Thorvin Certified Organic Kelp Meal July 3, 2009

What is it:

Pure ocean marine algae seaweed from the world’s cleanest and richest sea waters, Thorvin kelp contains over 60 vitamins, minerals, and animo acids.  Thorvin icelandic kelp is 100% organic and complies with the USDA NOP organic feed requirements.  Thorvin is the highest quality kelp available and is an excellent source of naturally chelated macro and micro minerals, vitamins, and amino acids.

Thorvin kelp is produced in a pristine environment close to the Arctic Circle. Thorvin kelp is geothermically dried under low temperatures that keep the vitamins, minerals, and enzymes intact.

Thorvin kelp is inspected and certified organic by the Icelandic Certification Agency TUN.  Thorvin is inspected by QAI (Quality Assurance International), a U.S. reciprocating organization.  Thorvin is the ONLY kelp meal currently OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) listed for livestock feed.

Thorvin kelp contains over 60 minerals (calcium, magnesium, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, sulfur, cobalt, copper, iodine, iron, maganese, selenium, etc.); 17 amino acids, including lysine, hystidine, and proline; vitamins A, B1, B6 (Niacin), B12, D, E, and K; carbohydrates; plant growth hormones – auxins, cytokinins, and gibberellins.

Benefits of feeding kelp:

- Promotes shiny coat & supple skin

- Promotes better growth rates

- Promotes reproductive performance and increases milk yield

- Purges heavy metals

- Promotes more efficient feed utilization,

- Promotes better glandular health,

- Enhances pigmentation,

- Boosts immune system

- Provides needed minerals for dogs on barf or raw

How to use:

Add recommended amount into your dogs food. Kelp is a good supplement for dogs on raw or barf.

Recommended feeding rates:

Cats – 1/4 teaspoon

Dogs (small) – 1/2 teaspoon

Dogs (large) – 1 teaspoon

Humans – 1 teaspoon

For sale at $6 per 100g.

*Please note that we have repackaged the kelp into smaller quantities for resale from the original bulk packaging

Please email us at thehiddenburrow@yahoo.com.sg to place your order

All items self-collect @ Simei MRT or K9 Kulture dog run (Saturdays 4pm to 5:30pm only) or via mail (items mailed out every Wednesday). However, no responsibility will be taken for lost/broken items for items sent via mail. Postage to be borne by buyer. Payments must be made in full via bank transfer before item will be mailed out.

Other meet up locations will be considered. Please enquire with us. Thank You!

100% Dead Sea Salt from Israel (Coarse grain) July 3, 2009

Benefits of Dead Sea salts:

- Exfoliates skin (Good for dogs with flaky skin or dull coat)

- Stimulates circulation (helps hair re-growth)

- Removes toxins/impurities from the skin and sooths skin (Good for oily skin, schnauzer bumps, relieving itchiness,skin allergies etc)

- Moisturizes skin and coat to increase natural skin hydration

- Ease muscle stiffness and relax muscles (good for joint pains, arthiritis)

How to use:

• Add sea salt into shampoo (1 tablespoon of salt per 40 oz of diluted shampoo), use as per normal but leave the shampoo on the dog to sit for a couple of minutes. (This use is to help shampoo remove dirt from dogs more effectively. )
• Fill tub with lukewarm water and add a handful of salt into the water. You can add a few drops of essential oil to the water. Let dog sit in tub for 15 mins before bathing with a mild shampoo and conditioner.

Caution!! Do not use on dogs with open wounds!

For sale at $30 per 500g.

*Please note that we have repackaged the salt into smaller quantities for resale from the original bulk packaging

Please email us at thehiddenburrow@yahoo.com.sg to place your order

All items self-collect @ Simei MRT or K9 Kulture dog run (Saturdays 4pm to 5:30pm only) or via mail (items mailed out every Wednesday). However, no responsibility will be taken for lost/broken items for items sent via mail. Postage to be borne by buyer. Payments must be made in full via bank transfer before item will be mailed out.

Other meet up locations will be considered. Please enquire with us. Thank You!

Natural Dead Sea Mud from Israel July 2, 2009

Benefits of dead sea mud for dogs:

- Exfoliates skin (Good for dogs with flaky skin or dull coat)

- Stimulates circulation

- Removes toxins/impurities from the skin and sooths skin(Good for oily skin, schnauzer bumps, relieving itchiness)

-Moisturizes skin and coat to increase natural skin hydration

-Helps treat and relieve other ailments such as arthritis, muscle stiffness and aches, rheumatism, joint inflammation and dry, itchy skin

How to use:

There are many ways to use it. This is how i intend to use it. Mix mud and water into a soft paste and apply onto dog before bath. Make sure you get to the skin. Let the mud sit for 15 to 30 mins till it has slightly hardened, rinse off and follow up with mild shampoo and conditioner.

What some other people do is to apply it on and let the mud dry up completely. I’ve heard that it can take 4 to 6 hours for the mud to completely dry depending on the type of coat but I’ve not had any first hand experience so don’t quote me on that. When the mud is completely dry, brush off the mud and follow up with the shampoo and conditioner. There are people who cling wrap the dog while waiting for the dog to dry. Its up to you how you want to use the mud.

One other thing that you can consider doing is adding a few drops of essential oil into the mud paste before application. I intend to add lavender.

For sale at $40 per 500g or $60 per kilogram.

*Please note that we have repackaged the mud into smaller quantities for resale from the original bulk packaging

Please email us at thehiddenburrow@yahoo.com.sg to place your order

All items self-collect @ Simei MRT or K9 Kulture dog run (Saturdays 4pm to 5:30pm only) or via mail (items mailed out every Wednesday). However, no responsibility will be taken for lost/broken items for items sent via mail. Postage to be borne by buyer. Payments must be made in full via bank transfer before item will be mailed out.

Other meet up locations will be considered. Please enquire with us. Thank You!

Diatomaceous Earth (Food Grade) July 1, 2009

Yet another item we purchased for its anti-tick properties! LOL.

DE is totally organic and safe. It is taken from fresh water deposits and is the purest form available.  Diatomaceous Earth is not actually an “earth” but it is the fossilized remains of microscopic shells created by one celled plants called DIATOMS.

DE

What DE can be used for:

* Control of fleas and ticks
* Deworming
* Stimulates basic metabolism
* Converts feed better
* Reduces the desire to lick soil
* Scouring or diarrhea: when fed it seems to act as a material that draws both virus and bacteria out of the body and solidifies the stool
* Reduces odor and moisture (good for adding into litter boxes/trays)
* Better coat and hoof condition
* Keeps fly larvae from developing in manure, noticeably reducing the fly population
* Kills parasites without chemicals
* Prevents pests from breeding
* Added to livestock waters, will prevent algae from growing

How Diatomaceous Earth(DE) works:

As DE moves through the stomach and digestive tract, they attract and absorb bacteria, fungi, protozoa, viruses, endotoxins, pesticide and drug residues, E-Coli, and heavy metals. These are trapped inside the DE and passed out of the body. In addition, any larger parasites that happen to be in the stomach of digestive tract are “cut up” and killed by the sharp edges of the Diatomaceous Earth. This is how DE is able to deworm.

Diatomaceous Earth is very hard. On the hardness scale where diamonds are a 9, Diatomaceous Earth is a 7. This is very important, because as those millions of tiny hard and sharp Diatomaceous Earth cylinders pass through the small and large intestines, they “scrub” the walls. Also, DE kills insects by physical action, not chemical. Hundreds of the microscopic DE gets all over the insects body. As it moves, the DE scratches the waxy coating off of them and they dehydrate and die.

How to use:

Externally  – Lightly rubbed into their coats or dusted on their premises, diatomaceous earth is very effective against fleas, ticks, lice, and other pests on pet dogs, cats, and birds.

Internally – DE can be used as an organic wormer and will kill any worms or parasites the pets may have.

When using as a de-wormer, mix the Diatomaceous Earth into their food daily as follows:

Kittens – 1/2 teaspoon
Cats – 1 teaspoon
Puppies – 1/2 to 1 tsp.
Dogs under 35 lbs. – 1 teaspoon
Dogs over 35 lbs. – 1 tablespoon
Dogs over 100 lbs. – 2 tablespoons
*Humans – 1 heaping tablespoon daily

For sale at SG$12.50 per pound

*Please note that we have repackaged the DE into smaller quantities for resale from the original 50lb bag.

Please email us at thehiddenburrow@yahoo.com.sg to place your order

All items self-collect @ Simei MRT or K9 Kulture dog run (Saturdays 4pm to 5:30pm only) or via mail (items mailed out every Wednesday). However, no responsibility will be taken for lost/broken items for items sent via mail. Postage to be borne by buyer. Payments must be made in full via bank transfer before item will be mailed out.

Other meet up locations will be considered. Please enquire with us. Thank You!

Tick Twister July 1, 2009

Ticks are pretty common in Singapore and i’ve always been worried about them. In fact, the more i hear of tick fever cases and the more i think about ticks, the more paranoid i get about them. Even though my dogs are on frontline, frontline only kills the tick after it has bitten the dog which essentially does not help prevent tick borne diseases. Also, even though the tick dies, it can still remain attached to the dog and will still have to be removed. Removal is tricky because if not done properly, the head can remain inside the dog! Yucks!  I believe that its always better to be safe than sorry and decided to ask around about what kind of tool would be best for tick removal. While asking around, an american groomer recommended the tick twister to me. I was convinced after watching the video and immediately ordered a box!

Here’s the advert!

Tick Twister® is THE most efficient set of tick removal tools for removing ticks from any location on people and animals such as dogs, cats and horses:

• without leaving the mouth-parts of the tick implanted in the skin
• without compressing the abdomen of the tick, minimizing the transfer of infectious agents (Lyme disease, Babesiosis, etc.)
• without ether or other products
• in a few seconds, without pain

Whats so special about using the Tick Twister?

1. The tick’s body is not compressed while detaching it from the skin.
   Squeezing or crushing the body of the tick may force infective body fluids through the mouthparts and into the wound site.
2. The tick is rotated instead of pulled.
   When ticks bite, they insert their long, central mouth-part (called the hypostome) into the skin. The hypostome is covered with sharp, backward-facing barbs (similar to a harpoon) which help keep the tick firmly attached while feeding. The twisting motion of the Tick Twister® removes the tick while keeping the tick’s mouth-parts intact. Pulling on a tick with ordinary tweezers can leave the mouth-parts embedded in the skin.

Tick Twister®/ O’TOM® was invented and designed by a French veterinarian in the 1990’s in two sizes, one for removing very small and small ticks and one for removing medium and large ticks. They are made of injected plastic (polyoxymethylene=POM). This polymer plastic was chosen because it is recyclable, can be incinerated without pollution (no chlorine fumes during combustion) and for its solidity and resistance to ether and most solvents. Tick Twister® can be disinfected with regular disinfectants (alcohol is one example) or they can be sterilized in an autoclave at 284 degrees F (140 degrees C).

Tick Twister® is unbreakable, hard-wearing and indefinitely reusable.

Caution: Although tick removal with Tick Twister® minimizes risks, it doesn’t guarantee that you (or your pet) haven’t been contaminated by tick-borne micro organisms: this contamination may have occurred before the removal.

For sale at SG$13.50 per set of 2 ticktwisters (one for large ticks, one for small ticks)

Please email us at thehiddenburrow@yahoo.com.sg to place your order

All items self-collect @ Simei MRT or K9 Kulture dog run (Saturdays 4pm to 5:30pm only) or via mail (items mailed out every Wednesday). However, no responsibility will be taken for lost/broken items for items sent via mail. Postage to be borne by buyer. Payments must be made in full via bank transfer before item will be mailed out.

Other meet up locations will be considered. Please enquire with us. Thank You!

Audrey June 30, 2009

Audrey went into heat today..I think Cassie and Robin will start soon too. Yikes!

Feeding Raw June 26, 2009

Was sifting through old photos in my flickr account when i came across this:

Cow tongue sashimi

Sheryl ate it while she was there earlier in the year. Generally, we normally do not eat sashimi of any kind but cow tongue sashimi is a rare delicacy even in Japan. According to Sheryl, it was very yummy and she would eat it again!

Anyway, it got me thinking of the food we feed our doggies. Our dogs are on a mainly chicken and beef diet. They get a chicken leg (about 300 to 400 grams each) for breakfast and 200 grams of beef for their dinner.

Originally we were feeding them about 750 grams of meat a day, slightly higher than the recommended 3% of their ideal body weight but we realized it was too much of them when 1)they started becoming unable to finish their meals as quickly and willingly as previously and 2) All of them started putting on weight. (Not sure about the others but at 25.6kg, Panda is overweight!) Also, when they first started raw, and ate 2 chicken legs a day, it was too much bone and their poop started becoming smaller. Hence, beef leg was introduced and the dogs are loving it! Besides the above, they get fish once a week, mutton once in a while and dehydrated organs everyday. Why dehydrated and not raw? The reason is because they get their organ intake via us giving them treats. This helps prevent them from taking in too much organ. If we were to give the dehydrated liver on top of raw liver at meal times, it would be too much for them and end up in soft stools…Not a very pleasant experience. Organs we give are liver, lung and gizzard. We also give hearts, tendons and chicken feet.

While the chicken does not need any preparation, the beef needs to be cut down into chunks for them. Theoretically, it would be better to give the dogs the beef in slabs rather than the chunks that i cut the beef into. However, feeding them in chunks is A LOT neater than feeding them a slab so that’s the way we are going. When you have multiple dogs, efficiency is vital. Any measure that can be done to prevent messy situations is taken. rotfl. We are definitely VERY glad that we now have an electric knife to cut our meat for us!  Our beef cutting efficiency has done up by a lot. Woohoo!Recently, we received a few emails about how to use the electric knife and what it looks like, so we thought we would do a photo blog post about how we prepare our dog’s beef meals.

Prepare Electric Knife

Get thawed meat slab out of fridge

Make the cuts. Its easier to follow the cartilage line. Do note that it can be tough sawing through tendon.

Continue sawing the meat till it becomes meat chunks. Using a traditional knife simultaneously with the electric knife helps too.

Weigh meat

Seal packet and freeze!

While feeding raw is a lot more work as compared to kibble as well as more costly, i think its worth all the effort! From next week, we will be adding kelp as a supplement and D.E as a natural pest preventive. We’ll update on any changes/improvements we see with the kelp supplement.

ECP outing June 24, 2009

Went to ECP with Panda, and ate lunch at Carls Junior. There is a “no pets allowed” sign, but because there weren’t many people, it wasnt an issue since no one complained.  He got a lot of pats from passerbys but there was this girl that…made me laugh. LOL

I think we were at least a hundred meters away from her when i suddenly heard a girl scream. I turned to look in her direction, only to see her run the other way! Goodness. 5 min later, we passed by a muslim boy on his biycle. He on the other hand went “Doggie!” and was excited to see Panda. What a difference.

We went to the beach as well. Tried to tempt Panda into the sea but he wasn’t interested. Instead, he ran the other way! ROTFL. Never mind, we will try again!

In summary, i dont think we will head to ECP for lunch again. Too HOT! Maybe dinner!

Cheesy Forrest June 23, 2009

Decided to use cheese as training treats today. Was jack potting treats to the pups when my sis realised that i had dropped 3 pieces of cheese on Forrest’s back!  Lol. We were just about to remove it when Forrest noticed the cheese too! It was way too funny for words seeing him try to lick the cheese off himself! Evil Stacey moved the cheese to a spot that way just within reach of his tongue and laughed at him trying to get it. I think he just felt it was a fun game though…it was obvious that he felt very accomplished when he managed to get to the cheese. Cos, once he ate it, he just gave us his cheesy grin and expression that said ” Let’s do that again!” ROTFL

New Equipment! June 22, 2009

Since the dogs are on raw, i have been buying meat in bulk from wholesalers. Some of the meat comes in slabs and is a chore to slice. So..TADAH! I bought myself an electric knife! I never knew there was such a device till i was flipping through one of my mother’s magazines and read their feature on kitchen equipment. Its a godsend in some ways! LOL. It does speedup the process significantly but heats up rather quickly as well. After the 3rd slab, it needs a break. When you have about 15 slabs…this poses an issue! Regardless, it works better than a meat slicer!

I also got a yogurt machine for the dogs. Been buying commercial yogurt for too long, and my mum feels it is more economical as well as healthier to make my own. Still have not tried it out yet, but am sure the dogs will enjoy it.

We ALSO bought some new pot device. I was reluctant to buy it because i am hardly in the kitchen, but the minute i saw its thawing effect, i was sold! When the saleslady heard my mum comment that we were buying it because of the dogs, i think she gave me the evil look. As if i was an unfilial daughter cos everything i bought that day was meant for the dogs. *gulp*

Anyway, whatever invention that makes work in the kitchen easier is great! I am the type of person that can’t even use a can opener properly. We had to get an electric can opener because i can’t figure out how to use the manual ones after the old one got spoilt.  I was so surprised that there are even things such as electric sifters! Amazing! I think the saleslady saw me as a country bumpkin -_-”

Are there any other devices i should get i don’t know of? I hope not!!!