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My dogs refused to eat it.

Thanks Persephone. I know it’s off topic but yes, still enjoying her camping trips. Loves going in the car. We went away last weekend and friends came with their 12 month old kelpie x border collie Max. She loves him and they had a ball. Still a young one at heart

Oh my! She is doing so well, still enjoying her camping trips etc I have never thought of her as 'old' .

We always took our collie to an off leash park - in Scarbs - and it really helped her (and our previous dog) learn social skills. Occasionally dogs would snap at each other, but generally people understood and managed it. It wasn't actually until we moved to the Wheatbelt for a while where our dog lost some of her social skills, and from the age of 5+ she definitely gets intimidated when certain breeds of dog approach her or puppies which are a little too much. Most of the time I can pick up on whether she's about to snap, although a few times it's been unavoidable - usually when a younger dog really gets in her space and the owner has no control. Maybe I'm a little irresponsible, but most of the time she's very good off the lead and will avoid dogs she doesn't like. I think from what you've said, if you know your puppy will get snappy after 5 or 10 minutes, then make sure you put him back on the leash and give him time away from other dogs to settle down?

I think most people are finding pet food really expensive these days. Both myself and my partner work so have always tried to feed decent pet food, but definitely feeling it financially a lot more these days than we used to. Even cans in the supermarket are around $4 these days, and I always question how healthy those brands are. We've found Spudshed a good place to stock up on fresh meats, organs, meaty bones etc. Usually organs and more "yucky" stuff is reduced, so that saves money and helps keep costs down.

Hi all, So we've been feeding Eureka a fair bit recently + some home cooked and raw. Due to busy jobs we're looking at adding a more fresh food we can quickly feed and Lyka seems decent. I know the review on pet food reviews is very good but it doesn't really cover much about how people have found it. Does it work out expensive or do you kinda get locked in with the subscription etc? This is the review - https://www.petfoodreviews.com.au/lyka-dog-food-review/

Our cat has Applaws. We feed him lots of raw and other stuff, but in the morning we give him Applaws as it's easy. It's one of the few kibbles he will eat and seems to have more meat than other supermarket kibbles.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you - we have a 3 year old, dog, cat, and multiple jobs! ;) We used Ziwi a while back. Seen a few iffy things about it recently on Facebook, since the company was taken over (or invested in, not sure the details). Eureka is a bit more moist than Ziwi, but that's nit picking really as my dog loved both. We're now looking at mixing with Lyka which seems expensive but would only be part of her diet.

Mince of any description will contain more bacteria than larger chunks of meat from the same source because it’s more difficult for bacteria to penetrate solid chunks of meat.. I have read that dogs are more likely to be allergic to chicken than to other types of meat. I don’t know whether that’s true or if it’s a correlation caused by other factors such as the more frequent use of chicken in dog food or the greater contamination of chicken with bacteria, preservatives and other chemicals.

I'll try human grade meat , more of it less veg , tried pet chicken mince , couple hundred dollars vet bills later , vet said it was no good too much bacteria giving him problems , better on cooked roo mince , but human grade mince is'nt much different in price , don't really care about cost , vets are not cheap , i know today before i even get there , its going to be consult walk in door $90 .. take swab of his ear and look at it $80 , antibiotics $80 steroids $80 and if he can catch me out again , which they will not . ear wash i can buy at petbarn for $40 his charge $85 .

Being a total novice when we got our first dog, ( over 20 years ago) we just fed him commercial tin food and dry food. Only as years went by our vet, at that time, started talking about what was really put into all the commercial stuff. Our boy got cancer at 10 and had to be given his wings. He was actually mostly a healthy boy his whole life. Although his skin was not real great. We had our girl Zena, by then and I started taking notice of what I should be feeding and doing with her. I fed her fresh food. Roo mince, chicken necks and veges and of course dry food as well. She was a healthy girl. No skin issues and not many vet visits either. Sadly though she got cancer at 9 and was given her wings. By this time we had our current girl Molly. She’s been bought up on the same fresh food but I had changed it up to cooking her veges and adding it to her food. The only difference is that she’s never been a fan of dry food. I can give it to her, mixed with the fresh meat but definitely not every meal, and definitely not a bowl on its own. She’s been quite a healthy girl, no major issues except for developing itchy skin when she was about 6. I know it’s environmental as I can pin point the exact dates when she needs a cytopoint injection. However last year, due to an issue my son had with his dog, I began looking at dog shampoos and I decided to change and I have since used goat soap to bathe Molly. I can honestly say she’s had less cytopoint injections. She doesn’t scratch anymore. As for her diet, it’s changed. By her choice. I bought a different roo/ beef mince mix from Petbarn as they didn’t have my usual and Molly actually refused to eat it. So I bought roo meat from elsewhere and she wasn’t fond of that either. I now buy her human mince and mix the veges with that plus some dry food and alternate that with chicken wings. All of this she goes nuts over. It’s not costing me any more and I figure if we eat it, she can eat it. And it’s just great to see her looking forward to her meals again. I don’t know why she went off the other food, she’s always been a dog that will eat anything but has decided to be a bit fussy in her older age, but she’s a very happy little girl, maintains her weight, bounces around and all is well. And it’s her 13th birthday in 11 days.

There may be something in the various claims by anti-commercial food proponents that commercial food is actually making our dogs/cats unwell. When I was younger, most people tended to feed their dogs in particular food scraps leftover from our own meals and maybe top up with some cheap supermarket kibble or wet food. Bones were cheap or free from the butcher shop, and lamb shanks were basically considered as dog food. Dogs were maybe vaccinated regularly, but mostly not. Despite the fact that diets were not necessarily "complete and balanced", it was rare to find a dog with chronic allergies, kidney/liver issues, or any ailment other than a touch of arthritis as they got old... and generally they seemed to live to ripe old ages back then too. Is anyone else concerned that our pets are seen way more often by vets for a much wider range of ailments since we started being pushed to feed them commercially prepared "complete and balanced" food? Over my dog-owning years as an adult - where I've been the one making decisions about what I feed them - I've definitely noticed that my own dogs have always seemed much healthier and easier to maintain good body condition, etc, when I've fed them diets that aren't high in commercial food products. This has applied to dogs of pure/pedigreed backgrounds AND BYB crossbreeds/rescues. T.

Oh! How rude and inconsiderate ...

Hopefully give some reliefe to dogs and owners

I’m no expert on raw diets but I believe that it’s important to balance the ratio of bone to muscle meat, as per these guidelines.https://perfectlyrawsome.com/raw-feeding-knowledgebase/biologically-appropriate-raw-food-barf-adult-dogs/ I feed my dogs human grade meat/poultry/fish in addition to their kibble instead of pet mince and other pet meats because I’ve had bad experiences with the latter. In particular, I had a border collie that was allergic to the preservatives often used in pet mince and other dog foods. He would develop horribly itchy skin within hours of being fed a food with preservatives. I discovered that most pet mince and chicken sold as pet food was loaded with preservatives to mask the fact that it wasn’t fresh. For one of my favourite economy family meals, I buy a whole, raw chicken and butterfly it, cutting away the spine and rib cage to feed to the dogs. I roast the butterflied chicken on a bed of vegetables. Any leftover vegetables make a flavourful addition to the dogs’ food.

Remember has a kid we always had dogs , they were mine so my job to feed them , and i cannot remember anything except opening a can of pal , chappie , chum , i suppose we were poor so they got the cheapest plus any scraps left over .my old man would always say good enough for us good enough for a dog , and if they turned there nose up at it they got the same treatment has us kids , eat that or nothing be grateful for what you got .Very strict parents who really believed in the old saying s , like get what your given , be thankful for what you got , ect Point being i can't ever remember having a sick dog , later on in life ALL MY DOGS , have been healthy eating kibble mainly , except for 2 boxers i had in the good old days of cheap meat , a friday on way home from work and pop into the abattoirs , pick up 20 kilo or so of rump steak , spend a couple hrs cutting it into chunks and feed it the dogs , my mother in law used to go bunta , she thought it was sacrilige because in England where she come from , she said they could'nt afford meat , changed has'nt it . Fast forward to now and i'm at the vets AGAIN in a couple of hrs , poor dogs got more licking paws , shaking head and lay down feeling sorry for himself , probably another ear infection , , i blame it on partly bad breeding and partly dog food , reason i say dog food , is because although he still gets it , the symptoms don't come has often since i now make his food , usually , 3-4 veg pumkin / sweet potatoe / beans / carrotts , and cooked roo mince usually mix up around 3 kilo of veg with 3 kilo cooked roo mince . . If this is a bad diet i'm open for suggestions , he gets distictivly worse on kibble ,, Personaly i'm at wits end with this dog , he's 10 now but will definetly be the last small dog i get if i ever get another that is , facts are if i was to jump back 30 years i could'nt afford this dog , he's cost more in vet bills than all my previous dogs put together

I can imagine what they get. I stopped breeding Persian cats because of dealing with people. Stupid comments, in the middle of the night by phone, 'red, like a traffic light'. No red, like red hair was my response. Bought a phone that I could turn the ringer off after that!

https://www.9news.com.au/national/canine-cognitive-dysfunction-groundbreaking-adelaide-study-sheds-light-on-doggy-dementia/51953d6f-1fcc-495f-ab89-310598d31c9f

I spoke to the local vets and yes you have to speak to vet chat first but they do put you through to the local on call vet in an emergency. But it's a screening service. The vets said it was to stop the prank 2am calls like how do you spell Rottweiler! The minds of the people who would do such a thing. Makes me angry because it just adds more time before you can speak to the vet. Luckily my emergencies have been very few and far between and hopefully continue that way

That's for sure !

Sadly, increasing costs over the last decade or so seem to have impacted the quality of some midrange and premium brands, judging by ingredient lists. I worry about people feeding their dogs on rice but I also worry about people who are shamed into spending excessive amounts on dog food (both kibble and manufactured “raw” foods) while feeding their families on pasta and rice. I spend a lot of time looking at ingredient lists provided by dog food manufacturers and, honestly, snazzy marketing, clever social marketing and price are not always good indicators of quality.

I'm on a coping with low income page - and similar is happening. Looking at posts - most folks cook up meat /veges/rice/pasta - but a lot are buying meat offcuts /chicken feet/hearts & feeding that I feel for those who have big dogs and little money .

Definitely need to speak to the local vets.

I've looked at this for when I am in areas where there is no vet close. It looks similar to the GP consult by phone type businesses - it's a triage service. Here's a link that might help: https://www.vetchat.com.au/

I'm on a couple of Simple Savers type pages and pet care is a big topic right now. The good news is many people are telling others that cheap dog food is false economy because of the potential health effects (and then vet costs) but also because you have to feed your dog more for them to feel full and then they poop most of it out anyway. They been offering other ideas for making your own and having a good balance for your dogs. Same with people food. People are encouraging others to find ways to still have a balanced food intake rather than eating cheap and nasty carb laden diets. So many people who have never struggled before suddenly finding their income no longer covers everything. I'm glad I've still been living like a pauper.