Reasons to start your puppy on or to switch your dog’s kibble to a premium, all-natural New Zealand made kibble.
There are many brands of kibble being sold in New Zealand with each brand professing to be the best kibble for your dog, and with most of these brands being manufactured by overseas companies. These companies spend a lot of money marketing their brands but are they really beneficial and suitable for your dog?
At the Paw Store, we are selective in the products that we sell and will not sell a product that we do not believe is good for your pet, or that we ourselves feel is not suitable for our pets. We also will not advise pet owners on a brand of kibble that we have not tested on our own pets.
We have chosen to sell the Addiction range of dog kibble after researching the benefits of this kibble on a dog’s diet. Addiction is a pet food manufacturing company based in New Zealand and exporting around the world from good old Aotearoa. Made by Kiwis, the Addiction and Wishbone range is a quality, grain and gluten-free kibble, and you can feed it to your pets without having to worry about any toxic additives or unnecessary fillers.
Addiction Pet Food Values;
> Only High-Quality Premium Proteins
Using high-quality premium proteins, Addiction’s pet foods are hypoallergenic that veterinarians recommend for pets with sensitivities or allergies.
> Closest to What Nature Intended
> Formulated With Taurine
Addiction Pet Food comes highly recommended and you can be assured that your pet is gaining all the essential nutrients in their diet from a natural kibble. They stand by their moto An Obession With Nutrition that guarantees your pet is getting all the vital nutrients from quality proteins, and this guarantees that Addiction Pet Food is nutritionally beneficial for your pet. Compared with other brands, Addiction Pet Food is safe and much healthier for maintaining a well-balanced diet for your pet. Addiction also offer a vegetarian kibble and a kibble that is suitable for dogs in all stages of life.
How to transition your pets' kibble to Addiction.
If you are looking to start your puppy on a natural kibble, or you are looking to switch your dog’s kibble to a more quality brand, or perhaps your pet is just getting older and they require a kibble that better fits their changing nutritional needs, the Addiction range of kibble would suit your pet. Transitioning your pet is as simple as following these basic steps;
Both the Addiction and Wishbone pet food range is available at the Paw Store and we offer a 15% discount for first time buyers, and a further 15% discount on recurring subscriptions.
]]>The Paw Store offers four handmade dog shampoo bars, made with 100% natural ingredients. Hand crafted, each of the shampoo bars in our range have their own formulation, and contain only natural oils and extracts. All subtly fragranted using natural plant extracts and essential oils so that your dog's coat is naturally clean and fresh. But why else is it important to wash your dog with an all-natural shampoo bar?
For many reasons, but the most important being that you help protect your beloved pet’s skin and coat from parabens, chemicals and other harmful ingredients that are found in many manufactured dog shampoos and wash bars. Our handmade soaps won't harm your pet's skin and coat. In fact, it aids in nourishing and maintaining a healthy skin and coat for your dog.
Each shampoo bar in our range of natural dog soaps has a unique set of natural ingredients to combat all types of coat conditions. Containing pure, quality-based oils, our unique range of dog shampoo bars are the best way to ensure your dog’s skin and coat is in optimal condition.
1) Sensitive Skin Dog Shampoo Bar:
For dogs with sensitive skin, skin irritation or tendencies to scratch, this shampoo bar will help ease sores and wounds and relieve itchy skin. Containing antiseptic ingredients, such as eucalyptus and tea tree oil, the Sensitive Skin Dog Shampoo Bar is most effective to help prevent and repair dogs with problematic coats.
2) Flea, Tick & Insect Dog Shampoo Bar:
To control and manage your dog’s coat from fleas, ticks and insects, this shampoo bar is specially formulated to eradicate and kill these bugs on contact. It includes citronella and cedar, which is a natural insect repellent. If your pet tends to scratch a lot and bite themselves because of fleas, ticks and insects, then this shampoo bar will provide relief for their scratching. It also prevents those nasty bugs from irritating your pet’s coat.Ingredients: chamomile flower extract, neem oil, lemongrass, peppermint oil & citronella.
3) Odour Control Dog Shampoo Bar:
Keep your dog smelling fresh after playtime, long walks and generally doing doggy stuff with our Odour Control Shampoo Bar. This special soap formula will have your dog not only feeling fresh, but also smelling naturally fragrant. It does not, however, strip your dog’s natural oils from their coat, or interfere with their own sense of smell. Also, it contains lavender and neem oil, which are natural fragrances that will help combat bad pet odours. With the addition of peppermint oil, your pet will be smelling minty fresh for much longer compared with shop bought soaps.Ingredients: olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil, neem oil, tea tree oil, peppermint oil, lemongrass oil & lavender bulgarian oil.
4) Coat Conditioning Dog Shampoo Bar:
To keep your pet’s coat nourished and fluffy, the Conditioning Shampoo Bar contains chamomile flower extract to soften the hair and make it more subtle. It has a light fragrance to compliment the nourished coat, that does not interfere with your dog’s smell sensitivities. This shampoo bar creates a lather that will moisturise dry skin and essential oils, such as peppermint creates a subtle and natural fragrance so your dog smells fresh too.Ingredients: chamomile flower extract, lemongrass, peppermint oil & sweet almond oil.
All our natural, handmade dog shampoo wash bars will leave your dog squeaky clean and feeling silky smooth and fresh. Best of all - it is safe for your furry friend and has been lovingly made. It contains only natural ingredients and no nasties, so it is also environmentally friendly. All our dog shampoo bars are completely natural, so you don't have to worry about what you're putting on your dog. Not only does it smell great, but it's so much better for your dog!
So treat your pets well and do them a favour by bathing them only with a 100% Natural Dog Shampoo Bar. Your four-legged friend will thank you for it!
]]>However, this may not be enough to keep your pet from becoming stressed during these situations, and it is not always possible to prevent or minimise external noises often out of our control. In addition, our pets become very attached to us and do not like being separated from their owners.
We have found that using a natural solution such as Silberhorn PetCalm Herbal Anti-Stress Capsules assist in keeping your pet settled and calm in stressful situations. PetCalm features a range of natural non-narcotic herbs to help gently calm your pet. Used successfully by kennel proprietors to calm their boarders, this non-evasive calming capsule will help settle your pet’s anxiety.
PetCalm contains ingredients including;All these ingredients come together to create a stress fighting remedy that will ensure not only you and pet get a good night’s sleep, but that your pet can comfortably beat any stressful situation.
Pet Calm Herbal Anti-Stress Capsules comes in 100 x 200mg Herbal Anti-Stress Capsules and available on our website in Remedies.
]]>We love our pets and want to provide for them. Yet we all live in a time where everything is becoming more expensive. We have recognised this and sought to make it easier for pet owners to buy products for their pets. After requests from our customers and after much research, we concluded that offering Afterpay as an additional method of payment provides customers with the flexibility to still be able to afford to purchase products by spreading payments over 6 weeks. In September 2018 we decided to offer Afterpay on our website.
The way it works is, you will need to sign up to Afterpay then once you have decided on your purchase, you will need to pay 25% of the value of the items upfront, and this will be paid via the debit or credit card loaded on your Afterpay account. You will then be shown a repayment schedule, which requires three further payments over six weeks, i.e. One every fortnight.
The benefits of using Afterpay
Immediate use
Customers are able to use their Afterpay account straight away, rather than go through the lengthy application processes you might experience when taking out a loan, for instance.
Seamless integration within store
Afterpay is fully integrated within an online store’s checkout, which ensures easy useability. There’s also no need to keep track of complex payment plans. You can simply opt to pay with Afterpay at the checkout and let them sort out the plan for you – it will get sent straight to your email inbox!
Fee and interest-free terms
By using Afterpay you don’t have to pay any interest on your repayments, and you’ll avoid hefty application fees that can be associated with money lending options. The Afterpay service prides itself on being free for all customers to use, with the only associated costs being the price of your purchase and late payment fees.
Afterpay is becoming pretty well-known for its seamless integration into online stores.
Provides automatic framework for payment
It’s hard to create and stick to your own payment plan sometimes, however Afterpay does all the organising for you. Afterpay splits the total amount of your bill into four equal fortnightly instalments, which will be automatically charged to your nominated debit or credit card. You will be emailed a copy of your payment schedule, so you can make sure your bank account is prepared for those payments each fortnight, or even pay ahead of time if you choose to do so.
Refund process stays the same
If you were worried that adding Afterpay to the mix might interfere with your ability to get an easy refund, don’t stress. You can still claim a refund for purchases you have made with Afterpay, in line with the individual store’s refund policy.
Good alternative to using a credit card
If you usually use your credit card to make purchases you wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford, switching to Afterpay for retail spending may be a good option because you’ll avoid interest fees.
So, Afterpay it > Shop now - Pay later - Interest free. Easy.
]]>With the Xylitol scare last year, pet owners are quickly realising that not everything we eat ourselves, are necessarily good or healthy for their dogs. Xylitol as many pet owners will now know due to the coverage it has gotten on the news, is a sugar substitute that is being added to many common products like bubble-gum and peanut butter to name a few. Many dog owners would not feed bubble-gum to their dogs but, peanut butter is commonly fed to our beloved four-legged friends as they find it irresistible. With Xylitol being added to certain products, pet owners will now have to be more aware of the ingredients list to ensure that it doesn’t contain this potentially fatal ingredient.
This brings us back to the point, why feed your dog natural products? Wolves, a dog’s closest relative in the wild, feed on animal carcasses which contain everything from organs to bones. They lived long healthy lives, were always active and very rarely died of common issues affected by dogs today like heart disease and weight-related issues.
Treats today are very processed and contain ingredients that are not always good for dogs and certainly not in large quantities.
If eating naturally were good enough for wolves, then why not feed it to your dog as well? Most people complain that a raw food diet, although healthy for their pet is way too messy to prepare, has to be defrosted and attracts flies and insects. It not so many words, it’s too much of a hassle to feed a raw diet as it is much easier to throw a couple of dog biscuits in a bowl instead. Now don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with feeding your dog a super-premium dog food.
There is a lot of research that goes in to designing the perfect well-balanced dry food but any dog will quickly let you know that they would much rather chew a bone or chow down on some raw ox liver (our dogs happen to love them). The issue is they don’t smell the best when preparing, if bought in bulk will have to be frozen and defrosted at a later stage, and can attract insects and flies if not eaten immediately. For this reason, dehydrated organs like liver, heart, tripe etc. are great. They can be given as a treat to your dog and because they are all-natural, you don’t have to worry that they will negatively affect your dog.
Please note however that if your dog has a certain food allergy, follow your vet’s advice regarding food choices. It is also important that you don’t over-indulge your dog on too many variety and feed them in excess as this could cause them to have a loose stool. If your dog trying a natural treat for the first time, give him one to try and wait to see what effect it has on his stomach. If there are no issues, you can feed your pawed friend the recommended daily amount. Dehydrated tripe is great for settling a dog stomach problems if your dog is going through a food change too. It has all the nutrients and probiotics to assist in maintaining healthy digestion.
Organs are an important part of a dog’s diet. Liver and kidney in particular are nutrient-dense and provide a great deal of nutritional value. These foods should make up about 5 percent of the total diet.
* Note that they may cause loose stools if too much is fed at one time. It is better to feed smaller amounts daily or every other day than to feed larger amounts once or twice a week.
Heart is nutritionally more like muscle meat than organ meat, but it is rich in taurine and other nutrients. If possible, make hearts another 5 to 10 percent of the diet. More can be fed; just remember that too much can lead to loose stools in some dogs. Other organs, such as spleen, eyeballs, sweetbreads (pancreas and thymus glands), brain, etc. are nutritious and can be added to the diet in small amounts.
Although we don’t offer these organs in the raw form, we do have a variety of dehydrated organs that can be fed to your dog as a treat in the recommended daily amounts. Our range of New Zealand sourced natural dog treats are a great supplement to any dog’s diet and we have everything from soft reward treats to chew treats. There is something for all breeds from small to large. All our natural treats contain no added salt or sugar, are grain and gluten-free and have absolutely NO artificial preservatives, colours or flavours. Why not have a look at our range and try some on your dog today!
]]>Without regularly brushing your pet’s teeth, this can lead to plaque buildup which breaks off and is absorbed into your dog’s bloodstream leading to kidney and heart problems. Although dogs don’t eat the same range of cavity-causing foods that we humans enjoy, they still need regular dental care for many of the same reasons we do; to prevent the buildup of plaque and tartar. It’s a fact that pets whose teeth are cared for live up to five years longer.
How often should you brush your dog's teeth?
Your dog’s teeth should be brushed twice daily if you are unable to do this twice a day then at least twice weekly. It is best to start training your dog to have their teeth brushed while they are still a puppy. This way, they get used to the toothbrush and will make the process a lot simpler for you.
How type of brush and toothpaste should you use?
You should always use a specially designed soft toothbrush and a toothpaste specially made for dogs. Do not use toothpaste made for humans as this is not designed to be swallowed by animals. The type of toothbrush you use depends on the size of your dog and also on your own dexterity. Many pet owners find it easier to use a finger brush, especially when just beginning to brush their dog's teeth.
Exactly how should I brush my dog's teeth?
Apply a small amount of toothpaste to the toothbrush. Gently raise your dog's lips on one side. You can either do this by pushing up on the lip with the index finger of your free hand or by placing your free hand over your dog's head with your thumb and index finger on opposite sides of your dog's upper jaw to lift his lips.
To brush the lower teeth, you will need to open your dog's mouth a little. This can be done by gently tilting your dog's head backward while holding onto his or her upper jaw with the thumb and index finger of your free hand.
In the beginning, concentrate on brushing the large cheek teeth and the canine teeth, the teeth where plaque and tartar accumulate most quickly. Gradually work up to brushing all of the teeth (this will probably take several days or weeks).
Do not worry about brushing the tips or insides of the teeth unless your dog is very cooperative. Most of the periodontal lesions occur on the outer surfaces of the teeth and this is where you should direct your efforts. In addition, the dog's tongue tends to remove a lot of the plaque from the inner surfaces of the teeth, reducing the need for brushing these surfaces.
Check out our new Oral Care range now which includes an Oral Care kit with everything you need to get started and a Foaming Mint Gel.
]]>Billy shares her story below about her dog, Herzog, and his recovery from CCL (Cranial Cruciate Ligament). During this time, Herzog's meals was supplemented with the Biophive Hip and Joint as well as the Longevity powder.
“Over a year ago, my 9 and a half year old German Shepherd, Herzog had major, cruciate surgery. As part of his recovery I started supplementing his meals by sprinkling Biophive Hip and Joint, as well as Biophive Longevity powder over his food on alternate days as per the recommended serving instructions. His recovery was fast and the supplements work together great. In fact he now does not act his age. These supplements not only help his joints and muscles but also his overall wellbeing and keeps Herzog in peak condition”.
One of the ailments that your dog could suffer from is the above mentioned disease Cranial Cruciate Ligament (CCL), similar to the Anterior Cruciate Ligament in humans. Cranial cruciate rupture is the tearing of the cranial cruciate ligament. It is the most common cause of rear-leg lameness in dogs and a major cause of degenerative joint disease. There are multiple causes of dog CCL injuries including; activity, breed, age, and obesity.
The Paw Store stock a range of supplements from Biophive that help to keep your pet in optimal health condition. We have customers that purchase one or more of these supplements on a regular basis for their pets. Even we, as owners of an elderly dog as well as another dog having had multiple surgeries, have found how vitally important it is to supplement our pet's diet with a quality formula, such as Biophive.
The Biophive range consists of 4 different supplements;
These are 100% natural New Zealand made formulas, specially designed for dogs.
The Biophive formulas not only gives your best friend what they need to live an active and playful life, but can also help aid in surgery recovery or promote longevity in senior dogs.
Check out the full range of Biophive here.
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