Ostrich Tail

I finally opened the box of ostrich tails that I purchased from Creston Valley Meats. The tails are in a big ziplock bag with about 7 pieces of ostrich tail in it. Right when I opened the bag the pups came running into the kitchen sniffing out the new raw item on their menu. Needless to say they were excited and trying to jump all over me trying to figure out what I'm attempting to take out of the bag. I carefully took one out, probably with a look of disgust on my face, something about tails didn't sit right with me, but I knew the ostrich tail would make a great RMB for the pups. Sucked it up and put it on the cutting board to snap a picture of the pup's treat that evening. I mean, how often do dogs get to eat an ostrich tail? The first piece I grabbed is one of the smaller pieces in the bag. It is about 1 1/2 inches in width (at the widest part of the tail) and about 4 inches in length. A pretty decent size and definitely not a choking hazard. Even though I have been feeding raw for quite some time now, each time I give them something new I am a bit cautious, especially when it is a bone item. I wan to make sure they are able to gnaw and chew on the bone without hurting themselves. I usually do not have a problem with Mika since she chews her food and doesn't swallow or gulp down her food (unless she gets a boneless meal). Kyuubi, on the other hand, will try to swallow things sometimes so I have to be careful with him. I was glad the pieces were big enough that I did not have to worry so much about him trying to gulp the entire tail.

First pup to try the ostrich tail was Kyuubi. I laid their raw towel out on the patio and put the ostrich tail down on it. He immediately jumped onto the towel and sniffed out the ostrich tail. A few licks and then he started to try to chew the meat off the bone. He doesn't like using his paws so it was a bit difficult for him to rip the meat off the bone. He slowly started to chew the bone with the meat attached. He was happy when I came up and held the ostrich tail for him to chew on. He had the most satisfied look on his face while crunching away at the tail. He got a good chunk of the bone off and so I rotated the tail to a meatier side so he could get some of the meat. He ripped off pieces of the meat with his teeth and it helped a little since I was tugging on it a bit when he was getting a grip on the meat. Since this was a new item I did not let him eat very much of it. I wanted to make sure he would digest the tail perfectly fine before feeding him an entire tail as a bone-in meal. He did just fine with the ostrich tail and will probably get it later on this week as an evening meal. The tail is quite boney and I would most need to give him an organ meal in the morning before hand.

Now it's Mika's turn. I figured she would do just fine with the ostrich tail since she's been on a raw diet for almost a year now. She does what she usually does when she gets a RMB. She sits excitedly waiting for me to put it down for her. After putting it down and giving her the "ok" to go for it, she slowly walks up to it, sniffing the ostrich tail. Slowly, she starts to lick it, trying to figure out if she really wants to snack on it. She also doesn't like to use her paws on RMBs so after a while I come save the day again and hold the ostrich tail for her. She immediately opens her mouth and gets the tail in between her molars. She knows exactly what to do when wanting and needing to crunch up bone pieces. I felt more comfortable with her eating the tail than I did when Kyuubi was eating it. She chews the bones thoroughly before swallowing it. Mika has always been good about eating bones and has never thrown up any of the RMBs she's eaten. After a while I remove the ostrich tail and put it back into it's ziplock bag with the other tails. Unfortunately, Mika scared me a bit after eating the ostrich tail. She was hacking a bit 30 minutes after eating some of it. This is the first time she has showed signs of wanting and needing to throw up after having something bone-in.

Kyuubi's rating of the ostrich tail? Best RMB he's had to date! He is tired of the boring chicken cuts and the pork neck.

 Mika's rating of the ostrich tail? Loved it, but probably won't be having it very often. I will try it again with her to see if she can handle it better than she did the other night.



As for me, I will probably purchase ostrich tails again when I run out. Kyuubi did very well with them. It's also another protein that they get that is different from the normal cuts that I can easily get at the supermarket. Oh, another plus? It's only $.60/lb. Yeah, I'll definitely be getting these again in the future!

The Importance of Research

My heart is aching for poor Wrinkles. Wrinkles is a 12 week old Chinese Shar-Pei that my BIL's brother(s) (he has too many brothers so this entry might get confusing) had bought. He is the cutest little thing with all his wrinkles (hence the name Wrinkles).

When I first saw him, I noticed that his left eye wasn't opened. He couldn't see out of his life eye very well and had felt very uncomfortable when he first was introduced to Mika and Kyuubi. I saw how run and hide so I put Mika and Kyuubi in my office and went out to give Wrinkles some treats. I heard that he wasn't eating much so I wanted to see if he would take some Stella & Chewy's freeze dried patties from me. At first he wouldn't take it from my hand so I put pieces on the ground, and slowly he started eating it. Slowly, but surely he started taking the treats from me. After an hour or so we reintroduced the dogs one at a time to Wrinkles. He and Kyuubi hit it off very well (there's a video of them playing together in my last post).

Amy, who is taking care of Wrinkles, is my BIL's younger brother's (not the brother who purchased Wrinkles) girlfriend, and they have taken on the responsibility of caring for him although they did not purchase him. They are both very new at raising a puppy and were pretty scared that his left eye was completely shut and having puss form around it. I scheduled a vet appointment for them yesterday afternoon to get him checked out since Wrinkles did not have his first vet appointment yet. I was intending on staying at work, but Amy was going to go alone to the vet and was a bit scared. She asked me to accompany her and so I went with her and Wrinkles to the vet.

12 weeks, weighing in at 20 lbs! He was such a good boy when being handled by the vet tech. Even got his nails trimmed without a struggle. Only problem was, they couldn't see his eye. They took him to the back and put some numbing medication on his eye to see if they could open it and take a look. Turns out his eyelid was curled all the way down. Poor guy has entropion! The vet told us that he has a very severe case of entropion and referred us to an ophthalmologist.

Amy wasn't expecting to care for a dog anytime soon, especially one she did not research and want herself. She is now caring for a dog that someone else purchased because they do not know how to care for him or take time off from their lives to feed him, play with him, put the drops needed in his eye. I am just upset at the irresponsibility that I witnessed these past few days with Wrinkles. I am glad that Amy has stepped up to help take care of him, but she shouldn't have to.

Before taking Wrinkles home, my BIL's brother had asked the breeder about his eye. The breeder shrugged it off and said it will go away. I told them they need to contact the breeder and let them know what is going on with Wrinkles. I read through the contract that was sent with Wrinkles. Funny thing is, there's a spot for the "seller" to sign, yet no signature. There isn't even a number to call and contact the breeder. Only way to contact is via e-mail. I hope they can get things settled with the breeder.

This morning Wrinkles was brought to the ophthalmologist. They didn't do the corrective surgery, given he is very young, they didn't feel like it was needed at such a young age. However, they did put him under and pulled his eyelids back out and stapled them. They are hoping that he will eventually grow into them and that having the staples out will get rid of his infection and he won't need the corrective surgery in the future. The staples will stay in for they are hoping 2 weeks, however the ophthalmologist said there's a chance he will need to have the staples in for a few months.

The poor guy is only 13 weeks old and is already in so much pain. He is going to lose out on the important socialization window. I wish there was more I could do to help, but I can only keep trying to spread the word about researching breeds that one may be interested in and then researching breeders. It is so important to find a breeder that will be there 24/7 for support.

Kai Ken meets Shar-Pei

Sister's brother in laws recently purchased a Shar-Pei puppy. He is the cutest little thing ever! He will be joining Mika and Kyuubi at work from now on too! They have a new playmate while at the office!

Here's a video of Kyuubi and Wrinkles, the Shar-Pei puppy!

Sandy Paws

Last Sunday I took the pups with me to have a mini meetup with Corina, Jesse, Joey and their pups. It was almost a farewell meetup for Shuran who will be placed for a month with another family to see how he does. If everything goes well he will be placed with them as a co-op home to Corina's breeding program. It was very last minute as we had no idea where we were going to meetup at until an hour before.

I had never taken the dogs to the dog beach before so I wasn't sure what to expect since it is not closed off. Kyuubi did very well off leash. Except for the part of jumping all over people who were trying to tan. Oh well, maybe that will let people know that they shouldn't be laying out in the sun at the dog area for the beach. Kyuubi went off for a bit on his own and came back to find us. I was proud of him, but at the same time I think I was having some anxiety wondering if he would make his way back. We did keep an eye on him from a distance.

Around 10 weeks old Kyuubi tried to jump into a little river flowing through the complex where Kevin's mom lives. He did get wet, and seemed to want to keep going in the water. However, at the beach, he was terrified of the water. Someone had mention it might be because that the water was actually coming towards him and he might not have liked that. Mika, too was afraid of the water, but ended up getting wet because she wanted to dig in the wet sand and chase other dogs who were fetching balls out of the ocean.

The pups had fun and got to hang out with their buddies. I want to continue taking them to the dog beach, but I can do without the sand, so I think we'll just stick to dog parks for now.

Videos from the Dog Beach

Sharing is Caring

When we first brought Kyuubi home, Mika wasn't too sure about him. The first time I ever heard her growl was when the second day he was home with us and I heard Mika let out a growl! He had gotten near her OLD trachea chew that she refused to eat for 2 months. It was sitting in an old dog bed where we kept a lot of her toys at the time. We had forgotten it was there because well, she barely ever touched it. She suddenly wanted it though when Kyuubi showed a bit of interest in it. After that we made sure that we would keep them separated while they have chews or are fed. That didn't last long though because Mika would let Kyuubi take anything he wanted from her. She realized he was there to stay after the third day and didn't care anymore that he wanted to take her toy or her chew. She just went on to something else.

Kyuubi on the other hand resource guarded almost everything from Mika. Even while being fed in his crate he would bark at Mika if she even glimpsed over at him. He was kibble fed for probably the first two weeks or so when we got him then we switched him over to a raw diet. While being fed kibble in the beginning he would continuously guard it from Mika. After he started getting some raw, he no longer cared if she was near his crate while he had kibble. For a while he wouldn't eat his kibble anymore and just wanted raw. Mika would go over to his bowl and eat and he would go back to his bowl of kibble and they would eat it together.

Now, I won't say that Kyuubi no longer resource guards against Mika because he does sometimes. I still feed them separately, but if it's kibble (if I forget to defrost something) it would just be down in the kitchen and he will usually eat and if Mika wants to snack on some he has no problems sharing with her. When he's being fed a chicken wing though that's a whole different story. He's fed in his crate and he will still bark at Mika if she walks by him. He doesn't resource guard against antlers, bully sticks or other chews.

Here's a cute video of them together sharing an antler. Kyuubi though, doesn't really want it, he more so is messing around and annoying Mika. She lets out a whine at him that I find cute!

Puppy FAQs

I enjoy browsing the Shiba Inu forum and reading updates about the other shibas and how they are doing. I also enjoy having new people join and seeing their cute puppy fluffballs, cause well puppies are CUTE! Who doesn't love to see pictures of puppies?

One thing I do not enjoy are the redundant questions that are asked almost every other day. There is a search function on the forum, but apparently people do not like to use it very much. Myself and I'm sure other regular forum members do not mind answering questions, but when the same questions are asked so often it gets a bit tiring.

Here is a small list I put together the other night.

1. I just brought my new puppy home, why won't s/he eat very much?
A: Your puppy has just been taken out of his/her environment where they were with his/her littermates and mom. Your pup is still getting used to the new surroundings. Everything is a bit overwhelming for your pup right now, so give your pup some time to adjust to his/her new living arrangements.

2. Why won't my puppy walk on a leash?
A: Puppies do not automatically know that they are supposed to walk when you put a leash on them. It is something that has to be taught. First try letting your pup drag the leash around the house so they get used to walking around with the leash on them. Next time you take your puppy out have treats on hand and when your pup is by your side treat him/her for being next to you. This will also teach your pup to loose leash walk.

3. Help! My puppy is peeing everywhere inside the house!
A: Even if your breeder tells you that your puppy is housebroken, chances are your puppy is not. It's not because your breeder lied to you, but because most puppies and even dogs are only housebroken in their current house and not in new environments.  So with new puppies and if adults need to be housebroken, crate training is in order. Puppies and dogs in general do not want to soil in their area and will hold it. Each and everytime you take your puppy out of his/her crate, immediately take your puppy outside to eliminate. Praise, praise and treat when your puppy goes. If your puppy does not go, bring your puppy back inside and crate for 10 minutes and then take your puppy back outside. Keep doing this until your puppy finally goes. When your puppy is playing and not in his/her crate please be sure to keep a close watch on your puppy. If you do not have your 100% attention on your puppy then please put your puppy in his/her crate or in an ex-pen. This will make housebreaking a lot easier on the both of you.

4. My puppy's mouth is bleeding! What is going on?
A: Puppy just like babies lose their teeth. When their adult ones are ready to come they start to teeth and lose their puppy teeth. You will notice their breath will be a bit more stinky than usual. Once all their adult teeth are in the bleeding should stop and so should the bad puppy breath. If your puppy still has very bad breath and all his/her adult teeth are in please schedule a dental appointment with your vet as your pup may have a case of gingivitis.

5. Are rawhides okay to feed my puppy?
A: I personally do not feed rawhides as they do not digest properly and can cause a blockage. If you would like to give your puppy something to chew on besides your furniture and shoes, look into specific chew toys from nylabone. There are also alternative chews such as bullysticks and antlers. Chews are a great workout for your puppy and it helps keep them busy and learn to chew on their stuff and not yours.

6. Sudden fur loss, what's happening?
A: Puppies lose their soft puppy fuzz and shed most of it and their guard hair comes in. During the time when your puppy starts to lose his/her puppy fur your puppy will start to scratch a bit more than usual. If your puppy has a balding spot you may want to take your puppy to the vet to rule out mange. If it is not mange there is a chance your puppy may have allergies to certain ingredients in his/her food. Although puppies do not develop allergies at that young of an age it is possible for them to show it early on.

7. My puppy growls at me when I get near his/her food bowl.
A: Your puppy is resource guarding. When you see this you will want to get rid of this behavior immediately. You can start by hand feeding your puppy. This will let your puppy know that good things (such as food) comes from you. If you do not want to hand feed your puppy try having a high value treat and giving the treat to your puppy while s/he is growling when you approach. Do not take your puppy's food bowl away. Just give treats to your puppy and your puppy will build a positive association with you and his/her food.

8. All my puppy does his scream and cry in his/her crate.
A: A lot of puppies do not like to be confined. Making positive associations with his/her crate is very important. Try feeding your puppy in his/her crate. Crate time can be fun time and not just being locked up. Give your puppy something to do while crated. Frozen kongs are a favorite in this house. I usually will mix greek yogurt with blueberries and freeze it. If your puppy continues to cry and scream and you know that your puppy does not need to be fed or let out to eliminate then just ignore the cries. Your puppy will eventually calm down. If you keep letting your puppy out when s/he cries your puppy will take advantage of that and cry each time s/he does not want to be crated.

9. My puppy started running around like a maniac!!!
A: All puppies get the "zoomies". It's just a burst of energy and they start to run around and do not stop until they are out of breath! Most of the time it is due to lack of exercise or mental stimulation. Unless your puppy is like mine and likes to do her zoomies after a 45 minute walk. Having the zoomies is perfectly normal, especially in puppies.

10. Should I put my puppy in training/puppy kindergarten?
A: YES! YES!! YES!!! Puppy K classes are so important. Make sure to find a place that uses positive reinforcement. Puppy K classes will help your puppy build his/her confidence. It also enables your puppy to learn bite inhibition by playing with other puppies. The class helps you to curb unwanted behaviors early on where it is easiest to teach your puppy good behaviors. Socializing your puppy with other puppies, people, surfaces, textures, noises, will help you have a wonderful companion in the future, instead of having a fearful, reactive, hard-to-control dog.

I'm sure there are more questions that I am missing, but I felt 10 was a good number to start with. Hopefully this FAQ will help at least one person.

Here is a video of Kyuubi experiencing a brand new surface in his Puppy K class.

Happy Belated Gotcha Day!

So I am a day late to this, as I was busy yesterday and was not able to post about it!

It's been one year since I brought little Mika home! As it turns out it is also my birthday. Yes we picked her up on my birthday last year! It was not planned that way either. She was supposed to arrive a few days before, but I wasn't able to get her until the weekend started. She is the best unplanned birthday gift I could have received!

starting to come out of her crate

I remember trying to look into the crate after picking her up at the airport. She was so afraid and didn't want to come out of the crate. We decided to leave her in there while we drove home. When we got home we opened the crate and she just stood in the back. Wanting her to get more comfortable we opened the top of the crate so she could see her new surroundings. She started slowly coming out to sniff us. Still a bit timid, but she did warmed up quickly.

It's been an amazing experience living with her for the past year and I hope every year with her just gets better.

For her Gotcha Day, we decided to go to the local shiba meetup that was scheduled in our area. She had a blast running around and playing with other dogs at the dog park. After all the running and wrestling she did she was wiped out when she got home. It was a fun filled doggy day for her!