BullBreedBoy

Honestly some vets have no clue when it comes to canine nutrition. All our pups get bones from 4 weeks old. We have NEVER had a single issue. No that doesn't mean that a choking incident is beyond the realms of possibility, but if you are watching them whilst they have their bones you can intervene if required. I've never needed to. Tell your daughter to get the pup into bones, but just avoid large weight bearing bones which are too hard, and generally contain loads of fatty marrow. Look to lamb flaps, chicken wings, turkey necks, lamb shanks, roo tail, salmon heads and occasional chicken carcass is cool but is a lot of bone content so just be careful with balance. You'll hear people advising that bones should be larger than the dogs head and whatnot, another piece of advise I routinely ignore! One other thing we do for teething pups is get a rope toy, soak in bone broth then freeze. Also, I'd be looking for a different vet if I was her...

I was always of this belief and any time anybody asked this was my response. Then our last litter was about 6 weeks old and I decided to sign them up for the 6-week free breeder insurance through petplan (after all, it was free). Something possessed me (no idea what) to continue the insurance for the 2 pups we kept. They have just turned 2 and both are hypothyroid and are on meds and blood testing for life. In addition to that, Shock suffers from really bad seizures and has already cost me about $8k (over a 12month period) and will continue to cost me a similar amount each year for the rest of her life. There is absolutely no way I would ever have been able to save that amount of money before she got sick (about 15months) and I will never be able to put that amount away each year for her. We have since insured a number of our dogs as a precaution. Putting money aside is only good if the dog waits until it is old before it gets sick. Those that get sick in the first few years will cost more than you can put away. Interest rates on savings accounts are pretty low these days too, and hardly pay off I had a pretty rocky start with petplan and was ready to walk away but they have pulled their finger out and are really easy to deal with now. I get my claims paid in full within a week of posting them off and they have paid for everything, no questions asked. I would highly recommend them :) For pets that are older, there is a company that will offer full insurance on them. My laptop is playing up and wont let me post the link, but it is called PetMed. They will cover dogs of any age with no upper limit. Yep fair enough. I guess it depends on your underlying financial position.

I'm not convinced by pet insurance to be honest. If I was you, I'd work out what you're prepared to pay for pet insurance per month or whatever, and then put that money in a high yield savings account. Chances are you'll end up in front and keep your money for yourself!

What's an anti cancer diet? ????

Hello, whilst all my own dogs are fed fully raw, which I would say is the best diet for allergy prone dogs in my experience (particularly for bull breeds), I do feed stay loyal to the rescue dogs that come through here) the reason I do this is that it's highly likely that the dogs will be fed kibble once leaving here. I think as far as kibble goes stay loyal is excellent, and is very effective at clearing up skin and other allergy issues, as well as putting some weight and condition onto underweight pound dogs. I'm not familiar with the other food here, but from looking at the ingredients it's notable that stay loyal lists meat meal as it's primary ingredients whilst meals for mutts lists meat. If it's meat prior to cooking, which you would suspect it is then it's likely to fall down the list due to dehydration during cooking. Anyways what breed dog and what are you feeding currently?

Oh yeah, I try to stay in touch with all my families and promise unlimited ongoing support and help. I even provide free board to any of our pups anytime. ;)

Baxter used to dig epic holes under the fence to get out if alone when he was a pup. Then it just stopped. Dunno what changed. Luckily I live in a quite area, and the old lady next door is a dog lover so she brought him home!

Yeah the Bulmastiff breeder that we got Baxter from is the one that introduced me to raw feeding and he does exactly the same thing. His dogs get a bone of various type/size every second day or so, some offal when he remembers to throw it in, and just a bowl of raw meat (whatever they have offcuts etc) and leftover veggies. He thinks this practise of weighing food, supplements, calcium-phosporuos balance etc is all completely nuts! He just goes by the llok and feel of his dogs and increase decreases the amount he's feeding a bit as he see's fit. His dogs are all doing just fine, look great and don't have health issues to speak of.

As for the practise of switching cold turkey over from kibble to raw, whilst I do know lot's of people that have done it successfully I generally recomend going more slowly with baby puppies. What I would do is make the last one out of the puppies' meals raw for a week, then make the second and last meals raw for a week before going fully raw in the third week. People get all tied in knot's about digestion rates and other things, but there's really nothing substantive or authoritive on the subject that I know of. We have used this 2 week approach (or 1 weeks for older pups that are having 2 meals a day) several times, and know of many people that have used it successfully without any major digestive diruptions for the pup. OP if you want more specific advise feel free to give me a PM and I'll help you.

Interesting, I'm not sure which part of my post you interpreted to be that the OP should change the diet too quickly!? Anyway I'm not after an argument and I agree forums can be dangerous. I have been a Bull Terrier owner/lover/breeder for many years and am very confident in advising people that Bully's absolutely thrive on a raw diet. I personally don't like the undertone that people who are doing appropriate research, and making responsible decisions should be hemmed in by what their breeders believe. I'd say about 80% of our puppies stay on a raw diet after leaving us, but we work with those that don't/can't continue raw for an appropriate solution if they ask for support/advice. The breeder in this case is feeding Purina Supercoat, so can only assume doesn't place a high degree of importance on food quality. Bully's are super prone to skin allergies and in my experience raw feeding is the best diet for them. BARF is a great introduction to raw feeding as it's already balanced and super user friendly.

It's based on % of current body weight not adult, but you need to understand that this is a guide only. There is no way of knowing what the ideal adult body weight of your dog is till she is an adult and you can measure her condition. Mini Bulls will often overeat if you let them, and you need manage their food intake. Puppies should be lean, and energetic when awake with a ravenous appetite. Do some research on dog condition assessment, then use the % of body weight as educated starting point. Do not overfeed your puppy, err on the side of caution, you are better off mildly underfeeding than overfeeding. Also, don't worry about people telling you to feed what the breeder is feeding. Good on you for looking at alternatives. BARF is a great way to get into raw feeding and your dog will thank you!

Did the vet explain why the biopsy is recommended?

I want into that Mt Lawley shop once when I was in the area. I was staggered by the price of the puppies. I think that the pups they had at the time were Boston's, and some designer white fluffy. For memory the puppies were $5000 each.

Update: Ear Infection is completely cleared up and has not returned since switching from Black Hawk to Stay Loyal.

Interesting. I would always advise people to listen to their gut. If it doesn't feel right it probably isn't. Personally I think your concern is well founded, particularly around the breeder taking no interest in you, or where the pup would be going. I have my own system, which involves prospective puppy buyers coming to visit me, meeting the parents, and talking about the realities of puppy ownership. Then, if that goes well I arrange to visit them at home, so I can see for myself where the pup will be living and what the environment is like. I don't take deposits but I can understand why some do as have been stuffed around before. I would politely ask for your deposit back and see what happens.

One or two incidences does not equal proof. Lots of people feed just dry food and have also had no incidences. FWIW I wouldn't feed my dog once every 3 days if you paid me, no matter how much one person swears black and blue it works. Agree, I wouldn't do it either. My point was simply that there is a variety of approaches to feeding and I'm not a fan of telling people what they 'should' do if they are raising healthy happy puppies and dogs.

Sure, but there's no way of linking number of meals to it that's substantive. Additionally, I'd quiz you on how many of those cases came from grain based kibbles, or from not using percentage of body weight as the baseline for meal size. There is a Malamute breeder here in Perth that goes to one meal a day at 6 months and one meal every 48-72 hours by 24 months. To my knowledge they've had zero incidents of Gdv. I'm not saying everyone should go to this model, but I do think that there's no real evidence to support 2 vs 3 meals increasing risk. I'm happy to be corrected if you know of some. We are also very experienced, and we fully believe in our feeding model, which has served us very well for a long time. We have had zero incidence of bloat/Gdv. In general meal size is no more than 2% of body weight twice a day for puppies, and we roll over to one meal a day once the pup stops growing.

Yes it's commonly accepted, and done for lot's of breeds. Personally I don't subscribe to it, and nor do the 2 people I most respect in Australia on canine nutrition. That's a fairly common position, however the risk of bloat has been way blown out of proportion. IF feeding a highly digestibl natural diet then there's no real risk of it being an issue on 2 meals a day, assuming they are an appropriate split of feed weight allowance. There's no real reason to continue with 3-4 meals a day as is so commonly recomended, including so-called bloat prone breeds. You're entitled to your opinion of course, but your post to someone seeking advice on diet was that they 'should be feeding x number of meals a day'. This is a definitive statement. To the OP there's absolutely no problem at all feeding your pup twice a day, if you are feeding natural foods. IF you are looking for a high quality kibble to enter into your diet then suggest you check out Stay Loyal. I feed it to the rescue dogs that we have here (so they don't get accustomed to raw) and they thrive on it. It's great for clearing up a variety of allergy and skin conditions, as well as getting some condition into skinny pound dogs.

Why do you think this is the case? We drop back to 2 meals a day at 15 weeks for all our puppies, one of the Bulmastiff breeders here in Perth recomends 2 meals a day at 12 weeks. Is there something about retrievers that make them need 3 meals a day? I know that we've never had a problem with meal frequency and we recomend to all our families that they can drop back to 2 meals a day anytime ater 12 weeks with confidence. We have never had a problem, in fact much the opposite.

Are you saying that he is getting the allergies/ear infections from the current diet? Or are you looking to add kibble back into his diet and don't want the allergies?

Bathing anymore than fortnightly is a bad idea in my view. Even fully natural shampoos disrupt natural oil production and coat health. Healthy coats are from diet. I give my boys a wash only if there is a reason ( beach, rolled in poo etc) they never smell.

I use in cmbination Nexgard and Milbemax here and have not had any issues wih either product.

with many breeds you can take get a good assessment from a clear side on shot in my view. No it's not as good as feeling for yourself, and I agree that for longer coat dogs like labs it's less useful.

Can I ask what the issue is?

I use black dog collars and harnesses here. Great quality products.