For dinner last night, the two girls consumed a 5 lb roll of AFS meat between the two of them, with the kids’ dinner leftovers on top (eggs, pancakes and a little bacon). As long the items fed are in moderation, leftovers are fine to feed. For supplements, I added Vit C, Vit E and Fish Oil. They haven’t normally been eating quite that much, but Kizzy needs to gain a few pounds right now so I feed extra of the things they really like.
They had a light breakfast of one (tom) turkey neck each. For dinner tonight, they had ground hamburger (split about 3.5 lbs), sliced up lamb liver, 1/2 can of Tripett each and a couple heaping tablespoons of plain yogurt. Same supplements added.
For breakfast tomorrow, they will each get one can of Salmon, one can of Tripett and some leftover chicken & noodles that have been sitting in the frig.
In effort to give people an idea of what a raw fed dog might eat, I’m going to try to make frequent postings on my dogs’ meals.
This morning for breakfast, Skyy ate a pork neck bone and Kizzy ate a pork neck bone and a turkey neck. I don’t weigh RMBs (Raw Meaty Bones) any longer, but imagine Skyy’s meal was about 1 lb and Kizzy’s was about 1.5-2 lbs.
For dinner, each dog had a can and a half of beef Tripett, mixed with 1 lb of a beef organ mixture (heart, kidney, liver) from My Pet Carnivore. I added one raw egg (shell included), Vit C, Vit E and Fish Oil to each dog’s meal.
Dinner:
For tomorrow’s breakfast, I have pork ribs thawing on the counter.
Keeping your dog’s nails short is good for your dog’s foot. Long nails can cause discomfort for the dog and be hard on your floors or furniture. Not to mention they hurt like mad when the dog steps on your foot!
I use a dremel to grind my dogs’ nails. I like the dremel as I’m less likely to injure the dog (quicking the nails with clippers can be a bloody mess) and the nails end up smooth. I picked up my cordless dremel at Target for around $20. Use the course sanding head.
There are now specific dremel tools for doing your pets’ nails. It isn’t necessary to get the pet-specific tool, although if they’re price comparable, there isn’t anything wrong with them either.
I have to charge the battery immediately before use (I plug it in the night before I plan on doing nails), in order to make it through both dogs’ nails. I also find that I have to replace my dremel about once every year or so as the battery gets to the point it will barely make it through the job. I’ve thought about going to the electric variety, but like the freedom of the cordless.
To keep the nails short, I do nails about once a week. If your dog currently has long nails, you won’t be able to get them short in one sitting, you’ll have to make the quick recede over a period of time by doing the nails more frequently, every 3-4 days.
When dremeling the nails, keep in mind that the friction will cause heat to build. Use a tap-tap method on the nails and be mindful of the heat.
To start, I dremel off the ends, taking the desired length off of all of the nails on one foot, similar to if I was using a nail clipper.
Notice how the end of the nail is blunt
Then, I go back to each toe and smooth all the sides:
In the end, you’ll have nice, smooth short nails! They look nice on the dog and help prevent injury to their feet – and yours! (Please disregard Kizzy’s dirty feet – we had just come inside from a run in the field!)
The Expo was a lot of fun. Lots of different booths and lots of people in attendance. The girls both got to work for rescue by wearing donation collection vests (made by a creative rescue volunteer!):
The dogs thoroughly enjoyed all the attention lavished on them by all the people. They were tuckered out by the end of the day!
Bree was tired, too, and convinced her mom to become a human dog bed:
You can purchase foods for your dog’s raw diet anywhere, so if you do happen to forget to lay something out in advance, a quick trip to the store can take care of the problem.
The drawback of picking things up from the grocery store is the cost. It’s cheaper to buy in bulk.
Here is the meal my dogs ate this morning:
Sometimes, like this meal, I’ll pick up something from the local grocery store to offer something different than what I have in the deep freeze. I purchase beef liver in bulk, so my dogs haven’t had chicken liver in awhile.
I try to vary the things I feed my dogs, although I find it easy to get stuck in ruts of feeding the same things over & over.
I don’t know what (if anything) chicken gizzards offer for nutritional value, but it’s something different (and the package also contained chicken hearts). Liver, of any sort, is very important and needs to be fed the most frequently of any organ meat. Heart is actually a muscle meat, although it also contains taurine (something vitally important in a cat’s diet).
Between my two dogs in this one meal, they ate the whole 3 lb roll of hamburger and a 1/3 of each of the packages of liver and gizzards/hearts. Because I wasn’t feeding any bone in this meal, I didn’t want to feed too much organ meat as it could cause a little too loose of stool. I repackaged and froze the other 2/3’s of the hearts/gizzards and livers.
My dogs detest the texture of most organ meats, so I chop them up and mix them in with other food.
chopped up chicken liver
I could try holding out, to see if I could force my dogs to eat the liver without cutting it up, but it isn’t a huge deal to chop it up and mix it in with something else. All of my dogs have been the same way about the texture of organ meats.
If you’re new to raw, you might find that your dogs have preferences for various things. If your dog balks at eating certain things, try feeding them in different ways before completely giving up on the item. For instance, try room temp or nearly frozen.
Keep in mind that the meal pictured above does not contain any bone. It’s fine as a meal (not every meal has to be balanced), however bone is critically important in a raw diet. I could not feed only this to my dogs.
The dogs’ evening meal was one large (tom) turkey neck each.
Update of my broken leg: I’m out of my boot and healing well! For the most part, I walk with only a minor limp and it’s getting better every day. Doc says it won’t be “completely” healed for another few weeks and I’ll have to deal with swelling for quite awhile. All in all, I was very lucky to have avoided surgery.
I got a call last week from a production company, interested in having a harlequin Great Dane in a commercial spot they were filming today. We discussed the particulars, the production manager viewed pictures of Skyy and it was agreed that she would fit the bill.
The script was that Skyy would be sitting by her “owner” and a small dog would come into the scene, bark at her and “scare her off”. The “owner” then looks surprised at why her big dog suddenly ran off.
The set was done up to look like a park, filmed in front of a blue screen that will (from my understanding) become a park background during the editing process.
Skyy was such a good girl! She was extremely patient and tolerant of all the people, the small dog (who vocalized to her that he was very, very tough), the camera, the lights, etc.
Her job was mainly sit-stays and a “look down” (to appear she was looking at the small dog), then the running out of the scene. The two dogs were filmed separately and the scenes were combined in the editing process.
Our biggest challengewas that they wanted Skyy sitting facing one direction and then to run out of the scene the other direction. Because I had to stand behind her to call her, she ended up twisting her head around to watch me during her sit stay, which didn’t work for the shot.
The “look down” was comical, as she mostly ignored the distractions trying to encourage her to look down. We resorted to throwing treats on the ground!
All in all, she did a wonderful job. Her solid temperament really shinned to be able to take all that in stride!
The commercial is for MetaBank and will air regionally.
It was certainly an interesting experience! Hopefully her new found fame doesn’t completely go to her head. Excuse me, I must go now…Her Highness is currently resting and has requested steak for dinner. I mustn’t keep her waiting!
I’m trying something new this year for heart worm prevention and giving liquid Ivomec to the dogs. It’s substantially cheaper than Heartguard or Interceptor, while offering the same protection.
After having my vet perform a heart worm check on both dogs, and having it come back negative, I purchased Ivermectin from Jeffers Pet Supply (1% Iovmec). Ivermectin is the active ingredient in Heartguard. I also purchased needles & syringes from Jeffers to be able to draw out the correct dose.
I made the mistake off purchasing the 200 ml bottle, hoping it would last me several years. However, the expiration date on the bottle that I received is in 2010. Next time I’ll be purchasing the 50 ml bottle, which will be able to treat both of my Danes for the entire HW season.
The Ivermectin is stored in my refrigerator and the dogs are dosed every 30-45 days. To dose the dogs, I’m calculating 1/10 cc per 10 lbs. of dog weight. This is given to the dogs orally.I draw the solution out of the bottle with the needle & syringe and then either take the needle off and squirt it down the dogs’ throats or add it to a treat and then give it to them.
Please note:Ivermectin can not be given to certain breeds because of a genetic defect in the mechanism that prevents drugs from building up in the brain. This mutation is recessive and is called mdr1-1Δ. The normal gene that protects the brain is called MDR1. There is now a commercially available test you can do on your dog if you’re unsure if they have this sensitivity – Multidrug Sensitivity in Dogs. They list the most commonly affected breeds as:
Australian Shepherd
Australian Shepherd (Mini)
Collie
Long-haired Whippet
McNab
Silken Windhound
Earlier this summer, I broke my little toe while walking the dogs in my new Vibram Five Finger shoes (which are awesome). I had commented that was my first broken bone inflicted by the dogs. I should have knocked on wood or thrown some salt over my shoulder.
Late this past Wednesday, I took the dogs for a run in the pasture behind our house. We had been gone most all day and the dogs were extra exuberant. In fact, Joe and the boys weren’t even home yet as they spent the night at resort a few hours away but I had come home early so that I could make it into work the next day.
As I walked down one of the hills, the dogs were playing with each other and came roaring down the hill. Straight towards me. I noticed too late and they plowed straight into the back of me, taking me down hard. My right leg twisted behind me . As I lay on the ground in the dark, howling in pain, the dogs circled around me trying to tell me they were sorry.
It took me several minutes and many attempts, but I managed to stand up and hobble the very long trek back to the house. I then I called a friend to take me to the ER. X-rays showed that I had two spiral fractures in my fibula, one near mid-calf and the other just above my ankle. Of course I’m on crutches as I can’t bear any weight on the leg.
A visit to the orthopedic doctor the following day was good news in that I shouldn’t have to any surgery. The bad news is that since it’s my right leg, I can’t drive for the next 6 weeks. Work is still questionable as the doctor hasn’t released me to return yet. I have to go back to see him in a week for more x-rays to check on the healing progress.
I like the dremel as I’m less likely to injure the dog (quicking the nails with clippers can be a bloody mess) and the nails end up smooth. I picked up my cordless dremel at Target for around $20. Use the course sanding head.
Notice how the end of the nail is blunt
