avoid things that will cause them to jump and twist, particularly on hard surfaces. My pups start going ~ 1 km at 6 months and by a year they're going 3 or more km. They also play a lot of dog tag on two acres of sand. The last four sets of hip/elbow scores I've gotten are 2:1 h 0:0 e, 2:1 h 0:0 e , 3:1 h 0:0 e and 3:1 h 0:0 e. (Most of these are improvements on sire and dam's scores).

I have a 70 kg mastiff X doberman in the boarding kennel who would like to come and join your digging crew :rolleyes: . He's gotten down about 800 mm and the trench is a metre or so long. That's the main trench. There are several others.

I worry more about what shape the dog is in than about how much I feed them. If the ribs and waistline have disappeared, you're feeding too much. Labbies, if allowed to call the shots at mealtime, tend to become blimp-shaped. This is not good for their health. If you can see the individual ribs, a bit more food wouldn't hurt. My big Labbie boy gets one and a half largish chicken carcasses a day, plus two carrots or equivalent fruit/veg, plus a handful of dry biskets (soaked in chicken blood) plus some nutritional supplement -- and if he's lucky a small oily fish or some yoghurt or an egg. The chicken may be swapped for some other raw meat with bone. Your boy may require more or less food than this . . . but it may give you an idea of how much should you move to a BARF-style diet.

Provide a digging area for your dogs. It should have soft soil and be in a shady position and stay somewhat moist in summer. You should be able to train your dogs to constrain their digging to that area. People think dogs like grass, but many of them prefer sand. Avoid rounded pebbles for mulch. Many dogs will swallow them. My eight dogs do not bother the cactus garden much (large cacti). Agaves also survive without protection. Protect young plants or you will never see them grow up.

I, personally, would avoid anything that contains more than 2% salt.

Labrador not eating is an abnormal situation. Labrador too fat is all to common. How old is he or she? How long will he be staying there? How lean or fat was he when you left? Is he showing any signs of distress or ill health. If if it's a stay of a few weeks and he's otherwise well, I wouldn't worry; if he's got a bit of fat on him, a period of not eating may do some good. He'll eventually eat whatever. I agree with others about canned food vs dry food vs wholistic diet.

I was told that working them out in dry sand can also help. Not that there's dry anything around here these days.

It depends on the dog (eg, possible allergies or digestive problems), the dry food used, and the mix of fresh and dry food . . . among other things. For my money, chicken carcasses or meaty frames are preferred because they give a better balance of calcium to potassium (ie bone to meat). . . and it's nice that they're dirt cheap. If they're too big for your dog, get a good meat cleaver and whack them to bits. I use a supplement that's high in zinc and other trace nutrients . . . feeding beef won't up the selinium which is commonly deficient in diets, so might as well up the whole lot together. On the other hand, the greyhound racers down the street feed just beef muscle meat and their dogs aren't short on bone and seem to be tough as nails.

carrots are another good fill. My dogs love them raw . . . hence I don't bother with pumpkin. But the basic way to get a dog to loose weight is to use a balanced diet, and keep reducing portions until the dog starts dropping weight. Good luck on the epilepsy thing. Hope it turns out to be a passing worry.

Like others, fish are good, but I'd be concerned about the salt if you feed enough of them. Also about the price. Strong smelling, oily little bait fish -- eg mullies -- are even better. You can get them frozen for a relatively cheap price.

There's no such thing as "The Barf Diet" . . . it's about like saying "The Chinese Meal". BARF is a style of feeding carnivorous animals, not A diet. Try google'ing the word (add 'dog' to your search terms to avoid getting a lot of vomit references). You'll find lots of suggestions. I feed BARF style . . . the local butcher (or Leonards) is a good place to start, and the markets for fruit and veg. The stores that other people have listed will stock some of the secondary things you may choose to add. But unless you want to pay as much for your dogfood as you would for barramundi steak, I'd suggest using chicken frames as a main staple and building from there.