Crazy people.

                This little comment was posted on a FB page. Here's my take on it..

Such a nice thing to say to raw feeders. love how purina deletes a lot of the comments, but keeps the one that is against raw up. Very suspect.. lol

Renal failure can happen with elderly dogs and cats even when fed kibble grain inclusive or grain free.

I mean for pete's sakes of coarse a senior dog is eventually going to have health issues!  kibble fed, home cooked or raw something might happen as the dog gets older, eye sight loss, glaucoma, tumor, arthritis, renal failure or whatever and who knows the dog might age gracefully and healthy to the end!

I mean sure a poorly done raw is just as bad as bad quality kibble like ol'roy.. ol"roy biscuits gave my last three dogs death farts I'd hate to imagine the gas if they ate that kibble brand. haha

I find it so odd how many human health nutritionist recommend to eat fresh healthy foods and to keep processed ones at a minimum, but giving fresh food to dogs is a big no no.

I mean I don't condemn people for feeding lower priced kibble brands especially if they are having financial issues or for some reason that is only food that works. Sadly sometimes you gotta make sacrifices.

I do find I'm not feeding as much of good quality kibble compared to when I fed beneful.

Sometimes I see comments like better quality kibble gave my dogs the runs.. Which sometimes dogs don't handle grain free or some ingredients in some kibble too well.. Sometime it is because the dog transitioned too fast or owner fed too much of it.  they're used to their lower quality kibble needing more cups so they make a mistake and feed too much.. There is many good quality kibble that has grains in it too if dog has issues with potatoes..

I notice how better quality kibble isn't as much cups compared to lower ones.

Bella's food cost us $59 from chewy.com they have it lower price there compared to in store which is like $71 or so..

For price comparison Beneful I found online is selling for $38. $21 cheaper than the wellness core.

Despite being more pricey you feed bit less compared to beneful.

Beneful guideline has for dog Bella's size 56lbs she'll need 3 1/4cups to 4cups a day.
VS
Wellness core ocean guideline has it for  2 1/4cups - 2 3/4cups a day. Big difference!

Coarse it depends on the dog some needs bit more some less. depends on activity level, weather and so on.

I know I had to ask my dad to feed lower amounts of the wellness as he would give her two cups a meal and then I was noticing how loose her #2 were and asked how much she was given.. Once it was lowered to right amount she got better.

I chose beneful for comparison since that was my last three dogs ate.

Dink seemed to perk up once we switched her to wellness core ocean. Coarse she did eventually went back to being slow and hard to get up, but I think the better kibble helped. She lived to 16 till she had be put to sleep due to the pain she was in. She was 14 when we switched so I think she had good year and half maybe two of being more perky. Sadly winter took a hard toll on her in the final years.

I'm no dog nutritionist or food expert. I'm still learning everyday. I still find food like purina and beneful lacking ingredient wise. poultry by products, menadione sodium bisulfite complex etc.

As a raw feeder I do feed by products like beef green tripe, beef trachea, gullet, lungs, spleen, pancreas, chicken feet, gizzards, liver, and stuff like beef snouts or whole quail even(head, feathers and all).

Only difference I know what animal that by product came from. I don't mind it if kibble had liver, kidneys, hearts, lungs and stuff like that long as it is listed what is it and what animal. To me poultry, chicken, animal or beef by product is too broad of description and can mean anything!

There are many good brands out there for decent price too. Taste of the wild is pretty good for it's price and ingredients.

Dr.tim's, Annamaet, wellness core, core ocean, Farmina, fromm etc.

Coarse if you have a dog with food allergies then you'll pay what you can to keep an reaction down..

Bella had issues with farmina chicken so we got her back on core ocean and she isn't as itchy. I'm thinking it was chicken in the kibble as she had issues with fromm and Totw. Both had chicken in it somewhere either egg, cartilage, or chicken meal..

Currently she does not itch at all on the fish based kibble. I might try red meat based kibble if it has no chicken next time to see if she reacts or not.

Currently switching to acana pacifica she is now half and half of each and doing fine no itching yet. We'll see when she is on it full time.

Bella back on wellnessc core ocean

Bella was on farmina Chicken & ancestral grains for good bit. I thought she did fine with it, but itching came back. She used to itch a lot on Taste of the wild kibble so I tried farmina to see if it helped any.

She stopped for bit, but started back, but not as bad as when she was on Totw.

I decided to try her back onto wellness core ocean. I bought it off chewy.com because local store had it bit too pricey $71 vs $59.

So far the itching has gone way down and she barely gets itchy at all.. I'm thinking it's due to the chicken in the kibble or something else that was in Totw and farmina. Going to check both formula ingredients to see if they have common one in it.

Bella doesn't seem bothered by raw chicken which is good since I can get bone in chicken for decent price.

I also bought a 15lb bag of acana pacifica to try to see how she does on it. She's had a sample of the orijen regional red which had enough for two days of food. she did good on it despite no transition to it.

I figure acana would be better since it is not as rich compared to orijen. I might try the ranchlands later since it doesn't have chicken in it to see how she does on it.

Acana kibble top and wellness core ocean bottom

Now that I got plenty of raw stuff in the freeze I've been giving it as kibble topper and she's been getting raw as dinner instead of kibble more often too.

She really likes the food I got for her and she seems do well with the meat too.

I plan to order a box of the honest kitchen base mix hale to give it a try. Might make good option for when Saya gets boarded next summer.

Second mpc order

excited for a walk

Ordered from my pet carnivore a second time.. I got four 3lb beef snout, three 2lb of ground beef tripe with gullet & trachea, two 2lb pork heart chunks and two 2lb pork tongue chunks.

I have both dogs stuff portioned out and frozen except for the tripe. I still have couple of the tripe supermix so once that is all gone I'll sort out the tripe with gullet and trachea. Each get three lbs of it.

Everything together!

The beef snout was something different I fed tripe, hearts, tongue before..

The snout is chewy I cut a few to gradually get Bella used to it. Luckily most of the pieces were still frozen some except for couple.  I definitely recommend cutting this type of thing semi frozen much easier to handle.

Watching as I prep it.

I've fed both dogs the heart, tongue and beef snout and both like it and have no issues. Saya had pork heart and tongue before from the farmer's market and Bella is bit new so she gotten it in smaller pieces for now. I'll increase it soon.

Coarse they love the tripe. I got the gullet and trachea ones instead of the supermix.

Freeze is now pretty much fully only has little bit of room in the dog treat and misc stuff baskets.

Crazy looking stuff..

 The pork heart chunks and pork tongue chunks are pretty nice.. No need to cut up like beef heart since it's already cut up and whole one is not huge like beef too.

the hearts and tongue looked good no bad smells and dogs love the ones I gave them.

Yummy dog's dinner

Bella first time trying pork tongue. She had beef tongue before and gets boneless pork and pork ribs too.

I also have some scoops of the beef tripe supermix and little bit of honest kitchen preference too.

duck neck and bit of bonless chicken

Saya got beef tripe supermix with bit of HK preference, joint supplement and fish oil for breakfast and duck neck and bit of boneless chicken. She ate the chicken and half of the neck. I plan to give rest of  the neck later on.

I'm happy with the second order. Coarse since freeze is full I'll be holding off on ordering till there is room.

Posting this in case anyone plan to order from there soon. MPC is having payment changes beginning November first. here's the full info here.

UPCOMING PAYMENT CHANGES

We want to give everyone plenty of advance notice. Beginning November 1, we will no longer be accepting payment at delivery for orders. This includes all orders that are picked up at our warehouse, home delivery and route delivery. Orders placed for UPS shipping have always required advance payment. Now, we are making advance payment the only option for all methods of delivery. 

There are several reasons for the change. We are trying to streamline operations to serve you, our valued customers, better. Although we have found fellow raw-feeders to be thoughtful and integral, there have been occasional issues with returned checks and having to track down payments. We also take into great consideration our drivers' safety.

Thank you for your continued patronage and your understanding with this change.

Portioned out the organs from MPC

Yesterday I portioned out Bella's beef, goat spleen and beef pancreas. It was ground up so had to work bit differently compared to whole organ.. I decided to just freeze the portions in containers instead of putting it in ziplock bags as it was too messy to do it that way..

I know some freeze ground organs on cookie sheet or something, but I didn't feel like doing that. Might try that method next time, but so far this looks like OK option..

I mixed the beef pancreas, goat and beef spleen together.. I figured it would be fine long I introduce the mix slowly.

Yesterday Bella got tiny bit of it with her food with her beef tripe supermix, kibble, and a chicken foot. yummy stuff..

Here's how the stuff looks portioned out.. this is weeks worth of it. I plan to introduce it slowly so I'll give it to her little bit each day along with her usual food. Either with her kibble meal, or with her raw meals..

She really liked what she got with her kibble which is good. I plan to do Saya's portion today.

Bella doesn't seem to have issue with having some raw with her kibble. I try to give her a full raw meal two to four times week as dinner and sometimes more if possible, but sometimes something comes up..

Next time I go to the grocery I plan to restock up on some chicken quarters, breasts and some ground meat then she'll be able to get raw for dinner much more often..

I'm pleased with the organs looks good and dogs love them. I'll definitely get more spleen and pancreas when low. for now the 3lbs of other organ should last good bit of time. I just need get some more bone in chicken, boneless meat, some beef and lamb kidneys and some more liver.  I'll be set for good bit.

Plan to order from MPC again.

Thoughts on My pet carnivore

Last Saturday we went to farmers market got some nice veggies and meat for us and I got Saya lb or so of beef stew meat, beef tongue, pork heart, and beef heart. I'm hoping to pick up more beef tongue, kidneys, and hearts to stock up before the market closes.


After dinner we did some running around and then went to the cracker barrel to pick up the my pet carnivore pick up.

There was only one other person who came to pick up she got a pretty big order makes mine. look tiny. haha

It was nice meeting the people who work at MPC very kind and friendly. Came bit early luckily I came early too so they weren't waiting too long.

Items were packed nicely and looks good in quality.

I've only portioned two of the 2lb tripe supermix to make it easier to take out. Still need to thaw and portion the spleen and pancreas.

I just got two tripe super mix,  goat spleen, beef spleen, and beef pancreas for each dog. I figure this makes a nice first order.  Didn't want to go too overboard so wanted it to be something simple and something they'd like.

Saya and Bella had some the next day and they loved it. They had tripe before when I gotten a 1lb of it from hare today.. Saya's portion had bit of honest kitchen mix, tiny bit of oatmeal and blueberries. I don't give Honest kitchen all the time, but sometime mix it with some ground meat, egg or canned fish to make a quick meal.

I like MPC and plan to order more in the future. Currently checking items and deciding what to order next. Coarse will get some tripe supermix, but might try couple different things too.

Both love it and it's nice to get some variety in since not many stores sell pancreas, spleen or green tripe.

First MPC order

Pig foot they got last week

I'm going to make order at mypetcarnivore soon! They have a drop off that is pretty close to my house.

Never ordered from them before and finally got room in freeze. I'm still bit undecided on what to get.

I plan to probably just do small order see how that goes. I plan to do the ground beef tripe supreme would make nice breakfast or part of a meal. Dogs had tripe before and loved it. I like that the supreme has other stuff in it too.

I also plan to get some beef spleen and beef pancreas and probably goat spleen too. nice to add some variety from the other organs.

Yummy

I plan to try Raw paws too they have some nice items that look yummy. Well for a dog that is.

I'm hoping with trying these two places I'll be able to get Bella on more raw. So far she only gets raw as dinner two to four times a week. I also give her bit of either, ground, gizzard, hearts, liver, or egg with her kibble for nice topper.

Bella's my parent's dog, but I take care of her most of the time. She's nice dog and loves people and loves to run. 

pig foot :D

The pig foot I got from farmer's market. I asked the farmer if he could get me some whole to try. He says the processor usually splits them, but he said he'd ask if they could do couple whole for me to try.

Last week I fed them coarse they got some boneless and bit of organ with it. They didn't get to eat the whole foot as it's a lot of bone.

Today Bella gets her half with some liver, ground turkey, beef rocky mountain oyster, and bit of chicken gizzards. Saya will get her's later.

I've never done the co op or MPC type thing before. I've ordered from hare-today which I enjoy their selections.

I think it'll be worth it to order from these two places the items they have are nice almost hard to decide what to get.

Maybe one of the times I'll try picking up a MPC order from their place to check it out.

Honest kitchen preference thoughts

Saya enjoying the sun.

I bought preference while back to try just made kibble topper for Bella and snack for Saya.. I mixed with with home made broth, meat, egg, and stuff. Dogs loved it.

This last week I had Bella on it for her meals to see how she does with it and so far she loves it.

I got ground meat, ground chicken and chicken gizzards for the meat portion and made enough for the week. I kept three days worth out and froze the rest to take out as needed.

She also got a chicken quarter, beef kidney and some chicken heart for dinner one day and today she gets chicken foot, chicken liver, green tripe, and little bit of chicken hearts for dinner.

So far her she likes it and her #2 is good no issues with it.  I gave her egg with breakfast twice a week and added fish oil daily.

Coneflowers

Honest kitchen is taking out alfalfa out of the formulas and with the preference formula they're adding green peas in it's place. With the other formula they're increasing the other ingredients a bit to make up the amount of alfalfa taken out..   Link to information about this.

In kibble side of things..

Bella will be on her second bag of farmina chicken & ancestral grains kibble. Chewy was out of stock so I went with sportdogfood.com. Never ordered from them before, but they look good even has free shopping bag with purchase.

Prices are decent and do have coupons $10 for new customers. free shipping for certain states. Coarse Indiana isn't on it, but the shipping isn't too bad compared to one site I was checking.

The bag of kibble seems to last for very long time since I've been giving more fresh food. Stocked up on some ground beef as it was on good price and bought more chicken quarters. Bella still has plenty liver and kidneys so got some gizzards.

summertime

Hanging in the yard after eating chicken quarter

Haven't really updated the blog much sorry.. :\ Been bit crazy keeping lawn mowed, garden weeded and stuff. plus stupid groundhog found the entrance in the fence to the garden ate up my broccoli, cabbage, and one pea plant luckily the other pea plants are OK.

So far the broccoli is growing back and cabbage is doing so so it is growing back so might get something out of both.

I forgot the day it happened. We were on our morning walk in the field. Bella seemed excited about something following a scent on the trail by the pond. She ran off a little then came back and then ran off again and I saw the ground hog evil little critter.. Bella chased it into the high grass, but left it when I told her too. It whistled at us twice.

I didn't want Bella to pursue it in the high grass as It's pretty thick and hard to see what is going on.

Saya was keen on the noise it was making. I then continued on to the yard, there is a hole that is on the path been there and used by rabbits and stuff I saw some recent activity looked like someone been going in it and got to the garden to see that it had pushed into the entry way of the fence. I thought it was secure enough, but guess not. I now have heavy weights on it. So far no more break ins.

Taken from my phone.. Saya on duty..

Saya has been hanging by the shed a lot before this happened so she must smelled it in the area. Last time we had a groundhog issue it was under there.

So far it hasn't come back to the area I did see it in the second field few days later so maybe it's moved on to try the people close to there. I saw it running off in the trails. Bella was back in first field fooling around so she didn't see it. She did smell it when she got in the area she ran around in the trails and some in the woods to try find it, but she must lost it or lost interest.

Summer has been nice this year some days have been pretty hot and others good. Luckily we have been getting rain once in while so veggies are happy. Saya has been doing well eating good meals, walking, hanging in yard and looking for rodents and rabbits..

Bella has been on the farmina chicken and ancestral grain for while and she seems to be doing better then when she was on Totw. I think she has issue with potatoes as the grain line has no potatoes on ingredients while Totw does.

Bella used to rub her face on the floor daily like it itched badly. Now she only does it once in a blue moon.

I did offer her some cooked mashed potatoes as a small treat with her kibble and sure enough she was rubbing her face..

I haven't given her any cooked potatoes or kibble with it and so far no more rubbing.

I'm glad she is doing better on her new food. She is getting low so I ordered her a bag luckily chewy has it in stock now.

I also ordered a thing of honest kitchen beams to up $ for the free shipping. I saw the review of them on the blog I follow The House of Two Bows. Both Bella and Saya love chews like trachea, tendons, bully sticks and have had salmon skin chews before which they loved.

Will make post with my thoughts on the chews when they come.

Cooking kibble topper..

On April 26th I decided to make some kibble topper for Bella and tiny snack for Saya.

I saved a good bit of random bones a good bit was pork chop bones, pork shoulder bone, a chicken roaster bone, turkey breast bone, and one deer bone. The chicken and turkey is from when we made meal for ourselves it wasn't seasoned so I kept it as it still had bits and pieces of meat on it.

I never use pork chop bones as they're cut and some look pretty sharp. I always have plenty of bone in items so I get pork chops more for boneless items so I remove them. I decided to keep them this time there is nice bit of meat that was bit hard to remove raw..

I decided to boil all the bones in water and once done cooled it down and took a few bones out to get the meat off of them.

I got a good bit of meat off the bones and made nice broth too! I strained it to make sure no cooked bones remained once it was cooled down.

I had gotten a thing of buckwheat groats to cook up. I made them before and dogs got tiny taste and loved it. So I decided to get a thing of it. and used the broth to cook it in after toasting the buckwheat.

Saya stayed here the whole time watching and hoping I'd give her some now, but she had to wait.

Not sure if I make it correctly I follow the directions on the bag, but what I read it should be different.. It could be since I had a lot of broth so it absorbed a lot of it and I did let it cook with the broth for good bit.. Either way the dogs love it and that's all that matters.


I might try different brand next time I can only find arrowhead mill brand at local store. There is another place that sells buckwheat different brand so I might try that first and if it ends same I'll get another. I plan to read up more on how to prepare it better soon.

Dreaming of buckwheat..

I had added four eggs to the buckwheat when I put it in the broth. The dogs love eggs and also added the meat I gotten off the bone to mix in it while cooking. Maybe the addition of eggs is why it looks way it does.

Saya my constant cooking helper..

Next day I seperated the buckwheat in equal portions for Saya in Bella and cooked Bella's portion of deer parts(liver, lung, pancreas, heart) I also cooked up some boneless pork and chicken for bit extra meat.

I chopped the meat into little chunks.

I figured this would make a nice small kibble topper to rotate with the gizzards, ground meat and eggs. I rotate between those each day plus she gets full raw meal two to three times a week for dinner.

Saya's portion of deer stuff I kept raw. Bella's green tripe is raw too. I cut into tiny chunks and froze individually easy to give tiny bit so she'd get used to it. Bella also had half a deer bully stick and she has half of deer trachea and one deer rocky mountain oyster I split it between the two tried to get as even as I could with portions.
 Bella liked he deer pizzle she also had some deer meat it still had bit of deer fur on it, but she didn't mind and ate it.

Meat all cooked up and ready to be mixed

Honest kitchen pre mix

I had ordered a small thing of honest kitchen pre mix. I mixed it was the buckwheat and meat mix.

Also had cooked some blueberies, black raspberries and ground it and left some blueberries whole.

Both Saya and Bella love blue berries and black raspberries so I figured it make nice treat. The black raspberries grow in the field and in edge of woods. Dogs will eat them fresh if I pick and hand them one.

Meat, buckwheat, and fruit all mixed up.

I also added a couple cans of sardines into the mix I rinsed them and just added the fish no water from the can.

I tried to stir the mix as good as I could so meat would be mixed in as even as possible.

I've fed this through out the week and the container I used had pretty good bit of meat, but not too much.

Everything all in containers and ready to be frozen. There is one other container, but it's in the fridge.

I used one of the small containers for first time giving it and gave tiny bit with her kibble meals and increased it tiny bit. So far she done fine with it. I decrease kibble amount when I add this don't want to over feed her since she is at good weight and has some nice muscle.

Saya and Bella was good at cleaning the containers I used to mix it. Saya got one outside she was already outside at that time so figured she can clean in the nice weather. Bella got her's inside.

Saya's portion is same as Bella has buckwheat mixed in with egg, meat from the bones, blueberries, black raspberries, and honest kitchen pre mix. Only difference I didn't cook any deer organs and meat to add to it.

I just give the mix as a small snack just spoon full or two I put her joint supplement and salmon oil and she eats it up. Both Bella's and Saya's portions should last good while.

Saya has had some of her deer and she likes it I gave her a deer liver for her liver meal and she has had tiny pieces of deer tripe and loved it. Once I'm done with giving deer stuff and it's gone I'll have room to get some stuff from local people. Need to get some beef tripe chunks from that one person.

I love trying new things and this was fun making Bella's own kibble topper and she really loves it. Saya thinks it is a great snack to have too. Coarse both dogs love food Saya's favorite meals is quail, sardines and chicken. she also loves lamb too. Anything really. Only thing Bella isn't into is pheasant luckily Saya loves pheasant so she eats it fine.

Yummy whole quail.

This pic taken after eating a whole quail licking her lips after eating her favorite meal. I got 46 left. :D I offer it once or twice a month it provides a nice variety and it's also counted as a bone in meal since it has good bit one bone. She only leaves the feathers on the wings. I can see feathers in her poop and it doesn't seem hurt or bug her either. It's perfect size meal too i usually give a egg or tiny bit of meat for morning meal and pm or lunch time she gets the quail.

Grandma lucy Valor

I never fed grandma lucy before it's like honest kitchen in that it is dehydrated dog food type of thing.

I got a offer for free sample of valor formula from my email I signed up for newsletter long time ago and get stuff from time to time. I chose the fish formula. 

Ingredients look good and smells good too. Only thing is lentils. Main selling point is the Quinoa I guess.

I split it between Bella and Saya Bella gets her's mixed in with her kibble like a kibble topper and Saya gets it alone. She already ate her morning meal and this should be enough. I gave her some gizzards too.

It seems a lot of dog companies are adding lentils, chickpeas, and peas or pea protein to kibble lately.

At least with this it's a new line of food not changing an existing kibble and saying they're improving it..

Saya has a pretty good stomach and does well with pretty much any meal she gets so I don't think it will cause any issues and for Bella it's just a kibble topper for the day. she is also getting a egg with it too.

The stuff comes with a big chunk and few small chunks of fish. Rest of it is ground up pieces of fish. I guess they do it for looks or so owner sees few chunks meat I dunno. It's nice looking though once rehydrated the fish looks like nice piece of fish and it has nice smell to it.

Price wise for the fish is coarse pricey $36.99 for 3lbs and 97.99 for 10lb and the turkey and the chicken formula is $33.99 for 3lbs and 87.99 for 10lb. It's similar to price of honest kitchen though.

Honest kitchen zeal for 4lb is $54.99 and the 10lb is $109.99 zeal is bit more pricey then the grandma lucy valor fish. I'm not sure their prices on other brands haven't really looked.

I've been meaning of trying the grandma lucy food to compare to the honest kitchen. the sample is nice 1.05oz.

I never fed this before so not sure how it is, but the dogs loved it and ate it up. I dunno if the meat is ground up small like with honest kitchen love formula and there is few chunks here and there or what.

I plan to get a small bag soon probably the artisan lamb. If anything it make a nice kibble topper for Bella to rotate with. I usually give her bits of liver, ground meat, gizzards. and a raw meal two to three times week as dinner instead of kibble.

Eventually I plan to hit up on some sources and get Bella on raw for dinner all the time. I can't afford to feed her raw full time feeding 20lb dog I can do, but a 20lb and 58lb no.. Plus she is my parent's dog and feeding kibble in am is easier for them. Which is fine Bella does great having kibble am and kibble toppers and raw as dinner few times week.

Still got stuff in freeze need feed to free up room. Got the deer stuff I got from dad's deer. Saya and Bella love the green tripe of deer! Saya had deer liver for her liver this week. Saya is pig so she isn't too picky.

Her coat is good and she is lean and full of muscles. :) Coarse she is happy too.

She has matured finally no longer acting like a puppy and listening and doing better off leash in the yard which is good. Kinda sad Saya my shiba way better off leash then her a boxer.. Funny how odd of a couple of dogs they are.. Now that Bella is doing better off leash she gets more freedom and hangs in yard with me while we do yard work without needing to be on a long leash.

Boxers mature later I guess takes five years! lol Saya my shiba she acted mature at age of one and half..

Coarse people still think Saya is a husky puppy and freak out then they learn she is five years. She'll be ten and people will still think she is a pup..

Anyways I just learned of Grizzly Pollock oil thanks to blog I follow My rotten dogs.

I've been using Grizzly salmon oil and just recently gotten a bottle. I'm thinking of ordering this pollock oil figure it wouldn't hurt dogs love fish oil. I do think it helps some plus not all of Saya's meat is grass fed.

Still Saya will shed her fur, but I do think the fish oil helps her coat.  A 32oz of pollock oil should last the two good while.

I love showing this picture. haha :) One year I saved all the undercoat she shed from me brushing her! Look how lean she looks without all that!

This year she has a really thick under coat and she is finally shedding a good bit. before it was just tiny bit now I can get a lot of fur off her.

I only saved under coat one time.. I kinda wished I did it for spring shed and fall to compare and see if she sheds more in one season or about the same.. saya is always a pretty fluffy dog. her neck fur makes her neck look a lot bigger then it really is.

This is what Saya looks like after a extremely major coat blow! this pic was taken in Jully 2011.. She hasn't blown her coat like this yet. past ones usual coat blow maybe she is due for major one soon. Today is pretty hot 86F!

Eating a whole quail

Pic from about same time look how lean she looks. :D My vet thought she was a bit overweight, but her thick coat makes her look bit chunky.. She's been about same weight 20 to 22lbs she gains bit in winter, but spring time she loses it so I'm not too concerned.

She is back to 20lbs was 23lb in winter. She tends to want to eat bit more in winter and in warmer times she eats normal amounts. She exercises a ton in winter lots walking and playing in the snow going in the woods and up and down hills..

When she gets bath you can see her body condition better. Can't wait for her to be done shedding and get her spring/summer coat in.

She seems to be handling the hot weather well she seeks shade if needed and drinks. If really hot she'll ask to be let inside the house.

Bella my mom's boxer she handling it well too she takes bit longer to cool off then Saya so Bella gets bit less outdoor time when it's really bad. Being a boxer she doesn't have as long of a nose like Saya does.

We try get in early am and late pm walks and if I do yard work the dogs just hang in the yard till I'm done or they want in.

I love boxers, but I do enjoy shiba inu and other longer nosed breeds more they seem to handle weather change much better. Saya is black coloring still handles hot weather better since she has her longer mouth.

I still love boxers, but spitz breeds are always my favorite. :)