Miss Helena

Now isn't that an appropriate title for a puppy to "digest" My girl (Bonnie the Chihuahua) has an ongoing love affair with the local/tame Sulfhur Crested Cocky. The cocky sits on my fence taunting Bonnie and I've even seen it do low "fly by's" through my backyard, with Bonnie madly chasing and yapping after it. I swear the cocky thinks it's a huge joke interacting with such a small dog.....

Me too, only my thought was "puppies aren't fussy what they rip up and scatter about, anything from Stephen King to Mills and Boon would be fun....

I agree wholeheartedly with this article. I give my Chi about 1/3 high quality dry food (eg eaglepack, natural balance etc) and the rest raw, chicken necks, eggs and "stew" (chicken/veg) type meals. She looks fantastic and has a sleek glossy black coat. I cannot see how any one type of manufactured food can supply everything on an ongoing basis - it isn't even "fresh"! Us humans seem prone to reducing complex, unknowable things of nature, like nutrition and reducing them down to their parts, adding the parts back together and presuming that we have the whole answer!....

I hope things go okay with customs, I tried to import a package of the "new and improved" Greenies off Ebay about 6 months ago, from the USA into South Australia and they were seized by customs - weren't able to import dog food or anything with meat in it.... BTW, I would be interested in these premium foods - we don't have a huge choice over here. I've found a website that sells Dick Van Pattens Natural Balance and Ziwipeak, which both seem great... Cheers, Helen

Out of interest I've done some research on heartworm prevalence around Australia, and all I could find is that it's higher in tropical areas such as QLD. I'm in Adelaide and will ask my vet next time I see her, but was curious if anyone knows the current situation re heartworm in Australia? FYI I have my dog on Heartgard monthly chewables...the company aren't kidding when they reckon dogs love them - there must have something very yummy in them! (besides beef) Many thanks, Helen

I agree re the above posts about 'tough love' if a vet has given her health the all clear. When I first got my Chihuahua about 9 months ago she was a real pain with her food (I saw the vet about this too). She is a bit sensitive and very smart and was probably adjusting to her new home anyway (she was 10 months old when I bought her). I was feeding her twice a day on high quality/appropriate food but her appetite wasn't good - she would pick out the 'good' bits and go hungry. Some days she would hardly eat at all. At one point she lost lots of weight, which was scary for such a small/young dog. I resorted to feeding her 'silly' food like cheese etc to try and get something into her - doesn't work in the long term!! Strangely enough, what worked was the one meal a day trick - no brekkie, no snacks, NOTHING between dinners, so she got good and hungry (walks/exercise helps with this too). She has been eating perfectly for the past 6 or so months, in fact since it's been winter she wants to eat too much!! She has gone from 2.7kg to a solid 3.8kg. My emotions/mind set had some impact too I'm sure - I mentally "let go" and realised she wouldn't die from not eating and changed my attitude from "OMG, please, please eat, Bonnie!! AAAHHHHH she's not eating properly, WTF is wrong!?!?!" to: "Here is a good quality dinner - it's up to you what you do with it, but that's all you get until tomorrow night". Leave them to it for 1/4 hour, don't watch/agonise/coax etc....I'm sure they somehow pick up on your attitude!! Despite information to the contrary, I've also found that with my dog variety seems to work - a few nights of good quality tinned food (Natures Gift), a few nights of home cooked chicken/veg stew, a few nights of chicken necks, a few nights of raw meat.... I have two kinds of dry food which she gets with her dinner (about 1/2 dry and 1/2 'wet'). I swap the dry food each evening, that way each dinner is a bit different. I feel this method is covering all nutritional bases - I personally don't believe feeding only ONE dry dog food with nothing else can provide everything. But, this method may not work on other dogs - they may pick and choose and go hungry some nights, waiting for raw meat night etc. All I know is that I'm firm with Bonnie and she seems to realise each dinner is "It" for 24 hours. She seems to really enjoy her different meals and rarely leaves anything. I've also just bought some Ziwipeak daily dog cuisine in Lamb, which is meat based, no fillers or grains, no artificial anything, air dried, not cooked - sprinkling a bit of this on top of food might help too. It's quite rich, so I wouldn't feed as the whole meal. It's available from the Natural Pet Store online. Hope this helps a bit, it's very frustrating when they won't eat!! Cheers, Helen

Thanks very much for your replies! Sounds good - it's useful to know that dogs can fully digest bones in that way - they must have strong stomach acid! Cheers, Helen

Hi all, I'm quite conscious of giving my 18 month old Chihuahua sufficient calcium in her diet (Nature's Gift tinned food, good quality dry food and chicken necks). Apparently a diet with a good level of calcium helps little dogs keep their teeth for longer (as well as hard food to chew on and regular teeth cleaning!). I'm wanting to increase her chicken neck dinners from once a week to 2-3 times a week. How digestible are raw bones for dogs? Can they be trusted to deliver a good level of calcium? I presume they are good, but would be useful to see what BARF feeders know/think.... Many thanks, Helen

Perhaps you could experiment with treats that she finds 'irresistable' like dried liver, cooked pieces of chicken etc and hand feed her in spaces she's comfortable in, gradually moving into more 'threatening' areas. It sounds like she 'likes' the biscuits, but can wait/stash them for later. You need to find her weak point (like chocolate for us!!) where she is so keen that hiding the yummy snack isn't an option.