Overeating in enclosure?
Posted: 20 Apr 2019, 15:59
Me again, more questions!
Bella's outdoor pen is a repurposed whelping box (like this but 4ft x 4ft)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dog-Whelping ... Swb2lcreQe
I'd love to build her a permanent pen but unfortunately it's not my garden, its my landlords (we live on the same property). I'm allowed access to it but I can't do such things as building pens, ripping parts up to put new grass down etc. The whelping box can be dismantled at short notice when necessary and it's heavy enough that at her size I'm not concerned about her lifting it up to escape. Burrowing may become a separate issue later but so far she's not much of a digger, even in her table.
The lawn consists of grass, clover, dandelions and daisies probably in equal quantities. I have two concerns.
First is the daisies. I know these are bad, but so far I've not seen her go for them, in fact she seems to be actively avoiding them. I'm guessing she must know on some level that they are not tasty, do I need to worry about them being there? I saw on the listing that they probably won't cause harm if nibbled on a little?
The second concern is, should I be worried about her overeating out there? She's a clover seeking missile at the moment, and am I right in thinking it's quite high in protein? She does have other stuff available, I've grown some mixed weeds in trays and there's one in there to graze on, so she does eat other things too. She's been out there all day yesterday and all day today, she's not eating non stop, rather nibbling, trundling and napping. Should I restrict her outside time or will she moderate her own food intake?
As you can probably tell I'm quite a worrier
Thanks!
Bella's outdoor pen is a repurposed whelping box (like this but 4ft x 4ft)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dog-Whelping ... Swb2lcreQe
I'd love to build her a permanent pen but unfortunately it's not my garden, its my landlords (we live on the same property). I'm allowed access to it but I can't do such things as building pens, ripping parts up to put new grass down etc. The whelping box can be dismantled at short notice when necessary and it's heavy enough that at her size I'm not concerned about her lifting it up to escape. Burrowing may become a separate issue later but so far she's not much of a digger, even in her table.
The lawn consists of grass, clover, dandelions and daisies probably in equal quantities. I have two concerns.
First is the daisies. I know these are bad, but so far I've not seen her go for them, in fact she seems to be actively avoiding them. I'm guessing she must know on some level that they are not tasty, do I need to worry about them being there? I saw on the listing that they probably won't cause harm if nibbled on a little?
The second concern is, should I be worried about her overeating out there? She's a clover seeking missile at the moment, and am I right in thinking it's quite high in protein? She does have other stuff available, I've grown some mixed weeds in trays and there's one in there to graze on, so she does eat other things too. She's been out there all day yesterday and all day today, she's not eating non stop, rather nibbling, trundling and napping. Should I restrict her outside time or will she moderate her own food intake?
As you can probably tell I'm quite a worrier
Thanks!