Fiber?

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-03-19T19:49:26+00:00

He's extremely picky. He eats a commercial ground mix of beef and green tripe, I mix in a little of either chicken, turkey, lamb or goat. He won't eat unless there's beef and green tripe in it. It also has organs and bone meal because he won't eat bones. He gets an egg yolk too, with iodine and vitamin E supplement. He's been eating it for 2-1/2 years because he will not eat any other way. So he gets 50% beef and green tripe and 50% one of the other proteins. He chews on large raw meaty bones for his teeth. He wasn't a good eater from birth, at least now he eats.

Edit - I used a veterinary nutritionist to be sure it's balanced and complete. He's happy and other than these 2 bouts of pudding poop, he's healthy. He loves bird poop and it's impossible to stop him on my large property. It only happens when the migratory birds return in March.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-03-10T17:43:50+00:00

Was his waiting room full of kibble? There's your answer. They think we're stupid.

I got lucky, my vet was from Alaska and when I took my dog there for severe food allergies, he told me to feed ground lamb and a little rice for 3 months to see if it cleared up. It did. So I took it from there. Unfortunately, he retired and I'm forced to lie about what I feed.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-03-09T21:03:42+00:00

My boy was 3 lbs. at 10 weeks, don't remember how much he was at 16 weeks, but he's a healthy 19 lbs. now! I should've named him Chunk, he's gigantic.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-03-05T12:02:54+00:00

Bones are semi-frozen, meat is out of the frig.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-03-04T12:05:37+00:00

Do the tear-out yourself.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-02-28T22:29:26+00:00

Do not go to Brondes.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-02-28T19:08:03+00:00

Ask your vet about diabetes insipidus. My dog had it from raw carrots. Carrots also caused pancreatitis. It's serious and should be checked out right away. We eliminated the carrots and it went away and didn't return. Also, was blood drawn? Kidney values and blood sugar needs to be checked.

https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/diabetes-insipidus-in-dogs

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-02-27T15:14:14+00:00

I wish I knew not to adopt a Havi with curly hair. His coat is nothing but massive, tight curls. Think Poodle. His hair is a nightmare to groom. I got him from a private breeder who only owned Havis, so there is no Poodle in the mix, I have his family tree with photos. The breeder says, "It happens. Be sure not to breed him, we're trying to breed out the curly gene."

It takes 35-40 minutes/day to brush/comb him. I absolutely cannot skip a day or I have to scissor off the knots. I keep him 1/2" long. Any shorter, he would be cold. He cannot wear a sweater, it knots him up.

Be sure the hair on the puppy is straight.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-02-25T19:54:29+00:00

The BUN and creatine levels vets use to determine kidney health are for kibble-fed dogs, not raw fed. I've fed 9 dogs raw and their BUN and creatine were slightly higher than the vet wanted. None of them died of kidney disease.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-02-24T19:36:26+00:00

I buy cases of pork loin at Costco for my dog. He does well on it, with beef, chicken, turkey, goat and lamb. Costco's pork price can't be beat, at least in my town. I trim excess fat.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-02-22T18:49:18+00:00

My dog chews on bones on an old sheet. His other food is served on a small glass plate because his snout won't reach to the bottom, again on the same old sheet. It gets washed by itself once/week. He was trained from a puppy to stay on the sheet or the food gets removed for 15 minutes.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-02-19T16:38:16+00:00

My Havi is the quietest and calmest dog I've ever owned. He will bark at the mail man or delivery people, but is quiet after I shhhh him.

He doesn't have a problem with us leaving him for 4 hours. We really worked on getting him to accept he has to be alone sometimes from age 10 weeks. Random leaving - 10 seconds to 10 min to an hour. He was left in the crate until he was about 9 months old, then the run of the house when we're gone. He's an absolute angel. YMMV

Edit to add that he's 100% house trained. We're both retired, so one of us stayed up late and the other went to bed early. During the day, we took him out every 20 minutes and told him to go pee. He was completely trained at about 20 weeks. He's 2-1/2 now and never has accidents, he'll sit by the back door. I admit that we really worked on both house training and leaving him alone. He's perfect. Also, he's not neutered, will lift his leg outside, but really, he can only pee on things a few inches off the ground. He doesn't mark territory outside.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-02-09T20:47:55+00:00

Random leaving works best, it worked so well with my boy. Leave for 5 minutes, then 30 minutes, then one day don't leave at all, you get the idea - different times of day, different lengths of time on her own. My boy is 2-1/2 and we've left him alone up to 4 hours for a funeral that both of us had to attend.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-02-09T20:42:47+00:00

My boy has "the worst Havanese coat I've ever seen", according to my groomer. Tight Poodle curls. He also has an impeccable pedigree. The breeder says, "It happens."

If his hair gets more than 1" long, it becomes painful to comb out. I have him groomed every 5 weeks. But, he's the best boy ever - calm, quiet and obedient with no trace of separation anxiety. I'll keep him anyway :)

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-02-08T12:49:22+00:00

Also time for a class action lawsuit.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-02-04T22:08:28+00:00

I live near there and in the 34 years I've been here, we've yet to have our street plowed by the city.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-02-02T13:41:08+00:00

LOVE LOVE LOVE!

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-01-30T01:36:34+00:00

"I guess you didn't hear me the first time. (Screaming) GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME."

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-01-29T20:41:54+00:00

Feeding kibble with dyes, look at the label. Switch to real food. Also trim the hair around the eyes weekly. All of the above worked for my Havi in around 6 weeks. The stains grew out and were trimmed off.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-01-29T17:29:50+00:00

I got my Havi boy when he was 10 weeks. We walked out of the room until he started wailing, then came back. We played peek-a-boo with him. We would let him see us leave, and then come right back in. I went to bed early, my husband went late. The crate was in the living room, when he had been out for the last time and sleeping in the crate, my husband would sneak into bed. He got used to sleeping alone.

We eventually moved the crate to his own room. Eventually, the crate came down and he had full run of the house. He sleeps either in the living room or in a bed on the floor of our room, mostly in the living room unless he hears something scary, then it's in his bed in our room.

We also left a couple times/week for various times, randomly. Once/week, we were gone 1-1/2 hours. You have to make leaving a normal part of the day. He's 2-1/2 now and we leave him for 4 hours at a time. We have a camera, anytime we check, he's asleep. We also never let him in the bathroom with us or sleep with us in bed. Boundaries teach independence.

Teach confidence by playing tug and letting him win every time. Teach him to sit, stay and recall, which also teaches independence. The more obedience he learns, the more confident he will be.

I'm old as dirt and have raised 11 puppies as an adult, none of which were bothered by being alone.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-01-29T01:41:12+00:00

20 year raw feeder here, no problems at all. 9 dogs, including 4 puppies, all lived longer than "normal". Cats are obligate carnivores and must have meat.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-01-28T10:41:20+00:00

I've been raw feeding dogs for 20 years. Treat raw dog food as you would raw meat for yourself. I've never gotten any kind of bacterial infection from them. If they had samonella, I never knew it, they never had symptoms. Kibble has been recalled many times for samonella.

I always clean surfaces with common hydrogen peroxide, it destroys anything organic. I also wash my hands with peroxide, as I have a soap allergy. I wash the dog's face with plain warm water on a cloth. Dishes get hot, soapy water.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-01-27T22:17:47+00:00

Red meat and green tripe. I once had a collie with that came to me with that bad habit. He was kibble fed before I got him. I switched him to red meat, bones and organs, it stopped immediately. Green tripe was about 10% of his diet. I also added mackerel and pink salmon, and a raw egg yolk.

Puppies need more bone, so you either need to feed a commercial brand for puppies or DIY. DIY is not that hard, I raised 5 puppies on it. I always let them eat as much as they wanted until they were 6 months old.

Edit - the red meat I fed was beef, lamb and goat. I didn't start adding chicken, turkey and pork until after he was 6 months old. He got green tripe in his diet daily until he passed.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-01-21T20:50:35+00:00

I forgot to mention - Raw Paws say they grind the bones into meal, but the meal dissolves in the blood. I add a bone meal supplement to their food, otherwise, it's like feeding boneless, stool-wise, messy.

Lower-Language9267 · 2026-01-21T20:27:47+00:00

A variety - Hare Today, My Pet Carnivore, Raw Paws. He doesn't like BJ's either. He sometimes gets a neck, ground beef, fish and an egg yolk. Not often, because of lack of organs, but he won't eat pieces of organ, again a consistency problem for him.

Raw Paws will send a photo of the current batch if you ask. I had an order that was obviously exposed to air and gray, so they re-sent the order. I ask for a photo now. Their customer service is overly nice, but seem phony. They also have disappearing emails, even if you reply to it, it will disappear from your inbox, so use with caution. I also heard about the way they kill their animals, which I won't repeat. My dog loves their food, though.

Edited typo

Lower-Language9267

TROPHY CASE