The Move Down Under

Well Gemma has made it to New Zealand safe and sound. As I had been reading for the past 18 months she faired better than us from the big flight. I have written about her move on our blog at http://mishgeorgenz.wordpress.com/

In summary, all I read was correct. The dog is fine after the flight, Auckland airport is quite a faff, the dog recovers very quickly - far more quickly than us humans.

Gemma's trip to London

We were invited to London on Saturday night to a birthday party in Fulham. We stayed in a very small flat in Pimlico. Gemma had a really big day on the Saturday as we had stayed in the caravan on Friday night and 50 other caravans had turned up for a rally. So poor Gemma had lost her field for the weekend. We drove up to London and the SatNav took us right through the centre, past Harrods. Gemma enjoyed the views from the front seat of the Bongo. Once we arrived Christine and I took her to a park for a poo stop. She is in St George's park with me in the photo. After the park stop we went to Pimlico tube station to see if the trains were running okay and to show Gemma the station.

After the party we took the tube home and as you can see Gemma was a bit overexcited by it. She had not been very happy at the party so we didn't stay late. She hadn't had a nap all day and had woken at 4.30 in the caravan because of the birds and the light. We finally made it back to the flat where Gemma quickly took her place on the bed, that we had had to pull out of a cupboard! Before leaving on Sunday we walked down to the Thames to have an explore. There is a photo of Gemma with Mish on the way back from this walk. We drove back via King's road. The butcher across from the cafe where we had breakfast was very happy to give me a huge bag of bones. Shame he son't closer to us as he told me to come in any time to get bones. While we were finishing our breakfast a woman came past with so many little dogs it was a real sight. I told her I admired her as we find one small dog quite enough to deal with!

As a way of taking Gemma's mind off the big trip I gave her one of the huge bones once we arrived back at the caravan. She took time with it and really chilled out in the sun.

Rabbits

I finally found something that Gemma won't eat on her new diet. I previously tried her with Rabbit and she turned her nose up but I thought it might have been because there was still a bit of fur on the meat. But I tried a really tasty looking piece yesterday but she won't go near it. I need to get the camera out for some more photos as Gemma is looking so nice and trim. The only treats she has now are dried sprats and she doesn't hound me for treats nearly so much. I think the new diet is much more satisfying for her.

Different Menus

Gemma has been on the full raw meaty diet now for a few months and thoroughly enjoying it. I thought that we were never going to find anything that she didn't like eating. However the latest new morsel of raw rabbit wasn't too popular. In the end I had to throw it away as she refused to eat it. She picked it up and considered it then dropped it. The other meal that she didn't take to much although she did eat it was a raw white fish mix. At the moment she is having minced lamb and tripe. She seems to find it okay but the smell is vile so I might not be getting that again. On the way back from a trip to Rye we stopped off at a butchers in Hastings who kindly chopped up a huge bag of bones for her. There were lamb and beef bones and a couple of marrow bones. The butcher was really excited to hear of a dog eating raw meat and bones. When we opened the bag at home we realised that although he had chopped the bones up some of them were still far too big for her. She could eat them but in the end the meal was really too much for such a small dog. Especially one who is trying to lose weight.

We have now invested in a meat cleaver so we can control the size of her meals much easier. Generally I have found that she prefers the bones not to be too big and I think this is reasonable for a dog with such a small mouth. She is happy to put quite a lot of effort into eating her dinner but at times I can just tell she needs a break from it and would prefer an easy meal (don't we all). One of the lamb bones from the Hastings butcher took her a whole hour to eat. She loved every minute of it but she could hardly move afterwards! I have worked out that she eats the raw minced fruit and vege only if it is dressed with something meaty. She probably would prefer to go without and only eat meat and fish but I think she needs some vege. One popular new addition to her diet is raw sprats. They are about 3 inches long and she has about 5 of them for a dinner. She really likes them and they make a nice change.

Overall we both agree that she appears to be healthier and happier on this diet. She has certainly lost weight and moves around easier now. One thing that I didn't realise is that she sleeps a lot more than she used to. I am guessing that her system needs the rest to digest the raw food. The great thing about the diet is much less poo and it is hard, not very smelly and not so vile to deal with. Not such foul dog breath and no trips to the vets for anal gland squeezing, yah! She seems to be much more excited at meal times as she never knows what she is going to get. It's great to be able to offer such a variety of food instead of only being able to choose from 3 or 4 different commercial dog food flavours.

Meaty Bones

The first day of raw meaty bones for dinner which consisted of half a chicken carcass. Gemma took to it very enthusiastically. She didn't like it in her bowl so I had to put it on the floor. We will need to sort out an eating area rather than just the bowl. I have read that raw food diets can be a bit messy. There was definitely no mess left over! She sniffed and sniffed afterwards to see if there was anything she had missed. Then just to be safe she gave the floor a lick. I purchased 7 chicken carcasses and 3 containers of frozen crushed fruit/vege mix for just over £3. This is so much cheaper than commercial food. Apparently for small dogs the raw food diet is cheaper but probably not so for larger dogs. She will have the chicken carcasses for a couple of weeks then I'll go back to Nurturing by Nature to discuss other types of bones that we could give her as part of a varied diet.

Snowy Beach

Okay, not to do with Raw Food Diets but might be of interest. Earlier in the winter when it snowed we had a wonderful walk down to the beach. It was very strange seeing our beach covered in snow. Gemma had to have her coat on which she is never very impressed with although I think she quite enjoys being warm and snug in it. Last winter she went to go for a paddle in her favourite pond at Hengistbury Head but it had iced over so she had to learn to ice skate very quickly. She almost made it to the other side before the ice cracked and she had a wee dip. She loved it all and is so confident now it is great to see.

Saturday

Went to Nurturing by Nature today to get Gemma's next step meals. Frozen minced lamb (with some chicken). Also dried sprats for low cal treats (yum but stinky!). She has her first day today without any 'dog food' at all. To lose weight she can only have about 90 to 100gms of food all day. This will be a bit of a shock but hopefully the extra taste might counterbalance the small portion. Will keep you posted. She starts on the lamb mix on Wednesday, a week after beginning the new regime.

The Transition

Breakfast: vege fruit delight and frozen minced chicken.

After reading quite a few different viewpoints about how to best introduce your pet to a Raw Food Diet I decided to try what Netty from Nurturing by Nature suggested. One idea I read began with a 24 hours fasting and I wasn't keen on that one (neither was Gemma). We came home from Nurturing by Nature with a large bag of frozen raw minced chicken, frozen packs of mushed up veges and fruit, and of course a variety of healthy treats. Gemma began this morning with about a tablespoon of the chicken and the same of the vege mix. She was slightly concerned that her cereals didn't appear but showed enthusiasm towards the new morning delights. It wasn't long before it was gone. Later in the morning I gave her a fish jerky treat to make up for the tiny breakfast.

Tonight she will get her usual dinner including biscuits. She will have the chicken and vege mix for breakfast for another 2 days but doubling the amount each morning. On the 4th day she will have the mix for breakfast and dinner. It'll be interesting to see how she reacts to no 'dogfood' in her plate. She will finish the week off with this diet and then we will go back to Nurturing by Nature for more advice on where to go from there. The next step will be the whole Raw Food Diet, bones and all. I am quite sure that Gemma is going to love it. She just loves bones but she hasn't had many because we have believed all horror stories about bones being bad for dogs.

Wednesday 24th February
Gemma moves onto the next stage of the transition to Raw Food. We introduce minced frozen lamb mixed with the raw chicken. I think she is going to love that. She still really enjoys her meals and is looking so bright and bouncy. It's lovely to see. Also her coat is getting softer and softer. I guess this is due to the extra fat and oils she is getting. Her treats now are dried sprats or fish chews instead of dog biscuits.

Gemma's arrival

When we first got Gemma we took her to the Poole Pound Puppy Rescue reunion BBQ. She won first prize for the dog who the judge would most like to take home. We were so proud. She looks so tiny in this picture. She was quite timid and didn't really know what to do with herself. She has learnt so much since this picture was taken.

Welcome to Gemma's pages

Gemma is a JRT who is between 6 to 8 years old and she is my first dog. We adopted her 3 years ago without any of her history. We have taught her to play, go for long walks and to chew tasty treats. She has learnt quickly and enthusiastically. She has Patella Luxation or 'trick knee' which she usually copes with well but a few days ago she lost her bounce. Anyone who knows Jack Russells know that they are normally full of bounce. The verdict from the vet is that it is her knee playing up with a bit of arthritis and also being a bit overweight. To help her with this we have decided to try her on a Raw Food Diet. I have got advice from the woman at Nurturing by Nature in Ferndown and Gemma starts her new diet tomorrow morning. It will take 3 days until she can go onto the diet exclusively. Her goal is to lose 2 kgs. I was also advised that she should only have moderate exercise which I find surprising as she is so energetic but we will moderate her walks and see how she responds.

I've included a picture of Gemma and I on the little boat going over to Christchurch from Mudeford Spit. I've inlcuded me in the picture in honour of Max who I have read about on Honey the Great Dane's blog. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading Honey's blog and that is where I was introduced to the idea of the raw food diet.