Green Living
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Dog Supplies
I know there is a pet board, but I wanted ideas from you. DH and I plan to get adopt a dog this Fall (we like to plan ahead) and was wondering where you get your pet supplies (bed, food, etc.). Not sure if this matters too much be we are hoping for a 30-35 pound dog (when at appropriate weight). Thanks!
Re: Dog Supplies
I like to buy from local stores, not the big chains. Start reading up on the better dogs foods, like Acana, Orijen, Wellness CORE. They are pricer up front, but you feed less than lesser brands, less poop, and less vet bills b/c less sickness/allergies.
Also, start looking into vaccination schedules. I only give my dogs their puppy shots, and one annual booster. After that I only give the 3 year rabies b/c it's required by law.
The new thinking is that shots are causing a lot of illnesses and a dog gets lifetime immunity after their one year booster. The rest are unnecessary.
Research and come to your own conclusions, but that's what I do.
Glad to hear you are looking into adopting
and it's great you're preparing in advance!
Ditto MMP re: food and vacc schedules. There is a lot of info. / research out there for you to evaluate and choose what works for your family.
The Pets Board FAQs have a lot of info on all this:
http://sites.google.com/site/petsboardfaqs/
Ditto PP on vaccines and food.
I buy food at small local places. However, I buy a lot of my other dog stuff online. I like www.dog.com and www.jefferspet.com. Dog.com often runs shipping deals. www.petedge.com has a lot of even cheaper prices but a $65 (I think) minimum order. You'd probably reach that on your first dog stuff purchase though.
I bought most of my dog's supplies (bed, collar, food bowl) on Etsy. You can get some really cute stuff on there and the prices tend to be very reasonable!
For food I order it online at Amazon.com because every month I get $25 in Amazon gift cards from Swagbucks so it's super cheap, but technically on there I'm buying from PetCo.com. Btw, I feed Blue Buffalo.
Oh, and along the lines of the vaccine shots- I've read a lot of horror stories about flea and tick treatments, too. My dog is half poodle and has extremely sensitive skin and already had a rash from the one treatment they gave him at the shelter. So I did my research and started using Critter Oil on him. I mix it in with his shampoo and bath him once a week. He's been running around in tick infested woods now for weeks and I've only found one tick on him and no fleas. My cousin's dog has TONS of ticks on him every day and they use Advantax. No fleas for him, though, so at least it works for that!
That's really great that you're adopting, that's totally the way to go
You'll look down at that adorable face everyday and know that you saved his life. It's such a great feeling.
The Pets board will give you tons of links and info about good food brands. I found with my Sheltie, who has a gluten allergy (it's common in Shelties) I just had to try several different brands, phasing one in slowly and the other out slowly, until I found one he likes. I feed Natural Choice in the sensitive stomach flavors. The Pet board would shun me for that, but our dog wouldn't eat the "better quality" foods like Wellness or they gave him bad diarrhea. I'm not saying that you should feed Science Diet or Purina (shudder) though, just that the "best quality" brand may not be right for your dog.
Try Googling for an independent pet shop in your area rather than Petco or Petsmart. They're much more knowledgable and I found that they were much more on top of the pet food recalls and stuff like that then the big chains.
Educate yourself before going to the vet, at least in our area they overvaccinate like crazy. My previous vet gave me an attitude when my dog got sick from being given too many vaccines at once.
Yeah, my dog wouldn't eat Wellness CORE. We started him on that and he did fine for a few months and then he stayed at my friend's house and got some of her dog's Kirkland. After that it was like he was on a hunger strike. He literally didn't eat for 3 days unless I mixed him food with something (like wet food or yogurt). So I switched him to Blue Buffalo and he loves it and chows it down now. I'd rather he eat a 3 star food that he loves over a 5 star food that he hates and won't even eat.
But I would like to add that I love and support PetCo! I worked for a non-profit animal center and we have a pet food program similar to Meals on Wheels where we feed the pets of elderly people who can't go out and buy their own. PetCo is our biggest contributor to this program! And they send us GOOD food, not the super cheap stuff. Also the PetCo near the center stopped selling live animals and donated all of the bird cages to us so our birdies all got new, REALLY nice cages.
Two different PetCos I guess. Our sucks. It's staffed by teenagers who act put out if you ask about anything, and they know *nothing* about pets. The in-house vet (Banfield) is the one who gave me an attitude when I complained that my dog got sick from so many vaccines at once. He said, and I quote, "your dog is a wimp, I've given that make shots to a chihuahua and he was fine."
They also sell tons of live animals, pretty much everything except dogs and cats. They have a multi-cage "cat adoption" room, but you can't hold the cats or play with them or anything. Just stare at their cages through the glass. I fail to see how this is better than the pound.