Switching to Adult Food

So Ruki's 9-months... And we just started switching her to adult food! Apparently, you're supposed to start switching bulldog puppies to adult food between 6 and 8 months. I think she's fine.

We used to use Innova Puppy Dry, and so naturally we are trying a switch to Innova Adult Dry. But I'm worried about two things: the adult formula has less fiber than the puppy formula, and I'm wondering whether to put her on a large breed diet to get glucosamine and chondroitin for her joints (Innova Adult Dry has none).

I want her to have some fiber because I'm worried about the anal glands. We toss her a shredded wheat cereal biscuit every once in awhile, but I'd rather have the fiber in her food, so it's consistently there.

Some people recommend feeding bulldogs large breed formulas because they're "large breeds packed into a medium breed body." Also, they tend to have joint and hip problems, and the large breed formulas are made to reduce mass and be gentler on the joints--hence the glucosamine and chondroitin.

Furthermore, I'm starting to reconsider Innova. The one store in my area that stocks it doesn't consistently have the food we need in stock. I went there, juggling between Adult Dry, Large Breed Adult Dry, and one of the EVO brands, but they only had Adult Dry and EVO Senior. Screw them, then. Maybe I'll switch to a different store that will stock more Wellness, Royal Canidae Bulldog, etc. Maybe Wyosong (to add to their rivalry)?

The other thing, then, is to supplement Ruki with glucosamine and chondroitin and fiber treats. I'll keep the blog updated on our decisions.

Charlee Bear Liver Treats

We've been using Charlee Bear liver treats with Ruki for quite some time. We mix them up with Old Mother Hubbard biscuits (the small ones in assorted flavors) and Merrick Breath Biscuits. But the Charlee Bears were her least favorite until I discovered this trick.

If I offered her a Charlee Bear, she'd just swallow them. Not much fun, not much pleasure. But then I realized, maybe she'd get more taste if I snapped them into pieces before giving them to her--a flavor explosion is how I term it.

And it worked. She loves them now. So if I need her to do something, I'll take a Charlee Bear between my thumb and my index and middle finger, and "snap" it into pieces and then offer it to her.

Just a little hint for using these low-calorie, super-simple, little treats for training.

Over-Tired Puppy

So over time we've kind of figured out how and why Ruki has her crazy times. She's now at the age where she'll have one crazy time a day, a few times a week. (She's almost 9 months.) Crazy time means that she's running around in circles, grabbing at things, play-stancing all over the place, picking things up and tossing them about. Usually lasts for a minute or two. It's cute, but she's crazy.

When it's in the afternoon or early evening, I figure, well, that's just her crazy time. But when it happens in the morning or later at night, we've realized that it's because she's over-tired.

The biggest sign is when I look at her eyes, and they whites aren't clear white--they're more reddish. And there are some bright red veins that run across the whites. It's kind of like when people get tired and their eyes get red and bloodshot. So when this is the case, even though she wants to be crazy, we crate her and let her sleep it off. Then her eyes clear up and she's back to being a teddy dog for the rest of the night.

Update on Tail Pocket and Scooting, Warts

As I mentioned before, Ruki's been scooting in the mornings. It's gotten a lot better since we've been cleaning out her tail pocket about once a week or so with pet wipes.

I also never updated, but about week after the last update about the warts shriveling up, they were totally gone. So really it only took her about a month to grow out of the warts. Whew!