dog

Human foods you should not give your dog

Healthy Dogs: why I have changed my habit of giving my dog leftovers

In this post we look at what foods makes your dogs healthy dogs , do you give your dog human food treats, see what foods you can not give your dog and what human foods you can. Make sure you have  healthy dog , and the human food that you are giving them is not harming them. 

 

“No, Grace you can not have the doughnut”

How hard is it to say no when the eyes are pleading with you – “pleeeeaaaasssseeee can I have a little bit of what your eating”

Well, I have been looking into what human foods dogs can and can not eat – hopefully I can then come up with some healthy dog treats that I can make at home to replace the shop treats and leftovers off my dinner plate.

It may sound like a huge leap to now start talking about The Animal Welfare Act 2006 but stay with me on this – The PDSA PAW report 2016 looks at the welfare of our pets.

It states that in 2016 the PDSA found that over 4m pets are fed leftovers as part of their main meal – If you are planning to give your dog human food as a treat the advice on is that you should give no more than 5% of their diet, the rest being made up of their own dog food. Information found on pets.webmd

Giving our dogs our leftovers is harming them – they are becoming obese and poorly. So back to the Animal Welfare Act – it gives pet owners 5 welfare needs that have to be met- One of these is ‘the need for a suitable diet’ and another is ‘the need to be protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease’

Here is the extract from The Animal Welfare Act 2006 – why not have a read

Promotion of welfare

9 Duty of person responsible for animal to ensure welfare

(1)A person commits an offence if he does not take such steps as are reasonable in all the circumstances to ensure that the needs of an animal for which he is responsible are met to the extent required by good practice.

(2)For the purposes of this Act, an animal’s needs shall be taken to include—

(a)its need for a suitable environment,

(b)its need for a suitable diet,

(c)its need to be able to exhibit normal behaviour patterns,

(d)any need it has to be housed with, or apart from, other animals, and

(e)its need to be protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease.

(3)The circumstances to which it is relevant to have regard when applying subsection (1) include, in particular—

(a)any lawful purpose for which the animal is kept, and

(b)any lawful activity undertaken in relation to the animal.

(4)Nothing in this section applies to the destruction of an animal in an appropriate and humane manner.

To read the full Act please follow this link The Animal Welfare Act 2006

So we have a legal responsibility to feed our dogs the correct diet and not contribute through poor diet pain, suffering and disease…I know when I share my bacon sandwich with my dog that it is not good for her, but I think that I am rewarding her, treating her. I am going to change my habit – no more sharing my food with my dogs, I want them to stay well, healthy and active – not obese and having a shortened life span. 

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Table of important dates of dog pregnancy – Milestones, behaviors and care

11 Feb 2017 Emily

 

Use the Table below to see the important days in your girls pregnancy – see below table to get more detailed information

 

IMPORTANT DAYS OF 63 DAYS OF PREGNANCY

 

 

 NOTES – please see notes written below table for more detailed information
1st Day  start of 1st Month of Pregnancy

 

 

 

 First Mating
2nd Day

 

 

 

 1.       Count Birth date of puppies from in between 1st and 2nd mating – 63 days

2.       Do not increase food for Mum to Be
3rd Day

 

 

 

 Second Mating
   
28th Day

 

 

 

        3.Ultrasound or Blood test to be done
   
30th Day 4.     Note all bitches show signs of pregnancy

5.     If pregnant changes in behaviour
31st  Day start of 2nd Month of Pregnancy

 

 

 

 6.     Feed Mum to Be Puppy food

 
   
56th Day last week of Pregnancy

 

 

 

 7.     Increase food intake for Mum to Be by 1/3 rd
   
62nd Day

 

 

 

 8.     Puppies could be born
63rd Day

 

 

 

 9.     Puppies could be born
64/65th Day

 

 

 

 10.  Puppies could be born

 

Detailed Notes

  1. So what most people say when a Dam is having puppies is that it is a “63” day pregnancy – this can be hard to work out with much accuracy. A rule of thumb is to take the 63 day count to start from the date between the 1st mating and 2nd mating of your girl. So a healthy pregnancy is for 2 Months – in puppy development the puppies develop their organs and limbs in the 1st Month and then the pups will use the 2nd Month to grow in size.

 

  1. In the first Month of Pregnancy you do not need / or should you increase your females food intake, just feed a good quality feed – it is vital that you do not let her increase her fat (weight ) as it will just make it so much harder and lead to more complications when she is giving birth – None of this feeding for 2 or 3 or 4 business then??

 

 

  • On the 28th Day is Ultra Sound Day – You have to wait until 28 days to have a useful Ultra Sound done to see if she is 1. Pregnant and 2. How many puppies she is having because you would not see much before that – Did you know that all Bitches that have come into season think and show signs of being pregnant ? So in the first 30 days all females can have the signs of a. increased appetite, b. laid back behaviour and c. so changes in pecking order if living with other dogs …that explains a lot in our household at the moment – we have 2 females living together, who came into season at the same time, and it is like an episode of War and Peace going on – “I hate you…I love you…” Believe me it is an EPIC drama going on.

 

It is important to have a scan at 28 days so that you can also see how many puppies she is going to have – why? Well, if there are only a couple of puppies they have more room to grow and will become very large when she is due to give birth – if they grow too big it may be hard for her to give birth without help

If it shows up that she is having a over sized litter then the Bitch may struggle to get enough nutrition to support to produce all healthy pups – she may well need extra  nutrition in the form of Calcium ( but do not give this unless advised by vet)

 

Other than an Ultra Sound your female could have a blood test to test for the pregnancy hormone ‘Relaxin’ – Only Pregnant Bitches would show up Relaxin – but again this can only show up in the blood from 28 days onwards – of course this will only tell you if she is pregnant and not any more info…like how many.

 

  1. So the changes you could notice in your female dog are
  2. a) Appetite increase
  3. b) A Lower tolerance in exercise – especially in the 2nd month of pregnancy
  4. c) She can become more aggressive to other dogs in the household
  5. d) Can become picky with her food
  6. So this is the start of the 2nd Month of pregnancy and when it comes to food it is suggested that you feed puppy food, this is due to the nutritional concentration being very high , including the all important Calcium – Phosphorus – which is found in puppy food.

 

  1. In this last week of pregnancy you can increase food intake ( puppy food ) by 1/3 rd – that is all, she will not be able to fit too much food in any way as all room will be taken up with puppies ! Little and often and think quality not quantity as being the most important thing for her.

 

  1. So prepare for the puppies to be born on any of these days – If she is carrying fewer puppies then more likely to be on days 63/64/65 – if she is carrying lots of puppies then she is likely to give birth early – day 61/62 – It is suggested by experts that to work it out – Every puppy less will add 0.25 days and Every puppy more will reduce days by 0.25

 

Feel free to print this out and stick it up somewhere to remind you of next steps

 

Good Luck, and let me know how it all goes x


Hello from Dinky Daisy xxx

31 Jan 2017 Emily

Welcome to our Blog xxx from me, Dinky Daisy xx

dinks

 

And me Grace xxxx

 

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