Red Fox

Thanks, I'll check out the site I'm not sure if I should put Kei on the puppy or the grain free yet, it might be a little high protein at this age I am thinking of starting with large breed puppy and than progressing to the grain free version

My 20 week old puppy has had loose stools since yesterday afternoon. Not watery but very soft He is otherwise fine, bright and active, clear eyes, always hungry I've put him on boiled chicken and rice for the day and he had a slightly firmer poo after lunch but I noticed that there was some mucous covering it I have contacted the vet today and she asked a few questions and said probably nothing serious, just keep an eye on him and ring again tomorrow if no improvement. Puppy is wormed and vaccinated, there is no blood in the stools and no vomitting. I am racking my brain to work out what has caused this. Vet think it could be the heat (but he is an inside dog) Only thing I can come up with is that I gave him a different brand of cottage cheese in his breakfast yesterday. Any suggestions to what it could be??

Let's hope they grow out of it Kei is just FASCINATED by what's going on down there... I guess most men are

Oh no.. my boy does this too! He is 20 weeks old and it's been going on for close to a month now. Only 'humps' his big stuffed dragon at night after tea then looks between his legs and chases his own bits I've also noticed that he gets an erection over anything midly exciting ie. new bone/new toy/the cat.... My breeder said to just ignore him and not let him become too fixated on it or allow him to 'hump' to get attention. He is also teething but lost his first baby tooth at about 11 weeks, right now he is in the process of losing his canines and particularly naughty (not top mention he has the runs ) I've had Kongs that stink too seems to go away after a few washes and a week or so 'airing'

Thanks for all the feedback Thanks for the advice, I do like the Nutrience and know of 2 breeders that highly recommend it Still wanted to find something that had organic and/or human grade ingredients if possible. Made in Australia would be good too! Have read so many bad things about what goes into dry food but fortunately Nutrience seems to be one of the better ones. If the next food I try doesn't work out I will def come back to the Nutrience Lab Rat, I was looking at the DVP one too! Took me a while to realise why there were different ingredients. I think I prefer the DVP version but that just based on the ingredients list alone... would be good if it was made in Australia like the other one though Thanks for that. I dont really know of anyone that's used the Artemis, but I really like the sound of it (checked out their website the other day) It's a bit $$ but honestly if its good food I don't mind. I think I might buy a small bag and give it a go when the Nutrience gets a bit lower. (I feed at least 1/2 raw, so 20kg lasts me ages!) What made you go with the no-grain version?? I was thinking of choosing the large breed puppy

I paid $102 for the last bag at a vet in Gawler. It was the 20kg size

We had the same situation with being new dog owners and trying to get our boy to sleep at night. We first tried having him in a box next to the bed on the 1st night... he HATED IT and cried himself to sleep ;) I cut the box lower on the 2nd night so he could see me... he tried to jump out! The 3rd night I gave him a heat pack, helped a little but the jumping was getting worse. On the 4th night he went to his bed inside his pen (we used this as a crate training method in the day) thought we would leave him there for the night and see what happened.... good until about 2am and then he started screaming again By the 5th night I was delirious and sleep deprived from being up all night and the toilet runs couldnt string 2 words together! So I slept in the loungeroom on a mattress on the floor with him. Little bugger slept ALL NIGHT Meant to only do it until he was a bit more settled but this went on for a whole month! I told me breeder who suggested a crate next to our bed. I bought one the next day and he LOVES it I gave him a pigs ear inside the first day to get him used to it and a Kong that night. Now he goes in every night and straight to sleep! I cant recommend crates highly enough For the day we used (and still use) a puppy pen to keep him safe when we are not home. Works very well, but that said I have never left him alone for more than about 4 hours. I leave a puppy wee pad in there when I know I will be away for more than an hour (and I did it ALL the time when we were house-breaking him) Cant say I agree with leaving your pup alone outside.. but that's just me. Hope this helps

I am trying this with my pup. Works great in the backyard and on the way out the door... until we get out the gate lol. He is sitting now as soon as the lead comes out so will keep trying. I guess the hot weather isn't helping either

Can you see another vet at the same clinic?? I was really unhappy with the vet I saw when I took Kei for his first check-up. He is a pure-breed Ridgeback (with a beautiful ridge :D) and the first thing she said to me when I put him on the table was 'and what breed is your dog?' what the... then spent the entire consult trying to convince me to book him in for the pro-heart shot (no, I didn't get it) Didn't even check him properly.. just looked in his mouth and said he was ok, then charged me $55! :p: Anyway, I was fuming and rang the surgery back the next day to tell them how upset I was.... Got an appointment that day with a new vet (who was very good) and wasn't charged a cent I hope you can find it new vet that you like and will listen to your concerns. It's very frustrating when they treat you like that, not to mention expensive! Hopefully it's nothing nasty and puppy gets better soon.

We had a similar problem with itching when we brought our puppy home a 9 weeks old. (Although may not be as severe as yours, and he came from a very reputable breeder) He was scratching a lot and developed dandruff. I first thought it may have been a grass allergy and searched the yard for anything suspicious, ie. wandering jew but couldn't find any. What I did was to add a teaspoon of flax seed oil (from the chemist) to each meal. I also gradually added more and more fresh food to his dry mix and started using both Aloveen shampoo plus the conditioner once per week. I had been using only the shampoo as he has a very short coat, but started using the conditioner too after it was suggested to me by a groomer and it made a HUGE difference By doing all these things our problem was gone within about 2 weeks. You could try the flax oil and see if it works for you. It's pretty cheap, available from most chemists and health food stores and will not do your puppy any harm. Fish oils and/or a small tin of sardines in the puppy's meal once or twice a week is also good. As far as mince, I'm not sure if all IGA stores are the same but I buy mine from there too. However, I buy the premium human grade beef mince which says preservative free on it, not the pet mince. I also buy other bits and pieces from there like chicken hearts/liver/necks/wings, lamb shanks etc, whatever is on special.. Hope this helps

Going to check out their website and go from there. We have pet and Fodder store about 30mins from where I live but they take a up to a month to get anything in besides Royal Canin! Vet will only sell Science Diet Anyhow.. just opened a 20kg bag of Nutrience this week so have a month or two at least to get sorted and slowly increasing he raw food too. Seems lots of people have had good results with the Natural Balance though and it is much cheaper than Artemis (which I have been considering) so I will try and get a small bag in the next few weeks and see how Kei reacts and if he likes it.

Labsrule and Lab Rat- where can you buy Natural Balance from? Is it able to be ordered via internet that you know of? (we live rural and can only get Royal Canin and Science Diet locally)

Hmmm... I wonder if the whole quarter was a bit too rich for him, too much meat or bone maybe I normally give either 2 chicken wings or a thigh (skin on with bone) for lunch but we had managed to pick up some whole fresh chickens at a really good price and then just hacked them into quarters. There would have been some bits in there that he isn't used to getting (ie. whole breast and back bone + all the cartlidge) otherwise he ate nothing unusual that day to cause the runs. Anyway, seems to be fine now Will give another wing for lunch and see how he goes (which should have been an hour ago but Kei is busy doing what he does best... SLEEPING... lol Thanks for the info.

Is it dangerous for a dog to swallow raw chicken bones? My ridgie is almost 19 weeks and sometime swallows his chicken wings/necks/etc. I try to give them semi-frozen so that he will chew which sometimes works, but other times he just crunches them a little and down they go. I am wondering if he is having trouble as he is losing his baby teeth... so maybe it is hard to chew properly? Yesterday he had a chicken quarter for lunch, and then last night had the runs and all the bones from lunch came out the other end whole! This morning his poop was back to normal but though I should give him a days break so today we had a bone free day (gave mince instead) and poor Kei sat by the fridge tonight for about 15mins after tea waiting for his chicken wing which never came :D

I did plan on buying a large breed formula when I went to buy my 2nd bag a few weeks ago (1st bag was given to us by Kei's breeder). When I rang up the breeder to find out where she gets it from I asked about this and she said that she prefers the Medium Breed.. something to do with the protein levels I think? I also asked at the place where I bought it (vet) and they said the same thing. No probs with gas so far.. the odd bit here and there but not excessive. We had a lot of soft stools to start with but they seem to be getting better now with the mix of dry/raw only get the occasional one when I add something new. Hope to do the same as you and go to complete raw at around 12 months but would still like to have the dry as treats and a back-up meal

Thanks, that (the dandruff) is a problem I have had with Nutrience too. I started adding Flax seed oil to Kei's meals a few weeks after we got him and also using Aloveen conditioner and it seems to be going away. He is still a little bit dry but no more flakes and no longer scratching.. I will eventually go to 90% raw as he gets older and I learn more about it all. Still waiting for the Ian Billinghurst books to come that I ordered 2 weeks ago. I get your point on the research too.. it's driving me nuts Just want to find something that is not over-processed or full of junk and agrees with him and if I can get an organic food then all the better. Since Kei is our first dog in over 10 years I am obsessed with getting it right! Well that and the fact that I already have a cat with arthritis and I dont want any more probs! My theory on feeding Kei is similar to how I feed my son I guess.. lots of fresh healthy food with a little bit of the packaged stuff thrown in now and then as a treat and you cant go wrong

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

Awww Kei is gorgeous - Ridgie puppies are adorable - come into the ridgeback thread http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?show...p;#entry3375999 ETA link Thanks Just posted some pics there now. Still trying to work put how to do everything here lol... is there a way to add the thread as a favourite on my control panel? I keep finding things then I cant get back into them, I'm so bad with technology

I am wondering if I could get a few opinions on the best dry food for large breed puppies. I own an 18 week old Ridgeback boy and am currently feeding a diet consisting of around 60% raw (BARF) and 40% dry. We are using Nutrience Medium breed as this is what Kei's breeder was using and had recommended we continue with. It seems to be agreeing with him but I wonder if i is the best choice? I have been doing some research on the different (Premuim) brands -organic where possible- and trying to compare the ingredients. At the moment Artemis, DVP organic and Eagle Pack Holistic are all looking like good choices, however I dont know enough about either of these to make an informed decision... especially Artemis With all the hype about commercial foods I would like to eventually change Kei over to a full BARF diet but am worried about providing him with the right amount of nutrients, calcuim etc while he is growing so plan to keep him half/half until 12 months. Any advice would be appreciated. My puppy pack has suggested Eukanuba or Advance as alternatives, but I am not happy with either of these brands based on the ingredients list. If you have used Artemis, DVP organic or Eagle Pack Holistic and seen improved results I would love to hear from you. BTW, I have just joined the forum today and am still working out how to use everything so please bare with me! Thanks, Alex & Kei

What a beautiful boy! We had a LONG wait for our Ridgie puppy Kei, but definately worth it! He is now 18 weeks old and currently sprawled put on the tiles since it's now too hot to sleep on the couch (45 degrees!!) Hope he grows up to be as hansome as Bakari