I hope this Blog proves to be both fun and educational for anyone interested in Showing and/or Breeding Dogs. Spend some time with us and you will really understand the time and effort and emotions that goes into this hobby. Join me here for the good times and bad times, the joys and sorrows, the wins and losses. Welcome to life at Vista Dei!

I am probably not going to have the time to keep up with the food recall stuff since I am working with Dew-oh quite a bit, but am getting more recall info tonight, I urge you to continue to check the Itchmo site for updates, and this is also new information :

From http://www.itchmo.com/

All vegetable protein from China is being detained. It includes the following: Wheat Gluten, Rice Gluten, Rice Protein, Rice Protein Concentrate, Corn Gluten, Corn Gluten Meal, Corn By-Products, Soy Protein, Soy Gluten, Proteins (includes amino acids and protein hydrosylates), Mung Bean Protein.

1,950 cats and 2,200 dogs reported dead.
FDA does not know the scope of the problem.
Original source of toxins still not known.
Firms got around Chinese inspection by saying it wasn’t food.
New standards for import use established

Posted by: Vistadei at 23:50 | link | comments
dog food

it's been a long day, every available test has been run, extensive blood work and x-rays, and we have found the area of injury on Dew-oh, her spine above the pelvis is collapsed inward toward her pelvis, of course only speculation how it could have gotten that way.  She was just coming out of her heat cycle and that loosens all the muscles in that area, so perhaps a badly timed jump from another dog, or perhaps she had slipped in the crate and the muscles just were soft enough to allow a freak injury to occur.  At any rate, looking at some of the options I have decided to go with a holistic approach, as I just feel the surgery route appears to really compromise the quality of life prognosis for such a young active dog.  So we have started treatments with Dr. Cindy Maro who is Dr. Doug Knueven's ex-wife for those of you familiar with them as a couple, or familiar with him as a writer for several dog related publications.  I know they went to China to learn the holistic techniques and are very respected in the holistic community.

Today, Dew-oh has been receiving chiropractic treatments, acupuncture, Raindrop Therapy with essential oils, several holistic medications, phytosteryl which is a natural steroid, and will continue with magnetic therapy and repeated Chiropractic and acupuncture treatments every few days.

At this time she is in less pain, but is paralyzed, so continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Thanks

Posted by: Vistadei at 20:12 | link | comments (9)

In the header of this blog I invited you to  "Join me here for the good times and bad times, the joys and sorrows" and I am afraid today might be one of those bad times full of sorrow.  One of our dogs is in critical condition from an unknown spinal injury.  Dew-oh was fine and playing yesterday morning, I crated her and went to work, when I came home she was in her crate, paralyzed and in great pain.  Rushed her to the vet, but at this time there has been little improvement and no answers.  Hopefully tomarrow she will be evaluated by an orthapedic specialist... send her some well wishes, good thoughts and prayers please.

Posted by: Vistadei at 07:15 | link | comments (7)

"Half time" report called in by Dave who is at the North Olmstead trials... He let me know that Drifter has earned his second leg in Open Jumpers with weaves, running a course that had a standard course time of 41 seconds in a mere 25.40 seconds for a first place ribbon!!! yiipppppeeeeeeee...  Drifter's "big" collie sister is running today too, and earned another leg in Standard toward her MX as well as picking up 7 more MACH points.. hope this afternoon goes as well for them!
Congratulations!!

Posted by: Vistadei at 12:55 | link | comments

I am getting excited, less than a month now untill our show season starts.  I have alot of entries sent in and paid for already, and this is why I skipped a breeding this spring so I hope it pays off with some nice wins over the next 3 months or so.  Starting Mid-May through at least end of July, I have committed nearly every day off work to dog shows or agility trials of some type, UKC, AKC, CPE, you name it, we are entered. The first weekend out I am going to try something new, traveling with ALL eight dogs and all alone and staying over night with them.  I still have so much to do, have to build in a low platform in the van, add tie downs, buy several new x-pens, modify my grooming table, figure out a way to get locking wheels on my doily, etc.  I am going to do a dry run, packing everything, then going to my mom's house and unpacking and setting up everything to see if I have what I need, if everything fits as I plan, if I can get the 10' by 10' shade pop up opened and anchored myself etc.  I am running out of days off to get this all together, but I have like 20 more days total, just not many off for the bigger projects.  I also have to buckle down with Darby and those weave poles.. ohhh we need right side work and often he pops out on #10 or #11 so we have to work work work..  Darby is starting tracking now, and tomarrow morning we will meet with a lady named Gayle who tracks with her dogs and get some pointers.  I can't wait.. I imagine it will be next spring before we are ready for the Tracking tests, but I think he can do it.  I have laided a couple short tracks and he will "snuff" at them, so that is a good first step.  As with anything, ME learning how to teach him something new will be the big challange.  He will do fine, he always does!

Posted by: Vistadei at 09:35 | link | comments

American Nutrition has added more foods to their recall. Some of these were
previously announced yesterday, but there are a couple of new ones such as
Canine Caviar, Mulligan Stew, and Harmony Farms.

CANNED CAT FOOD
Blue Buffalo Spa Select Hairball Control Oven Roasted Chicken 3oz AUG 21 09
APR 15 10
Blue Buffalo Spa Select Kitten Recipe Oven Roasted Chicken 3oz AUG 21 09 APR
15 10
Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul Kitten Formula 5.5oz 15 AUG 08 15 APR
09
Harmony Farms Country Chicken Entrée 3oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10
Natural Balance Ocean Fish Formula 3oz and 6 oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10

CANNED DOG FOOD
Blue Buffalo Beef Dinner 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10
Blue Buffalo Chicken Dinner 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10
Blue Buffalo Hearty Venison Dinner 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10
Blue Buffalo Lamb Dinner 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10
Blue Buffalo Salmon Dinner 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10
Blue Buffalo Turkey Meatloaf Dinner 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10
Canine Caviar Gourmet Beaver 13.2oz AUG 21 08 APR 15 09
Canine Caviar Gourmet Turkey 13.2oz AUG 21 08 APR 15 09
Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul Puppy Formula 13oz 21 AUG 08 15 APR 09
Diamond Lamb & Rice 13oz 21 AUG 09 15 APR 10
Harmony Farms Beef 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10
Harmony Farms Chicken 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10
Harmony Farms Lamb 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10
Harmony Farms Salmon 12.5oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10
Kirkland Signature Premium Dog 2-Flavor Variety Pack 14oz (24-pack) AUG 21
08 APR 15 09
Mulligan Stew Chicken 13.2oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10
Mulligan Stew Turkey 13.2oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10
Natural Balance Beef Formula 13oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10
Natural Balance Chicken Formula 13oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10
Natural Balance Lamb Formula 13oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10
Natural Balance Venison & Brown Rice 13oz AUG 21 09 APR 15 10

BAKED DOG TREATS
Natural Balance Venison & Brown Rice Formula Baked Dog Treats 14oz AUG 21 07
APR 15 08
Blue Buffalo Health Bars Baked With Apples & Yogurt Dog Treats 20oz AUG 21
07 APR 15 08

Posted by: Vistadei at 15:55 | link | comments
dog food

I can't give you puppy pictures from new pups since I skipped breeding Dew-oh this spring, but I have been getting the web pages done for our past litter of pups, so if you would like to look at last year's litter that many of you followed here on the blog, this is the L6 litter.  Ricki and Diana were the parents, and there were 6 puppies.  Each has their own web page now, most with some pictures of them starting to grow up.

Puppy #1 -  Abby - vistadeishelties.com/L6/abby.html

Puppy #2 - Cooper - vistadeishelties.com/L6/cooper.html

Puppy #3 - Mocha - http://vistadeishelties.com/L6/mocha.html

Puppy #4 - Stella - http://vistadeishelties.com/L6/stella.html

Puppy #5 - Devon - http://vistadeishelties.com/L6/Devon/devon.html

Puppy #6 - Kiwi - http://vistadeishelties.com/L6/kiwi.html

Posted by: Vistadei at 08:40 | link | comments

At the risk of this turning into a boring dog food site, the news today is that the contaminated rice was sold to 5 pet food manufactures, one of which still has not come forward to recall, but the other 4 cover 5 brands and are recalling.  FDA hearings as of yesterday indicate at least one more huge batch of contaminated rice product has come to the USA, IN ADDITION TO THIS ONE, no disclosure has been made as to where that rice was shipped to.  These are the newest recalls now related to the rice, visit their websites for product details:

I am going to add the following link to the collumn at the left, this site called Itchmo has really been keeping the information up to date on the food recall situation, as well as being a fun pet site seemingly!

www.itchmo.com/

In addition, it was noted that the contamination found in the pig farms is being contributed to the pig farms BUYING THE RECALLED DOG AND CAT FOOD.. ohhhh duhhhhhhh....

At our house, the second day adding the Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach, I have one with soft stool, 2 don't want to eat it and one is STARVING after eating the kibble meal. So I doubt that will be our long term choice.  This has been what I ran into before, different foods are good for different ones of my dogs, but only Pedigree kept them all healthy and happy.  I have a feeling we will be back on the Pedigree here soon, no matter my feelings about their breeder program.  At this point in time they still seem unaffected by the recalls.  My dogs have just always been so healthy and happy and we have been going through several months of food hell here now, vet bills, etc.  As I had indicated I joined some homecooked/raw feeding email lists and I have a huge concern about the "authorities" out there dispensing information, do they really know, are they really correct on supliments, percentages, etc, or are they touting what has worked for their dogs, may or may not for mine.  I am concerned that of the 50+ emails I get a day from those lists, a vast majority of them deal with health issues and adjusting the diet to compensate for this or that ailment.  I wonder in the back of my head if it is a "chicken or the egg situation"  did the people start the home cooked because their dogs were ill, or did the dogs get ill after eating the diet.  I am trying to get Daisy coated up for the shows, and that has seemed to stall on the home cooking, her coat is not as full as it should be at this time.  One of my additional concerns is that they just drink sooo little fresh water when they are eating raw, I know the food has all the moisture in it, but I just can't help but thinking I am going to have some UTI if they don't drink more.  I don't know.  I know for 10 years I have had a group of very healthy dogs here who have been competitive in the show and performance rings, who have had nice healthy litters with 100% healthy pups and I have been doing it using Pedigree dog food.  What a mess this food situation is, and how glad I am that I skipped this spring breeding, I wouldn't want a pregnant bitch here at this time, hopefully we will be settled food wise by June, cause I miss putting up puppy pictures.. I am ready for some excitement and puppy breath, aren't you?

Posted by: Vistadei at 12:14 | link | comments (1)
dog food

I like to keep web pages for each puppy we breed, but I have fallen a bit behind, so I have been working on some new ones.  BUT before the new ones, one of our "older" pup's pages was badly in need of a facelift, and I think I finally got it just the way I want it..

Please visit the web page featuring Vista Dei Luvme Genevieve RN,NAJ,2/3NA,1/3NJP,CGC,TDI "Genni"

Posted by: Vistadei at 08:35 | link | comments (2)

I gave the crew some of the new dog food yesterday and today, I thought maybe since they had been getting home cooking for nearly a month, they might turn up their noses at kibble, but they dug right in happily munching it down, except for Daisy who had to give it a few slow tries.  As I said in an earlier post I decided to go with the Pro-plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach, it seems to have ingredients that are not involved in the recall, and Pro-plan says the rice used is not rice gluten type stuff that was involved in the contaminations, so I guess it will be my best try to add this into the home cooked to try to bring up the calories.  If all goes well, then I may move to this food, here are the ingredients:

Salmon, brewers rice, canola meal, oat meal, fish meal (natural source of glucosamine), animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), salmon meal (natural source of glucosamine), pearled barley, brewers dried yeast, animal digest, salt, potassium chloride, Vitamin E supplement, choline chloride, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), manganese sulfate, niacin, calcium carbonate, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, garlic oil, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.
D-4449

Posted by: Vistadei at 10:50 | link | comments
dog food

I decided on Pro-plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach for the food to add to my home cooking and bought a bag yesterday.  By my calculations, my home cooked meals are falling far under what a "normal" dog of our weight should be having, however I have found this to be a very hard thing to actually calculate.  Dog and Cat foods seem to be measured in usable Kcal  Seems my dogs should be having about 800 to 1000 usuable Kcal a day, but I get stuck transfering this to calories as we record people food (conversions seem to be 1Kcal = 1000 calories??? What am I missing here?? this can't possibly be..), and also in the "usable" portions, ie if I up the calories via carbohydrates they have no use for the carbohydrates, so not sure how those count, as empty calories?  Anyway.. I do know that I am feeding about 350 to 400 human calories a day via the homemade diet and by any calculations that is too little, but I have not been able to raise it because the fattier foods upset their stomach. So.. anyway the Pro-plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach has no Wheat or corn in it, and seems to have Brewers Rice and some other rice products, but I do not see the Rice Gluten.  However, since it has been noted that the bags don't have to be acurate as to the content, it is just a gamble.  Sure wish we could know the other companies that were involved with the tained Rice Gluten.

Got a new xpen yesterday, working toward a plan here for my shows this summer, have to get a few things at a time.  Also picked up a harness for Darby, he is going to try tracking for the first time on Sunday..

Posted by: Vistadei at 07:59 | link | comments (2)

Just coming across the sheltie lists that someone has stolen the agility equipment from the Youngstown All breed club, it was stored in a trailer behind the building and someone took the trailer.  If you see very reasonable priced agility equipment at the flea markets or where ever, most of the items were marked YABC, and they are hoping to get them returned before their shows in June.  Bummer..

Adventures with the new hair dryer.. well got it out of the box and plugged it in, didn't realize it was switched on, and the hose whipped around like an out of control fire hose and bashed me in the mouth and again in the head before I could contain it.  Bathed and blew dried a couple of the shelties and when I was working on Diana she was getting dryer and dryer and then BAMMMM she exploded.. chunks of hair started flying about the room.  That was quickly followed by chunks of pink dog hair.. PINK DOG HAIR?? Darn, there is part of the ceiling removed in the laundry room where we had a little roof leak and I seem to be blowing the insulation out of the ceiling.. I tuck the hose under one arm, trying to hold onto the dog with the other arm and hear a crash behind me, the thing has blown my grooming box over and is now blowing brushes and bottles out into the hall.  I push the hose down into the cloths hamper to try to get a free hand, but it flies up out and whacks around the spectator dogs with a life of it's own.  Finally I find the off switch.  Notice that the entire room and all contents are now covered in a fine film of that wispy undercoat.  It hangs from the wall, coats my shoes, the over head lights, the leashes, all the clothes in the hamper, the clothes baskets, everything is evenly coated with a fine layer of fuzz.  Mention this to my friend, who says never to use it in the house.. take the dog and the table and the dryer outside... oooooooohhhhhhhhhh... light bulb moment! Still picking fuzz out of my teeth as I try to clean the house today...

I think I am going to start adding some kibble back to the dog's meals.  Have been feeding home cooked/raw now for 20 days and I am starting to suddenly see a significant weight loss across all the dogs.  Mysty could stand to loose a couple pounds but the rest, not so much.  Darlin' in particular is feeling too thin to me.  I have been feeding as much as they will eat, which is about 4 times the volume they were eating per day with the kibble.  They are quite satisfied, but the lean meats are just having the same effect as an Atkins diet I think.  Adding fatty meats upsets them, and even with rice, oats, barley, etc it seems the weight is dropping fast. 

Posted by: Vistadei at 16:36 | link | comments

This afternoon from the Associated Press:

Posted by: Vistadei at 13:31 | link | comments
dog food

Just to keep up to date as of this morning the following reports have come out in the pet food issue:

BREAKING NEWS: Royal Canin Recalls Several Dry Foods
April 20th, 2007
Royal Canin is recalling several formulations due to contaminated
rice protein concentrate. No illnesses are confirmed in relation to
these items.

Recalled items:

ROYAL CANIN SENSIBLE CHOICE® (available in pet specialty stores
nationwide)

Dry Dog Food
- Chicken Meal & Rice Formula Senior
- Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Puppy
- Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Adult
- Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Senior
- Rice & Catfish Meal Formula Adult

ROYAL CANIN VETERINARY DIET™ (available only in veterinary clinics)

Dry Dog Food
- Canine Early Cardiac EC 22™
- Canine Skin Support SS21™

Dry Cat Food
- Feline Hypoallergenic HP23

Itchmo web site reports this morning:

The 29 cases of renal failure in South Africa has been linked to melamine in corn gluten used in pet food. Corn gluten is used extensively in the US.

Tests have confirmed that Vets Choice and Royal Canin dog and cat dry pet-food products contained corn gluten contaminated with melamine, says the manufacturer.

The contaminated corn gluten was delivered to Royal Canin by a South African third-party supplier and appears to have originated from China.

We were tracking cases of the South African pet deaths before and have heard rumors of corn gluten contamination.

At this point, we believe that all corn gluten should be considered at risk for contamination and should be tested by every pet food manufacturer and the FDA.

Posted by: Vistadei at 08:28 | link | comments
dog food

Hope everyone is still keeping up with the dog food re-call issues even tho it isn't the hot topic on the national news any more.  Several more companies started recalling, Natural Balance being one, and including their dry food.  Seems the RICE is now contaminated with the same stuff as the wheat was.  As of this morning:

Wilbur-Ellis, the company that shipped rice protein concentrate possibly contaminated with melamine to pet-food manufacturers, has voluntarily recalled the concentrate. In a press release dated April 19, 2007 at 12:33 AM Eastern, from Business Wire:

Wilbur-Ellis noted that it obtained rice protein from a single source in China and shipped to a total of five U.S. pet-food manufacturers located in Utah, N.Y., Kansas and two in Missouri.
As an additional precaution, Wilbur-Ellis is urging all pet food manufacturers using rice protein concentrate supplied through Wilbur-Ellis to recall any pet food that may be on supermarket shelves.

Unfortunately they STILL have not named the five food manufactures, also I have been reading and it seems in the pet food industry, the list of ingredients on the bag/can DOES NOT have to match what is IN the batch!!  Natural Balance didn't list Rice Gluten in their ingredient list it seems, and then when they re-called added it as the 3rd ingredient on their web site?  Seems that the pet food industry has about 6 months to get their packaging to match their food when they change or add ingredients, so they do not have to re-print their packaging, so basically if that is true (and that is just what I read on the internet, so you don't know 100% if that is true) Basically there is no way to really know what is actually in the food.

Posted by: Vistadei at 09:11 | link | comments (4)
dog food

I got a new Metro Air Force doggie hair dryer today, woooo weeeeee Now I have to find a victem.. errrrr sheltie to bath and blow dry to try it out!! Darby... ooooh DARBY... where is he hiding???

Posted by: Vistadei at 11:34 | link | comments

Took a walk on the wild side yesterday when shopping for more good things to feed the dogs.  Just a quick update, so far so good, everyone has been back to "normal" for a while and have been off their antibiotics now for 2 days, and poo's are all OK, no runs.  Poo's do vary quite a bit as the diet varies, most interesting are the days when we have yams.  Now we get a whole rainbow of colors!  Anyway.. I bought them some "other" meats.  Still trying to stay around a $1 a pound, at this point my total bill is $201.59 and that should do us for the month, tho I am going to order a box of beef knuckels next week for another $19.  Considering we need 150 pounds of fresh meat for 8 dogs per month (10 ounces per dog per day) plus the "other" meal, I didn't do too bad, but don't know if I can keep this up, as it is about 3 times more than I spent on kibble, tho they don't seem to need chewies, and are kind of bord with the rawhide compaired to the bones.  Anyway... the wild side.. I bought them 40 pounds of chicken, 6 pound pork roast, lamb backs, a cow tongue, beef liver, beef testicles, beef heart, ground beef, spinach, sardines, jack mackeral, chicken giblets, mixed vegies, rice, oats, grits, pumpkin, yogurt, yams, egg noodles, apples, bannanas.  That should make for an interesting 2 weeks!

Posted by: Vistadei at 08:00 | link | comments

We just got  lovely pictures of Stella, from L6 litter, they are a year old now, hard to believe!! That was our Ricki x Diana litter, and she looks so much like her dad, doesn't she? Isn't she a pretty girl? I hear she might be the first of our group to do some herding, now wouldn't that be neat!

Posted by: Vistadei at 20:54 | link | comments (2)

Posted by: Vistadei at 10:14 | link | comments
dog food

AAAwwwww man, today I fed the dogs cooked Barley with Jack Mackerel.. my goodness I do not know how human beings EAT that Mackerel, I do not think I have seen anything more disgusting come out of a can.  Gonna rank right up there with Chitlin's as things to never put in my mouth.. ewwwwwwwwwww

Dogs are all feeling better, all on anti-biotics, that seems to be helping.  They are all very interested in the kitchen now, and if I say mmmmmmmmmm they come running to see if it is for them! Spent another $10 on stuff for their diet, so now we are at $108 and they have only been on the home diet a little over a week, but ofcourse a great deal of that is base ingredients and vitamins and such that will last for weeks.

 I hope to get started back on my morning training soon, especially with Darlin' she is a BRAT.. oh my, what a strong personality.  She needs to get out and about and get alittle respect for her elders in the dog pack too. wow.

Posted by: Vistadei at 08:58 | link | comments

Cricket sez - Oh I am FINALLY home up here in the frozen tundra.. been traveling the USA all winter with my momma and dad, they is 'tired.  Oh I guess they is RE-tired, think that means you are twice as tired, but any way, I get to travel in a big old house that rolls around on wheels and sucks up tons of gass. Sometimes I get gass too, but not as much as the rollin' house. Anyway, when I travel in the rollin' house we stop at parks and I gitz to meet everyone and be a good example of a perfect sheltie lady, but I have ta walk on a leash all the time and never get to run around loose, and now I am back home and I got a big old fenced yard and the ZOOMIES.. see me and my ball? my ball gots the zoomies too!!  I'm a havin' a BALL!! hahahahahahah!

Posted by: Vistadei at 08:03 | link | comments (3)

"HOPPY EASTER"

Posted by: Vistadei at 10:50 | link | comments (1)

Sometimes people wonder why we are so picky when deciding on which homes get our puppies, why the interviews, phone calls, emails, and personal meetings before we decide to sell a puppy to someone?  Some people wonder why not just sell puppies to whomever has the cash to pay for them?  Well, we get so many inquiries we can be picky about where our puppies go and the kind of lives they will lead.  I want to show you a prime example of the kind of care and life I want for every dog I bring into the world.. happy spoiled puppies, happy caring people!  This is Sampson and Aslan who are littermates, and their family.. aren't they just living the good life?

Thanks to Sue, Mary and Alena for sharing photos of their life with me! (more to come!) This is what makes all the work worthwhile when I get to see how happy and well cared for and LOVED the dogs are in their families!

Posted by: Vistadei at 08:51 | link | comments (7)

Daisy is sick now.  Darby, Dusty, Mysty and Ricki seem to be completely over it, Daisy and Darlin' are right in the begining stages so are the worst, and Dew-oh and Diana are almost over it, but still having little "bouts".  I think I have had 3 hours sleep up and down trying to get them outside before an accident, cleaning the crates, bathing them, starting over again..

The Turkey necks came in yesterday, so I wacked 4 of them in half for tonight's meal and fed them lightly this morning, just a little rice and chunks of cooked beef liver and a vitamen.  Diana doesn't like raw meat, if you feed her raw you find the chunks burried in the bedding/newspapers in the crate, so I hope she will eat the turkey neck.  Dew-oh doesn't like the liver, when I left for work this morning she had taken each piece of liver out of the bowl and was taking the grains of rice off that were sticking to the liver and making bad faces about it.

This food stuff has taken so much time this week that I have not gotten any training done, not one bit.  humph..

Posted by: Vistadei at 10:41 | link | comments (1)

Good News sorta.. Darlin' is sick now. She has puked and had the runs in her crate and it smells really bad just like the others.  Now normally this would NOT be good news, however I think it is a pretty good sign that it is probably a bug going through the dogs rather than bad commercial food.  Now Darlin' is the only one still eating the commercial food, but hers is a different brand than the others (Pro Plan) and she has been on this bag for a month, and she is eating about half home cooked too, so it is unlikely the illness is the food.  Weeewww... so the only one that has never been sick now is Daisy, and all the other ones are just fine, only Darlin sick now.  Seems this "flu" or whatever it is lasts about 4 days, and has a very distinctive smell.  However, I am still happy to be feeding home cooked as so far just today I have heard:

• This morning a Toronto Canada paper was reporting that in Canada they are hearing about too many dead and dying animals that have not eaten the re-called foods, they feel there were high levels of Vitamen D in dry foods and calling on the American FDA to start testing for Vit. D overdoses which have the same symptoms as Kidney failure.
• Menu foods expanded its recall, adding new batches and earlier dates as well as new products.
• Sunshine is recalling dry bisquets
• CNN Lou Dobbs is reporting China has no record of the export of the wheat gluten?? (this is just about an hour ago.. interesting to hear more about that)
• FDA is reporting some brands of chewies contaminated with samonella

Posted by: Vistadei at 20:42 | link | comments

Poor Ricki was robbed this morning!  I made up a good breakfast for them.  Stewed some apples and then cooked oatmeal in the apples and after that was cooked I stirred in peanut butter.  Added some cooked Chicken and 3 raw gizzards each, fixed the bowls and set them on the grooming table.  As I put each bowl in the crates the dogs got in their crates to eat, and Ricki is the last crate in line.  Well I did notice that as Mysty entered her crate for her breakfast, she was already licking her lips.  When I went back out to the grooming table, Poor Ricki was standing there looking sooooo disappointed.  His bowl was clean and polished with not a trace of breakfast left in it!  Oh dear!!! Well, I had some more gizzards, and had a batch of the chicken and rice in the fridge, so warmed him a bowl of that, but he missed the apple/oatmeal/peanutbutter breakfast that smelled soooo good!  Mysty, of course seemed pretty pleased with the whole affair and was heard letting out a satisfied belch.

Posted by: Vistadei at 10:59 | link | comments

Here is a good link that would have saved me alot of reading and figuring for the new diet.  I did join their email list and it is very informative, but this article pretty much sums up everything I have been reading on the internet and in books about the home feeding.

b-naturals.com/Apr2006.php

Posted by: Vistadei at 13:43 | link | comments

Spending alot of time fixing food here! Was kind of relieved the Turkey necks didn't come in last night as it gave me time to get all this chicken fixed for the freezer before it was several days old.  Wish I could have gotten it all fixed the first day, but I am sure that once I will get a routine down so it will be easier.  Also need a little more freezer space.  Will have to store some of the turkey necks in my mom's freezer, as I am about full right now and they haven't arrived!  This morning I went ahead and took all the bedding out of the crates and put down newpaper and fed raw.. I still can not abide them crunching those bones, so I took a meat mallet and crush the chicken back all up, so I didn't have to worry about them swollowing whole sharp bones, yet it left the bone in there for the calcium.  So this morning they each had a nice big Chicken back raw, and even the baby did well with it.  I cooked up this evening's meal while I was at it, cooked up a nice big yam in some of the chicken broth (and set aside the broth again for use later, as I think the vitamens are still in the water from the yam)  After it was cooked tender I mixed it like you would with mashed potatoes with the mixer, and added a can of Tuna in oil, and 3 eggs and beat it all.  Made a sticky mixture, Ricki taste tested for me and gave it the thumbs up, so that will be dinner tonight.  Still not pooping much, found a couple little bits, but don't know who they belong to!! At least we don't have any runs now.

So, I am trying to make a little formula to follow, and for a 17 to 20 pound dog which all of mine are, I am shooting for this each day:

• 8 to 10 ounces of muscle meat like chicken,turkey,ground beef,gizzards, etc
• 8 ounces of a mix of "everything else" which wil vary every day but will include the rice, yam, oatmeal, veggies, tuna, eggs, yogurt, fruit, whatever
• 1/2 multi vitamen
• if there is no raw bones eaten in the meat, then they will get either 1/2 teaspoon of ground egg shell or a tums for calcium/phosphorus balance
• Fish Oil/Vitamen E
• rich organ meat like liver 2 ounces twice a week

Posted by: Vistadei at 11:36 | link | comments
dog food

Dinner was well recieved again tonight.  I was at the Kennel club meeting until 10, so didn't have alot of time to spend.  Still no one has pooped, except Dew-oh who had a little bit of still messy poo.  I figured I could add some fiber since they are not "running" so tonight each got about 1 cup of chicken, 1/2 was cooked 1/2 was raw but de-boned.  Each got one larger raw bone to work on, I split up one can of green beans between the 7 of the adults, just a tad of them to the pup, and she is just getting a little of the chicken, no bone.  Added about 1/2 a cup of rice to each bowl and that was that, but alot more quanity tonight, total of about a cup and a half with 2/3 of it meat.  I found I didn't have treats that I usually give for when they go outside to the potty and come back in, so I used some cereal.  I had golden grahms and cheerios so that is what they got for their treats.  Kennel club meeting was nice tonight, no fuss no muss.

Posted by: Vistadei at 00:36 | link | comments (1)

As of this morning, the "runs" have all stopped.. infact everything stopped!  Only the puppy pooped, so I assume that means that the chicken/rice they ate was used up almost 100%.  I did notice that they usually drink about 20 ounce of water a day in their crate bowls, plus more from the bowls in the house and yard, infact when they get up in the AM they are usually desperate for a big fresh drink, but they did not do that today.  None of them had finished the water in their crates and were not too interested in the bowls in the yards.  I am sure that is because the home cooked food is plump with juice and broth vs the dry kibble that would make them thirsty, but I do hope I don't see any urinary issues if they stop with the fresh water in the quanity they are used to. 

Breakfast today: I beat 3 raw eggs to about 1 cup of the plain yogurt, that gave me about 2 tablespoons per dog, I spooned that over the chicken/rice mix added 1/2 a multi vitamen and cut one of the Flax/Fish Oil jell caps over each bowl of food.  Ohhh everyone LOVED it, darn near ran me down trying to get to their crates to eat it.

I boiled down some more of the chicken this morning, will process and pack it tonight, the turkey necks come in tonight too.. ewwwwwwww... I set aside the egg shells to dry, when I have enough they will be ground to a powder and added back into the food for calcium.

Posted by: Vistadei at 11:22 | link | comments (1)

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