Our baby chicks/guineas are doing great. I purchased
a variety of poultry to keep our chicken pen colorful, so we have French guineas, black sex-linked (love these, they are pretty and are great layers), cochin bantams (assorted), Danish Leghorns, Sussex, Cream Brabanters, Brahmas and one Silkie. Unfortunately we lost the tiny sick Silkie yesterday. Poor thing never figured out how to eat, and feeding it sugar water every few hours wasn't enough to keep the little guy alive.
These tiny little creatures are so messy. I have to clean out their cage three times a day, and what better place to store them safely as I clean than in a bucket.
KFC has nothing on me!
I have also had some issues with Maple, our lab-mix puppy. She has some food agression and will sometimes growl at me if I pat her when she is eating. I know this started when she was a puppy at the pound. She was in a cage with her nine brothers and sisters and had to fight for her food. However, I never thought she would bite (well, growl) at the hand that feeds her.
If f there is one thing I will not put up with (and believe me, I put up with many things; like hand-feeding sick baby chicks for days and mole guts on my patio from my cats), is ANY agression in a dog. I know you can't trust any dog 100%, but I have to know that children are safe around my dog. Otherwise I will find a new home for that dog.
Maple has never snapped or shown her teeth to anyone, and other than a few growls when she eats she has been incredibly sweet. However, I can't take any chances. So I googled food agression in dogs and found some tips. Tips that are pretty gross.
So what am I doing, you might ask? I have to feed Maple by hand for a week. I am not a fan of dog spit (I don't like dog kisses, esp. on my face) so this has been a bit challenging. Maple is not crazy about eating her dry food out of my hands, so every other feeding I am giving her canned food. Can you imagine feeding your dog wet canned food by hand??? YUCK!
But so far so good, she is even wagging her tail now as she eats, which is completely new. And she is taking the food gently and not one growl.
After a week I am supposed to drop her food piece-by-piece in her food bowl. Then I am supposed to fill her bowl up and sit by her. Finally, if she is still growling after I have done all of the steps, I will tell her that she better shape up or she is getting a new home, one without children. :-) So wish us luck. Maple has to learn that I am alpha dog in our house (at least when my husband is at work).
If you have ever had to deal with food agression in your dog, I would love if you could give me some tips. So far this method seems to be working so I am going to stick it out and just make sure I have plenty of soap and warm water on hand. :-)
NOTE: Megan commented below that I should not be feeding Maple the canned food because this is a treat and she would eat this no matter what. That smart dog is still alpha because she is getting me to feed her exactly what she wants (and that isn't dry food)! Am I smarter than a eight-month old lab-mix? Maybe not... ;-) So no more canned food for now. My husband always tells me that if a dog is hungry enough they will eat what you are serving and in our house dogs eat their healthy dry-food.
