CUDDLES WITH BELLE

CLEO & ACUPUNCTURE

Cleo waiting patiently for her appointment

Just a quick update on Cleo and her acupuncture sessions. Well, Cleo completed the first 8 sessions a couple of weeks ago, and she is now on maintenance therapy.

She seems to have improved quite a bit in that she is less tired and has not displayed any strange behaviours after the first few sessions. (We started acupuncture because she had trouble walking and would get exhausted easily, and would also at times start circling instead of walking in a straight line, and as you know she has a severely enlarged heart). 

Cleo chilling out at Asia Paws

Dr Susanna also thinks that Cleo's condition has improved, and that is why she has recommended that we move Cleo to just have maintenance sessions, i.e. once every 2 to 3 weeks or so... While this is good news, I am also worried that Cleo might start displaying those symptoms again...

Cleo being a good girl during her session

But anyway, Dr Susanna has reassured us that if we feel Cleo needs to have more frequent sessions, we can do it. So for now I will see how she progresses with only having to go in once every 3 weeks instead of once a week like we have been doing...

For anyone considering canine acupuncture, I would just like to say that it's worth trying it. But you need to find a practitioner that you are really comfortable with, and for us it's definitely Dr Susanna :)

GIANT MEALS

We have moved the kids to eating once a day now. And they seem to enjoy eating giant meals!  

Cleo is chomping happily through her meal in the picture above... She's chomping on about 600g worth of beef steak, and there's a chicken quarter which is about 300g and a pork rib of about 300g as well...

This is a 1.2 kg meal of pork meat and ribs

Basically, I have moved all the kids to eating once a day now, where they eat their whole 2% of meat (against their body weight) in one sitting. Cleo gets 600g, Lucky 500g, Rascal 400g and Belle 300g. They seem to eat better this way and their digestion seem to work even better... Their poop is now even less than it was before!

And then as previously, they have a massive meal on Saturday and rest (i.e. have no food on Sundays), and they seem to be quite content to do this too... Of course, now that they eat once a day, their meal on Saturday is really HUGE... i.e. Cleo gets 1.2kgs, Lucky 1kg, Rascal 800g and Belle 600g.

Interestingly enough, I have noticed that they actually seem less hungry with being fed once a day. I no longer have to feed them exactly at a specific time... Feeding times have varied by half an hour to an hour these days and they don't seem to mind it. Previously, (esp when they were still in kibble), I literally could not even be a minute late with their meals!

I am now thinking of going for the BFFLO (Big Food Fed Less Often) method of feeding. This method mimics how wolves would eat in the wild, where you give your doggies a really LARGE serving and let them eat as much as they want (with you knowing how much they have eaten of course so that you know how many days they have eaten for), and then skipping meals for a couple of days.

I will keep you guys posted if I decide to adopt the BFFLO method...

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Feeding Dogs a Raw Diet: Practical Answers to Practical Questions

HOME MADE DEHYDRATED RAW TREATS

Dehydrated Raw Buffalo Treats - ready to serve!

I recently learnt from Ntombi Peters (a friend on a Raw Feeding Group that I joined) how to make home made raw dehydrated treats! My first batch is now ready and I can't wait to let the kids try them!

So how do you make your own dehydrated raw treats? Well firstly, cut some fresh raw, super lean meat into small pieces. Arrange them on a plate (see picture above) and stick the plate into the fridge uncovered.

The meat should dry out slowly, and after two days or so, it should start to look like this. You may turn the treats over, or if you're lazy like me, just leave them in the fridge for another 2 days or so. When completely dried, remove and store in a container. The best part is, you don't have to refrigerate the treats once they are done!

By preparing the treats in this manner, you preserve all the nutrients of the meat and so your kiddo will be getting good treats instead of treats that have been cooked to death... ;-) I will let you know if the kids like them soon!

HOME MADE CRACKLING

Went to get the kids' supply of pork ribs, steaks and hearts this morning, and my butcher asked if I wanted to have some pork skin... I said okay and gosh he gave me like 2kg worth of it for just a few bucks.

I wasn't quite sure what to do with it when I came home when I suddenly thought I'd turn it into crackling for the kids...

Basically, I gave the skin a good scrub and then used a pair of tweezers to get some of the hair that was still stuck in the skin out. You don't really have to do this cause the kids don't mind it, but I'm just fussy that way.

I then cut the skin into strips... and dried them as thoroughly as I could with paper towels. Then I laid them out on a baking tray lined with baking paper and stuck it in the oven. You need to turn up the heat in your oven to the max and then leave the crackling in there for about 30 mins or till it gets all golden and crunchy!

Once it's done, take it out and put it on a paper towel to drain the excess oil and let it cool! Can't wait till the kids try some a little later!

WALKING IN THE RAIN

It was drizzling a little this morning, and so I got into my rain coat and wellies,and then strapped Belle and Rascal into their Hurtta rain coats. Just as we were about to go out, the rain came chucking down, and there was no way we could have gone out!

Belle was completely unimpressed that we were not going out and proceeded to sulk! She was so cute!

Anyway, when the rain lightened up, I took them out and they had a grand time stomping in all the puddles! They would have gotten absolutely filthy if they didn't have their rain coats on though...

Managed to take a couple of pictures later on in the walk when the rain was just a very light drizzle! Don't they look so cool!

CLEO & LUCKY

I was rather pre-occupied with work yesterday and didn't realise it was the kids' dinner time. Suddenly I felt 2 pairs of eyes boring holes into me!

MISHKA'S NEW TOY

HEART, KIDNEYS & LIVER

The kids have been having organ meat every now and then, mainly liver (chicken or pork) and gizzard. Occasionally they get kidneys and pig tripe (stomache). So far, I have been cooking the organ meat with some goji berries as they didn't quite like these raw.

However, today I decided to try feeding them raw pig's heart, kidneys and liver, in addition to some pork steak and pork ribs.

Cleo wolfed down everything in two ticks! I had put down her food, and then proceeded to put Lucky's and Mishka's food down (while my maid went to put down Belle and Rascal's food), and when I came back it was all gone! So no pictures of her eating any of it.

Lucky started eating the liver first, then the pork steak, then the pork rib. He tried eating the heart a few times but didn't quite like it. I then cut it into much smaller pieces and he was alot happier and ate all of it. But he refused to have the kidney! So Cleo ate that as well.

Belle and Rascal did NOT like the organ meats at all!!!

Rascal ate the pork steak, ribs and some of the liver. He tried a bit of heart, and then just turned his nose up at the rest.

Belle only ate the pork steak and rib. She tried very hard to eat the rest but just could not. She was glaring at the food with great disdain and gave me a really mean look.

Both Belle and Rascal just refused to eat these strange things quite flatly.

I finally decided to blanch them and try again. Rascal ate a few pieces of liver but refused the rest. Belle just wouldn't have any of it. Sigh...

I am slightly concerned I guess because tomorrow is Sunday. And Sunday is fasting day. Hopefully these 2 won't be too hungry tomorrow.

Related Post: The Importance of Organ Meat

CLEO WITH HER NEW COLLAR!

Cleo's collar from Ruffwear arrived this morning and it's fabulous! It's amazingly lightweight and feels very durable!

It has a one-piece anodized aluminum V-ring which creates a secure leash attachment point and the silicone logo label includes a separate ID attachment point to minimize the possibility of clipping your leash to the ID tag split ring.  It also has a tag silencer to reduce tag jingle.

We hope it works cause as most of you know the license tags from our local councils are massive and the clanging from the tag really drives us nuts sometimes.

Will be getting one each for the rest of the kids now... ;-)