Thursday, February 24, 2011

Asta



Asta

Last year we wrote about how we think Asta, a BRAT Rescue, is really part Sheba-Inu. Our evidence is that he grows a very fluffy and thick winter coat every year and he looks more like a Sheba than a Basenji. This year, as winter winds down, Asta is shedding. We were wondering if there were any other Basenjis who shed like Asta, or if he is actually part Sheba.

10 comments:

  1. My girl Niya used to get a winter coat, but she didn't develop one until she was about 10-years-old. And then she would blow it come spring time. It wasn't super thick, but it was definitely there.

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  2. My Dash grows a winter coat and is shedding now. He has a very fluffy tail, and his white collar hairs are quite long. He is purebred at least according to his papers, and he couldn't be a more typical basenji. The times when he sheds have little to do with the temperature, but more with light levels and the number of hours of daylight. (He starts shedding at the same time every year, no matter what the weather patterns are outside). Dash interestingly sheds his white fur first, and when that is about over then his black fur sheds. Our girl also sheds, but her shed is "normal". She sheds all over at the same time. My first basenji didn't do a major coat blow in the spring or fall.
    He really only started doing the major coat growing and shedding when I switched him to a grain free diet. His coat is magnificent, a deep black, shiny, and soft to pet. When he was on grains his coat was dull, and it felt like you were petting a boar's hair hairbrush. The diet also cleared up other allergy problems. So I wouldn't switch back to a diet with grains just to eliminate the shedding.
    Although at the moment I am ready for the shed to be over. We joke that we could make another basenji from all of the fur we get off of the two we currently have.

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  3. My Lancelot has a thick coat that is blowing out at this time in Texas. He's always had the thick undercoat (some basenjis do) and after 10 years old it got shaggier. (I've heard that this could be a thyroid issue indicator.) You're baby looks just like my Lance before he hit 10.

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  4. Our two basenjis shed every year in the late winter/early spring. Like the last commentator's dog, our female, Layla, started to develop this wonderfully thick soft fall/winter coat after we switched to grain-free food. Her belly, which has little hair during the spring and summer, fills in with soft fur in early fall and sheds with the rest of her thick fur beginning in February. Our male, Riley, has only a slightly thicker winter coat. They are beginning to shed now. My floors will be furry for the next few weeks and then they shed very little the remainder of the year.

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  5. Our twelve-year-old brindle has African grandparents, which may account for the fact that she doesn't look like other standard basenjis. (We think she's the most beautiful dog in the world, of course.) Her coat is thick, even in summer, and her fur is more than 1/2" longer than her red-and-white brother's fur. So yes. She's fluffy and she sheds, even though she's a purebred.

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  6. My Basenji does not shed that I can tell. About a year ago she had a patch which looked like the one in the picture but she had some skin flaking at the same time. I took her off dog food and put her on canned cat food (real high protein) for about two months and it cleared up. I supplement her dog food now with about one can of cat food a month and her coat is back to a real shinny black.

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  7. My b boy (tri color) did that the years I did not think to keep a coat on him in weather under 50 degrees. He has been much better since..also the supplement, Missing Link has helped keep his coat smooth and lustrous.

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  8. If you think Asta is part shiba, I'd love to see a picture of her face, too! ;)

    My Basenji has been shedding lately, but not from her underbelly like that. I'll post a picture of her recent shedding, as I'm intrigued by and just learning her shedding patterns. When people claim that Basenjis are hypoallergenic, it definitely does NOT mean they don't shed!

    I agree that adding extra oils helps improve the quality of their fur. But if it's time for them to shed, I think they'll just shed and there's not a whole lot you can do about it except groom away what wants to come out!

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  9. There is a page on BRAT's website about basenjis and shedding that you might find of interest: http://www.basenjirescue.org/Chey_Miller/Shedding/Do_basenjis_shed.htm

    That said, the photo of Asta's side does not look like normal shedding to me. Has he had a complete thyroid panel done? Issues with the coat are sometimes a marker for hypothyroidism, and basenjis seem to have a higher incidence of HT than other breeds. (HT is easily treated with 2 itty bitty, inexpensive pills daily.)

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  10. Oh, that's exactly how my Bashir sheds every year. We live in upstate NY, so the winters are brutal here. Even when he has a coat on, he grows his own coat. Then, in the spring when I brush him out, it's like little basenji-fur tumbleweeds! Every time that happens, I chuckle and mumble something nasty about basenjis being a "non-shedding" dog. Yeah, right.

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