User:GordonE

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[edit] Me

G'day. I'm Gordon.

I live in Western Australia, +8 hours from UTC, I'm a Traffic Controller by day (and sometimes night), married with children, and two mutts -- (JS|PDQ Bach the Kelpie/Shepherd dog and Fluffy the Maltese/West Highland bitch). Our dogs are "innies" -- they live with us in the house, sleep on our bed, curl up on the furniture and they eat before I do, although they do have to wait until I say "Yes". They are very territorial.

[edit] Who

I'm not a vegetarian, but I adore (Indian) vegetarian meals, and I really look forward to Lent, 'cos that's when the missus makes us "abstain"...

I ceased being a "Christian" years ago, but I still go to Church -- as time permits -- because, very simply, the Christian Church is the most necessary organisation on the face of this planet. It deserves all the help we can give it.

I'm a "grammar-nazi". And spelling. OTH, the only correct "-er" words are spelt (you may substitute spelled...) "-er", NOT "-re". Noah Webster is right -- "theatre" is wrong.

[edit] Dog food

The dogs enjoy a "BARF" diet which I burdened them with in 2004: PDQ Bach (a rescuee, named by the home) gets a kangaroo tail-bone or two for breakfast, while Fluffy (from a puppy-farm via the pet-shop) engages with a chicken neck, about the size of a banana. For tea they will partake of coarsely minced kangaroo meat mixed with whizzed vegetables, and JS Bach will have a chicken neck on the side. They disdain dentabones and rawhide chews, but apricots, bananas and nectarines are welcome treats. I moved them onto the BARF diet when I discovered what really goes into processed dog food. It's worth mentioning that the BARF diet costs less than any processed food I was prepared to buy -- there are some truly cheap brands available, but rubbish doesn't count.

There are no scientific studies of "natural/raw" diets for dogs because

  • a) the advocates don't have any money, and
  • b) assembling a sufficiently diverse population of dogs large enough to allow a control group would be hideously expensive -- about 1,000 animals should be sufficient for a definitive study.

Just a thought though: with a few exceptions, the majority of Canis lupus familiaris is little different from Canis lupus, and that includes the digestive tract. How come dogs have lasted this long on what was essentially a BARF diet?