Noodles Haul from Discover Dog 2014 Part 3: Platinum Natural Pet Food Review

Noodles doesn't usually take food from strangers or from bowls or from the floor without my ok, especially if there are lots of strangers about. But the Platinum brand had a dry food so yummy even the Noodles had to stop and woof down some chow from their tester bowl. ^_^

This brand has three flavours of dry food:

• Chicken (Puppy and Adult)
• Lamb & Rice
• Iberico (Pork) & Greens

Samples of the three flavours.

Noodles only liked their Lamb and Rice flavour. This is apparently 70% lamb meat and made in such a way it feels semi-moist which seems to be a plus for Noodles. The pellets are square and similar size to the Lily's Kitchen Woodland Walk. It smells meaty but not over powering for the Human. Noodles seemed to be fine after eating it without the usual gentle easing in for change of food so far.

If you want further information click HERE. This brand is quite handy as you can order online for delivery (FREE in most cases). They also gave Noodles a sample of their treat sticks - she gobbled them so quickly I don't have a picture of them.

The brand may seem expensive at first glance. But if you bulk buy the price does slash quite dramatically. But as I have experienced with Noodles she only likes of of the three flavours (no interest in the other two) so if you want to try before you buy I believe the brand is still doing samples via their website.  My mum went for the 5kg Lamb and Rice RRP £24.94, which the stall helpers says can store for over 6 months if sealed properly as you would with other dry food.

A paws up from Noodles on the Lamb & Rice from Platinum. ^_^

Noodles Haul from Discover Dog 2014 Part 2: Daisys Dog Deli Review

Noodles homed into this stall on the day (she is very picky with food so you know there is something yummy there!)

This stall smelt lush! You would have thought it was a normal human bakery! There was so much to choose from Noodles was definitely in a doggy equivalent of a candy store. ^_^

We went for the Lazy Day Loaf in the end (£2.50 for a slice at the show, £9.99 + delivery on their website for a loaf). This is made from Beef, Cheddar and Spinach. It smelt so yummy even I got hungry! Noodles couldn't get enough of it. They have a store in Bluewater if anyone in the South East goes shopping during Xmas and want to pick something up.

Click HERE if you want to visit their website.

Noodles Haul from Discover Dog 2014 Part 1: Lily's Kitchen Review

Went to Discover Dog Show at Earls Court at the weekend. This show happens every year in London in October/November. It's a great place to meet all the different breeds of dogs if you're thinking of getting a dog and if you have a doggy pal it's a great place to go to to pick up a deal on new stuff you want to buy for them.

I've tried other items in the Lily's Kitchen range with Noodles before but she wasn't interested. But having read reviews of other items in their range I decided to give them a try since there was a show deal on the day.

Show deal £10 for all these! (1kg Woodland Walk RRP £6.99,  400g Wild Campfire Stew RRP £2.19, 60g Breakfast Crunch RRP £1.59, 400g Venison & Wild Rabbit Terrine RRP £2.19, 150g Organic Chicken Supper RRP £1.29)

Noodles LOVES the Woodland Walk dry food. She cleans the bowl and can't wait for this stuff! It is made of Venison, Duck and Salmon (further ingredient information click here). The pellets are crunchy but not ultra dry (may be why Noodles prefers this over the other two dry food offered by Lily's Kitchen.) The size of the pellet is also slightly bigger than the average dry dog food but doesn't seem to bother Noodles - she is a 20kg medium size dog though. It also doesn't have an over powering smell of dog food so the average doggy parent so be ok with it.

Noodles didn't take to the Breakfast Crunch immediately like the Woodland Walk but after I reassured her that it wasn't from outer space she also took to it, her tail wagging whenever I have the bag out. This is made from Chicken & Turkey (click HERE for ingredient information. It is slightly crunchier and drier than the Woodland Walk pellets but Noodles seems to still like crunching these, again it also smells pleasant and herby. Not sure I will be giving it to Noodles for breakfast but definitely a nice treat for her.

Haven't tried the three wet foods yet but will update when we get round to them.

Noodles definitely gives Woodland Walk and Breakfast Crunch the paws up.  Most importantly so far so good her number twos have stayed in good condition and no stomach upsets from starting the new food.

If you want to try out Lily's Kitchen's food for your doggy pals they have the following codes valid until December offered from Discover Dogs:

• DISCOVER14 : 10% off the whole range, valid until 15th December, code can only be used once.
• STARTER14: £10 off a minimum spend of £40, valid until 15th December.

I've already ordered more of the Woodland Walk and their Rise and Shine Treat to try, will review when Noodles has had a try.

Spaying Diary: Day 0 - 11 onwards

We decided to spay Noodles 3 months after her first season. I decided to blog her daily progress as I found it very useful to see other owners story as it was a very nervous experience to see your dogs go through.

Day before operation

No food allowed after 8pm

Day 0 - Monday

• No breakfast, went to vets at 9am
• Got call at 2pm to say we can pick her up
• 3pm made it to the vets t pick her up. She was very drowsy when we picked her up. The nurse said she can have a light meal and water tonight. But to take her out to toilet on lead
• The only thing Noodles wanted to do was sleep. She was whining in her sleep.

Day 1 - Tuesday

• She was still sleepy, started drinking water, not really into eating yet.
• Still hadn't gone for number 1 or 2.

Day 2 - Wednesday

• Moving and not sleeping as much but not jumping about.
• Eating and drinking normally now.
• Doing number 1.
• Went to see nurse at Vets doing fine wound healing fine.

Day 3 - Thursday

• Finally doing number 2!
• Mostly back to normal but not as hyper as usual yet.

Day 4 - Friday

• Everything's back to normal except she has a cone on her head you wouldn't know she's had an operation.

Day 5 - Saturday

• She's decided she hates the cone so much she's eaten a bit of it to try to get it off (vomits and sick up the plastic she ate.

Day 6 - Sunday

• She's eaten more of the cone, I call vets to tell Nurse she's having more trouble with cone than its worth. 
• Given the ok to remove cone as long as she's not interested in stitches...... turns out she don't care about stitches one bit.

Day 7 to 10 - Monday to Wednesday

• Now without the cone she is very happy bunny and all is back to normal.
• Last post-op visit on day 10, nurses say wound has healed very nicely, its actually the sutures outside (visible black stitches) that are irritating her hence the small inflammation so stitches are taken out.

Day 11 Thursday onwards

• Inflammation from the stitches are going down by the day! Almost back to normal and we can take her out on off leash soon hopefully!

Pictures of her incision site as it heals

Day 0

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Vet's Kitchen Dog Food

Continued food diary for our Pup, I've finally found the holy grail dog food for Noodles. The little Bum was happily eating the dry dog food we had found in the previous post that didn't upset her tummy until she hit her first season when she decided she was going to go on hunger strikes if she wasn't given something she fancied.

I'd tried it all, only offering her food at set times and if she didn't eat withdrawn it after. It did make her eat her food but she certainly wasn't enjoying her dinners like she use to. 

So I set about to try various flavours and brands see if anything will tickle her fancy at all.

The brands and flavours below she tried and didn't like (some straight away, others she got bored of eventually). Honest to god its nothing personal to the brands/flavours they are all actually very good - no problems as such like skin or stomach issues just she simply didn't fancy them enough to continue eating them on a daily basis.

• Elements Premium: Its seemed like she only liked the Puppy Large Breed Salmon and Potatoe, when I moved her onto the Adult Duck and Potatoe she only managed to finish half of the 15kg bag before refusing to eat it. A shame as her stools and coat were all looking very good.
• Wainwright: She liked the Puppy Salmon and Potatoe but when we moved her onto the Adult Salmon and Potatoe she ate a quarter of the 15kg bag before refusing to eat it anymore. I wasn't as impressed with the adult version though because her coat didn't look as nice as when she was only the puppy version.
• Laughing Dog Complete Dog Food with Chicken: She doesn't like it as dinner but will eat it as biscuit treats?
• Milburns Premium Dog Food Adult Lamb and Rice: She doesn't seem to like it as food or biscuits.
• Lily's Kitchen Chicken and Duck Grain Free Food for Dogs: This was a shocker thought she would really like this but she barely had interest in it and only ate 1/4 of a 1kg bag before disregarding it altogether. May be she doesn't like Duck Flavoured dry food?

Lily's Kitchen Dog Food Organic Chicken with Vegetables Bake came in a close possible. Noodles liked it and it smells lovely but it seemed to be harder for her to chew and she wasn't very 'enthusiastic' about dinner times taking ages to finish a bowl going back and forth to it (its a good thing for her teeth but the lazy bum tries to swallow instead of chew if she can.) But this is definitely a backup if her favourite runs out.

There is however no denying that she loves the Vet's Kitchen brand stuff. She has tried the Adult Chicken and Brown Rice, Adult Chicken and Brown Rice Light, Adult Salmon and Potatoe and their Joint Supplement. She gets excited as soon as I bring in the bags of food, she finishes each bowl in record time and there is no doubt she likes the food. She also can't wait to get her daily spoon of joint supplement charging in and waiting eagerly when she hears the sound of the bottle cap opening. 

Not only is she happy to eat this food. I've noticed her fur is now super duper soft (more so than when she was eating any of the other brands). Her stool is also super firm and minimal smells! The joint supplement I can't really comment on as I only got it as a preventative measure for when she gets older.

I definitely recommend this brand. Also when you see them at shows they usually have a £5 for any 2 bags of 1.3kg food or supplement offer so it works out really cheap to try their stuff for you own pooches (that's how I got my first batch to try out all three flavours and the supplement).

Stocked in Sainsbury and Asda RRP is £5.99ish but often offers like this month have them reduced to £4.49 or £5 respectively. One bag of 1.3kg lasts Noodles about 1.5weeks (she's a 19kg medium dog).

After my experience I would suggest when you have a puppy moving on to adult food to try out their response to them with the smaller bags as I've had to throw out so much before I found the one she likes and it definitely wasn't a cheap experience.

Trying out dog treats!

Noodles is definitely not a fussy eater but not everything that her mouth likes is happy with her tummy.

I try to give her a range of treats, these are some of treats that are yummy to her and her tummy:

Left to right: Salmon biscuit, Pedigree Milky biscuit, Liver biscuit
(Salmon and Liver biscuits from Pets at home pick and mix 26p for 100g, Pedigree biscuit cheapest at Sainsbury for £1.00 for 350g)

Stockbull venison cubes from Perrorojos
(Noodles loves it but other half can't stand the smell so not for those who don't like strong smelling treats.)

Good Boy Yogurt drops good training treat. was £2.99 at local pet shop.

Nice soft Chicken and Duck sandwich treat from Perrorojos

Jerky chicken breast a favourite for Noodles

Good Boy Rawhide sticks £5 on Petplanet better thickness than the small chomp stix sold at Sainsbury (also good value but petplanet better value for size).

New Misfits Motley mix, Noodles also likes Scruffy bits.

LOOK Toffee Cup Shade 4 Lipstick

I've always wanted to try LOOK lipstck, I was debating whether to get the Tangerine shade as well but I'd never used their lipstick specifically so thought I'd try the Toffee Cup first. RRP £7 was on discount for £4.

 

 

Casing is a bit on that large side. It has a magnetic lid, feels a bit 'loose' but is sturdy. The texture is very creamy and has a lovely vanilla taste to it. Easy to apply. Not long lasting (will need to reapply during the day) but very good color with only 1 layer. Nice nude color that's not too skin or pinky. Love it. May go back and try some other colors whilst the offer and stock is still on.

Superdrug currently doing up to 1/2 price off LOOK and Accessorize makeup! With the stuff I've tried (eyeliner, eyeshadow and now lipstick) they are nice quality makeup and with the discount is very affordable.