hi all - having a senior moment, although not a senior yet!!! can someone tell me what total cereal is in the recipe for satin balls and where can i get unsulphered mollasses and also is the wheatgerm liquid or powder? and also where do i get it. hope someone can help me!!!

Total is a popular american cereal, to my knowledge it's not available here - I would guess maybe wheat bran flakes are similar?

I've said before that I don't think satin balls are all that great, and a huge amount of hassle - looking at the ingredients of Total I'm even more convinced. Green tripe will body your dog up

The total cereal is cereal like weetabix etc, that is what we use when making up the satin balls recipe for our dogs,the unsulphered mollasses is black treacle preferably but normal will do if you cant get the black and the wheatgerm comes in a powdered form and can be found in the same aisle in tescos for example where you would pick up the oats. All the ingrediants we get when we do our weekly shop in Tescos. And just a tip buy a cheap bucket as by the time all the ingrediants have gone in you will need something quite large to mix it in. We found the bucket is the best.

Happy Mixing

Kodie

I'm with my learned Scottish friend...
Make life easy for yourself try out the Green (unbleached) Tripe first..much easier,very effective...but...whiffy!! :) Ive been using it on my latest addition (who came to me weighing less than half the breed standard..bless) Im not that convinced that a rapid weight gain is the way to go.

Ditto from me...

Cant see what cereals are really going to do to help, nor sugar.

Nutritious meat, fatty meat, these will put on weight. Too much at one time will cause the squits - banging on weight too fast will cause the dog other problems.

If i was looking to put on weight id be wanting to do it slowly over a period of months, using tripe and lamb.

Em

thanks everybody,i do use tripe and wholemeal biscuits but i just wanted to put abit more weight on my young rottie , alhough she is not thin her body is well covered but i would like to see her abit heavier,she is 17 months old   but saying that after looking what goes into the balls i think i would upset her tummy as she does suffer if i give her anything different in her dinner, but if i increase her dinner i seem to have more to pick up in the morning, perhaps im just worrying for nothing she is very healthy and fit and her coat has a lovely shine to it and i suppose she will start filling out as well now she is coming out of the teenage stage!!.  many thanks for all your replies

have just read this reply!  I think with the breed you have  they are usually slower to mature in body. I have dobes and I was always worrying about the weight thing, but i have now learnt that time is a big factor!! you don't want a collosal puppy as this may cause them problems, i'm sure with a bit of time she will come right and you will be pleased with the results!

Nah, i think you need time and exercise, not extra food...

If extra is just coming out as more waste then its not having the desired effect as she just doesnt need it.

Id work out a program of gradually increased exercise over the next few months, doing some speedy walking up hills, bit of controlled jogging, some munching on big chunky raw bones (great for neck and shoulders and jaws), much more likely to build up some nice muscle front and back, which is giogn to look nicer than excess fat.

Em

I am just going to ditto what alot of other people have said!
My boy was poorly over easter and lost nearly 10kg in 6 weeks :-(  alot of this was muscle too and i have managed to get him back in top condition with tripe being the main thing (mixed with proplan his complete dry food at the time) after a couple of weeks of this i started to introduce things like chicken wings and lamb breast to his diet. once he had got a resonable amount of weight on him again, gentle exercise was the key, alot of lead walks short but frequent and gradually increasing till he was much more stable on his legs and then short bursts of off lead and more lead walking till we worked up to his usual pattern of walk I was pleased to say that he was alot better by sept so took about 6 months really to get him up to scratch in a healthy way!

after all of my waffle, what was your reason for feeding satin balls? just for quick weight gain? what breed do you have?

At 17 months (I have a GSD boy 19 months) they are in that real teenage gangly stage. I think time is the best thing to mature him and put the weight on - that's what I'm going for anyway