Things I have Learned Being a Pet Owner For 4 Years

 

It’s been 4 years since we brought our mischievous puppy home, and haven’t those years been full of fun and mischief. 

Lux, our now 4 and a bit year old Dalmatian is always keeping us on our toes.

Thankfully his destructive days have fallen into the past tense, but his running away days will happen as soon as he is provided with an opportunity.

It was just the other month that I mistakenly left the gate open and unleashed Lux on the general public, I was in the middle of a field half an hour into a 12k stroll when I got the call to say ‘your dog has escaped’.

Thankfully he was commandeered by the post man who was then spotted by my Dad, and he was safely returned home. I was very thankful that he didn’t get hit by a car, but I knew that one way or another he would cost me at the vets as a result... After a week of Lux throwing up I took him to the vets for a once over. £65 later and he seemed to be on the mend again.

I guess you could say, that you really do know you have our big bundle of puppy, and that statement can equally be applied to the garden...

Dalmatian’s as a breed have a gene mutation that means that causes high levels of Uric Acid, this can cause the breed to form crystals and/or bladder stones... but it also means that these beautiful dogs can really kill a lawn with their urine!

There have been many times that I have considered ripping up the lawn and laying some Cheap Artificial Grass instead. I always notice that the lawn does back quicker over the winter months and leaves nothing but mud in its wake, of course when spring rolls around I can be found hastily throwing grass seed down in the hopes of rejuvenating some life into the turf before summer rolls around.

I was fully aware of the gene mutation in the breed before we committed to a Dalmatian, this has meant that I can work with Lux and make sure that we keep him healthy by feeding a low purine diet. 

Purines are found in many different types of food, but there are certain food groups that boast higher levels. It is due to this that we have primarily fed Lux a raw diet that consists of chicken thighs, eggs, meaty bones and vegetables. These are all foods that keep his purine levels low, and ultimately help us to keep him stone free!

We float his meals with water so that we can keep flushing him through (I know... the poor lawn!), but it also means we need to avoid the food groups with higher purine levels, which unfortunately for Lux means absolutely no offal! 

It is also due to this that we decided against using kibble dog food, opting to construct his diet ourselves. 

You could say the last 4 years have been a learning curve, and you wouldn’t be mistaken! I have learned that it's not just the parts of having a dog you know will cost you money... You also have to budget for the things that will unexpectedly come your way.

For me this has come in the form of having to upgrade my hoover to something that can handle the amounts of dog hair that drop out of Lux on a daily basis (365 days a year!), and in those puppy days... Replacing the kitchen floor and patching up the wall he decided to eat!

Every so often Lx likes to do something that we aren't expecting, you know... Just to remind us that he still can be destructive if he so chooses to be... I learned a long time ago to never leave ANYTHING on the kitchen worktops when we go out without him...

As mischievous as Lux is, he is equally as loving, and although life would be a lot quieter if we hadn’t brought him home, our lives and hearts certainly wouldn’t be as full.

Disclaimer: This is a featured post

Raw Food for Dalmatians

July and August are two very expensive months in this household this year. It seems that everything always happens together, and as I prepare for a move that should begin to happen next week, I have suddenly realised that my car tax is about to expire and I have that on my plate too. If a move and a rather expensive car tax in the region of £300 for the year are not enough to contend with, you may have also seen that I am finally getting the puppy of my dreams.

I have wanted a dog for as long as I can remember, right from a young girl, my own dog has always stolen the top spot on my Christmas list, but it was never going to happen because my family have always had cats. I swore to myself that one day, when I was in a position to take on a puppy, then that is exactly what I was going to do. 

As with anything puppies and dogs are not cheap, they come with a price tag that extends far past the initial cost of buying a puppy. Puppies need their jabs, they need microchipping, they need defleaing and deworming on a monthly basis, and they need to eat multiple times a day. Taking on a dog is not a cheap thing to do, but oh my is it worth it. I am not sparing any expense when it comes to making sure this pup has everything he needs, and I am considering cash lender Vivus to pay the annual pet insurance off in one lump sum.

We pick Lux up on the 6th August and I cannot wait to bring him home. We have picked a Dalmatian Puppy, and that alone has caused some people to think I am crazy (more so than usual). Dalmatians have an array of health issues, some that can be levitated by the diet that they eat, other's such as deafness which of course is a life long commitment.

I have spent the last few months researching the Dalmatian breed, and when I say researching I mean extensive. I know what I am taking on, one of the ways in which I am demonstrating this knowledge is by making the executive decision to stay well away from manufactured dog food. The reasoning behind this is because I need to provide little Lux with a low purine diet, since it is the purines that have the potential to make him sick. 

You see Dalmatians carry a genetic mutation that alters the way in which they metabolize and pass purines (Similar to gout). Purines are found in many foods, food that we all eat, but higher levels of purines are found in meats. Normally purines are broken down in this way: 

1. Purines are converted to hypoxanthine.
2. Hypoxanthine is converted to xanthine.
3. Xanthine is converted to uric acid.
4. Uric acid is converted to allantoin, which is excreted in the urine.

When some humans ingest foods high in purines, they develop gout or kidney stones. When some Dalmatians ingest those foods, they develop urinary stones and in particular those known as "purine" or "urate" stones.

It is safe to say that the majority of the Dalmatian breed cannot perform step 4, which is exactly why their urine contains very high levels of uric acid. This might be enough to scare some people away from this beautiful breed, but I believe it is all about balance. I will be feeding Lux a range of home cooked meals that will all be lower in purines and high in protein. Some people seem to get confused and think that they need to withhold protein, but that couldn't be further from the truth. In fact refraining from including protein in their diet will do more damage than it will good. It's all about making conscious choices and opting for protein sources with lower purine content like chicken or turkey as opposed to liver and organ meats.

My aim is to essentially provide Lux with a clean eating diet for dogs, many people have opted to avoid the manufactured dog products for their Dalmatians, with the majority opting for a raw food diet that consists of raw meat. Now although I am going with this, I wont be letting Lux eat raw meat, I will prepare it and cool it so that I know it's cooked through for him. The meals will be consist of many things you don't usually associate with feeding dogs:

- Eggs - Hard boiled, scrambled

- Porridge

- Weetabix 

- Tuna

- Turkey

- Chicken

- Vegetables - Broccolli, Sweet Potato, Potato, Carrot

- Fruit - Apple

It might all sound crazy, but realistically I think it's going to be really beneficial. You can of course buy specially made food for your Dalmatian but I fail to see the point, when you can provide everything you need without throwing all that money at a food that could be made out of pretty much anything. 

So that's my latest mission, clean eating for dog's! I might not be able to get my 5 year old to eat vegetables, but I don't think getting Lux to play ball is going to be to difficult.

I'll be sharing his eating with you all in the next month or so, and you can witness first hand how he is getting on!