About Our Dogs
The food we feed our Toy Australian Shepherd (Toy Aussie) and Miniature Australian Shepherd (Mini Aussie) dogs is made from human grade ingredients and was not affected by the 2007 dog food recalls. We feel our best friends are definitely worth the higher cost of the quality food!!
What Our Dogs Eat
Our dogs are fed high quality all natural holistic dog foods that have the digestive enzymes and beneficial bacteria (like yogurt has). Some of the better dog foods have one or the other but not both. If dogs were running free in the wild they would get these from their prey. Some of the foods we use are Taste of the Wild www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com, Artemis www.artemiscompany.com or Natures Variety www.naturesvariety.com. We feed our puppies adult foods or foods for all life stages. These are quality foods that tend to be reasonably priced. The price will depend on where you purchase the food from. As adults our dogs eat about 1 cup per day. Some of the larger Mini Aussies eat 2 cups per day. Another good dog food website is www.naturapet.com. Our dogs get all natural treats as well. Their favorite treat is the Solid Gold Beef Jerky, www.solidgoldhealth.com. Our dogs eat better food than many people! What our dogs eat has a lot to do with how healthy they are and look. It also helps to produce healthier puppies too.
When you are looking for a new puppy or dog, be sure to ask what food the puppy or dog is being fed. Ask what the mother dog was fed before, during and after her pregnancy. All the well advertised big name dog foods really are not good for your dog. Most have a lot of artificial ingredients - colors, flavors, preservatives. Most are loaded with corn which has very little nutritional value to a dog. Corn is a leading cause of obesity in dogs. Corn is also one of the most common dietary causes of allergies in dogs. One day when we lived in Maryland and we had sheep, when I was feeding them, one of our Golden Retrievers thought the sheep food tasted real good so he helped himself to some. Well, the next day it all came out the other end looking much like it did on the way in. Think about what a dog would eat in the wild and that is more what your pet dog should be eating. I’ve never known of a dog to go out into the fields of grain crops to have dinner (unless to eat the rabbits, mice etc. who are feasting on the grain). Many of the big well known brands of dog food lead to vitamin deficiencies. Vitamin deficiencies are one of the main causes of allergies (in dogs and people). Vitamin deficiencies can also cause many other health issues.
Mankind has a lot of the same genetic defects that are seen in dogs and many other species. If man cannot eliminate or control his own genetic defects, how is a dog breeder supposed to eliminate them? Many genetic defects occur in nature. They are created by god and nature, not by man. A high quality all natural diet can help a dog stay healthy. Many problems thought to be genetic, may actually be related to diet and other environmental factors.
Why is diet so important? Here is why....
This is a link to an excellent description of what is in most dog foods www.fuzzyfaces.com/lfood2.html. This is disgusting but true!!
Selecting a Commercial Pet Food www.api4animals.org/articles.php?p=361&more=1
Food Not Fit for a Pet www.belfield.com/pet_health_art3.php
Pet Foods: What's Really In Them?
www.nzymes.com/Articles/pet_foods_whats_really_in_them.htm
www.bornfreeusa.org/downloads/pdf/PetFoodReport_05-07.pdf
www.localvets.com/articles/whats-really-in-your-pets-food.htm
Here is a link to reviews with ratings of dog foods www.dogfoodanalysis.com/
Here is another good website that break down what the ingredients actually are and has more in-depth explanations of what to look for in a dog food: www.dogfoodproject.com/
This is a link to a list of Natural Food Stores (for people) around the United States. Some may carry natural pet foods too. www.greenpeople.org/NaturalFood.html
Artificial Ingredients
When my son was younger he had a lot of behavior problems and the more medications they tried, the worse his behavior became. Me being experienced in technical support of computers, I now how to trouble shoot problems and I figured something was causing this behavior, I just didn’t know what. So, I took him off all of the medications, went to the bookstore and started reading books about nutrition and the affects of additives on the body. After reading these books, I was convinced the additives had something to do with my son’s behavior. I started taking my son to a nutritionist and found my son was very sensitive to chemicals and food additives. This chemical sensitivity was why the drugs did not work! The nutritionist recommended all natural foods and staying away from food additives and pesticides. This was tough since, as a single parent, it doubled my food bill! In order to do this for my son, I had to eat the same foods too. After a while, I noticed I felt better when I ate natural foods and not as good if I ate foods with any artificial ingredients. Everyone around us started commenting about how much better my son’s behavior was. The better food was working! When the body gets more of what it really needs it can function better.
The same additives which are put in human foods are also put in much of our pet foods too and can affect the health and behavior of our pets! For a while my son was raising mice. We noticed his mice were developing a lot of tumors and would die within a few days. My trouble shooting abilities kicked in. I started to think back on when I was a child and raised mice. My mice were always very healthy. What was different now than when I raised mice? The difference was the diet! I had fed my mice wild birdseed and insects. My son was feeding his mice prepared foods with artificial colors, flavors and preservatives. We changed the diet of his mice to what I had feed my mice and from that point on, the mice never had any more tumors, lived longer and were much healthier. If the artificial ingredients produced fatal tumors in mice, what are they doing to our bodies and to that of our pets? A pretty scary thought!
Some of the ingredients you will want to stay away from in your pet’s (and your) food are:
artificial flavors
artificial colors – red 40, yellow #, blue #, etc.
artificial preservatives such as:
- BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene)
- BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole)
- TBHQ (tertiary butylhydroquinone)
- calcium propionate
- propyl gallate
- nitrates
- sulfites including:
- sodium sulfite
- potassium sulfite
- sodium metabisulfite
- potassium metabisulfite
- sulfur dioxide
Good preservatives which occur naturally in fruits and vegetables include:
- vitamin E (tocopherol)
- vitamin C (ascorbic acid)
- citrates
- propionates
- benzoates
- sorbates
- lactates
Water
The water that you give your dog may also have chemicals that can affect health and behavior. City water usually has chlorine, fluoride and other added chemicals. Well water is constantly changing and can also have its problems including bacteria. It is better to give your dog filtered or bottled water, especially if you notice any recurring health problems. Most dogs just love to drink out of any puddle they find laying around. Puddles may contain organisms, automotive and lawn chemicals – fertilizers and pesticides which can affect your dogs health. Remember to keep your toilet lid shut since some dogs will drink out of the toilet! I learned many years ago to keep the toilet lid shut when one of my cats fell in!!
Lawn Chemicals
It is best not to use lawn chemicals since the chemicals can be absorbed through your dog’s feet and also your dog will eat the treated grass. There is a natural product for your yard called “Nematodes” that are a live beneficial parasite that eat flea larvae, fire ants and other lawn pests. This can be ordered from Jeffers at 800-533-3377 or www.gardensalive.com go to Insect Pest Control then to Grub-Away Nematodes they have one for Northern climates and one for Southern climates.
Cleaning Products
Many cleaning products used in the home are toxic to your pets. There is an article about this in your puppy packet when you purchase an Anadee Aussies puppy.
Fun Our Dogs Have
Our dogs have their very own swimming pool and some of the dogs just love the water. We have 18 country acres for our dogs to run. We also have an agility course set up which some of our dogs have been trained on. Agility is like an obstacle course for the dogs. There are jumps, tunnels and other equipment which the dogs must work their way through.
Venda, Ursa and Zina |
Teddy Bear & Tootsie lounging on top of the dog house
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Puppy Gypsy in the pool
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Toys Our Dogs Get
A favorite with many of our puppies is the Kong Toys. The one which looks like three large to small donuts attached together is what many of our dogs enjoy. The red Kong Toys are tough but for the aggressive chewer the black Kong Toys will last longer. We give natural beef femur bones. We always read the labels to make sure they are all natural. Many which say "smoked", the smoke is artificial. Gimborn has some natural bones and treats, not all. You can read more about their products at www.gimborn.net. We stay away from rawhide even though it may be natural. Rawhide has been known to cause problems for many dogs. We buy organically raised beef rib bones from Whole Foods Market for ourselves and the dogs get the bones once we are finished. These rib bones provide a lot of chewing fun for our dogs after they finish all the real meat. These bones can last for years. Some of our dogs love to play with tennis balls. With tennis balls, care must be taken since some dogs will eat the cover off of the ball. Merrick is another good company which we purchase bones and other chews from. You can read more about their products at www.merrickpetcare.com.
Bathing Our Dogs
We bathe our dogs with all natural shampoo. We use Tropiclean Shampoos. They have several formulas. The formulas we use the most are: Neem which is a natural flea and tick formula and Berry Clean for really dirty pets when they get digging in the mud. You can read more about their products at www.tropiclean.net. Pet Guard, Ark Naturals and many others also produce natural pet shampoos. We use a natural herbal ear cleaner produced by Halo, Purely for Pets. You can read more about their products at www.halopets.com. We will work on generating a list of these and post a link here.
Vaccinations and Other Health Care
All of our puppies go to our veterinarian between 7-8 weeks of age for their first vaccinations and check up. We provide in our puppy pack their vaccination record from our vet and articles about the hazards of over-vaccinating and how to avoid it. Many cancers and other illnesses are being linked to over-vaccinating in dogs, cats and people! We prefer the every 4 weeks schedule of puppy vaccinations at 8, 12 & 16 weeks and then again at 1 year 4 months. Since we do not like to give a puppy vaccinations and then send them out the door, we start at 7 1/2 weeks. If the time in between vaccinations is stretched by at day or two then it takes them to 16 weeks for their last vaccinations. Many veterinarians push for vaccinations every 3 weeks so be aware of this.
Retiring of our dogs
We retire our female dogs from breeding at around 4 to 5 years of age. This way they are still young enough for someone else to enjoy and it gives them an early break from motherhood. Being a mother myself, I know how much that break from motherhood is needed! Most of our females have a maximum of 4 litters during their life.