BYC Café

DobieLover said:

Happy birthday, Cap!

Click to expand...

Thank you!

Offshoreorca said:

Yes, happy birthday @CapricornFarm

Click to expand...

Thanks, i guess we may go out to dinner tomorrow night.

Thanks @Mtn Margie ! Unfortunately, I no longer have cows. But I do still have my goats and birds and my girls (dogs), so I will share some pictures

Glad to hear GS had fun with his new bike! I love drink lots of coffee days.

Happy birthday, @CapricornFarm ! I hope you had a wonderful day!

Meg-in-MT said:

Happy birthday, @CapricornFarm ! I hope you had a wonderful day!

Click to expand...

Actually, we both had headaches so we stayed home and hope to go out for supper tomorrow night. Thank you!

Good morning Cafe. Coffee is ready.

We are warming up here. The snow and ice should all be melted by Saturday.

I have a question for the people with puppy experience: does Piper look too thin or do they go through a gangly puppy stage? She'll be 14 weeks old this Saturday and I am feeding her a little over 10% her body weight of raw food daily. The guidelines for puppies is 8-10% their body weight in food until they reach 1/2 their expected adult weight then you start to slowly drop down the percentage. She's 4.2 # with an expected adult weight of 9-10 pounds. She is bursting with energy and very happy and playful and sleeps with zeal too! So I'm inclined to believe she's just fine but her ribs are easily seen when she's stretching and on the move and her hip bones are visible too.
Here is that last video again I posted that shows what I'm talking about.
ETA: She's also been wormed NINE times since she was born! Her fecal float was negative on her health certificate exam on 12-10.

DobieLover said:

Does Piper look too thin or do they go through a gangly puppy stage?
ETA: She's also been wormed NINE times since she was born! Her fecal float was negative on her health certificate exam on 12-10.

Click to expand...

Good morning Cafe! Thanks for the coffee DL!

Puppies will look somewhat lanky and on the thinner side when they're young - Piper's short coat doesn't help as you can see ribs easily through it. She sounds and looks like she is doing well. That being said, I wouldn't let her get any thinner. The 8-10% is a guideline and some pups do need more (Salt is getting quite a bit more than suggested now, as she is active and I would prefer her with a tiny bit more weight rather than a little less as she grows). It could be with raw that you need to add a bit more fat or caloric content for a puppy. A lot of folks who feed raw as pups will do 50/50 of kibble (can be a raw-based kibble) and raw to make sure the balance for growth is there. I personally don’t feed raw (our dogs get whole foods, but we cook anything that presents high bacteria/parasite risk), but know a number of people who do.

Here is Salt stretched out for reference. Still lanky and a thicker coat, but not quite as thin as Piper.



And it does sound like a lot, but you're suppose to worm puppies every two weeks until they are 12 weeks and then every month until six months old - especially important if they spend lots of time outside in the dirt or are fed raw. It sounds like a lot, but they are super susceptible to parasites and those parasites can unfortunately affect development as they rob the pups of nutrients I aim for about once a month (with the vaccinations) with ours unless I notice anything, but Salt can't get into much during the winter that could give her many parasites so I'm not as worried as spring/summer raised pups.

Good morning, and thanks for the coffee. To me, Piper looks fine for a rapidly growing extremely active pup. If she becomes progressively thinner you might very gradually increase her diet. I am one who worms dogs only after fecal results indicate that there is a problem.

sourland said:

Good morning, and thanks for the coffee. To me, Piper looks fine for a rapidly growing extremely active pup. If she becomes progressively thinner you might very gradually increase her diet. I am one who worms dogs only after fecal results indicate that there is a problem.

Click to expand...

If you have access to fecal tests easily that’s great - here it takes weeks to get in for a vet appointment unfortunately as there is a major shortage and the nearest vet is 2 hours away, so it changes how we do things a bit so that we don’t get stuck with a sick puppy. Our adult dogs don’t get wormed unless there is a problem noticeable - after six months they are fairly robust to parasites and we don’t have heart worm here thankfully! Given their diet and what they get into, the risks are quite low for us, but this isn’t the case for everyone of course