If they have grit they should be fine. The ones we had broody raised this year ate scratch for treats along with mealworms from a very young age and no problems that we could see. It was a feeding frenzy when we gave out the mealworms.Goodday all!
I moved my 4 babies into the garage Sunday (for quarantine and because I'm sick of house chickens)
They have been getting down to 35ish at night but are doing fine with a ceramic heater. I gave them a big container of grit yesterday.
They are 7 and 10 weeks now, do y'all think they can handle scratch grain as a treat??
There’s a lot of reputable breeders of Australian Labradoodles in New England (and there are two breed clubs/registries in America and even a standard, they are really trying hard to be reputable and different than other Labradoodles. Australian Labradoodles have Cocker Spaniel mixed in and also preferably can be traced back to the original Australian Labradoodles bred in Australia as guide dogs from that facility. So they’re different and that’s why I’d consider one of those and not a regular doodle.) BUT. Almost every single Australian Labradoodle breeder I found desexes the puppies before going home!! WTF!! I can understand they’re maybe somewhat rare and they want to preserve the breed or bloodlines or whatever but they’re not THAT rare and even breeders with champion show dogs don’t do that. I found like two breeders that don’t desex them and one that desexes OR will do a s/n agreement, one of the breeders that didn’t desex does require sterilization by 8 months old but they also mention alternative sterilization methods and accept that so that’s good! But practically every other one desexes. Now, granted, Libby was desexed by the shelter and she’s fine so far, and most Doodles are 65 pounds at most and that’s really pushing it for the Aussie version, most seem to be 40 or 50 pounds, or even smaller for the mediums and minis, like 25-30, or soemtimes less, and they’ve all been breeding for years so maybe early altering isn’t as bad since they are not large breeds necessarily but it still seems odd and to me I consider early like maybe 6 months or something, 7-8 weeks or even 9 seems like cruelty to me. They need those hormones to grow. Soooo... I kind of absolutely refuse to support that. ALSO. Most of them seem to be $2,750. A lot were that same oddly specific number. A few were $3000. So idk if maybe they all talk and decided on the early neutering and the price? But I can find purebred, champions show puppies for like $1,500-$1,800, maybe $2000 at most, so that’s another reason I’m not gonna get one. Plus it’s a crazy high deposit (like $300 or $500) and then a lot make you pay like $1000 when they’re born then another $1000/the remainder in full at 6 weeks or when you choose or something similar to that instead of when you pick it up like a lot of other breeders which I also thought was kinda weird. Idk. It’s like, a lot of them are reputable and health test and I don’t see increases for color or whatever like some, but some of these breeding practices seem kinda shady or just like... odd?? So I guess back to purebred or rescue it is. Lol
