Fluffy Bunnies posted:

No walks, keep her inside away from any males, crate her when you're away, etc. How's her goofy run doing?

Must Love Dogs posted:

Dear God please say you have video of this, or at least photos.

Fluffy Bunnies posted:

Fluffy Bunnies posted:

Ah, the 'what the gently caress puppy, did you sprout another 10 inches overnight?' phase. They eat everything. Wood is the best tasting stuff ever. Our brand new furniture has gnaw marks from Amy's puppyhood stupidity.

Buy lots of chew toys, find out what he likes, then stock up a shitload of those. Amy was all about stuffed animals with the lamby/wooly type fleece on the fronts.

Fluffy Bunnies posted:

Your floors are the ideal example of what happens when you mix wood and big dogs Clementine is such a pretty girl.

Thank god we've got (gorgeous) tile this time.

Dr Ozziemandius posted:

It's the only reasonable thing to do. Having a Dane obligates you to get a Harlequin, for contrast, and so you can have the fun of explaining that no, it's not a really big Dalmatian.

Cassiope posted:

I actually was hesitant to post them here because I know they are so much smaller than most everyone else's danes and such. But yeah, she's humongous. And she's only just now a year old so she has a little more growing up to do.

I'm so used to Moxie I was almost overwhelmed by the sheer dog mass in that house. Mox is like..50 pounds at her fattest. She comes up to my knee. I couldn't sit on the couch around Avalanche and Greta because the one time I did Avalanche sat on top of me and I was afraid I was going to die.

Skizzles posted:

I dropped by my shelter today to deliver delicious donuts to the employees (if you ever have a spare moment to do this, do it, it makes their day).

Skizzles posted:

I dropped by my shelter today to deliver delicious donuts to the employees (if you ever have a spare moment to do this, do it, it makes their day). Of course I perused the dog kennels, and I came upon this dog:



She's a white Dane, and she's deaf. Poor girl, if only I had the time/space/money for a big, deaf dog.

edit: vvv Awesome.

Dr Ozziemandius posted:

Aww, couch lovin's are one of the great rewards of giant breed ownership. I was piled on the middle of the couch with a Dane on each end last night.

Also, that Dobie is gorgeous, and she's welcome in this thread anytime. I think I put a "30% bigger than normal" exception for giants, and I'm pretty sure she qualifies

Superconsndar posted:

It's got a really high iodine content, calcium content, and has tons of trace minerals. It's amazing for conditioning coats and will help make your doggy pretty and shiny.


So today I made Satin Balls. My recipe gets thrown around a lot in PI because it's a modification of the traditional recipe that I'd settled on after several years of trial and error with different variations of the base recipe.

Satin Balls were originally created by show ladies to condition dog's coats before shows. They're also commonly used as supplements for nursing mothers, and for weight gain. They're great for keeping weight on senior dogs and for bulking up dogs that are a little too lean.

For the average dog, you don't want to use them too often as meal replacements, because they're insanely calorie dense and put weight on like just about nothing else. In my case, I give my low-energy Boston one small one twice a week as a general supplement because it keeps his coat looking amazing. My pit bull gets them as meals a few times a week because he's verrrrry active- between being biked several miles a day and being worked on a springpole for about an hour a day (more on weekends) hiking, swimming- he needs a lot of protein and a lot of calories to keep his weight up and build muscle. In that respect, they're GREAT as a general supplement and meal replacement for performance dogs.

This is the standard, "base" recipe that most variations are derived from:

10 pounds ground beef (highest fat content available)
1 lg. box of Total cereal
1 lg. box oatmeal
1 jar of wheat germ
1 1/4 cup veg oil
1 1/4 cup of unsulfured molasses
10 raw eggs AND shells
10 envelopes of unflavored gelatin
pinch of salt


It's alright, and it does work, but over the years I modified mine until it became the following:
10 pounds ground beef (highest fat percentage available)
10 eggs with shells
1 big huge box of Total cereal, crushed
1 pound of ground flax
1 pound of coconut oil (I heat it a bit since it's usually too solid to mix at room temperature)
1 pound wheat germ
1 container of Solid Gold Seameal. (If you can't find this, or if it's too expensive, you can substitute with about a pound of kelp powder.)
1 jar of blackstrap molasses (or just plain unsulfured molasses, if you can't find blackstrap)
10 packets of Knox unflavored gelatin

Flax for omega 3's- even ground flax is not digested or absorbed well by dogs, but I tried it with fish oil once and the smell was just too much, so settled on flax anyway. It seems to work fine, and as an added bonus, it works really well as a binder to help hold everything together.

Seameal added again as a coat conditioner- its basically overpriced kelp with a few ground fruits mixed in, but for some reason, it just worked better than plain kelp. I dunno. Just does.

Coconut oil I add because again, I noticed a huge boost in coat condition when I did. It's a "good" fat and blah blah blah it makes dogs pretty, feed it to them. I also add it because the recipe is too dry without it and if I need something to wet it down a bit, it might as well be moisture in the form of delicious, nutritious fats.


That's what I've done for a while, but the inclusion of the Total cereal always bothered me- it's full of indigestible and commonly allergenic grains, and it's got preservatives that would cause me to walk away if I saw them on a dog food ingredient list. It's included in the recipe basically as a multivitamin, binder, and bulker, and I wanted something with better ingredients with the same benefits. So, I changed up the recipe a bit again this time.

THINGS:


Also, beef. Dump your beef in a big container. Big enough to mix 10+ pounds worth of stuff in. A Beef Bin.

Then, put all your stuff in it. Molasses:


Wheat germ. I have tried so, so many times to find a substitute for wheat germ because I hate added wheat to my dog's food. I gave up because leaving it out or substituting it throws the whole recipe off. The entire point of satin balls is to create a sudden coat "bloom," and without wheat germ, it doesn't happen. So, wheat in my dog food. Blah.


In it goes:


Gelatiiineeeeee. Add it. 10 packets.



This is what I decided to try this time as a substitute for total. It does contain wheat, but considerably less, and since it's mostly oatmeal, I decided to leave out my usual carton of oatmeal too.



That takes care of the bulk and fiber, but you want to replace that multivitamin too. Any crushed dog multi would probably work, but I decided to try this stuff:


Gimmicky labeling, whatever, it's basically a bunch of powdered fruits, veggies, and herbs, and some random vitamins and minerals and probiotics. Better than Total Cereal, at any rate.




Coconut oil- I scale the amount I use depending on the batch. Ideally a whole 1lb container, but sometimes that ends up being a bit too much so I cut it back. As long as everything mixes well and isn't too soft, it's all good. It's solid at room temperature so I usually heat it just to the point of becoming liquid before I add it. I'll solidify again once it cools, which will also help bind everything.



Flaaaaaaaaaax


10 eggs with shells. The shells are there in the original recipe to balance the calcium/phosphorus levels but in reality, 1) egg shell in that form is not particularly digestible 2) 10 egg shells really doesn't balance out 10 pounds of meat, plus eggs. You'd be better off adding a powdered calcium supplement. (9-1200 mg of calcium per pound of meat,) however, since this is just for intermittent feeding/supplementation and not a total diet, we don't really give a crap and aren't going to be anal about balancing things. So add calcium, or don't, your call. If you're giving it to puppies I probably would, otherwise eh.



I also left out Seameal, 1) because everyone in town was out of it and 2) I recently started supplementing daily with kelp on its own so it would have been overkill at this point. In most cases though, you'll want to add either the Solid Gold Seameal or the equivalent amount of kelp.


Now MIX. Mix until you end up with this:



Then form into balls:


Ones about fist size are what I normally do for dogs over about 30 pounds. Scaled up and down according to the size of the dog, just eyeball it.


Now. Locate a pet:


Ball?


to have the ball, you must first Leave The Ball


only then may you become one with the ball


Locate another pet:



feed it before it infects you with whatever is wrong with it





Don't leave out your relatives horrible, obese chihuahua. He is on a diet because they won't stop feeding him bullshit, and shouldn't be eating satin balls of all things, but he's lost a ton of weight so he can have a small treat I guess It's not my dog so whatever


Smell the Balls


It makes a bunch. I portion and freeze and then take them out and thaw as needed.

Veruca Salt posted: