Need Help on coats…
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I've fed my dogs on raw food for about 10 years now, and they've always had nice, shiny and soft coats. But eggs (or yolks) are said to make the coat get nice and shiny as well. I give mine a whole, raw egg with shell on, I just crack it for them, so I don't have raw eggs all over the place. ;)
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I think your diet regimen looks pretty good. It's similar to what we do around here, specifically the fish oil + Vitamin E + raw combo. When we give raw eggs, I just give yolks - maybe once or twice a week.
The one thing I would try to do differently is to Furminate the B's less. I know some people here say that they have B's with fur that's thick enough to Furminate, but I have not found that to be the case. If I was to use a Furminator on my B, I'd basically be scraping her skin with the brush, and if you've ever run that thing across your skin, you get a feel for how irritating it could be! Instead, perhaps you can use a Zoom Groom/curry comb more, and some massage/skin stimulation. That's basically been my tactic for both my dogs this summer (when it's dry for us), and in the case of my Shiba (who usually does get Furminated – he's got the double coat and needs the heavy duty work it does!), it's made a difference in the overall quality of his skin and the plushness of his coat.
Not that I prepare either of my dogs for show, but that's what has worked for me, and I'm quite happy with the results. =)
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Okay food wise, you got good advice, though I also use Fastrack (or other probiotic) to help them utilize what they eat. It really helped with my dogs' coats and skin.
But for the show, get a stripping tool and simply strip the coats out and use a gunny sack material to rub them a lot to work out dead hair and condition the skin. LOL works on dogs and horses.
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Thanks for the info guys, really appreciate it.
Curlytails thats really an interesting way of looking at the Furminator. We bought it for the ACD's, (works brilliantly for them, looooove it ), never thought I would ever need it for the B's :)… I do use it VERY gently, cos I know it would very much hurt them. The dead coat that Java in particular has, is really dead, pale, crappy looking stuff and when I use it tons comes out. He doesnt squirm, or fidgit when I do it, and I do stop well before I really want to !!! I can pluck it out, but this does make him fidgit, so I dont really tend to do that. Its interesting that he had a 1 inch scratch on his neck buried in this dead coat, and the coat thats coming through there, is much more like his 'normal' coat colouring... So frustrating :mad: Off to look at the Zoom-Groom...
DDS, hadnt thought of a Probiotic, will look into that... I think this must be a 'lost in translation', cos I dont have a clue what a gunny sack is :o ???????
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ROFLMAO, I love the differences in terms between the US/GB/Australia etc. One night Graham Norton did a thing on "fanny packs" and how fanny is the "front bottom" in GB and we Americans use it as the buttocks. He said that must have been one very confused pilgrim that changed the meaning when he brought the term here.
Gunny sacks are really course bags they used to use for grains, horse feed etc.
http://www.google.com/search?q=gunny+sack&hl=en&safe=off&biw=1280&bih=857&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=3lR1TuC2BMyRgQf65_j1DA&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CCIQ_AUoAQ -
Yep fanny is the 'front bottom' here in Aus as well :)…
Thanks for the pics of the gunny sacks, DDS. It looks a lot like what we call hessian bags in Aus... That is another thing I would never have thought of to help get the dead coat out... We have some here, so I will try it on him as well... Thank you :)...
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A few raw eggs a week won't hurt. I even grind up the egg shell for them.
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A few raw eggs a week won't hurt. I even grind up the egg shell for them.
Luxury! My dogs just have to eat it as it is. I crack the eggs or them, but the rest, they need to take care of it, hehe!
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I'm not sure about dogs not to be given whole raw eggs. I think I've posted before about my Kangal (who was the runt of her litter) who I reared on raw eggs for a year as she would eat nothing else. I later weaned her on to biscuit and then on to normal food. She lived for many years after and no nticeable ill effects>
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Patty,
I can't see why not. It shouldn't be given every day, but now and then. And it should NOT be replaced with their regular food. Eggs have lots of good protein, and it's also a good source for riboflavin, B12 and phosphorus, and even selenium. I've seen only a few dog food brands with riboflavin in it, and I believe it's an important deal for dogs, as well for us humans.
