Dog Community

TOTW and burnt grass?

Posted : 5/8/2011 6:00:51 PM

Bugsy hasn't been a grass burner ( except during severe drought) but we are seeing a lot of pee spots on the lawn and we've had a lush nicely wet spring.

He has been on Orijen fish for years but we got a few deals on TOTW fish so have been mixing the two.

So I'm wondering if using half TOTW would be enough to cause this change? Anyone have something similar happen?

Or should I be having a urine check?

Jewlieee

Posted : 5/8/2011 6:14:39 PM

Not a clue. Is he normally a leg lifter or a squater? Are you sure you don't have lawn pests?

kpwlee

Posted : 5/8/2011 6:19:18 PM

well he does lift but ON stuff, if on the lawn I call it the runner's stretch where he literally stretches his body out but both back legs are grounded. It is pee spots, which we've had in the past with droughts but we've been having regular showers at least 1-2x a week and everything is super lush and green. I thought it was from some of his playmates (females) but there are too many

.stacer.

Posted : 5/9/2011 9:54:26 AM

I feed TOTW to both Timmy and Sadie - we alternate between the fish/wetlands/high prairie formulas, favouring the fish formula. We haven't had any problems in our dog run with burnt spots, even in the dead of summer - the grass actually grows about double the speed in there!

Cita

Posted : 5/9/2011 10:15:28 AM

Could Bugsy have altered his water intake such that the pee is more concentrated than it used to be?

kpwlee

Posted : 5/9/2011 11:20:51 AM

thanks for the responses - he is drinking as per normal

Stacey the same thing that burns the grass (nitrogen) is what fertilizes it.

he could be concentrating his urine more - which would be a good thing in that the vet has said in the past that he wishes it were more concentrated. Our lawn is far from perfect so it isn't a concern for the lawn just seems odd to me

diseasedee

Posted : 6/14/2011 1:52:17 PM

I'm glad I saw this post! I have also just recently switched to TOTW but we feed them the High Prairie formula. I have also noticed that our dogs' pee are more pungent after the switch. They are still the same ol' rascals though, no signs of UTI, no weight loss/gain, still eats & drinks the same as well. We've only had them on the new food for 2 weeks now. I haven't taken them to the vet yet since I see no problems, just the pungent smell. Almost equal to when we eat asparagus, I thought maybe that's what's going on.

kpwlee

Posted : 6/14/2011 3:20:32 PM

interesting - he's now on half TOTW and half Arcana Ranchlands and not burning the lawn as much

Liesje

Posted : 6/14/2011 5:05:55 PM

Well this is good to know! I just switched TO TOTW and I've got grass burns galore. I do get some burn on other foods but if this makes it worse I will keep trying Earthborn instead.

My yard waaaaaa!

kpwlee

Posted : 6/14/2011 7:23:08 PM

Lies prior to the other person posting I hadn't thought about it for a while - I decided that potentially it was because we had fertilized our lawn twice which we don't normally do. I read somewhere that if the lawn is already at or near maxed out for nitrogen the dog urine will burn it because the added nitrogen puts it over the tolerance level.

Its pretty hard to tell at this point whether he is or isn't burning the lawn because we've already hit the midsummer brown lawn stage Tongue Tied

Liesje

Posted : 6/14/2011 9:28:13 PM

Hmm, we don't fertilize or treat with/for anything but we did have three solid weeks of rain and storms and doesn't lightning add nitrogen? I'll have to take another pic in a few weeks to compare, see if the Earthborn food makes any difference. I'm pretty sure the burns are Coke or Nikon. It's hard for me to narrow down b/c Nikon usually marks over top of Coke. Coke drinks the least and pees the least so maybe he's too "concentrated"?