A hello, along with multiple ?'s

Hello,

First things first....Great Board!

I have been reading the board for about two weeks now and must say that I really like this place.

I have read a few posts that seem a bit closeminded and such, but overall it is easy to see that this forum has plenty of educated pitbull owners.

I look forward to picking many of your brains, trying to dig out as much info as possible.

Here is a bit about my dogs.

I have three. two female and one male. They are all three rescue dogs.

None of them are papered, and I am quite sure that our male is a mix of some sort. That being said, I love them all as if they were my kids. I have had them all fixed (no worries on backyard breeding here...lol)

My oldest female is six. She is my first baby. She was being beaten by a neighbor of a friend I was visiting in Texas. The day I left I went to his house and gave an altimatum. He gives me the dog, or I call the authorities...he made his decision rather quickly. She was six months old when I took her. She trusted no one, very skittish, would not eat at first, etc... now she is a loveable petbull who sleeps on the couch all day.

My next pup, my boy, was found on the street in Phoenix, while I was going to college down there. He was way malnurished, had a wound on his face and neck, and was just about ready to give up. I saw him by a dumpster, pulled over, picked him up and took him strait to the vet. The vet and his receptionist both threatened to call the cops on me for abusing him until I got them to understand that I just found him. He will be four years old this month.

The newest addition to my home is Gracie, she is an eight month old who is so active that she can wear out both dogs and still keep going. She is a real breath of fresh air for my other two pups. I was in Denver for a concert when I read about the impending ban on pits. So I decided to go the the pound and see about adopting one to take home with me. They would not let me adopt any dog that showed to be more than 50% pit. Quite frankly I was pissed, and although I try to be a profesional person I must admit I let loose with a bit of anger. I waited until they sent out this "manager" (for lack of a better word) and I absolutely reamed him. How can they take the dogs in and not let them be adopted. It is not like I live in an area where they have been banned, quite the opposite. I showed proof of residency (so they knew the dog would not be in Denver if I adopted it) but they would not budge. They would rather kill them.

As I was storming out of the building a gentlman aproached me and told me that he had a pup that he needed to get rid of and that he was here to see if they could refer him to any pit friendly shelters. He had her in his truck in the parking lot. The moment I saw her I knew she was coming home with me.

They all live in the mountains now. They have a large fenced in back yard to play in. The two oldest are avid hikers and go out with me for up to four days on end. Gracie will go on her first camping trip this spring/summer.

I do not have any regulated excercise programs that the dogs go through, they mostly live a normal dog life, or so I would guess.

Up until recently I have been feeding them Purina Pro Plan dog food, but would like to make a change due to some of the ingredients used.

I plan on going with a mix of dry food, and raw foods, and this is where I am needing some guidence.

I have been doing a little research on the BARF diet for the last couple of days, and am having some trouble finding particular info on the following.

Is it fine to use kidneys, heart, and tripe?

I have read about the use of liver and such, but just am not satisfied with the info I have found regarding the before mentioned.

I have certainly read in posts that people say it is O.K. to feed the organs, but I am not sure if that statement is all inclusive.

After talking with my local vet (who offered no help in raw foods) I have decided to try the following...

• Every other day I will supliment their food with half raw meets and veggies.
• Watch for loose stool, and make sure that they are digesting everything fine.

Now here is where I am lost for sure...

Should I give different amounts of the raw food to the dogs?

My six year old seems to have a bit of a sensitive stomach...

My boy I'm sure is fine, but I will watch him.

My youngest, Gracie, is still under a year. Should she receive a higher/lower ratio of raw foods?

I have one last, unrelated, question.....

This may get me laughed at, but I will never know if I don't ask....

What is the diffence between a Stafordshire Terrior and an APBT?

It is my understanding that at some point in history, mastiffs were bread into the Stafs. However I have been told that there are no differences at all, so I am just a bit confused. Any help with this clarification will be apreciated.

Wow, I had know idea I could be so long winded...lol

Thanks for reading my post

I look forward to reading any replies...even if they are to laugh at me...lol.

Take care

 

Welcome to the site, sorry I couldn't help more, but someone will for sure LOL

 

Welcome to the board, we very much appreciate your introduction, and letting us get to know you a bit better. I like that you are very detailed on everything, and that will make your questions much easier to answer. Regarding the BARF diet, I will leave that up to someone more knowledgeable on the issue to answer that for you

As for the diffrence between an APBT and Staff *used* to be only a matter of name the registry labels them...and what they were bred for. Through years of selective breeding for two totally diffrent goals, it has created two breeds that although look similar, are no longer the same breed. Sometimes you can take a pretty good guess on what a dog is APBT/Amstaff wise, based on features...but sometimes its not that easy. LOL Basically, APBT owners wanted to get out of the pit, and wanted a dog that looked the part of the APBT, but was bred for show rather than go if you will. There was a time when APBT/Amstaffs were still very similar, and there were plenty of Amstaffs that were bred for the APBT's working roots and competed very well. However, now that dog-fighting is illegal and most just assume to have a pretty looking dog-rather than a working dog of any sort, Amstaff breeders tend to breed for exaggerated features (big blocky heads, massive jaws, shorter, stockier, wider chests,etc). Both breeds are good dogs in their own right, as long as people call their Amstaffs Amstaffs, and dont try to pass them off as APBT's most have no problem with them. The problem lies with people looking for exagerated dogs to make up for their lack of whatever...and they rely on the "pit" name to scare and intimidate people. This results in Amstaffs being sold off as APBT's so they can still tell people their 95 lb. muscle bound dog is a "pit". Also those types of people tend to breed their "pits" to other APBT's basically creating mutts Or even worse, when people breed APBT's for Amstaff features and qualities-thus deviating from APBT standard, and also breeding mutts. I guess I've gotten a bit off track, and I appologize. LOL Any more questions that a search of the site cant answer be sure to start a new thread and ask. You can also pm anybody on the site asking for their help. Hope you enjoy your stay.

 

Welcome to the board!

Is it fine to use kidneys, heart, and tripe?
Yes feeding organ meats once or twice a week is fine. Tripe loaded with vitamins, enzymes, and nutrients (amount is dependant on which animal it’s from). Also contains Omega 3 and 6 essential fatty acids and a nice calcium and phosphorus balance. Seeing how most are informed about kidneys and heart…won’t mention them.

Every other day I will supliment their food with half raw meets and veggies.
Sounds good…just remember to not feed meets and grains in the same meal.

Should I give different amounts of the raw food to the dogs?
General rule of thumb is 2-3% of the dog’s body weight per day and up to 10% for pups.

My youngest, Gracie, is still under a year. Should she receive a higher/lower ratio of raw foods?
Yes she’ll need more, simply because a pup has a much higher caloric intake need than an adult.

 

not trying to steal anyhitng from your thread but my boy is 6 mouths so would he eat 10 percent?? of is body wieght

 

Yes it would (up to 10%) though the percentages are just a rough out line to go by, your pup/dogs body will tell you all you need to know in regards to the amount they need!<O:p</O:p

 

I won't elaborate on the answers given. As usual, they're very good. Just wanted to say, "Welcome", and thankyou for rescuing the
your dogs.
I hope you will always enjoy your stay here. There is much knowledge to be read, learned and digested, as I'm sure you're aware.
Nice intro, and enjoy your time here!

 

Thank you so much!

I appreciate the time that everyone took to reply to my post.

Well yesterday I went ahead and made my first batch of Raw food for them.

1. liver - Beef, 1lb.
2. kidney - Beef, 2lb.
3. heart - Beef, 2lb.
4. tripe - Beef, 2lb.
5. Carrot - Large, 4 each
6. Celery - Large, 5 each

I put them into an oversized Food Processor, processed for about 1 minute until the proper consistency was achieved.

In the end I went ahead and only gave them the equivilancy of 1/8th their total food, by volume, in raw supliments. I will work them up to the 50-50 mix that I plan on using.

The reamaining meat mix was devided into single use portions, vacuum sealed, and frozen for future use.

I will be watching them to make sure that all stool movements are proper. I can not afford to have them creating "accidents" of that magnitude in the house while I am gone, or asleep...lol.

I used the rule of thumb method to see how much my oldest should be eating and came up with aproxamitely 1.5-1.75 percent of her body weight.

Now I know that she eats less than the other dogs, and that she is dealing with a tooth problem right now, her front left canine is in bad shape, but am still surprised to see such a small percentage.

I have started adding a bit of water to her food for her also, just a bit of water in the bottom of the bowl to help soften her food. Not even enough to really make much of a gravy.

Also, I went to the vet yesterday with my youngest for a check-up on her mange.

Mange is outright shitty. She had a small case on her right side jaw and under her chin. I have been working with her on this for litterally over three months now.

With this last visit we got a thumbs up though, all hair is growing back and the scraping came out clean.

We used ivermectin (spelled wrong I'm sure) along with an organic cream. The ivermectin is given orally by syringe, at .7 cc per day. The cream is liberally applied upon the infected areas.

Anyway, they gave me just a litte more ivermectin to continue giving her every third day for one month. Just to be on the safe side.

The vet also told me that she has a small case of acne. I did not even know that dogs could get acne. There are just two bumps on her chin, by her mouth, that he said are pimples. So I have been cleaning her chin with a face cleaning towellet, that I first dilute a little by running some water over it. I do not want to be drying out her skin or anything. Does this sound like a decent method to keep her skin clean?

She receives a bath once a week, unless she needs one inbetween given times. I use an Aloe/Oatmeal shampoo that was recommended by the vet.

Thanks again for all the help so far. I knew that joining here was the right move.

Take care

 

Also, bathing once a week will dry out their skin and may produce/increase flaking. Baths should be given one a month on average.

 

Welcome to the site...

 

Hello,

Rocky's Human - Thank you for the tip on bathing. Perhaps I am the cause of her getting acne then. Maybe I dried her skin out by bathing her to often. I will certainly cut back to once a month. Thanks again.

JennKBN - Thank you for the welcome!

Take care