Our First Cat Show

I decided I wanted to enter some cat shows to learn more about the Bengal breed and the standard judges are working towards and what they were looking for.  What they thought of my cats etc.  If I am breeding I feel I need to know more, I know what I need to be testing for health wise, they are all genetically clear for a couple of issues bengals can suffer with (kidney problems and eyes).  When they are old enough they will be heart scanned, so all those boxes are ticked, I just feel I need more ‘real life’ experience of what is going on in the Bengal world!  I had entered a show in July but Spec broke her tail the week before, so I entered the Wyvern show in the hope her tail had healed, I also entered Solly for experience as he is a little shy and needs to get used to being handled.

I had found the schedule out and entered a breed class for them each along with 3 side classes each for them.  It is quite easy to understand the schedules and entry forms, I did have to look up their breed/colour code though for the entry form.  The night before the show I clipped their claws, people always say their cats hate this but mine are fine.  I have a tube of squeezy cheese or pate which my husband feeds to them whilst I go round their claws clipping them, I don’t tend to need to do their back claws as they stay short so it is just the claws on their front feet.  They don’t like their ears cleaned though, I can do them quickly while they are at the food so I have to do a little bit at a time.  I gave them a quick brush and that’s our preparation done!  I gathered all our ‘stuff’ together so that I can just pack the cats in the morning.  I had two pieces of white vet bed, 2 litter trays, 2 water bowls, 2 feed bowls, a water bottle, cat food, cat litter, brush, ear/eye wipes, disinfectant wipes, their vaccination certificates and a trolley to transport everything!  Never would have thought you needed so much.

Show Day!

Spec having a look around!

I decided to get to the show fairly early so I could settle the cats in. So I got there at 8.15 (it opened at 7.30 and closed 9.15 I think).  There wasn’t much of a queue, I just followed what everyone else was doing so I went to the first table to get our little card which you then take to the vetting in table and the vet signs to say they are okay.  I was concerned about Spec’s vaccinations as they are in her passport and it’s difficult to understand what is what, the vet didn’t know either so she had to ask the main vet who said everything was okay.  So both cats went back in their boxes and the card was signed.  I looked at the card and assumed the number by each cat was my pen number so I went off to find the pens.  I found Spec’s pen first, wiped it all down and put her bedding in, litter tray, food, water and a toy followed by Spec.  Off I went to find Solly’s pen which was a little way away from hers.  Once the cats were in, Spec looked quite happy but Solly seemed a little overawed by it all so I went to a stall to by a feather teaser.  I spent a bit of time with him and he gradually came round and seemed to feel happier.  I walked over to Spec’s pen and played with her a little, she didn’t seem fussed in the slightest and I thought she would freak out!  At 10am we’re asked to leave the hall so the judges can judge the breed classes, you have to remove food from the pens and any toys.

Before

After

I waited patiently, had a couple of coffees, gave in to an adult colouring book and did a few puzzles.  

 At 1pm we were allowed back in but they were running late as they had lost a cat in a mechanical seating set up that sort of looked like a false wall!  So Solly’s breed class hadn’t been judged, Spec’s had and she had a lovely big 2^nd place rosette.  When I entered her I didn’t expect her to do that well as had been told GCCF aren’t keen on the dark colour, but I had checked with the office before and they had said I am okay to show her as she is registered as a seal lynx nothing more.  Her side classes were done and she had two firsts and a third in those, I was really pleased but super disappointed just to get place cards, people said you do normally get rosettes for the side classes, the entry fees are expensive, you are talking almost £50 a cat so I did expect a bit more.   

Solly’s results came in and he had a 3^rd in breed (judge said he was just a bit young compared to the other kittens) along with a couple of 2nds and a 3^rd in the side classes.  However he didn’t get any rosettes as they weren’t giving anything for 3^rd.

This show was also doing little rosettes that had ‘I like your cat’ written on them and the idea was you go and put it on another cats pen (not your own which I saw people doing!)  I thought it would be fair to put mine on a different breed, I have always liked Tonkinese so I put mine on a particularly lovely Tonkinese’s pen which actually ended up winning several big rosettes.  Someone put one on Solly’s pen so at least he did get a little rosette lol!

I was pleased with those results given it was their first show and Spec is only just out of kitten and Solly is still only young.  What I was impressed with was how they coped, Spec just loved it, she was so chilled out which I would never have expected as she is so naughty at home.  Solly got used to the environment and relaxed nicely too.  Some cats really don’t look like they are enjoying it and you do have to wonder whether it’s fair on them, I didn’t think I would show Spec again but she loved it so I will enter her in another show.  Tweed needs to mature a bit before she goes to a show but I know that she won't find it stressful as she just loves attention and is a really confident kitten so I don't feel I need to rush her into the show ring.

Pedigree Feeding Trial Summary

Our feeding trial with Pedigree has come to the end and the summary video is now available to watch on Youtube:



We spent 6 weeks earlier this year testing Pedigree complete both wet and dry food.  To start with I was a little put off at the amount of wet food they had planned for us - 3 pouches a day.  I am not keen on wet food, neither the cats nor the dogs have ever been fed, I am not keen on the smell nor am I keen on when you inevitably get some on your fingers, I just find it a bit yucky!  However on our nutrition day (post here) I learnt about how beneficial it is to feed them wet food as well as dry.

Actually the wet wasn't too bad as it looks quite appetising, it has little chunks of meat and veggies in it - actually looks a bit like a Sunday roast!  However it probably isn't something I would continue to feed, the pouches are easier than tins but they do still smell the bin out a bit so you have to take them out to the dustbin.  When you are running round after a 3 year old, a couple of dogs and cats as well,it really isn't something I can be bothered with.  Sweep enjoyed it though and I think if I didn't have so much going on in life or if I had a dog that was suffering from crystals in the bladder etc then it would be the food I would want to use as it does look better than anything else!

The dry, Sweep can be a bit of a picky eater but he enjoyed the dry also and they are decent sized biscuits so they can't just be inhaled and do have to be crunched which in turn is good for their teeth.

Dentastix - all of my dogs get on well with these apart from Sweep, they did make him sick and I am not sure why.  I ended up giving them to my sheltie and my welsh sheepdog and they are fine with them.  Possibly it may have been he was rushing them and not taking his time, I would like to have tried him on the Dentaflex as they are a bit harder to chew so he may have been better with these.

I did find that his stamina levels increased during the trial and now the trial has ended and he is back on a different food I have noticed they have dropped slightly.  While he was on Pedigree he didn't seem to tire easily when throwing a ball or agility training however now he does tire a bit quicker as he did before the trial.  Otherwise I didn't notice an awful lot of difference, he enjoyed his food more though!  His coat was as shiny as it has always been.  However you don't know what is going on inside, he may have been healthier inside but that is something we will never show because there weren't any outward signs that his health had changed.  At the end of the day it does come down to cost and with three dogs to feed I couldn't afford to feed them all Pedigree.  If you can afford it I would say go for it, it has changed my opinion of Pedigree and I really believe in the company in that they are trying to feed the good!

Pedigree Feeding Trial Week 3

Video from Week 3

Pedigree Feeding Trial Week 2

Week 2's Video

Pedigree Feeding Trial Week 1

Week one of our feeding trial, I have been asked to provide regular videos to track our progress.

A Dogs Story - App for Children & Dog Safety

While I was at the Pedigree/Waltham event day we were told about a new app especially designed for children around dog safety.  When I got home I downloaded it (on android from Google Play) and sat down with my almost 3 year old daughter.  Macy has been brought up around dogs and gets dragged along to agility shows so I would hope she knows how to behave around dogs but being still a toddler and going through a phase of she knows best it is always good to reiterate dog safety.  This app is great as it does just that but in the form of a game so the children are learning but don't realise they are!  

It is basically about a little boy and a dog who steals his brother's ball, the game follows the little boy who meets various people and dogs on the way to finding the dog who stole the ball.  The boy learns how to greet dogs properly, how to read their body language, not to approach sleeping dogs, dogs that are eating and take toys from dogs.  It is great because the child can see what would happen if the boy did the correct thing and what would happen if the boy was to do the incorrect thing and disturb a sleeping dog for example.  

Macy was brilliant, she got some right, she was great at reading their body language and how to stroke the dog.  She thought it would be nice to cuddle a scared dog, which in her mind she would have a cuddle if she was frightened so it is a difficult one for her to understand but with the help of this it is more likely to sink in.  Dinner was ready halfway through our game, as soon as she had finished she wanted to log back on and help the little boy find the dog and ball!  The game had paused it's progress and we started off where we left off until we found the dog with the ball!  At the very end the 'Guru' goes through everything learnt in the app and the child has to press the right option.  

Fantastic app as my 2 year old could play it (I had to show her which option was which as she obviously can't read yet, however some answers are picture format so she could pick herself) and it is also useful for older children.

All opinions are my own and have not been influenced in any way.

Pedigree at The Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition

Feed The Good?

I was invited by Pedigree and Mumsnet to attend an event at Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition to learn more about how Pedigree dog food is develop and learn more about canine nutrition.  I was interested in learning more about canine nutrition, having agility dogs it is especially important they are getting a fully nutritious diet.  There is an age old myth about pedigree and how it is packed full of rubbish just to bulk it up and I wanted to know the truth, I don’t really know how people can say this when they have probably never picked up a packet recently or recently fed it to their dogs.

I must admit when our feeding trial came through I was surprised at the amount of wet food and when I calculated Sweep’s daily allowance according to what they had given me it works out at 3 pouches a day plus a cup of dry food.  The Pedigree Tracks app calculates the exact weight of dry the dog needs.  Pedigree recommend feeding 50% wet, 50% dry so I questioned this on the day (having always just fed dry as it is more convenient and better for their teeth?)  Interestingly enough, I found out that the wet food contains about four times less calories per gram than dry food so it can help over feeding as you feel like they are getting more to eat. However for me the main thing I learnt was that because it contains more moisture than dry food, this is good for urinary tract health.  For me I have a cat who can suffer from urinary tract infections and wet food could actually combat this.  For the dogs I don’t think it would improve their health as they have never suffered however in future if I was to ever have a dog who suffered then this would be a way that may combat it.  Nutrition wise there is no difference between wet and dry, obviously if feeding only wet we need to be making sure we take care of their teeth, either teeth cleaning, Dentastix or Dentaflex (I did a trial with these, they were great, click here).

We started the day with a tour of the facilities.  I hadn’t realised how much goes on behind the scenes before dog food hits the shelf!  They have a lot of vets working with them and specialist nutritionists.  Pedigree is ultimately owned by Mars which is still a family run business with over 80,000 associates across 77 countries.  They went into the dog food industry in 1935 and they own Banfield Vet Hospital who is the biggest employer of vets.  So you can be sure they are qualified enough to know what a dog’s needs are!

They have a laboratory on site where they do all sorts of testing before they develop a food, for example they take dog stomach cells and test different ingredients on the cells to see whether they inflame to make sure it isn’t going to cause a bad reaction in a dog.  They are able to test different things on different bacteria found on the dog’s teeth to see whether they will help reduce gum disease, plaque etc.  Waltham recently found out that puppies need a higher level of Vitamin A in their diet and didn’t keep that to themselves, they shared it across the industry.

Their animals kept on site are happy and healthy and there are plenty of animal carers onsite who only look after a few animals so they get plenty of attention and by the end of the day they are quite happy to relax for the evening.  The animals are trained positively with reward based methods.  Pedigree aim for 85% of their food to be digested and 15% to come out as waste (poo!) and they can track that easily.  

We had a presentation on their factory and how the food is produced and what came across was how passionate they are about the quality of their food.  They have a specialist person who checks quality every couple of hours and on top of that they have a morning and an afternoon panel who also check on the quality – things like smell, chunk size etc, they say there are about 16 quality checks before food hits the shelves.  The factory works to high standards and you could actually eat the food yourself, the meat used is all parts of the animal that would normally get thrown away so it sustainable as it is cutting down waste.  Things like the carcass from the chicken, liver, lungs etc they are all high in nutrients but humans don’t like to eat them so they end up in our dog food, in the wild the dog would probably choose to eat these first as they are the tastiest!  The law says that to declare food as beef or chicken there must be a minimum of 4% of that meat and they have to declare that however Pedigree say that there is normally around 30-40% meat but it might not necessarily be chicken or beef and might be other meat.  This is then what is classed as a meat derivative.  Everything in the food is there for a reason and to give the dog a balanced diet, carbs are needed for energy not to bulk the food up.  No artificial flavours and no added sugar, salt is added as it is required for a balanced diet.

We had a talk from Sandra McCune about dogs and children and how they can really enrich the lives of our children.  In the USA children are more likely to grow up with a pet than a father!  Dogs have been proven to make us healthier, Dolling et al. cited by Mills 2013 found that savings to the NHS would be about £2.45billion!  Different studies have shown that children with pets have up to 2 weeks less days off sick from school than those without pets, those brought up with dogs are less likely to develop allergies and asthma and children like to talk to their pets about any troubles they may have so this means they are also less likely to suffer from anxiety and to be more empathetic.  Dogs in the classroom can help children focus and this is shown by the amount of reading programmes being developed.  So all in all pets can really enrich our lives and our children’s lives.

So all in all what I got from the day is the overwhelming message that Waltham/Pedigree really are trying their very best to create a better world for pets.  They really are feeding the good.

I am a member of the Mumsnet Bloggers Panel, a group of parent bloggers who have 

volunteered to review products, services, events and brands for Mumsnet. I have not paid to attend the event. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity.

Pedigree 6 Week Trial

 

Thanks Mumsnet and Pedigree for our 6 week supply of food.  Unfortunately Sweep has gone in for the snip today so we put off starting until he had been in as he will be on a light meal tonight.  

However he did have his first Dentastix and devoured that, nom nom!

We are looking forward to seeing how he gets on after 6 weeks, at the moment he is fit and healthy and has a super shiny coat, you can see how shiny his coat is from the below photo taken by Yellow Hound Photography at a local show:

Whiskas Kitten Food

Pedigree kindly sent us some kitten food as well as the Dentaflex for little Spice.  They also sent us a lovely ceramic bowl in the shape of a cats head, it's a really cute little dish.

Spice is a fairly fussy cat when it comes to food, Clee will eat anything, but Spice is fussy!  She loves the Whiskas kitten food though and enjoys all the different flavours.

It is nice because it is little chunks of meat in a jelly rather than just blended mush!  You put it in the dish and it looks and smells okay unlike most cat foods.

I must admit I like to feed dry as I think it's better for her teeth and she has been having the Whiskas dry food.  However I will give her a bit of this wet food from time to time to give her a bit of variety.

Pedigree Dentaflex

Thank you to Pedigree who sent us a box of goodies including a month's supply of Dentaflex for each dog, some food and treats for the kitten and a lovely limited edition bowl.

Sweep did a bit of posing before devouring his Dentaflex, nom nom nom.

Ember took a little longer over hers!

And Rum is probably the one who needs them most, he is 9 this year and has just started to get smelly breath!

Mmmmmm 

You feed them twice a week and I have to say I have noticed an improvement in Rum's breath. After a few days it started to smell so he had his second chew and smelt of roses again :) lol. 

They have all only had two so far so will report back after 4 weeks. They do smell horrid to me but the dogs seem to enjoy them so that's all that matters!

Pedigree JointCare+ Week 1

It is the end of week one and I have shot a quick video of Dizzy, she seems a lot less stiff but we still have a few weeks to go so we shall see!

Pedigree JointCare+ Day 1

Dizzy was selected by Pedigree to take part in their JointCare+ trial.  I am looking forward to trialing it as Dizzy does suffer with quite a lot of stiffness in her hips and shoulders.  Today was day 1 and she happily munched her chew.