Kiger

Long story short - We went away for the weekend. Brother-in-law says he will feed the fish. Brother-in-law uses opportunity to camp out in our house, get's hungry, microwaves burrito, blows fuse, doesn't check tank, leaves. We come home to find suffocated fish. Resulting toxins poison entire tank. I give up hobby.

I can't really answer this, but I've seen this question on some of the nutrition forums I read. Here are a couple links for you: [url]http://b-naturals.com/default.php[/url] [url]http://www.bowchow.com/[/url] And here's the biggie. You have to join by filling out an e-mail they send, but this is the big group: [url]http://groups.yahoo.com/group/K9Nutrition/[/url] Another one that you can just click to join: [url]http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rawdiet/[/url]

I can beat that. A microwave burrito took out my saltwater tank. About $3000 went down the drain.

[quote name='LisaLQ']From Neuticles site... NeuticlesID - A tiny microchip - about the size of a grain of rice- is implanted within the Neuticle to help identify your pet by authorities if he becomes lost.[/quote] How bizarre is that? :o

If you are worried about calories, you could try Canidae or Innova. Both of them are high calorie. I don't fix the raw food myself - ick. I'm lazy and buy the pre-made frozen stuff. However, for the past 2 days Kato has been having the same problems that he had on kibble so I don't know what I'm going to do now. :(

Please ask if the dogs have been OFA'd. Since Labs are prone to hip dysplasia you want to try to get the healthiest puppy you can.

Wait... I know! Go raw! :wink: I will go flog myself now. [img]http://mywebpages.comcast.net/blancm3/images/whack.gif[/img]

Eh, could be she's dog phobic. I once met a woman who was afraid of escalators. :o She asked me to ride up with her so I did, then she decided she was on the wrong floor and asked me to ride back down - so I did 'cuz I'm a sucker. I made sure I avoided the lobby the rest of the day.

Or Shi-bulls! Shlabs made me spew my tea. I gotta tell the breeder about that one. Can you imagine the shed factor on that one? :lol:

Yeah, well it's not until next week that I plan to crank up the Shiboodle factory. I need to pick up some cheap Poodles real quick. :wink:

Aw, poor baby. Good luck with the new food. Hope it works for him.

We took Kato over to the dog park last night. We've never been to this one because it's fairly new. I guess there were around 15 dogs inside when we got there. I think some of them might have been with a rescue group. Anyway, he was having a great time - mostly peeing on everything like boys do. One woman came up and said, "What a cute dog. I haven't seen an unneutered male in a long time, hmmm." The she gave me that look like I must be a closet backyard breeder or something. I told her he was a show dog, but really it was none of her business. He isn't dog aggressive and besides marking outside, he doesn't act like an intact male. No it wasn't my preference to have an unneutered dog, but why do people have to automatically assume the worst? To me it's just as bad as the people who ask to breed their dog to him. Ugh, get away from me.

Is he allergic to something? Just wondering why you bought a prescription diet for food allergies.

I tried that Chicken Soup dog food but same thing again. That's why I was joking about corn - the one thing they all had in common was no corn! Myself, I think he would have done just as bad on the breeder's food. There must be something about kibble that does not agree with him - why else would he do so good on raw which is nothing but meat and veggies? And I agree with everyone else. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. My mom's dog just recently got switched over to Wellness and she's been eating Science Diet or Purina for 14 years. I'm ordering Kato some Barfworld kangaroo patties. Think he'll like them? They sound just awful. :lol:

[quote=Mary's Mama]I think you have switched food too often. It can take up to a month for stools to equalize (for lack of a better word) after changing. [/quote] He was on Canidae for 6 months and Wellness for 4. He never got better, and it varied from pancake batter to all out squirts. I had to switch from Canidae because he started eating his own poop. I tried yogurt and Prozyme and neither of them helped. He always strained so hard to go that he'd pee on his front legs. I thought that this was just some weird idiosyncracy of his until I switched to the raw and he didn't do it anymore. The dog was literally surprised when he didn't find pee on his legs the first time he went after the switch. They were good kibbles, but they just didn't agree with him. Oh, and I guess they add all that sugar to National to make it palatible. With all that corn and molassas, it sounds more like horse feed!

#3 is Wellness. It's good. #2 has by-products which are pretty much frowned upon. It also has corn which is usually a filler, but is also a good source of fatty acids - the jury's still out on that one. Brewer's rice isn't great either - brown rice is better. And is that correct?? 45% fat?! #1 is eh. Not a lot of meat in it. What the heck is potato "product"? #3 all the way.

I'm sure you all know the intimate details of Kato's digestive tract by now and how the raw food has cleared his little problem up. So what do you think it is about kibble that disagrees with him so much? His relatives all eat National dog food. [b](INGREDIENTS: Poultry Meal, Fish Meal, Kibbled Corn, Pork Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), Extruded Rice, Beet Pulp, Plain Dried Blood Meal, Sodium Bentonite, Corn Oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), Cane Molasses, Feeding Oat Meal, Liver Digest, Flaxseed, Potassium Chloride, Vitamins and Minerals.)[/b] Not the greatest stuff in the world, but they seem to do well on it. Maybe I should have been feeding him a cheaper kibble?? His breeder seems to think it's just the "weird" brands (Wellness, Canidae) I'm giving him that cause the problem. Somehow I doubt that.

Kato came from a breeder. I really wouldn't get a Shiba from anywhere else. Most Shibas in this country come from mills and they have all kinds of problems - loose patellas, seizures, and bad temperments. It's awful to see someone shell out thousands of dollars for 2 knee surgeries for the petstore puppy they bought on impulse. And I hate to say it, the same thing goes for rescued Shibas. They are usually the cast off petstore dogs. I didn't feel like rolling the dice hoping I'd get a healthy dog. I think I did the best I could and I expect my little buddy will be with me a long time.

That would be an odd combo. My vet still thinks I'm going to let her make "Shiboodles". Not. :roll: Oh yeah - same vet that recommends BARF also wants to breed poo dogs. It's so weird.

Wanna hear something funny? I have an unneutered male and he's never tried to hump anyone. The one time I saw him try it was with a pillow. He got so into it he backed himself right off the bed. I guess he was so embarrassed he never did it again. The pillow fetish was short lived. :lol:

Kato's a ladies man. Maybe they should meet. :iloveyou:

I used to scoff at the raw people. I admit it, I thought they were full of it. 2 days on nothing but raw, and it's amazing. This dog has not been normal - not one whole day - since I brought him home. No more blood, no more straining to go, no more runs. I'm really shocked that the effects have been so quick and extreme. I'm so glad it looks like I finally found this dog some relief. And Rowie, I have a whole bag of Canidae I need to get rid of. :wink: :lol:

[quote name='Sanvean']Poor Rowie and Kiger![/quote] Not me. I'm in the US and have no trouble finding food. Poor Rowie! :D

You might be able to get the Israeli distributor to ship to you.

There are international distributors for EaglePack. See if there is a close one that can ship it the rest of the way to you: [url]http://www.eaglepack.com/pages/distr_internat.html[/url]