Puppy Advice (merged)

foreign_correspondent

Hintza wrote: »

As for neutering girls best to wait until at least their first season. I have recently started hearing reports of incontinence (sp?) in those done too early. Plus they can retain their puppy fur which looks a bit weird.

there are conflicting views on this - those speyed before their first season have virtually zero risk of mammary tumours later on and some b1tches do develop a little incontinence even later a spey performed much later.

However, if you also have an unneutered male in the house I wold say the risks associated with early speying pale into insignificance next to the difficulty of keeping the two seperate for the duration and the risk of a unwanted litter to an immature b1tch!

If you have a b1tch alone (no dog) which you can keep inside and watch all the time she is in the garden then that is a different matter.

Howverer, pyometra (an often fatal womb infection) can occur as soon as the b1tch starts her first season, another good reason to spey.

Milford_Cubicle

I note several dog and puppy owners recommend branded food - what are the 'cheaper' options like? I've bought in a 2kg bag of Morrison's puppy food in readiness for Indy coming home in a few weeks, does anyone have experience of this food? I had a good read of them all and it seems a good option for the price, Tesco/Wilkinsons etc own brand doesn't seem as good.

Also, because she's really cute and I'm a shameless picture !!!!!, here's Indy aged 3 weeks:

foreign_correspondent

you may be better off looking at this dog food thread - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=818663

Shortie

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

I would imagine the sooner the better for the vets so that if it is a pregnancy (fingers crossed its just too much weetabix!) you can choose what to do - as in humans I believe the options are more the earlier it is.

Yes, hopefully too much weetabix and the wrong type of food (now corrected ) I'll call him tomorrow for definate (didn't get a chance today) and good to know there might be options for us.

Hintza wrote: »

Just to go back to feeding. At the ages your dogs are a little bit of puppy fat will be no bad thing but in the coming months or so just start adjusting it a little to get them to the desired weight. I certianly wouldn't be making huge adjustments (apart from cutting out the weetabix and changing to puppy food).

As for neutering girls best to wait until at least their first season. I have recently started hearing reports of incontinence (sp?) in those done too early. Plus they can retain their puppy fur which looks a bit weird.

Re feeding, they had their first day on just dog food... half a can of Chappie each for breakfast each and half the daily amount of biscuit for dinner. I'll try and reduce her size a tad as like in humans it's obviously healthier to be a good weight, but thanks, I hadn't thought about the fact that winter was coming up so I won't try to get her to a totally sleek size but near to it until after winter...

I agree on the neutering front about their first season, apartently something (the name escapes me right now) can become too small if they are neutered before their first season, which can cause burning when they go for a wee. Our vet refuses to neuter females before their first season for this reason.

And in dogs if they're done before they reach puberty it can make them grow taller than their 'standard' size for their breed. Not that that'd do our dog an injustice... he's an absolute tiddler and everyone thinks our b*tch is his Mum there's such a huge height difference...

Emmabeth

Half a can of chappy for breakfast could still be quite a bit too much!..

I would definately check that some of her weight gain isnt puppies... and then drastically cut down (you can bulk out meals with lumps of whole raw carrot, apple etc so they still feel full)...

Its a difficult comparison because my dogs are fed raw, but my 14kg terrier x (think staffy type rather than little jrt type terrier), eats 1 chicken wing or 2 tablespoons of meat plus a spoon of blended raw veg per meal, and two meals per day. On half a can of chappie for breakfast and a meal of dry food in the evening he would be vast by now! (In fact on the little he gets now he is around 1kg overweight).

Shortie

Hi Emmaberth, to be honest it did look like quite a large breakfast but worked it our such as the can said feed a 5 kg dog 1 can day. So I split the amount in half (as it's one meal out of two they have ina day) and then they had half the portion of the daily complete meal for their dinner each. I figured two half portions of different food types would equate to the daily amount required (if that makes sense...)

Or does it not work quite like that?

Emmabeth

Ah... pet food manufacturers put feeding guidelines on the sides of packs, basically so that pet owners find it easier to feed their food...

Then they over exaggerate, often by about 25%, how much you should feed, because if they were more conservative - some dogs would get too thin... and theyd risk being sued..

I would keep dinner the same amount, and drop breakfast down to a really mean 2 tablespoons of chappie, literally just a mouthful or two.

See how they go on that for at least 3 weeks, use scales and your eyes and hands to guide you. Weight loss should be quite fast, and then once you get to the size and weight they should be, gradually add a little more food each day until they stop loosing and start maintaining their weight.

If you feel horribly mean giving just two tablespoons of chappie for breakfast, then bulk it out with large chunks of carrot and apple (not grated, these are both very sugary and the smaller the pieces the more sugars the dog will digest from them.... which will increase their calorific intake).

chardonnay_2

if you are feeding them out of the same bowl are you sure that one is greedier and eating most of the food? my mil has 2 Chihuahua's, they have seperate bowls , as the bigger slimmer one hardly eats and and the smaller chunkier one eats everything. if she didn't keep their dinner seperate the skinny one would starve!

foreign_correspondent

so - any news? I would not alter their diet drastically till you are certain the b1tch is not in pup!!

Shortie

Hello Sorry not been on for a couple of days as it's been pretty darned hectic

So Mr Shortie took Ruby to the vet today and he has said that he won't be able to tell for the next 4-5 weeks if she's 'with pup' and that's also the earliest he'd be happy to have her neutered too. He said in 4-5 weeks time regardless he can operate on her. Phew. Thanks for the help everyone :A

He also didn't think she was over weight (though didn't say she had any spare to put on...) so I'm going to trim her down a touch anyway (though not too much as it's winter soon) and give them an extra-long run around white webs tomorrow afternoon.

Chardonnay, I was wondering the same about the feeding but they share between two bowls (it's quite hillarious to watch them switching constantly in case the other one has something more tasty than they have :rotfl: ) but seem to eat about the same amount.