skycat
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Everything posted by skycat
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They'll be absolutely fine. Most bitches appreciate down time from puppies once they reach this age, but I'd only confine her in a kennel with another dog if they are totally relaxed with each other: bitches can be a bit grumpy when they're in the middle of rearing a litter and often like a bit of peace and quiet given the chance. But you know your dogs, and if they are best mates and enjoy spending time together and have space to relax apart from each other that's fine.
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Great to see the bitch looking so well with such a big litter Pups look brilliant
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If only I had the opportunity to have one of these pups ... they have got everything, but most of all a breeder who actually understands what puppies need and how to bring them on right. I love you northernlite because you know that what you put in right from the start goes a hell of a long way to making the next stage of their lives so much easier for them as they integrate into their new homes. Please God they are going to homes as good as the one they were born in.
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There's lots of different types of mason or solitary bees. Why not just let them do their thing this year: they are useful little things: and before they start up again next spring just put some fine metal mesh, like what you'd get in an old-fashioned meat safe, over the holes to stop them using them again.
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Some of ours love raw liver, others will only eat it cooked. Same with kidneys.
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I wonder if the huge numbers of pest controllers are in part responsible for fewer wasps. We didn't have many last year, apparently due to the previous winter not being cold enough: the queens didn't hibernate properly and as a result either died or weren't strong enough to build nests. Also, now that I'm very allergic to wasp stings, I make sure to kill any queens I see in spring, and have a friend pest controller who sprays every likely nest site around our house and garden at the first sign of them. If lots of other people are doing the same thing then their numbers will drop, in towns and
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Best to wait until she is mid way between seasons, that way all her hormones have settled down. Not a good idea to get a bitch spayed just after her season due to hormone levels right up. Wait for 3-4 months if she is a 6 monthly bitch. There are 3 phases to a bitch's reproductive cycle: anoestrus: which is between seasons. Oestrus in when she is in season, and metoestrus is the time after the season when pregnancy hormones are up. It usually lasts for 3 months after the season.
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Tomato Plant Advice Needed Please
skycat replied to max_wood's topic in Living Off The Land & Game Cooking
We feed ours twice a week all the time. Makes a huge difference. Tomatoes are very greedy: need loads of water to produce a fruit that is 90% water, and food as well. -
Tomato Plant Advice Needed Please
skycat replied to max_wood's topic in Living Off The Land & Game Cooking
The lower leaves of tomato plants always seem to die off once the fruit begins to grow. In commercial growers they strip off most of the leaves so that all the plant's energy goes into growing the fruit, and to allow sunlight to reach the growing tomatoes as well. -
An inexperienced vet may worry about this: http://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/cardiovascular/c_dg_arrhythmia
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This is only my opinion, but from what I can see and the amount of waste that comes out of a dog which is fed a diet largely comprised of stuff like beet pulp and grain, it is being used as a very cheap 'filler' by the manufacturers. Logic tells me that if a dog is being stuffed with cheap filling ingredients it is usually at the expense of more nutritious food such as meat. Yes, a small amount of fibre is essential for health, but as dog food manufacturers are in business to make money they are adding to their profits by using waste products from the human food industry; products which are no
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Have you got a link to that? Be worth writing in and correcting the silly journalist who obviously doesn't even know what an African Wild Dog is or how it lives! Maybe he/she is getting it mixed up with feral dogs? Sad idiot.
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I have found that small litters don't try and eat solids anywhere near as early as large litters: they simply don't need to as they are getting loads of milk from the bitch, or should be. I've had a couple of very big litters (12 plus) and they were desperate for meat at just over 2 weeks. They didn't eat a lot at a time ... maybe a grape-sized lump of mushed up raw chicken twice a day until they were 3 weeks old, but at 3 weeks I've found most pups will slurp finely mushed lean chicken meat from my fingers and love it, and seem to be able to digest it no problem. Fatty beef mince does upset t
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Agree with Dawn. Only an x-ray will show any bone abnormalities. If there were two pups with missing legs I'd definitely be getting that done rather than wondering and wondering what might be wrong. If nothing else it will put your mind at rest and at worst will confirm that there is a problem. Difficult to tell from a photo just how strange his hind legs are though they do look weak, which is often the case with large heavy breed pups at this age. From the side view photo it looks as though he has put on a massive growth spurt at the back end, which again, is normal. Pups go up at the fro
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At this age Mist's pups are still full of her immunity: it's called maternal immunity and it lasts more or less as long as they are suckling her, and often quite a bit longer, but it varies from pup to pup and litter to litter. At the moment they'll be fine unless you have just had a nasty bug go through your lot.
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I don't show my dogs any more, but another tip I learned is that to show a dog to the best in a small ring where it can only trot, is to move the dog at the correct speed for its size. Only a dog in good muscled condition will be able to trot in a manner that suggests contained power, but if you allow it to slop along like a camel, doing the 'economy' roll where it moves both legs on each side together like a camel, it won't attract the right sort of attention from the judge. Personally I don't like to see dogs strung up by their heads so that their necks are stretched upwards and the head for
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If the scars don't interfere with her movement and condition then they shouldn't count against her. A lurcher should be judged on make and shape (conformation), condition and movement.
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IMO the only rabbits worth eating at this time of year are half grown ones. Much tenderer and not so strong smelling. Half grown rabbits can be pan fried in a little lamb fat and butter, sprinkle with garlic salt and pepper: yum. I wouldn't even want to put a smelly old buck or any adult in a sausage or burger, though you could soak in water and vinegar over night before mincing. Some people soak in milk.
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Those dogs are probably both in the same condition, but you can see better on the fawn. Superb. Seldom see Salukis in that condition.
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Can Vasectomised Hob Be Kept With Jills All Year
skycat replied to RIP.JD's topic in Ferrets & Ferreting
Ours lives with 3 jills and he never marks their necks at all. They have come back into season once after he took them out the first time, and he's never bothered them in between times and seems to be very gentle. It does depend on the individual hob just like if they weren't vasectomised: some are very rough and can't be left in with the jill beyond 24 hours; others are gentle. -
If you feed the cheapest possible bag of cat food that is the same as feeding your dog Wagg or some similar crap made up of floor sweepings, feathers, beaks, grain, beet pulp, soya and God knows what else. It certainly won't contain the quality meat and bone needed for good health and still less for ferrets that need more of less a meat only diet. Savings made now will repay you in kind in the long run with sick ferrets that die younger.
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Here's a list of meats and their protein content. Also note water content, which accounts for the apparently low percentage of protein, compared to in a dry food where there is a much lower moisture content: use logic to figure this out. LOL http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/ai407e/ai407e03.htm
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Can you get them checked over by a sympathetic vet who would be prepared to offer his or her expert opinion if needed to. Also, a really good qualified and experienced dog behaviourist, such as Jim Greenwood, who specialises in lurcher rehabilitation. More ammunition as to how your dogs have suffered in the hands of the RSPCA would maybe help. Jim could also suggest the best things you can do to help your dogs regain their mental balance and confidence.
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I admire your determination more than words can say. You have nerves and a will of steel. I think I'd have been locked up by now after seeing the torture inflicted on my dogs had I been in your situation. Thankfully you had support and good advice, but you still had to suffer needlessly for too long, not to mention the suffering of your dogs. I do hope they recover mentally strong and that the experience hasn't ruined them.
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get some more meat and animal fat into the pup, and feed as much as it will eat at a sitting. If you must feed a complete food then use something that has meat listed as the first ingredient on the back or side of the bag. Yes, good complete foods cost at least twice as much as stuff like Gain, but you will notice the difference within a week, also in coat quality. Something, though it pains me to say it, like Iams or Purina Proplan, but raw is best. You can see from the muscles, or lack of them, in the hind legs, that this pup is seriously lacking in digestible protein: pups need masses of pr
