Saturday 26 July 2014

Edinburgh Zoo

Took kids to Edinburgh zoo yesterday .

Great day out. Hilly site. But worth the hike around. My favourites were the penguins, meerkats, and the rhino. I wasn't fussed on the big cats, birds, monkeys or Giant Panda. Weird as I went mainly to see the Pandas.

Couple pics attached.

RAW food does have an obvious drawback.

I'm a good few months into raw feeding. While my cat has embraced it easier than my dog. I'm still plodding along.

However, as my dog sometimes walks off without touching it, I left it down thinking he would go back. In this heat, this is a bad mistake.

For example, I gave him a meaty beef rib bone (I think it was rib) to chew on. I didn't expect him to eat it, more for recreational use.

As he got up to go indoors, greenbottles from nowhere came and started to have their fill. (see picture)

I also had flies hang around the bowls indoors after mealtimes.

This made me look into ways on feeding. No longer food can stay down for ages. Now picked up after 30mins and put back in fridge, and regiven at next meal time (breakfast or supper).

Can't slack on food hygiene with raw food. But the benefits for my cat and dog outweigh the extra bowl cleaning time.

Wednesday 23 July 2014

Lovely Testimonial just arrived.

Our cats are a very special part of the family and their welfare is at the top of the agenda if we have to work late, be away for a weekend or even a fortnight’s holiday. Our cats are quite elderly now and like to be in familiar surroundings with all their home comforts. Finding Susan at Uncle Eric's to care for them at home was a huge relief.

Susan is totally professional and reliable. She carries out all that she needs to do and a great deal more with care and concern, not only for the cats but for us and for our home. Above all, she loves animals as much as we do and we can leave our cats secure in the knowledge that they are in the best possible hands.

I recommend Uncle Eric's without hesitation or reservation – having Susan on our side to help juggle busy working lives and the needs of our cats has been one of the best decisions we have ever made.

Mrs E Fiddaman

Tuesday 22 July 2014

Beautiful Countryside

We are lucky up here in Consett. No matter which dogs we walk, we are normally only a few minutes from beautiful countryside.

Farmland, cycle paths (from old railway lines) surrounding the area in all directions. Armed with my trusty phone, playing podcasts into my ears, I love to take photos of flowers, plants, bugs, mushrooms, mould, dead trees and animals.

I hold no shame in altering these pics for comic effect. I litter my Facebook and Twitter via Instagram with them at every opportunity I can.

I try to get a cringe factor from my pics. And with that said, here is one now.

Monday 21 July 2014

All dogs catered for. Big, small, old, young and poorly too.



Because our unique business model is mainly ONE walker to ONE dog, (we never group walk  or let dogs off lead) we can look after individual dogs needs when they arise.

Such as after an operation (like Lani here above after an eye operation).



As her vision is currently down to one eye and the safety collar also narrows her field of view, she is now quite nervous of narrow areas.

We are easily helping her overcome this by taking things slower and encouraging her verbally combined with altering existing routes with more wider spaces. This would be very problematic under group walking, where attention is spread thinly with many dogs.

Re-welcome to our blog

Hello and a big RE-welcome to our  blog.

Hopefully we will use this to bring you up to date information on our activities, past/present and future. But everything should be pet based, even loosely.


For a recap
Based in Consett, we started back in 2007, under the name Waggs. However a pet boutique opened locally with a similar name, and to save confusion we opted for UNCLE ERIC'S PET CARE instead. We are a family run business and all of us help out when needed. My 4 kids have all helped out for 7 years.

Our Services
Dog walking (always on lead and mainly 1 to 1 walking, giving us the ability to tailor make any walks as and when required)

Pet taxi
(by pre-booked appointment only, after 3pm, unless you require a vet drop off before 9am for a surgical procedure)

Pet visiting
(we come to your house to feed and clean up after your pet in the comfort of their own home. Highly preferred for many cat owners. This includes moving mail from doorway and watering plants if needed.) PLEASE NOTE - WE DO NOT DO THIS FOR DOGS. DOGS ARE SOCIAL ANIMALS AND NEED COMPANY. DOGS WILL FRET, WORRY, BECOME BORED AND DESTROY HOMES IF LEFT ALONE TOO LONG. 

Pet minding (Small CAGED animals stay here looked after by us in our own home. We DO NOT look after dogs or cats)

Contact Us

email - eric@waggs.biz
website - www.waggs.biz
twitter - ImUncleEric
facebook - Uncle Eric's Pet Care
tel no - 01207 580919 (please leave a message AND a contact number if no one answers)
mob no - 07845635810 (please leave a message AND a contact number if no one answers)








Sunday 20 July 2014

Sunday 6 July 2014

Dog and cat food

By I have decided to do something interesting for me and my pets. Pets have gone native. Back to raw.
Its a minefield on good / bad information out there. Everyone has their own opinion on all aspects of pet food. Some are commercial only, some raw only, and some both mixed.
I've read on Facebook pages dedicated to Raw food  people's opinions but little fact.
Many slander the pet food market and their marketing. Calling them evil etc for the sake of a making a profit.
I tend to side with the overall thought process too however, where is the proof that Raw food is best.
Raw feeders "seem" to be followers of common sense. For which I applaud. I, am a lapsed Analytical Chemist, I was trained in factual analysis of everything. So how did I mistakenly feed my pets processed for many years within questioning it?
Pure laziness is all I can think of.
I always thought that every can would be the same regardless of manufacturer or brand. Meat and veg in huge vat, cooked, and tinned. I would compare labels and check like for like of content analysis and buy that way. Then I went down cheapest route. What a wrong way or way for a supposedly educated person.
When I started to wake up to the rubbish in a can or huge sack. I moved to home cooked. I thought I could replicate the tinned stuff but control the ingredients at home. No more added artificial colours, preservatives or flavours. I was aware of raw feeding but never considered it. Somehow in the back of my mind, if cooked meat is better for humans surely killing any bugs must be better for pets.
Again I ask now. Where is the scientific fact to back up anything I did? Appears I never saw any. I can assume pet food manufacturers have it all. I am sure they will have tested all their tinned / canned vs Raw. But no profitable pet food business would dare release info if Raw was clinically proven to be healthier. If they did, surely they would lose customers in theirs droves and be forced potentially out of business.
This is the start of my journey  trying to sort actual fact from heresay.
I have read on plenty of sites and books that dogs should eat 80% meat, 10%, offal and 10% bone. Good information which sounds plausible but I have yet to find out why.
My journey will attempt to bring common sense back to my research. I will also try to find scientific fact (or at least a biological hypothesis) to match people's claims of why processed foods are bad, and raw is good.
So far, I'm studying the enzymatic breakdown processes of foods in the dog / cats digestive system. Finding reasons why cooking foods affects these processes from working properly. Again, what I am reading is common sense. Cooking destroys any enzymes on the actual meat itself which a dog would absorb and use to break it down into amino acids which can be used by the body to rebuild new needed proteins / muscles in their body. If a dog eats less usable enzymes, it has to compensate somehow. It's Pancreas has to work harder supplying enzymes. This itself, an over active Pancreas, can have a problematic affect on a dog / cat.
Arrghh brain overload for now.

Delayed rant

It will come eventually.