Pink Fox: its Raining...IN MY HOUSE! :/

pinkfox

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me too...people say im silly...but the way i figure it is it gives them some variance and since i nly used what i can get realy cheap it savs me a little money every month on the feed bill, they get some puppy stew every morning and eat a little less of the dry food because of it (and with dozer gaining 3lbs a week were going through alot more dry food now LOL.)

the last batch i did was 2 cups of white rice and about 1 1/4lbs of chicken with 1 whole sweet potatoe and some mixed frozen veg (carrots, greenbeans and peas) and garlic and its lasted 2 weeks.

this weeks batch is a little move involved.
2 cups of brown rice, 1 1/2lbs of chicken, 1lb of chicken gizzards, 2 sweet potatoes, mixed forzen veg broccoli and cauliflower and garlic. im hoping to mabe get 3 weeks out of this batch and if so i might try to stretch it even further next batch with more gizzards and mabe chicken livers.

so the chicken and gizzards are boiled, veggies are blanching and the rice is cooking for the dogs mix.
my "lime fiesta" chicken is in the crock pot, and im finnishing up lunch...feel like i at least have accomplished something.
rain has stopped for now at least but its too soggy to do anythign outside.

the neighbor hadned me 2 bags of bulbs this morning. some daffodils and some tulips...said he bought them at the end of last season but doesnt want to fuss with them now..., theyve all started with shoots so there alive...despite being "fall bulbs" i can plant them now...right?! they might now grow much or flower this year but it wont do them any damage to put them in the ground as soon as its workable again?...the neighbors daffs are all floweing now....its pretty.

but yeah thats been my morning so far.
Tempi didnt come home last night and hasnt come home yet...i hate when she goes galavanting...worries me when she doesnt come home but shes probably hunkered down somewhere on account of the rain...and laughing about how she knows ill be worried lol. but still GRR arg!
and yeah thats about all there is to report right now.
 

SSDreamin

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Pink,
Do you have to put veggies and garlic in the food mix? I have been tossing around the idea of making food for part of our dogs daily 'rations' but I'm not sure what needs to go in and why? Our horse, I mean dog, is a 92# German Shepard puppy - he still has one more year of growing to go! Any dry food we give just doesn't seem to stick with him but, when I've 'modified' leftover venison scraps for him, he stays full and happy for quite a while. Just curious.
 

pinkfox

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nope, veggies are not nessicary for a suplimental/treat feeding.
dogs are carnivores by classification and cant digest "normal" plant matter...
their can make use of greens (ie veggies) if theyve been cooked, or "partially pre-digested" (ie in the form of green tripe or in the form of all wizzed together in a blender...)
but because thier bodies arnt evolved to digest raw veggies i personally dont feel they truly NEED them if being fed an otherwise balanced diet.
My dogs however do like carrots and peas and green beans and a bag of frozen mixed veg is under $1 at walmart and bulks it out a little :)
that being said the gains (rice) arnt nessicary either but again, it bulks it out.

as a treat/supliment i feel you can mix whatever you want (asuming dog safe) into it, making sure its mostly meat of some kind...
if i were feeding this as a main food source id be putting alot more thought into balance.
as a main meal it would need more meat, organs and bone, less grain and veggies would be deterimend by if i was willing to feed green tripe or not. they do nd some vegatable matter as part of thie rmain diet, but it has to be in a "natural form" so green tripe is the best way, if thats not doable cooked or "veggie mush", or simply a good multi vit...
but again thats only if this was to be a "main diet"

i add the garlic simply because it supposedly helps keps fleas at bay and in small amounts it has lots of health benefits ust like in people.

generally when i make mine i add garlic powder to the water im cooking my chicken in, boil the diced/ground meat and then i use the water/broth from that to cook the rice in, so the rice ends up taking in most of the garlic/chicken nutrients.
once the rice is cooked i fluff then add a good drizzle of good olive oil and mix it well, helps keep the rice from stickign and makes a heck of adifference to the coat :)
flax would work too...
they love it :)


the general rule of thumb for dogs is they are carnivoers (some will tell you there not because they do eat veggies, but the fact of the matter is dogs ARE carnivores but unlike cats they are not obligate carnvores, meansing they can digest some plant matter under the right circumstances. in nature dogs would only eat grass/grain/vegatables that are left in the intestine of the prey animal...
dogs in the wild however will occasionally graze on ripe berries, fruits ect. this doesnt make them omnivores because they couldnt survive soley on those items...but they can and do enjoy them.

if you were feeding 100% home made food youll get lots op opinions on ratios...most sites say 40% meat, 30% grain and 30% veg...
now for a suplimental feed id say this is fine...and for a "general feed" it would be ok too...(its pretty much the ratio most good dog foods stick to)

however ideally a true balanced diet it would be more like 90% "meat" and 10% veggies...and of that 90% meat it should be about 10% organ meat (kidney, liver ect) 10% bone and 80% muscle meat and the veggies would be "pre-digested" (so partially cooked, ground/mushed or green tripe)

raw is even better, but i dont suggest mixing raw meat with kibble/cooked meals, they digest at different rates...

right now my mix is Meat/grain/veg about 40/30/30. and im hoping to bump it to 50-60/20/30-20
 

pinkfox

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so today turned into a seriously do nothing kinda day...
a little after lunch i suddenly felt realy yicky and so took a little nap and sat around all afternoon...
yup...i feel productive.

still trying to decide on the duck order. think im going to drop them an email tonight and find out what their current turn around time is for the breeds i want...
im worried if i order them now and it turns out to be a 4 week wait and they dont arrive till march i shouldnt be but couldbe short on my bills this month...if i can get them in before the 20th though it gives me a week to get the extras sold so i definatly wouldnt be short.

i know what im ordering now...just got to decide when lol.

i also heard about "first mondays" in Ripley MS...missed this one (yesterday/today) but its heald the sat/sun before the first mondya of the month...so i think im going to pencil that in for March 3rd...
its a huge flea market, so it wouldbe cool to go and have a look around and make it a day trip, its a little under 1 1/2 hours away so would deifnalty have to make it a full day but thats not hard at big fleamarkets i can spend hours browsing :)
itll also give me an idea if its close enough to potentially become a vending spot for me as things progress...
theres a flea market about 3o mins from me thats deifnalty a good option but this one in MS is bigger...so it might end up being worht the once a month drive to hit that one once ive got goods to sell.
 

pinkfox

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i think im the only person in the USA not watching pick it up and run ball...
 

Denim Deb

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If you're talking about the Super Bowl, I'm not watching it either.
 

pinkfox

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yup, the super bowl...
i just cant call it football when the foot plays such a smal part of the game...
SOCCER is football lol the ball and the foot are highly integral parts of the game (not that i watch that either lol)

but american football should be renamed pick it up and run with he occasional kick ball... lol
 

pinkfox

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ok..i may get somefunny looks here...
but this kinda bothered me...
i just found out the Giants are now "world champions"

might i ask...

the superbowl is a game between 2 american teams...
to get to the Superbowl multiple teams only from America compete against each other and eventualy 2 teams reach the top and play in the superbowl...

so a game played only by american teams, somehow manages to produce a WORLD champion?!

HOW does that work?

to be a WORLD champion wouldnt other countries from around the world need to be involved?
 

pinkfox

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well this morning did full clean outs on all the rabbit cages, all bedding and poop got dumped into the raised beds...still not remotly enough, i put some feelers out on craiglist and called adas to see if anyone had any fre aged manure (or cheap even) and aparently everyone knows its time to prep for growing cause noone has anything there willing to part with...who knew...poop is like gold lol once ya got it hold onto it...it aparently increases in value the longer you have it LOL!.

acorn and bluebell have a little over a week to go before their "due to pop" date, both are looking a little rotund and bluebells been digging alot in her house (to the point i had to add a temporary barrier across the front of the house opening to keep her from kicking everything out LOL) so she may be early nesting or she may just have been an interior decorator in a past life. still too early to tell but im getting excited (and dont like waiting)

jasper ruby and dozer got to run around the sid eyard while i did all this and by the time id done ruby and dozer had managed to dig an impressive ditch along the edge of my carport foundation...the good news is i now know for sure my carport foundation is at minimum 2ft deep in that area (they dug almost 2ft deep and im not seeing concrete edge) but yeah thats got to stop so im going to have to make them a dig box at some point
not sure what the faicnation with diging is but aparently its TONS of fun

the other good news to thier digging fun is eventually im hoping to run a submerged drainpipe from the front of the house/"driveway" area down along the foundation of the carport and into the back, because the driveway area tends to seriously pool...so im hoping by running a pipe and then doing a slight grading to the drive before putting down weed block and gravel i can redirect the water flow so no more pooling in the front and it can drain off easily down the back yard which already has deacent run off already...it gets squelchy back there after alot of rain but nothing like the pooling in the front.

but yeah feeling quite good about getting the bunny cages done today...Rowan and Blackberry are both refusing to use the litterboxes..blackberry uses heres but more of a toy/drum...she likes to flip it then stand ontop of it and drum her foot...dont know who or what she thinks shes arning about but she must like the sound...she also lieks to throw it around. Rowan just moves heres about...its kinda annoying because she poops where i put the box...she just moves the box first...but not a big deal rabbit poop just sweeps up easily...but still lol, leave it where i put it. Bigwig however seems to have gotten the hang of it...it was rough sailing for a few days when hed move it and pop everywhere but, but this morning when i whent out to clean thre was ALOT of poop in that box so YAY bigwig. Bluebell and acorn are spot on and the abbits are getting even better about it so its deifnatly progress.

i think this afternoon im going to go out with my shovel and mark up where i want my flower bed to go in the front...itll be a while before i can relay afford the plants i want to go in there, BUT at least if i get it marked up i gan figure out exactly what i need...theres some hosta in there that looked realy sorry for themselves last year when i got here in october, im hoping i can breath a little more life into them this year...im not going to pull them up untill i start seeing shoots, (perfect time for dividing and replanting hosta) but i can work around them for now as i start to prep.
i want some daylillies for in that bed, but itll mostly be shade plants so planning a climbing hydrangea and a couple fo clematis for up the front of the house, a pink parfait frosty cherry and a could of ruby oakleaf hydrangeas as foundation plantings and then astibile hosta, mabe some grasses and ferns daylillies columbine foxglove ect will all fill out that bed...im thinking red pink and white with splashes or orange/yellow to make everything pop since it is a shady area i need the bright of the yellow and white to realy brighten the area up. and the house is grey so the red and pink should wake it up a little.
there will also be daffodills and tulips going into that bed too
i just need to brighten and prettyfy the front of the house for my own sanity lol.

i popped 2 bare root climbing roses in the ground in back behind the rabbit cages, so im hoping they do well and realy cover the back of the house in their climbing rose goodness
and im planning on getting a bunch of passionflower seedlings, im planning on planting one at the base of the pecan in the side yard...pecans arnt realy "pretty" trees but passiflora do well with them and till cover and climb a pecan quickly without damaging it (they dont strangle like wysteria does) so ill have a pecan with lots of "weird puprpl flowers" lol. id like to eventually build a raised bed around the pecan (just about 6" deep) and fill it with flowers too to give that side yard some interest, theres also a spot in that side area i want a small pond (id love an old clawfoot tub turned into a pond but there expensive and id hve to have it delivered so instead itll be whatever i can find) im planning on groing a climber behind the pond up the back of the laundry room and then flowers around that as that side yard will eventually be less of the dogs crazy space and more of the comfy sit out by the fire pit enjoyment space.

im obsessed with flowrs...if you couldnt tell...i think if i ever whent back to school it would be for landscape deisgn lol
 
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