admin answers:

The site GoBlue gave you is good at seeing how foods rate.

You could also look into a raw diet.
Www.bigdogsporch.com
www.rawfed.com/myths
www.rawlearning.com
www.rawmeatybones.com
—————————————————————————–

Avoid anything that contains corn, soy, wheat, menadione, colors, by-products, ethoxyquin, BHT, BHA, and euthanasia drugs.

If price is an issue and you dont like the idea of a raw diet yet, chicken soup for the dog lovers soul, blue buffalo, wellness, and solid gold barking at the moon are a few to look for.

High quality dog foods:(not a complete list)
Evo(grain free)
Artemis-fresh mix and natural 6 mix
Merrick
Orijen(grain free)
Innova
Wellness core(grain free formula)
Timberwolf organics
Taste of the wild
Blue wilderness
Foundations
Mmillennia(solid gold)
PHD Viand

admin answers:

It’s more important to choose a wet food filled with healthy ingredients overall than to worry about ash levels.

Vets used to be concerned with the ash levels in cat foods for cats with FLUTD, but they have learned recently that ash and magnesium levels don’t play a huge role in the developement and treatment of UTI’s.

As far as what you should be feeding…Let me share with you what I have learned about feline nutrition to help you make an informed decision on what diet you should feed your cats.

Many brands of manufactured cat foods claiming to be “healthy” really are not. In fact they are made of the lowest ingredients possible. I’m not saying that a cat can’t live off them… Just the same as you could live off hot dogs and Mac and cheese forever, but better choices can and should be made for your feline friends. I would not venture to say that any manufactured food is “best” for a cat but a grain free organic wet food would be a good start. Feeding canned is certainly better than feeding dry in all cases.

Cats were never meant to eat dry food, also known as cereals or kibble. We, humans, make them eat it for convenience to us. It has nothing to do with them or their nutritional needs. It’s completely species inappropriate.

In the wild, cats derive their entire liquid intake from their prey. They do not have a thirst mechanism because they don’t need it when eating a species appropriate diet. They get all they need from what they eat. So they do not drink water. Regular ol’ house cats have descended from those same wild cats.

So in a home environment, your kitty does not get the moisture it need from dry food and are almost always in a constant state of dehydration. Water fountains are encouraged to TRY to get your cat to drink more and your kitty may even enjoy it. But it will never meet its water intake needs drinking from a bowl.

Deadly feline illnesses such as diabetes, kidney failure, obesity, stones, urinary tract blockages and Urinary Tract Infections (FLUTD), with and without deadly crystals run rampant these days. Cats are not taking in enough water to stave them off. Proper water intake through a species appropriate diet alone can prevent most of these conditions.

Overall, wet is a better all around better for any cats diet, be it canned or Raw and they should never be fed dry cereal kibble if we wish to most closely match their wild nutritional and dietary needs.

Kibble meets our needs… not our cats.

It is also bogus that kibble cleans teeth. DRY FOOD DOES NOT CLEAN TEETH. It’s an old myth that has been scientifically disproved for years, but old-school vets drilled it into people’s heads for so long (and sadly still do) that people still believe it. Cats can not “chew”. They do not have chewing teeth. They have meat ripping pointy carnivorous teeth. They do not have molars. They may “crunch” a piece of food once to crack and break it… but they are absolutely unable to chew a hard piece if food. Want your cat to have clean teeth? Give them an appropriately sized raw bone. :o)

I personally feed a Raw Meat and Bones based diet to my cats and they are very healthy on it. I HIGHLY recommend it. Once I got the hang of it and felt comfortable with it it’s a snap to prepare. It’s something you might want to consider someday. They are obligate carnivores after all and must derive ALL their nutrients from meat based sources. They are unable to absorb them from any other source. Despite thousands of years of domestication they remain strictly carnivorous. True and honest meat eaters and that is what they need most. Protein from meat!

If you are interested in feeding a raw diet some great places to start learning are http: catinfo dot org http://www.catnutrition.org/ , and http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/ .

If you would like to try raw with your cats and don’t want to get all technical about it but want to try a trusted, time tested and balanced raw diet you can order from felinespride dot com/products/catfood.aspx . I purchased this myself hen I first started and my cats loved it!

If raw is not an option for you please be aware that there are three Categories of Pet Foods:

-“Grocery store” foods – (Generic Brands and cheap name brands) Those foods found in grocery stores and mass-market retailers are made with lower-quality, less-digestible, inexpensive ingredients and are therefore a cheaper alternative. While easy on the pocketbook, “grocery store” foods normally do not provide your cat with the healthiest, most nutrient-dense ingredients.

-Premium foods – (Iams/Eukanuba, Purina One, Hills Science Diet, Nutro and such) Foods often found in grocery stores, pet stores, and veterinarian offices that contain higher-grade ingredients, but still include many elements of “grocery store” food, such as artificial colors, artificial flavors, chemical preservatives, and “filler” ingredients such as corn and wheat products, by-products and even animal digest. Yuck! Premium foods are usually more expensive than “grocery store” foods because their ingredients are sometimes of a higher quality, and are therefore somewhat more beneficial and digestible. But don’t be fooled, some of those same so called Premium brands are sometimes worse than grocery store foods, but they charge prices like they are better. They aren’t!

-Healthy foods – (Wellness, Merrick, Eagle Pack, Drs Foster & Smith) The newest addition to the pet food market – provide pets with the highest quality, healthiest, and most nutritious ingredients. They are typically available for purchase online or direct from the manufacturer. Some better retailers are starting to carry them now. Complete Petmart carries a few healthy brand foods. Foods in the Healthy class contain nutrient-rich ingredients. Formulated to provide optimum health benefits for pets, these foods often use real meat as the primary protein source, carbohydrate-rich whole grains like brown rice and barley and whole, fresh fruits and vegetables. They should not contain artificial preservatives, flavors, or colors. They will almost always be fortified with additional vitamins and minerals, and will use the best natural sources for fatty acids to help build healthy skin and a beautiful coat. Because healthy foods use high quality ingredients, you should expect to pay a little more than you would for other types of pet food. Remember, though, with healthy foods you can feed less since healthy foods are more nutrient-dense than other types of food so it often evens out or cost’s les than feeding foods filled with cheap non-nutritional by-products fillers.

With all that information in mind, when you are choosing a new cat food, study the ingredients. All ingredients on pet food labels are listed by weight. Meaning whatever ingredients are listed first on the list, there is more in there. The first ingredients listed should be whole meat ingredients, protein sources, such as Chicken or Turkey. NOT just the word “meat”! Who the heck knows what that is? The word Chicken Meal is ok, but it should be a secondary ingredient, not first. Meal is the meat dehydrated and ground into a powder.

The ingredients also should NOT include any by-products or animal digest whatsoever. Those are disgusting left over animal parts that are scraped off the filthy floors of meat and poultry plants. They should just go into the trash but they put them into pet food instead. EW!!!!

Also make sure there are no artificial colors or flavors. And make sure there is no BHA and BHT used preservatives. These preservatives have been shown to cause cancer in both cats and dogs. Bad Bad stuff and it’s in almost every cat treat on the market. 🙁

So, in summery of the ingredients… if you see the words by-products, Animal Digest, the word “meat” alone, Corn, Corn Gluten, Wheat Gluten, or BHA or BHT… stop reading, put down that product and move on to the next.

Be aware that when switching to a Healthy, Holistic or Organic food, you will pay for what you get. Good foods are not cheap. They are pricey and will cost you on a per bag basis much more. Just like steak costs more than hotdogs. But again, you will be feeding a better food and improving the over all health of your pet. This in turn leads to less vet visits for illness now and more importantly later in life in their geriatric years. You will also feed less of this food on a per animal basis because a smaller amount of food contains what your cat needs. Overall healthy foods are well worth it, if only for the piece of mind that the ingredients are better for your cat than cheap crap.

You can start your research for a healthy cat food here if you are not ready to try feeding a Raw diet:
onlynaturalpet dot com

If you want to buy in a store, Complete Petmart is a good store and carries quite a few natural, organic, and holistic blends. Also check with your local feed/grain stores.

I highly recommend you take the time to research for yourself, but the information I have given should get you off to a good start. Good luck choosing a new healthy food!

********IMPORTANT*******Don’t forget to switch your Pets food slowly over a period of 10 to 14 days, if you can. Mixing 25% new to 75% old. Then 50/50… then 75% new to 25% old. And finally switch over to 100% new. Take it slow as not to upset their digestive system.

Side note… Please don’t feed Iams / Eukanuba. It’s ALL fillers, byproducts, animal digest and CRAP. Read the ingredients! There is nothing good for your cat in that food. Not to mention they conduct the most appalling animal testing you have ever seen. .iamscruelty dot to see the terror they create.

admin answers:

I’m glad you’re looking into why certain foods are bad or good.

It is true that many many brands of manufactured cat foods claiming to be “healthy” really are not. In fact they are made of the lowest ingredients possible.

I’m not saying that a cat can’t live off them… Just the same as you could live off hot dogs forever, but better choices can and should be made.

I would not venture to say that any manufactured food is “best” for a cat but a grain free organic food would be good. And canned is certainly better than Dry in all cases.

I personally feed a Raw Meat and Bones based diet to my cats and they are very healthy on it. I HIGHLY recommend it. Once I got the hang of it and felt comfortable with it it’s a snap to prepare. It’s something you might want to consider someday. They are obligate carnivores after all and must derive ALL their nutrients from meat based sources. They are unable to absorb them from any other source. Despite thousands of years of domestication they remain strictly carnivorous. True and honest meat eaters and that is what they need most. Protein from meat!

If raw is not an option for you be aware that there are three Categories of Pet Foods:

-“Grocery store” foods – (Generic Brands and cheap name brands) Those foods found in grocery stores and mass-market retailers are made with lower-quality, less-digestible, inexpensive ingredients and are therefore a cheaper alternative. While easy on the pocketbook, “grocery store” foods normally do not provide your cat with the healthiest, most nutrient-dense ingredients.

-Premium foods – (Iams/Eukanuba, Purina One, Hills Science Diet, Nutro and such) Foods often found in grocery stores, pet stores, and veterinarian offices that contain higher-grade ingredients, but still include many elements of “grocery store” food, such as artificial colors, artificial flavors, chemical preservatives, and “filler” ingredients such as corn and wheat products, by-products and even animal digest. Yuck! Premium foods are usually more expensive than “grocery store” foods because their ingredients are sometimes of a higher quality, and are therefore somewhat more beneficial and digestible. But don’t be fooled, some of those same so called Premium brands are sometimes worse than grocery store foods, but they charge prices like they are better. They aren’t!

-Healthy foods – (Wellness, Eagle Pack, Drs Foster and Smith) The newest addition to the pet food market – provide pets with the highest quality, healthiest, and most nutritious ingredients. They are typically available for purchase online or direct from the manufacturer. Some better retailers are starting to carry them now. Complete Petmart carries a few healthy brand foods. Foods in the Healthy class – contain nutrient-rich ingredients. Formulated to provide optimum health benefits for pets, these foods often use real meat as the primary protein source, carbohydrate-rich whole grains like brown rice and barley and whole, fresh fruits and vegetables. They should not contain artificial preservatives, flavors, or colors. They will almost always be fortified with additional vitamins and minerals, and will use the best natural sources for fatty acids to help build healthy skin and a beautiful coat. Because healthy foods use high quality ingredients, you should expect to pay a little more than you would for other types of pet food. Remember, though, with healthy foods you can feed less since healthy foods are more nutrient-dense than other types of food so it often evens out or cost’s les than feeding foods filled with cheap non-nutritional by-products fillers.

With all that information in mind, when you are choosing a new cat food, study the ingredients. All ingredients on pet food labels are listed by weight. Meaning whatever ingredients are listed first on the list, there is more in there. The first ingredients listed should be whole meat ingredients, protein sources, such as Chicken or Turkey. NOT just the word “meat”! Who the heck knows what that is? The word Chicken Meal is ok, but it should be a secondary ingredient, not first. Meal is the meat dehydrated and ground into a powder.

The ingredients also should NOT include any by-products or animal digest whatsoever. Those are disgusting left over animal parts that are scraped off the filthy floors of meat and poultry plants. They should just go into the trash but they put them into pet food instead. EW!!!!

Also make sure there are no artificial colors or flavors. And make sure there is no BHA and BHT used preservatives. These preservatives have been shown to cause cancer in both cats and dogs. Bad Bad stuff and it’s in almost every cat treat on the market. 🙁

So, in summery of the ingredients… if you see the words by-products, Animal Digest, the word “meat” alone, Corn, Corn Gluten, Wheat Gluten, or BHA or BHT… stop reading, put down that product and move on to the next.

Be aware that when switching to a Healthy, Holistic or Organic food, you will pay for what you get. Good foods are not cheap. They are pricey and will cost you on a per bag basis much more. Just like steak costs more than hotdogs. But again, you will be feeding a better food and improving the over all health of your pet. Which in turn leads to less vet visits for illness now and more importantly later in life in their Geriatric years. You will also feed less of this food on a per animal basis because a smaller amount of food contains what your cat needs. Overall healthy foods are well worth it, if only for the piece of mind that the ingredients are better for your cat than cheap crap.

You can start your search here if you are not ready to try feeding a Raw diet:

http://www.onlynaturalpet.com

If you want to buy in a store, Complete Petmart is a good store and carries quite a few natural, organic, and holistic blends. Also check with your local feed stores. Old Mother Hubbard Wellness Brand is a great holistic food I feed. As is Eagle Pack Dry Cat food. Merrick canned is also a great source of nutrition and they will be coming out with a dry line this summer.

I highly recommend people take the time to research for themselves, but the information I have given should get you off to a good start. Good luck choosing a new food for your cats!

********IMPORTANT*******Don’t forget to switch your Pets food slowly over a period of 10 to 14 days, if you can. Mixing 25% new to 75% old. Then 50/50… then 75% new to 25% old. And finally switch over to 100% new. Take it slow as not to upset their digestive system.

Side note… Please don’t feed Iams / Eukanuba. It’s ALL fillers, byproducts, animal digest and CRAP. Read the ingredients! There is nothing good for your cat in that food. Not to mention they conduct the most appalling animal testing you have ever seen. Http://www.iamscruelty.com to see the terror they create.

Foods I can recommend based on personal experience –

Drs. F&S Food Link – http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/NavResults.cfm?N=2002+6000

Wellness Food Link – http://www.oldmotherhubbard.com/wellness/cat_index.html

Eagle Pack Holistic Select – http://www.eaglepack.com/Pages/HS_Home.html

Merrick Foods: http://www.merrickpetcare.com/

You can find more great foods at http://www.onlynaturalpet.com

****DO NOT FEED IAMS!**** http://www.iamscruelty.com

admin answers:

Over the years my life has been saved several times by my dogs.

Once in the late 80’s I had a seizure while sitting on the edge of a bridge overlooking the Colorado river while it was in spring flood. I fell in unconscious. The chesapeake bay retriever I had at the time leaped in after me and dragged me out. She was a trained service dog for mobility and hearing. Never had been trained for any kind of water rescue..

Another time that summer the same dog rescued my little sister who was about 4 . She had decided to sneak onto a little raft and ended up floating downriver. I was fishing downriver a quite ways and saw her upstream floating down, So sent the dog for her as I threw down my fishing gear. My sister thought it was a great game so had not panicked and she trusted the dog . So the dog got her out by grabbing the little raft by the end carefully and fetching her in . My mother was running downstream across the boulders screaming thinking she had just LOST her child. Guess she thought the dog was going to puncture the raft .
She was blown away when she saw the dog save my little sister.
My sister wanted to play that game again.. My mother promptly dragged the little urchin home.

Another of my chessie service dogs around 2000 saved me from getting killed in a crosswalk by some idiot racing through a red light. She pushed me back out of the way but the bumper just clipped her jaw. She broke a few teeth and her jaw was cracked. She did not even let me know she got hurt until I got across the street and back to my truck. .

But there are so many stories of what these working dogs have done over the years to save my life or limb it would take a while to write it all.

admin answers:

HELLO are you there???????? You tell us that she just had puppies. Then you moved with her, you changed her food, are taking the pups away for hours at a time…. She is stressed out and afraid. If your dog feels insecure she can act out. This dog needs structure, and to stay with her pups for awhile to assure her everything is okay. She may think the pups are at the old home, and is trying to get out to go find them. Dogs don’t have an idea of how far away the old place is, they just know they want to go where they felt safe. If she did just whelp, then her hormones are also in flux, and she is just out of her mind with worry and stress. It is a bad idea to change EVERYTHING in a dogs life at one time….. I think you will have to work very hard to show her she is safe, her pups are safe, and get back to a routine with her as soon as possible. Dogs thrive on routine, LIke, the same eating time, same walking time, same place to sleep , etc. It may be a long road, for her to feel relaxed again. If she is vomiting you should go to the vet and have her checked out right away, there are many things associated with having puppies, that can cause a dog to get ill or die.

admin answers:

Yes when I travelled by steam train from London to Carlisle when I was a wee Lassie.

The coaches of the train had separate compartments and each had 6 seats either side. All the seats had little white covers on the headrest and there were blinds to pull down when it was dark outside.

The outside of each compartment had a corridor running the length of the each coach. This was good as you could go down the whole length of the train by running along these corridors apart from the 1st class coaches, which in those days were always situated at the front of the train.

If the guard stopped you running along these corridors you would say you were going to find a toilet. When the train was full up people used to stand in the corridors or sit on their leather suitcases reading books or reading their newspapers.

Steam trains made a different noise from that of the electric and deisel trains of today. They used to rock from side to side and the whilstle used blow when the train went under a tunnel it was all so very exciting.

There is a poem recalling a train journey which might sound naff but it just brought the whole experience of travelling on s steam train to life. I can’t remember the name of this poem but nodoubt someone will remember.

Nostalgia you can’t beat it.

This the poem I was talking about, It has to spoke with the rythm
that a train makes when moving across points and tracks:

Night Mail

This is the Night Mail crossing the border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner and the girl next door.
Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient’s against her, but she’s on time.
Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder
Shovelling white steam over her shoulder,
Snorting noisily as she passes
Silent miles of wind-bent grasses.

Birds turn their heads as she approaches,
Stare from the bushes at her blank-faced coaches.
Sheep-dogs cannot turn her course;
They slumber on with paws across.
In the farm she passes no one wakes,
But a jug in the bedroom gently shakes.

Dawn freshens, the climb is done.
Down towards Glasgow she descends
Towards the steam tugs yelping down the glade of cranes,
Towards the fields of apparatus, the furnaces
Set on the dark plain like gigantic chessmen.
All Scotland waits for her:
In the dark glens, beside the pale-green sea lochs
Men long for news.

Letters of thanks, letters from banks,
Letters of joy from the girl and the boy,
Receipted bills and invitations
To inspect new stock or visit relations,
And applications for situations
And timid lovers’ declarations
And gossip, gossip from all the nations,
News circumstantial, news financial,
Letters with holiday snaps to enlarge in,
Letters with faces scrawled in the margin,
Letters from uncles, cousins, and aunts,
Letters to Scotland from the South of France,
Letters of condolence to Highlands and Lowlands
Notes from overseas to Hebrides
Written on paper of every hue,
The pink, the violet, the white and the blue,
The chatty, the catty, the boring, adoring,
The cold and official and the heart’s outpouring,
Clever, stupid, short and long,
The typed and the printed and the spelt all wrong.

Thousands are still asleep
Dreaming of terrifying monsters,
Or of friendly tea beside the band at Cranston’s or Crawford’s:
Asleep in working Glasgow, asleep in well-set Edinburgh,
Asleep in granite Aberdeen,
They continue their dreams,
And shall wake soon and long for letters,
And none will hear the postman’s knock
Without a quickening of the heart,
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?

(W H Auden)

This was derived from two conflicting “internet” sources. Thanks to Peter Ceresole for providing a reconciliation based on the original film, for me the definitive version. (2001-06-27)