December 2025

Another year on the way out, that didn’t seem to take long! 2024 is finishing up with good early rain and a lot of mowing here…having most of my sheep killed over the last couple of years doesn’t help with the mowing. The dog situation, as in mongrel wild dogs and semi feral domestic ones, is getting worse and it seems nobody cares much. Sheep on left was also attacked last year; I should have shot him but after he staggered all the way back from the gully to the house yard I felt obliged to look after him. He had a hole eaten into his rib cage between his shoulder blades by the dogs. After about 2-3 months and a lot of lucerne chaff later he’s starting to put on weight! I use a spray of Cod liver oil, Colloidal Silver and Manuka honey after the initial shot of ABs.

I contacted the National Coordinator for Wild Dog Control after my last attack, told him exactly where he could find a pack, and he hummed and haahed about baiting programmes, etc. and was 100% useless. I thought he’d know of an experienced trapper or shooter at least. Town dogs in Nobby and Clifton seem to have a lot of freedom, there will be less of them if people don’t keep them at home!

To Kelpies. I have two litters at present, Naka has four to Cruise and McKenzie has six to Sid. Both are likely on their last litters as they have quite big teats and it’s not something I want to breed more of, after spending ages trying to get a couple of McKenzie’s drinking. I was really stiff the next day from kneeling for ages! Naka lost a couple and it might have been partly from her two big ones…I like to leave bitches alone when whelping and try not to interfere. There are too many breeds needing human intervention with reproduction already. My local vet said it took him about ten years to sort out his Mini Schnausers regarding breeding issues…all sorts of things. Needing C Sections and not milking were two, I think, infertility another. He was lucky to be able to spey them and find them pet homes without much expense until he established a line of healthy dogs.

We have obtained a couple of nicely bred bitches that have some Karmala breeding and are suitable for adding that little bit of fresh blood I’m always looking for, having seen from experience that it’s fatal to think your dogs are so good nothing will improve them! The latest is one Kevin Noble bred, Koonamara Rainbow/Speedy (Karmala Skitch/Boss x Koonamara Lara II). She has a bit too much eye for Aussie Whites but is a lovely classy girl with a great temperament…and more importantly, has never been known to bite! I ran on two or three bitches with Motley’s Russell breeding but they all bit sheep and were sold for cattle. John White said the bite came through White’s Tex, Russell’s sire, and we found it bred on through Skip. Apparently Boss has a name for bite too, so fingers crossed Speedy won’t carry it through when mated. Lara is Naka’s dam. We don’t use sires with much eye, but like them to be able to find a bit when working a few, or single animals. Kevin always liked to keep some eye and style in his dogs and was a bit of a fan of old Glide. He was instrumental in mating Tilly to Blackdog Sam, she was a lovely stylish bitch and so was Tash, so not surprising Speedy has inherited some eye.

 

 

One of the Sid x Mina litter went out to Candice Roberts at Injune, and she sent me this vid recently. I just love it! I used to train my pups on the job years ago and at the end of 12 mths they were very handy. Easier to drop a pup out like this and let it get the idea of driving a mob… the hardest thing to teach my pups is to stop chasing the lead, but if they can’t see it? Perfect. 

Emma was down for a couple of days and it hardly stopped raining, mid month. We didn’t get to give Charge/Billee(Coin x Liv) a run which is probably a good thing, she’s starting to settle down a bit. Libby Trickett went very nicely,(Barney x Mina) and so did her young brother and sister Kyba and Emmy by Sid our GibsonxSunny boy. Hoping his sister Sun is in pup to Jack(AcexMina). From all of which you might gather Mina is breeding some lovely pups!

 

 

This is LibbyTrickett, Emmy’s older half sister x Sid.

The one below is Emmy’s brother Kyba/KyleChalmers, his second look.

 

This is  a Wiggle grand daughter, Jakeeva Sage/Tilly, she’d only worked cattle prior to this look. Nice bitch.

My little Coin x Sass bitch Ami is an absolute delight. Growing up fast and smart enough to get on with all the other dogs.

 

Naka’s pups are just starting on mince!

 

McKenzie whelped to Sid a couple of weeks after Naka. She was in very good condition, probably a bit fatter than she should have been because she’d been getting extra bits as I walked past to fed Naka. Three of the pups had trouble hitching on for a drink because her boobs were big and there were seven pups. I spent time getting two hitched on but the red/tan boy was very upset every time I tried, he’d yell blue murder, upset mum, and she’d jump around and undo the other two, so I had to leave him be. These two bitches both have big teats and will likely be spayed and retired from breeding when they wean their pups; neither have reared many litters, and I don’t like breeding faults forward. Both bitches are beautiful workers and won’t be upset at all!

 

 

 

 

One of the more popular dry foods at present seems to be this one. I’m just posting for interest. As you all know I think it’s very important to feed as much raw/bones as you can manage, but it’s often hard to do if there’s not much available. Remember, dogs don’t need and are not designed to eat carbs and they are the cause of obesity and disease in both dogs and humans. If breeding animals are fed badly for years it can affect the health of future generations as the mitochondria are affected. A leading orthopaedic vet recently remarked on the big  increase in bad hips and luxating patellas he was seeing in kelpies. A few things popped into my head….pups growing fast on kibble, more weight on their joints, being started early and starting to back sheep too soon. And that’s apart from the bad/close breeding the vet was blaming!

    This has become a very popular kibble and out of curiosity I did a bit of Googling. This review was done by a very experienced person who has been involved in assessing dog foods for 10 years. Bio at end.

The canola oil gives a good shine to the coat but when fed over time is carcinogenic, causing inflammation which can lead to cancers at a relatively young age. Nearly all vitamins and minerals in pet food come from China. (So do lemonade icy poles, if you’re interested!) The carb calculator is great. 

Enduro Full Boar

Ingredients: Kangaroo Meat, WholegrainWheat, Wholegrain Sorghum, Soya beans, Chicken Meal, Wholegrain Rice, Corn, Vegetables, Prime Beef Tallow, Chicken Flavour, Polyunsaturated Canola Oil, Essential Vitamins A,D D3, E, K, B1, B2, B6, B12, Niacin, Biotin, Folic Acid, Potassium Chloride, L-Lysine, DL-Methionine, Choline Chloride, iodised salt and mixed Tocopherols (Vitamin E).

Analysis: Crude protein 27%, Crude fat 17%, Crude fibre <5%, Calcium 2.4%, Phosphorous 1.85%, Omega 6 (18:2) 0.8%, Omega 3 (18:3) 0.14%, Linoleic Acid 1%, Sodium Chloride (max) 1%, Energy 1760kj (4200 kcal per 1kg).

There are a few products in the Enduro range, with this seemingly the most premium. They’re an Australian company with no website and no real web presence, which is ominous in this day and age. It was originally promoted by a kennel in Queensland (some archive info can be found here), but is now available through a few stores and wholesalers. For a price around $2.50 per kilo it seems very good value for money, but let’s take a look…

The first ingredient is Kangaroo meat and kangaroo by-products. Kangaroo is an excellent lean meat and great for dogs. By-products are often frowned upon in pet food as the quality is usually very poor, with decent cuts of meat already removed for human consumption. By-products such as organ meats are highly nutritious, but the quality of this ingredient is largely open to speculation and can (and will) contain a lot of waste.

It’s sad to see the food take a huge dive with the next three ingredients. We often find cheaper foods packed to the brim with what I call “filler grains”. Wheat is the biggest culprit, a very cheap inclusion and the #1 cause of allergic reactions and skin complaints in dogs. When I see dogs with bloat or a dry coat it seems to be a trend that they’re fed wheat-based products. Wheat as the second ingredient will ensure the bulk of the food will consist of wheat, especially after the moisture is cooked out of the kangaroo (about 70% moisture).

Carbohydrates don’t need to be listed on the label of pet foods in Australia, but we can use a simple calculation to offer us a rough idea. It’s not perfect, and I’ll explain why, but the following method is how to calculate carbohydrates in pet food.

Carbohydrate Calculator

Protein (%): 27

Fat (%): 17

Moisture (%): 10

Ash (%): 8

Calculate

Carbohydrates: 38.00%

David D’Angelo has worked as a scientist since graduating with a BSc (Hons) in 2000. In addition, David holds a CPD accredited Diploma in Pet Nutrition as well as being CPD accredited VSA (Veterinary Support Assistant). However, his experience and involvement in the pet food industry for 15+ years has given true insight into pet food, formulations, science, research, and pet food marketing. Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram | Pinterest

 

 

This was interesting too. The dog had been on Pedigree Pal plus some bones when she arrived and her ears were orange! I took this after she’d had raw for two weeks and the orange was falling off. Heaps of info elsewhere on my website under nutrition.

Well, I hope you all have a good finish to the year and wish you all a very happy Christmas season… I’m certainly not into “happy holidays” and am well aware most of you won’t be having a long one anyway!!

All the best for a very happy, healthy 2025.