[Dailydrool] Feeding our Bassets

[Jennifer Martin]

Noticed on the drool that two people are having trouble with feeding
bassets for opposite reasons.  Let's keep one thing in mind.  WE control
the food bowl.  In the case of Hubert the puppy, he is more than willing to
eat non-food items.  I bet if you hang in there and quit catering to him,
he WILL eat.  Back when I was having horrible allergy problems with my
first two bassets, the vet switched them to a lamb and rice diet.  Bubbles
would not eat it.  The vet said do not give in to her.  No snacks!  A
healthy dog will not starve its self for more than 4 days and she will be
fine if she doesn't eat for four days.  It just about killed me.  The
morning of day 5 she ate.  She was fine.  I was fine.  I have learned that
some dogs are social eaters.  Browyn (my current 8 month old puppy) will
not eat by herself.  Since she is not an only dog I feed her next to Bugsey
with a gate up between them.  That way I don't have to worry about them
switching food on me.  Bugsey has food allergies and can't eat her food.
Beauford eats in the living room and I can stop him from getting to Browyn
while I get the medicine ready.

Dieting bassets.  Gee.  I have had more than my fair share of those as
well.  Stand firm.  Bassets are very prone to being overweight.  They also
are prone to arthritis and back problems.  Do your hound a favor and keep
him or her on the slim side.  Out of 10 bassets, I have only had one that
could eat as much food as was listed on the back of the feed bag.  None of
mine have ever been able to eat 3 cups of food in a day!  I don't feed
grain free, but I do feed higher end food.  Beauford is 3 and weighs 58 lbs
and gets 3/4 c 2x a day.  Bugsey is 2 and 52 lbs. and gets 3/4c 2x a day
plus a 1/3 of a can of salmon because he is coming off a muscle wasting
reaction to z/d.  Browyn the 8 month old puppy is 32 pounds and gets 1/2c
2x a day.  They do get homemade cookies about two times a day that are less
than an inch square and they get fresh and dehydrated fruits and veggies.
If the dogs act like they are starving, add green beans or carrots to the
food.  My poor Elwood thought that he was starving all the time and he
would eat rugs if he got too hungry.  He got two full size carrots a day as
snacks, a can of green beans and half an apple.  That helped tremendously,
and he quit eating the rugs.  I do make up a veggie mix from the garden and
puree it and put it on the dogs food and they love it.

Good luck to everyone!  I know this is hard.

Jennifer, mean momslave to Beauford (we are really all starving over here),
Bugsey (I LOVE my canned salmon), and Browyn (no complaints here)
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