PUPPY LOVE

We here at the G house hold have adopted a new puppy! She's a 7 week old..mutt. Her mom was booted out of a truck near a friend of ours house and she gave birth to six babies three days later. We're not sure what our new baby is exactly as far as breed goes, but she appears to be part cattle dog and part pitt bull. Yes...pitt bull. I'd guess that the mom was about half pitt bull but not fully, based on the shape of her head. Momma is incredibly sweet and made her way into a home with five other female dogs, no problems.

So, the new baby came home 4 days ago. We are in HIGH ALERT for house breaking and trying to keep a very active, very curious baby girl busy! Today I went to the nearest big box pet store and brought home THREE bags of treats, toys and squeaky objects.

So, this was maybe not the crunchiest way to do things.....so let's explore some crunchy (holistic) dog and puppy care.

Deworming: Okay, we took our baby to the vet and had it done the traditional way. I'm new to this crunchy stuff and I have to say..sometimes leery of what in available. But I'm curious so maybe I'll look into things further? Anyway...there are natural ways to deworm a puppy. Puppies are almost always born having worms, as worms make their way into the momma dog or come in later during nursing. The most common type of worms, round worms, is contagious to humans and other pets and it's important to rid your baby of these pests. Here is an article on some natural deworming steps: http://www.ehow.com/way_5208422_natural-dewormers-dogs.html

Looking this over, it's still reccomended that you have your dog looked over by a vet, and I agree! We see a vet that is open to holistic pet care and I may ask her more about this at a later date, since our baby definately had worms and will need to be treated again...

Fleas! The bane of every dog owners existance! I know, it seems at times we fight a constant battle with our older dog against these brown bothers. And of course, our new baby came home with a batch of her own. So, are there any natural ways to rid your canine of fleas? Well, apparently there are. Many of the treatments available out on the market now are powerful neurotoxins, meant to poison the fleas into submission, but they can also be poisonous to dogs. ESPECIALLY little baby dogs who are under 8 weeks old. According to mother earth news there are three natural ingrediants used to combat fleas that are available on the market today. The first is d-Limonene, which is a bi-product of the citrus industry. The second, varieties of pyrithins that come from chrysanthemums. The third options seems the most promising:

There's only one pesticide, natural or otherwise, that's a specific for insects and completely safe. Diatomaceousearth is a type of fossilized algae that resembles chalk dust. The fine, sharp-edged particles attach themselves to and penetrate the waxy coating on a flea's shell-like exoskeleton, causing the little bloodsucker to dehydrate and die.

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/1985-05-01/Natural-Flea-Control.aspx?page=3#ixzz1zyxQYgi5

 

Okay, cool! So where can I find this stuff? Well, not in the most popularly used brands like Frontline and K9 advantix....nope. Those brands use harsh pesticides. Look online or at your big box pet shop, which will likely carry some of the more holistic brands since they cater to extremely spoiled pooches (and kitties, and hamsters and gerbils and fish....)

The other MUST have method of flea control is frequent cleaning/vacuuming of the pets area and washing the bedding. This, along with combing out the flea bits with a flea comb will help reduce the reproduction of the nasty critters. Not to bad right? common sense? So no more flea bombs for us!

One last thing on having a green puppy....FOOD/TREATS! Oh boy are there every so many treats and food brands out there now for dogs! The dog I grew up with ate Kibbles and Bits exclusively so it's a bit mind boggling now to see how far the dog companies have gone to win over our canine loving hearts! We chose Iams for our food. Yes..it's not a good "natural" brand, but it's readily available in our local stores, where the more "natural" ones aren't. Remember, we live in RURAL Pa, so while a trip over the mountain to look at the big pet store might be fun on occaision, it's not practical! I just know we'll run out some day when the mountain road is closed due to snow and we'll have a dog food crisis....

That being said, I'm all for natural dog foods! Last I checked, dogs aren't supposed to eat corn, rice or other grains exclusively and corn is what makes up the bulk of most basic food brands on the market. Not only that but...GENETICALLY MODIFIED CORN. (we discused this already, right?) Now, I looked on Amazon.com and found there are a lot of "natural" brands available there, and I'm a frequent amazon user, so maybe I should check them out more closely? But basically, buying dog food is much the same as buying people food, you get what you pay for as far as quality and you have to READ THE LABELS to ensure that you're not feeding Fido something gruesome.