And I'm not 100% sure they get everything they need every meal, but I think I do OK over the course of the week. Their weight is holding steady, too, which my vet said would be my number 1 indicator if something wasn't quite right.

If they are having a bony meal, they get 12 ounces... when it's non-bony, such as gizzards, liver, etc - they get 8 ounces. I use a lot of chicken - they seem to like it the best, but have used ground beef, turkey legs, etc.

The biggest pain for me is that they don't do well with whole leg quarters, whole legs, etc. We have to break it up into chunks. Hubby does most of this for me on Sunday afternoons, and we freeze in single serving size bags. Then I thaw a day a time & just dump into their dishes morning and night. So, we do all the work once a week.

All 3 of mine hang around 60-65 pounds....

I wish I could do non pre prepared raw as it would be alot cheaper ....I am just so scared to not give them the right supplements and stuff . I do give raw duck necks once a week in place of their meal , but thats as far as I have wandered LOL With this new HPPI food , its much cheaper than natures variety. They wasnt me to do chicken thighs and hearts,gizzards and liver a couple of times a week , but I cant get used to doing that ! It just seems like WORK to me ( even though I know its really not ) ... I need EASY in my life LOL

ok so how many ounces do they each get ? how much do they weigh ?

I use a lot of chicken, but they also get beef, deer, turkey, pork...

You name it! They have done so well, it blows my mind. Took me a little while to adjust, it grosses me out to handle raw meat, but I've learned to deal with it....

I feed my 60-62 lb crew about 1.5 lbs per day, and that includes bone.

I NEVER buy rawhide , you are sooo right ....very dangerous stuff !

Thanks for the crate pics !! I was trying to decide which method Brandon ( my son ) should use with Layla . Thats a good set up you have . I'm always torn whether to allow pottying inside a crate or not ??? When I trained my dogs I used the crate so that they would hold it until we took them outside to their potty place . Mine still are crated when we leave and do great . I always wondered if you put papers INSIDE the crate when they were puppies , if this would confuse them and wonder if they would potty in their crate when they got older ?? do you have this problem or no ? I tend to be a "worry-er" LOL

I thought about doing what you do ... or maybe setting up a xpen around the crate ?

thanks.









And click here for puppy photos of Boo & Clovis:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glandry113

that it might be some other ingredient in there . I noticed you are calling it red beet puplp . Maybe thats the difference ? The life's abundunce just says dried beet pulp ( not red beet pulp ) . The kind they use is the white sugar beets , not the red beets like we eat . Maybe thats the difference ??

with 3 bullies, I'd be in the poor house with the prepackaged stuff! LOL!!!

I've tried every kibble known to man, and my crew just can't eat it. I have two rescues that are the hardest to feed, but my healthy boy has food issues, too.

I know Julia/Grover feed raw
Judy/Wilson and
Melanie - you'll find her on the show forum more often than here. She has written an article on raw feeding with the bullies. I'll be glad to send that to you if you'd like to see it.

Some people fear RAW due to the cost - it's cheaper than a lot of the premium foods that I've tried, that's for sure. And my crew is healthier than they've ever been.

but for some reason it seems to be true with Clovis. Every time I fed her a dry food with it, she developed extremely bad tear stains within a week or so. And except for the last incident, as soon as I took her off, the stains always went away within a week or so. And they didnt' come back as long as I fed her a kibble that didn't have it.

Maybe it's another ingredient that is always present in the dog foods that also have red beet pulp.











And click here for puppy photos of Boo & Clovis:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glandry113

do you do your own diet ? or do you feed pre-prepared raw ? I fed Natures Variety raw for quite a few years and all have done very very well on it . But I just recently am trying another brand called Helthy pet diet or HPPI . The jury is still out for me . Its pre-prepared like NV , but its based on the whole animal ...so its richer. Its much fresher than the NV . We'll see ... I have been feeding it for a little over a month .

OK, so where did I read that Raw isnt good for bulldogs ? so this isnt true? any other raw feeders ?

Dried beet pulp thats used in dog food is WHITE . Its a myth that beet pulp causes tear staining . Not to say that what you experienced isnt true . One of my Cavaliers tears alot , so I have fought this battle with him for a long time ( I'm winning lol ) and he eats raw . Tear staining occurs for so many reasons.

are VERY healthy!

just mentioned that since I didn't put it in my Message Title and you may thus miss it.









And click here for puppy photos of Boo & Clovis:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glandry113

several regulars on this board, including Julia who owns Grover, feed a raw diet to their bulldogs.

As for Life's Abundance, just keep an eye out for tear stains. I noticed that red beet pulp is one of the top ingredients. Many dogs are not affected by it, but one of my bulldogs, Clovis, would always get real bad tear stains when I fed her dry food that has red beet pulp.









And click here for puppy photos of Boo & Clovis:

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Ill tell ya this site is just a great place to come when you need a laugh

My first bulldog managed to soften the rawhide bone and had about 6 inches of it down his throat before I noticed he was "breathing funny". I was able to pull it out, luckily, but that was the last rawhide bone I ever bought.

where's Granny Mae Clampett when you need her, lol.









And click here for puppy photos of Boo & Clovis:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glandry113

they become very, very soft very quickly. A bulldog can then easily swallow one and choke to death on it, or need surgery to have it removed from their GI tract.

I give my dogs the femur bones that are sold at Petsmart. They can be risky too, tho. Just keep an eye on them to make show they haven't started cracking. If so, throw them away at that point. But, they won't get soft and my dogs have thus far never been able to break one into pieces.

And of course, don't give anything to the puppy that has cooked bones in it, such as cooked chicken or steak, etc.

If no one else mentioned it yet, you should also buy a product called Bitter Apple, also sold at Petsmart. Puppies are teething and thus will chew like crazy. You can spray Bitter Apple on chair legs, desk corners, window sills, even sheet rock. So far it has never left a stain on anything I have sprayed it on. And it is very effective. You can even spray it on shoes.

Also, I strongly encourage you to both paper train and yard train the puppy. That way, if your son has to work a very long day, such as 10 hours or more, his bulldog will not have to squirm in discomfort all day trying to hold it in.

I paper train puppies by buying a large crate, preferably a 42 inch long one. It is a puppy's instinct to go potty as far away from his bed as he can get. So, put newspaper down in the back of the crate and put the puppy's bed in the front part. Even as puppies, dogs have an incredible sense of smell (as demonstrated by a puppy's ability to find mom's nipples even before his eyes open). The puppy will grow to associate the scent of paper and newsink as a place to go pee and poop, and he will associate the scent of a fabric material such as his bed or bath towel as a place to sleep and play.

This method just worked amazingly well with my newest bulldog puppy, Flynn. When she was 4 months old, she got bad diarrhea one night. By then, I had her sleeping in my bed. Well, she got up 3 times during the night, went from my bedroom to the place in the kitchen when I down the paper, and pooped on the paper each time. Thank goodness she didn't poop on the carpet because it was so mushy it would have been hell to clean it up. With paper, it's a cinch to clean up (I put a plastic chair mat under the paper so nothing soaks thru).

If you want to try this method, here are two photos of the set-up I use (tho I have since bot a bigger crate; the crate shown in this photo is only 36 inches long):



Here is the photo of the 42-inch crate that I trained my new puppy in:



Good luck.







And click here for puppy photos of Boo & Clovis:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glandry113

Boudreaux's butt paste is LOL Good stuff ! so , do you think thats better than the Aveeno baby ointment ? I think its for the same thing huh ?

I am a pet nutrition FREAK ! LOL , my dogs eat better than me thats for sure ! My crew all eat RAW . But I have heard that its not good for bullies , so for Layla ...I have ordered the type of kibble I used to feed my dogs before they ate RAW . They all did extremeley well on this brand ... Life's Abundance. Its all natural,human grade,no byproducts,corn or wheat ....really great stuff ! From everything I have read about bulldogs , I think she will do fine on this . At least we will try it and see how she does . Here is the Guar. Analysis and Ingredients below :

GUARANTEED ANALYSIS:

Crude Protein (min)..........26.0%
Crude Fat (min)..............16.0%
Crude Fiber (max).............3.5%
Moisture (max)...............10.0%
Calcium (min).................1.0%
Phosphorus (min)..............0.7%
Vitamin A (min).........16,000 IU/kg
Vitamin E (min)..........130 IU/kg
Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C)* (min)......35 mg/kg
Omega-3 Fatty Acids* (min).............0.4%
Omega-6 Fatty Acids* (min).............3.0%
Total microorganisms* (min)....150,000,000 CFU/lb
(L. acidophilus, L. casei, B. thermophilum and E. facecium in equal amounts)

INGREDIENTS:
Chicken Meal, Ground Brown Rice, Oat Groats, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols, a natural source of Vitamin E), Dried Beet Pulp, Brewers Dried Yeast, Flaxseed Meal, Natural Flavors, Dried Egg Product, Catfish Meal, Potassium Chloride, Salt, L-Lysine, Canola Oil, DL-Methionine, Calcium Carbonate, Monosodium Phosphate, Dried Carrots, Dried Celery, Dried Beets, Dried Parsley, Dried Lettuce, Dried Watercress, Dried Blueberries, Dried Broccoli, Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus casei Fermentation Product, Dried Bifidobacterium thermophilum Fermentation Product, Dried Enterococcus faecium Fermentation Product, Pomegranate Extract, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin E Supplement, Inositol, Niacin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin Supplement, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Citric Acid, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Folic Acid, Zinc Proteinate, Zinc Sulfate, Manganese Proteinate, Manganese Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Iron Proteinate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Proteinate, Selenium Yeast, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Potassium Iodide.

Contains a source of live (viable), naturally-occurring microorganisms.

Why didn't you tell me earlier I could not feed my dogs roadkill and shelter animals? It's the only thing that does not give them diarrhea

lots of it!


Not all bullies are as fortunate as the ones we call our own....
http://www.adoptabullrescue.com

you're probably the only person I won't have to explain Boudreaux's Butt Paste to. It works well on the facial folds when they get irritated.

Kong toys are about the only toys I've found that bulldogs can't destroy in five minutes. You can find them at any Petsmart. Most bulldogs also love Jolly Balls, which are also sold at Petsmart.

I strongly advise you and your son to start the puppy on a good premium dry dog food that does not have meat byproducts (i.e., roadkill, chicken feet, chicken beaks, bodies of cats and dogs put down at animal shelters, etc.) and bad grain products, i.e., corn, wheat, gluten, and soy.

I have a new bulldog puppy that I just bot this past April. I've tried several different dog foods since January and had troubles with most of them, especially the ones that are completely grain free. They caused diarrhea in all of my dogs and seizures and bedwetting in my oldest, Boo. Just my opinion, but you should also stay away from the dry foods that have more than 30% protein, and especially the ones that are over 40%. Two vets have told me those put a lot of stress on a dog's kidneys and another organ (liver, I think, but I forgot).

I recently put my dogs on Wellness Super5 Mix Adult "Large Breed" formula. They are all doing extremely well on this food. It has some grain products, such as oatmeal and brown rice, but those are supposedly good grain products. Most importantly, however, the first 3 ingredients are all meat, i.e., deboned chicken, whitefish, and chicken meal. When reading labels, always check to see what the first 3 ingredients are. Stay away from dry dog foods that have corn and/or wheat as the first two ingredients.

Wellness also makes a Puppy formula, tho several regulars on this board are of the opinion that bulldog puppies should not be given Puppy food. I had my new bulldog puppy, who just turned 5 months old yesterday, on the Puppy formula until a week or so ago. She is now on the Large Breed formula too and doing very well on it.

You can find Wellness at the Jefferson Feed Store on Jefferson Highway. The down side to Wellness is that it is expensive, but if your son will only have one or two dogs, the price won't be too much of a problem. A 15 lb. bag of the Large Breed formula sells for about $31. However, a 15 lb. bag lasted three weeks for me, feeding it to 3 dogs.











And click here for puppy photos of Boo & Clovis:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glandry113

bendarly pill and liquid form....
epi pen when i am traveling over nite to a show (in case i cant find a 24 hr vet clinic)
i always freeze 6 bottles of water and put them in a cooler....
pedilyte.....
canned pumpkin for upset tummy...along with tums and pepcid ac....
as a vet tech i carry a syringe in case of bloat (i use to have danes...and had one bloat on a show cicruit) i have not heard of this problem with bullies but i do carrry in case...
a small first aid box in my car at all times....
most of this is for traveling and not at home info....but i would always have a first aid kit with me....

becasue as innocent as these two look their not!!!!!
charlie was running in the woods and came back with 6 inch gash on his foot....

baby wipes with NO fragrance or alcohol for butt wiping
a cooling collar
liquid benadryl
lemon juice for when they get phlegmy (works like a charm)
Rescue remedy by bach

has GREAT information on her website...www.marshillsbulldogs.com

I think that is what it is. Her website is what I used when I brought Jake home.

Hope she doesn't mind that I used her website! haha

Kathe, Travis & Jake

[IMG][/IMG]


MySpace Countdowns

Also check out the breeders section and Cathy form Mars Hill has a great checklist.

My chihuahua's are potty pad trained and outside trained too . It works WONDERFUL and it does come in handy , knowing that they can always just go on their paper if I am gone for an extended time or if its a rainy day . For some reason , I just never did that with my Cavaliers .... I guess I always thought of paper/potty pad training more of a small dog thing ?? I definitely wouldnt have thought bulldogs would use paper .

My breeder said that Layla is litter box trained already . She trains all of her puppies to the litter box and she said they are very good at it . I guess we can just keep up with that , instead of paper ...same priciple I guess , but less messy . I wonder how they do once they are adults though ?

my first bulldog died after jumping off my bed, slipping, and tearing her ACL. She was at the vet waiting for the surgery when they found her passed away in her crate. I think the pain and stress caused it.

Since then, I would never ever NOT have a petstairs at the foot of my bed (of course, this doesn't apply if a bulldog is not allowed up on the people bed). I highly recommend the 3-step carpeted model sold at this web site, www.petclassics.com :

http://www.petclassics.com/Carpeted-Steps/3-step-carpeted-pet-steps.18.html

If your son or someone else in the family is handy at building things, it's easy to build a similar model at home. However, and this is very important IMO, be sure to put carpet on the steps. Bulldogs can slip very easily on plain wooden steps.

I didn't buy my pet stairs from that site. Instead, I showed the site and the dimensions to a neighbor who loves to do wood projects in his garage. He built a pet stairs for me. At my request, he did make the steps a bit wider and deeper, which I recommend.









And click here for puppy photos of Boo & Clovis:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glandry113

My Stanley was paper trained by the breeder becasue originally they were keeping him. Well because he had been paper trained it made it so much easier to house break him. It took less than a week before he knew to go by the door when he needed to go out. made my life so much easier.

once the paper training is done, I no longer put paper in their crates. When they need to potty, they go to where the paper is, which is away from their crates. But my older bulldogs never go in crates anymore, by their own choice. At dinner time, I do put my new puppy, Flynn, in her crate because if I don't, she will wolf down her own food and then go try to eat from the other dogs' bowls.

Even if your son has you to take his bulldog out for walks when he is at work, I still recommend the paper training because he may move and live elsewhere in a year or two. For me, paper training gives great peace of mind. I did not paper train my first bulldog, much to my regret. Thus, when I was at work and had to work late, or if co-workers wanted me to go out with them after work, I would stress out worrying about how bad my dog needed to go out and potty.

The beauty of paper training is that it's like your bulldog now has its own bathroom and he or she can go potty whenever he or she feels the urge. No squirming in discomfort for hours on end. And fortunately, once my bulldogs have become adults, they rarely use the paper anymore. By that time, they can hold it in for much longer periods of time without getting uncomfortable. But it's nice to know that they don't have to.

I've often had a hard time convincing people to paper train their bulldog. They will usually reply with something like "Oh, my job is just a ten minute drive from my home and I can go home and let him out for lunch" or "My husband works a different shift and he is home during the day." Well, that may be true for TODAY, but a bulldog owner should prepare for the future. Things change, including people changing jobs and no longer having that easy ten minute drive, etc. So I'm a firm believer in paper training, especially since it is so easy and will make a bulldog's life so much easier and more comfortable.











And click here for puppy photos of Boo & Clovis:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glandry113

a must have in my house.