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Disco Salmon posted:Mine LOVE fresh moving water, but the little adorable furry bastards won't drink from the fountain(s) we bought them. Cats are so weird. Mine was obsessed with the faucet until I got the fountain. Now I go into the bathroom, turn on the sink, and she just looks at me like, "you have got to be kidding." But she guards her fountain possessively, and she gets really anxious when I take it apart to clean it. She's not happy until it's back on the ground and running again.
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Oct 14, 2014 05:36
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We're about to get a new puppy this weekend, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi. We've been reading a few things on dog food and I've hit a minor issue about what to feed the little guy. The breeder recommends "Sportmix Premium Puppy Food" (http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/sportmix-premium-dog-food/). They acknowledge that it's not the greatest, but they claim that the ratio of "28% protein and 20% fat" is more ideal (numbers are from their care sheet, which differs a bit from other sources). They say that this is better because Corgis can grow quickly, and that this combined with too "rich" of a diet can cause panosteitis. I've done quick research and I can't find anything to back this up. It seems that the cause of panosteitis is currently unknown. We're planning to switch to Blue Buffalo Wilderness Puppy Food. It's widely available, and from our research seems to be a good option. The Sportmix seems to be full of some garbage ingredients in comparison, not to mention we can't really find it at convenient places near us (though I'm sure Petco or something will have it). What my question is, though is that Blue Buffalo claims that their foods adhere to AAFCO levels, but for the life of me I can't seem to find what those levels actually are. I presume it's based on the macronutrient levels? If so, what on earth are they supposed to be? Aside from ingredient quality, I know that macronutrient levels are the most important thing to consider, but I can't seem to find what the ideal ratios are. So what should I be looking for?
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Oct 27, 2014 22:56
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I can't say for sure, but basically every store's pet food's gonna be AAFCO approved. Like, even Ol Roy is AAFCO compliant as far as I can tell. http://petfood.aafco.org/IngredientsMakingPetFood.aspx seems to be kinda helpful? Anecdotally, my (Cardigan) Corgi's on Blue Wilderness too, but then we wanted her on a high protein food, with about a 2:1 ratio protein:fat, as we like very muscular, active dogs. I don't know about this "corgis grow faster" stuff; my vet and breeder certainly don't think so, saying that our pup will be fully formed for joints around 16 months. You mostly just need to get protein appropriate for your dog's activity level. They'll certainly get the runs going from a sorta plant-protein, lower-protein food like Sportmix to a meat-protein, high-protein like Wilderness -- I got my pup from Diamond (ugh) to Life Protection Formula Blue Buffalo, then to the Blue Wilderness, to get her used to the increasing protein. If your pup won't be getting 3 miles of walks a day accompanying in-home play, you might not need the high protein from Wilderness, and could get an equivalently good food for cheaper (like uh, the LPF Blue Buffalo). Sportmix is just so crappy.
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Oct 28, 2014 00:03
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That actually helps quite a bit...it's pretty tough to navigate all the information. I was a little concerned about the Blue Buffalo LPF being so high in carbs. We're not looking for athlete-of-the-year or anything. That said, is there any harm in a higher protein diet? We're not going to be taking the dog on long runs or competitive agility courses or anything. Again, the carbs in LPF was a little off-putting, but if it's not a concern then I'm all for it. Our biggest concern was a quality food, and since we couldn't find much info on specific macronutrient ratios, we kind of defaulted to internet recommendations which seemed to point to the Wilderness formula. No particular reason. Also, in the world of "large breed" vs "small breed," I presume Corgis fall on the "small breed" side of things? 30 lbs seems to be where the dividing line is, and Corgis seem to be just shy of that.
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Oct 28, 2014 00:28
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I'm not aware of any common issues with high protein diets. I've heard stories of dogs with stressed kidneys having problems from high protein diets, but that's for dogs with issues already...I dunno. Most small breed formulas are indicated for 25 lb and under as the adult weight; I figure anything from 20-30 is fine with either size, since it's a small caloric difference (small breed = higher calories), and kibble size.
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Oct 28, 2014 03:25
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Any recs for a dietary supplement kind of thing for reducing hairballs in cats? My Poyo really likes to groom herself and our other cat, and she's recently been gifting us with lots of hairballs. Haven't brought it up with the vet yet since her regular appointment is still a while off. She doesn't seem unhappy and hasn't had any personality/habit changes, but stepping in cold wet yarf in the dark is incredibly disconcerting no matter how many times I do it. Both cats are eating Purina Pro Plan wet food, in case that's a useful bit of info.
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Oct 28, 2014 03:26
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DressCodeBlue posted:Can anyone think of a reason for a cat to puke every time he eats wet food? There is no pattern for flavor or brand but it happens constantly, I think that may be why Butts is reluctant to eat anything but crunchy poo poo. 
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Oct 28, 2014 03:39
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DressCodeBlue posted:Still desperately trying to get this fatty to eat and keep down wet food. Why does he need wet food particularly? Does he still barf with his dry only? Just to maybe help others...
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Oct 28, 2014 04:31
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He's very overweight and had a history of UTIs. (I've had him for about a year and he hasn't had one in that time frame, though.) He does seem to drink a lot of water for a cat, though, so maybe his foster/old owner just weren't giving him enough. He has FIV, so I want to keep him as systemically healthy as possible. He also developed hepatic lipidosis shortly after I adopted him, so maybe it's just made me too neurotic about his food/puking habits. He pukes from his dry food, too, but only about once every few weeks. There's usually some hair mixed in with it that I don't see from wet food puke. He's a shorthair but has a very thick coat and sheds a ton. This cat.
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Oct 28, 2014 05:03
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... and right on cue of me worrying about it, he's developed urinary symptoms. Took him to the vet and he does in fact have mad struvites. At least he likes the lovely "urinary health" kibble they gave me. 
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Oct 30, 2014 23:50
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How's Applaws cat food? It's started turning up on the shelves here and seems pretty high in protein content.
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Nov 7, 2014 01:30
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SynthOrange posted:How's Applaws cat food? It's started turning up on the shelves here and seems pretty high in protein content. When I read the label it said to (AAFCO) "only feed supplementary". When I did some research, it was mentioned a few times, that it doesn't contain any taurine. I think you live in OZ, if you do. Make sure to check the AAFCO warnings on the labels because allot of food in our supermarkets is supplementary feeding only. Which is ok if your cats are getting most of there food/vitamins from dry. If your looking for a new wet food, check out petbarn, petwarhouse and pet circle websites as they all have some better alternatives.
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Nov 7, 2014 23:52
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Applaws dry food is complete and balanced. It's high in protein and a good dry food as far as I know. Applaws canned foods are "for supplemental feeding only" because they have no added vitamins or minerals. They probably have some taurine by virtue of being full of meat, but they're not complete because they have ingredient lists like "chicken, chicken broth." I'm not really sure why anyone would buy expensive, nutritionally-inadequate canned food intentionally.
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Nov 8, 2014 01:26
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Crooked Booty posted:I'm not really sure why anyone would buy expensive, nutritionally-inadequate canned food intentionally. Marketing and hoping people don't actually read labels.
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Nov 8, 2014 05:59
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Hi guys, Similar to DaveSauce, we too are getting a new puppy next weekend (sheltie), who will be 9 weeks old on arrival. I need help making a judgement call about food. Today the breeder told me that the puppy's current diet is "the most expensive mince I can find at the supermarket" and a mix of Beneful and Pedigree dry food. It's a 50/50 split with half of his intake being just mince. She said she wouldn't recommend changing his food until he's an adult. I am not overly keen on the idea of changing his diet (having dealt with 3 months of diarrhoea with fussy delicate kitten Hugo) but I am even less keen for him to eat Beneful and Pedigree + "expensive mince" for that long. Do I just suck it up and feed him that until he's older, or do I use everything I learned about slow and stable diet changes with Hugo and very carefully (over 2-3 weeks) transition him onto a better food? I was looking at either Orijen puppy food or Go! Daily Defence. Tamarillo fucked around with this message at 06:48 on Nov 8, 2014 |
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Nov 8, 2014 06:46
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Absolutely DO NOT feed a growing puppy a mixture of crappy foods and raw ground meat for any extended period. That's just asking for problems. Your plan of slowly switching sounds find, but if it were me, I would just switch immediately to what I wanted him to eat and take the consequences, rather than buy two bags of crappy food I did not intend to use for more than a couple weeks. Not all dogs have problems with rapid diet switches.
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Nov 8, 2014 16:37
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Is it just me or are breeders/foster parents sometimes the dumbest people alive when it comes to pet nutrition? I mean, I realize you might not be looking at the best quality foods when you're feeding a ton of dogs, but if you can't afford the costs maybe you shouldn't be breeding/fostering them. I mean, poo poo, feeding them like that while you have them, whatever. Advising someone to keep them on that diet for a year? 
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Nov 8, 2014 18:28
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Great, thanks for the responses. I ended up ordering a bag of Go! because I decided I couldn't face long term crap food, and I'll see if he can handle a faster transition and if so, just make the change. Once he's stable on the new food I'll start adding in some wet meals too and hopefully it'll be smooth sailing. Just fervently hoping he doesn't end up with an explosive rear end! (Though there is always I/D to fall back on for that)
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Nov 8, 2014 21:35
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Right, so I just received the complete list of food I need to buy to feed this puppy, according to the breeder: ground mince, pet milk, honey, baby rice, plain rice, mild cheese, cottage cheese, cheerios, chicken, and both Beneful and Pedigree biscuits. I also checked with the local vet who said to feed good quality puppy biscuits and that sometimes breeders have odd ideas.
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Nov 12, 2014 06:08
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Tamarillo posted:
Yes, yes they do.
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Nov 12, 2014 06:22
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Tamarillo posted:Right, so I just received the complete list of food I need to buy to feed this puppy, according to the breeder: ground mince, pet milk, honey, baby rice, plain rice, mild cheese, cottage cheese, cheerios, chicken, and both Beneful and Pedigree biscuits. She sounds like a real brain surgeon. Why feed all that poo poo?
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Nov 12, 2014 15:35
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I have always been told by breeders to feed really crazy stuff. I just smile and nod and then do what I want.
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Nov 12, 2014 18:13
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Yeah that's exactly my approach here. I've got my actual dog food ready to go; but fully expect that when we pick him up Saturday the visit is going to be 90% smiling and nodding about how many thimbles of cottage cheese to add to his cheerios. I have no idea what the she thinks the health benefits of this diet are, it really sounds like a cobbled together collection of anecdata i.e "oh I heard that if you feed dogs X it's good for their coat!" because I don't think any of the breeders use the internet much...
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Nov 12, 2014 20:06
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Be sure to bring a small tub of cottage cheese and show it to her so she knows you mean business. Also be prepared to alpha roll the breeder to establish dominance.
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Nov 12, 2014 22:55
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Nah, breeders use the internet tons, it is where they get their information from. There's no quality control on the information, so as long as someone has the credentials of watching two dogs hump for ten years of their life then that person must therefore be all knowing. The red rocket... shows you things... 
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Nov 13, 2014 07:24
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To pile onto new-puppy chat, I am picking up my new puppy (a Havanese) tomorrow. It will be the first time I've had a dog since I was a kid and I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed by the vast amount of conflicting information available about what to do. The breeder currently feeds the puppies dry food (Royal Canin, so not the worst stuff out there) and chicken mince. My wife keeps insisting that we should feed the dog a mix of wet and dry food as that's what the shelter she works at does for their dogs but most of the internet (including the RSPCA and other reputable places) tells me that just dry food is enough as long as you supplement with bones once a week or so. So what's the best option to go with? At the moment I'm leaning towards just dry food but am happy to be told I'm wrong if anybody has more concrete advice. And what sort of bones are best for an eight week old toy breed puppy?
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Nov 14, 2014 03:30
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Nothing wrong with just dry in a dog. I am not a fan of giving bones to dogs - many posters here feel otherwise, so they can give you their opinion. What is better for dental health is getting your puppy used to being handled around the mouth so that you can brush their teeth daily with minimal fuss.
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Nov 14, 2014 04:00
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Are there any specific reasons you don't like to give bones? I had already planned to brush the dog's teeth weekly as that seemed to be the consensus amongst different breeder websites I read (most suggested brushing the coat twice a week and once a week cleaning the dog's teeth and ears and checking their nails) but am willing to brush more frequently if there's a benefit to it.
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Nov 14, 2014 04:13
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Brush every day. If you don't do it at least 3-4x a week, it's a waste of time because it only takes about 2 days for tartar to harden to the point where you can't just brush it off. Aim for every day so if you miss a day it's ok. The veterinary dentist who taught me was never a fan of bones. They can break teeth, get stuck in the GI tract, etc. She goes by a knee test, so if you can't comfortably hit your knee with it, you shouldn't give it to your dog.
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Nov 14, 2014 04:58
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Braki posted:
Our dentistry professor's hardness test was to see if you can make an indentation with your fingernail, and if you can't it's too hard for safe chewing. Especially puppies, their baby teeth are more delicate. And yes, brush daily if you're going to do it, once a week won't do much.
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Nov 14, 2014 05:12
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lol I have literally never once brushed a dogs teeth in my entire life and even my lovely brachecephalic boston has perfect teeth.
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Nov 14, 2014 05:33
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We have gotten dogs who have spent their life chewing bones or they get like anesthetic-free dentals or something and while they look perfect on the outside, the dental rads reveal terrible periodontal disease underneath the gum line. Hell, sometimes it's just hard to tell. Our dentist's dog broke a tooth and while her other teeth looked absolutely perfect, when she went under for her dental and they took dental rads she actually needed 8 teeth extracted. Gross examination is far from perfect.
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Nov 14, 2014 05:45
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Went to get dog food from ~our local petstore~ and found out they were phasing out our current choice - Merrick Real Texas Beef and Sweet Potato Grain Free. After discussing with the surprisingly helpful clerk, she said they are phasing it out not because of any inherent issue with the product, but that they've started noticing both from their own customers and online that some dogs are reacting less well to it. She conjectured that it could be that they're sourcing the ingredients from new places or making changes to their process. Long story short, I'm trying something a little different now, and picked up a bag of this: Zignature Duck Formula. It's not listed in the OP, and I was hoping someone could give me their opinion of the food. It seems decent to me, but my experience is limited pretty much to this thread so I'm hoping the hivemind can help break this down a little bit for me.
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Nov 14, 2014 14:56
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Looks fine to me. Decent protein:fat ratio, no potatoes, no grains. At most I might send them an email about their sourcing of ingredients, including micronutrients, and if their food is made in Diamond factories. (That is nice to me, but I worry a lot.)
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Nov 14, 2014 19:54
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DaveSauce posted:We're about to get a new puppy this weekend, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi. We've been reading a few things on dog food and I've hit a minor issue about what to feed the little guy. I'm a bit late on this but while the exact cause of pano is unknown, there's pretty good evidence it's at least partially caused by rapid growth spurts. Rich, high protein, high calcium diets can contribute to rapid growth and are thought to be linked to pano so they can be somewhat risky in breeds or lines prone to pano. If the breeder is seriously concerned about your dog developing pano her lines may prone to it and trust me you want to do everything to avoid your dog developing it, pano loving sucks. After my dog developed very severe pano, I can't help but wonder if feeding high protein kibble to him as a puppy was a contributing factor. I fed Orijen large breed puppy and he definitely grew much faster than is normal so with my next puppy I'm going for a lower protein % kibble. That being said, it's not a cut and dry decision and your dog may or may not develop it regardless of what you feed so do what you're comfortable with. But if her lines are known for pano problems, I'd probably go for a lower protein kibble just to be safe. Triangulum fucked around with this message at 20:16 on Nov 14, 2014 |
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Nov 14, 2014 20:09
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I've ordered a bag of Solid Gold Indigo Moon off of Amazon, and I want to switch my cats to it from Purina One. What's a good ratio of Indigo Moon to Purina One to start with? Also, how much should I feed for two cats?
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Nov 15, 2014 22:34
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My cat had to have a tooth extracted due to gum issues at her last cleaning. I'm thinking I wanna switch her to a softer dry food, if possible. Currently feeding her Wellness Core dry and Wellness Core canned. The dry is her daily food and the canned food is about 3 times a week. I can't afford to feed her canned food daily. She is eating the dry food and doesn't seem to have any problems. I'm just worried that she is hiding any pain she might be having. Any suggestions?
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Nov 16, 2014 23:33
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Just a heads up, Solid Gold has changed their bag designs. I thought this was just a graphics thing but just as I was leaving I found a note that said Katz-n-flocken has 3 added ingredients; brocolli, carrot and another veggie I forget. Not sure what other products may have changed right now.
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Nov 17, 2014 01:16
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Rubicon posted:My cat had to have a tooth extracted due to gum issues at her last cleaning. I'm thinking I wanna switch her to a softer dry food, if possible. If she just had one tooth extracted and doesn't have any residual inflammation visible where the tooth used to be, it shouldn't be causing her any issues. Teeth are removed to prevent pain or because they are causing pain, and usually removing the tooth resolves the issue. Also, a lot of cats don't really chew, and if they do and one side hurts, they use the other side. Basically, the dry food you have is likely fine.
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Nov 17, 2014 06:45
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DaveSauce posted:We're about to get a new puppy this weekend, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi. We've been reading a few things on dog food and I've hit a minor issue about what to feed the little guy. Sup Corgi buddy. We're picking our puppy up on Jan 3, and our breeder recommends Canidae. I don't know anything about dogs (my gf knows a ton though) so I guess that's what we're buying.
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Nov 24, 2014 00:13
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