Good news!

Good news!

To further raise funds we have the following in mind.

For those who like their advertising on the site to see but do not have banners, we offer the following.

A banner can be made ​​by us, the cost is $ 10
The total proceeds are donated to the rescue sharpei's.

We also make birthday cards, get well cards or greeting cards.
Of youre own sharpei, or youre pets, watever you like on the card.
Cost is $ 10
The total proceeds are donated to the rescue sharpei's.

Is your site outdated? Or are you ready for a new site?
Then we have a deal for you. The costs for a brand new website is  $ 350.
Half of this amount $ 175 goes to the rescue sharpei's.

We hope to raise as much money.

A few examples of wat we can make..
We will make it just the way you want it..

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Sharpei's in tv commercials.

Sharpei's are very talented and are often asked for commercials.
Due to their wrinkled appearance and many of their faces are often in televisioncommercials, here's a brief overview of the commercials that can be found on youtube.
Let's face it, they all look great!

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Feeding Your Shar-Pei

 The proper diet is very important for the life and health of your Shar-Pei. Most pets become overweight and inactive if they are allowed to choose their own diet. A fat dog is not a healthy dog and will have a greatly decreased lifespan.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. Puppy diets with or without water are best until the pup is 4-6 months old. Stick with brand name diets such as Iams, Purina, Pedigree and others. Currently I like the puppy diets for large breed puppies made by Eukanuba® (Iams) and Purina. These diets help to maintain a slower growth rate. Don’t feed according to the bag directions — usually 1 cup per 6 pounds of body weight is adequate. In the Shar-Pei a desired growth rate is 2-3 pounds a week.
2. In pups up to 3 months feed 3 meals per day. In pups from 3-6 months gradually change from 3 meals per day to 2 meals per day. In pups over 6 months feed 2 meals per day.
3. Try not to give canned dog foods. Most Shar-Pei will not overeat on dry food. If you do give canned foods, mix it with dry foods and make sure the mixture is at least 3 parts dry food to 1 part canned food. Mix the food together thoroughly so the dog will not eat only the canned food and leave the dry food.
4. Do not give table scraps.
5. Never give steak, pork, chicken or turkey bones. The only bones permitted are large beef knuckle bones.
6. Nylon bones and raw hide bones make good toys. Raw hide bones should be large enough to last your dog 2-3 weeks. Don’t use raw hide sticks or chips — don’t let your dog eat rawhide. Avoid pig’s ears and cow hooves —Shar-Pei usually eat these or swallow them and get into trouble.
7. What diet you feed your adult Shar-Pei should be based on the dog’s activity level, coat quality, stool quality such as volume, consistency, frequency and the dog’s general well-being. If you’re not happy with any of these criteria then consider a diet change.
8. Avoid changing your dog’s diet too often. If a diet change is necessary do so gradually by mixing the foods over a 1-2 week period.
9. There is a myth concerning not feeding Shar-Pei soy-containing diets. I have not seen anything to substantiate this. Certainly food allergies can develop and special diets may become necessary. Feed your dog what it does well on. I have seen Shar-Pei do good and bad on all the various diets available including BARF diet, home-made diets, all natural diets and vegetarian diets – you have to try one and see how your dog does.
10. There is no current research which justifies the feeding of a low protein diet to prevent kidney failure in Shar-Pei. Dietary modifications are necessary in Shar-Pei which are in kidney failure.

General Guidelines on Feeding Shar-Pei

1. I recommend feeding Shar-Pei at least twice a day. This decreases begging behavior and may decrease the incidence of bloat.
2. Obesity is a very common dog problem. It is essential to balance the dog’s activity and food intake. It is common sense to understand that an inactive dog requires fewer calories to maintain body weight. The converse is also true — a very active dog requires more calories. Calories can only come from what we feed the dog — either from the amount of food fed and/or the protein level of the diet. Dogs will preferentially use protein for energy so a high protein diet in an inactive dog will result in weight gain. Also feeding too much food will result in weight gain. The solution is simple — feed according to your dog’s activity level.
3. Realize that there are some dogs that do not eat every meal or even every day. This may represent the dog’s way of maintaining its body weight. If we entice a dog such as this to eat every meal we may circumvent this natural tendency to be slim and trim.
4. Most Shar-Pei are less active in the winter and more active in the summer. This means we need to decrease the amount of food they get during the times of the year coinciding with decreased activity and increase the amount of food when activity increases. The reverse may be true with brushcoats and bearcoats who tolerate the winter much better than horsecoats.
5. Older dogs tend to decrease their activity and we need to decrease the amount of food they get. Older dogs also tend to develop age-related joint problems which also decrease activity and require diet adjustment. Switching older dogs to a “senior” or “lite” diet can be helpful in preventing obesity but may not be the total answer. It is still sometimes necessary to decrease even the amounts of these diets in order to maintain body weight. Current nutritional research indicates that senior dogs require higher protein levels than have been fed in the past. These higher protein levels are necessary to maintain muscle mass, to maintain the immune system and for overall general health. If your dog is having trouble maintaining body weight and muscle mass then going back to an adult maintenance diet may be useful.
6. Vitamin supplements may become necessary in dieting dogs.
7. I find that “cutting” the diet with canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling) is a good way to fill the dog up without increasing calories or “starving” the dog.
8. Measuring the food is extremely important! This allows us to make adjustments in amounts of food in an accurate way. It also helps your veterinarian to evaluate your feeding regimen.
9. I generally recommend the use of stainless steel or ceramic food and water bowls. I occasionally see a depigmentation on the front of the muzzle and chin in those dogs that have plastic or vinyl bowls. This is due to a contact allergy which can occur due to the release of chemicals from the plastic/vinyl that occurs over time.

Comments on Alternative Diets and Supplements

     My basic philosophy on diets is to feed what your dog thrives on but I’ve listed some additional commments to address specific questions I’ve received over the years:

1. Raw food diets make their appearance every 7-10 years. Early in my professional career diets were formulated to prevent bloat and consisted of whole chickens cooked in a pressure cooker. Now the BARF (Bones And Raw Food) diet is the vogue. I have no problems with these diets but for most of us the commercial diets are the best. I want to feed my dogs a diet that is nutritionally balanced, easy to feed, doesn’t require a lot of work to prepare and has a long history of consistent results behind it. Most of the commercial dog food companies have research/quality control facilities, on-going research and development, have been producing dog foods for several decades and publish nutritional research in veterinary journals and proceedings.
2. There have been several recent veterinary articles concerning bacterial contamination of raw food incorporated into dog diets. Certainly this speaks to the need to wash vegetables, keep food preparation surfaces clean and store the diets properly. I also am concerned about the vitamin/mineral balance in home-made diets as well as the protein, fat and carbohydrate levels meeting the needs of the dogs.
3. Supplements such as vitamins, minerals and other things like kelp, herbs, glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, etc. are often added to diets. I have no problems with this practice but remember that additives can intereact producing undesired results. Examples such as decreased copper absorption due to zinc over-supplementation, calcium-phosphorous interactions leading to growth abnormalities, biotin deficiency and raw eggs and numerous other interactions must be considered before supplementing diets. Most of us don’t have the background to understand and access all this information.
4. The use of prescription diets under veterinary supervision is a useful therapeutic and diagnostic tool. More cases of food allergy, food reaction, food intolerance and food hypersensitivity are being diagnosed and diet manipulation is very important. These are usually commercially produced diets which are balanced to meet the nutritional requirements of dogs.

     Lastly, I want to make a few comments about the trend over the last several years to “Life Stage Nutrition”. The concept here is that at different stages in the dog’s life nutritional requirements change and a different dietary composition is needed. This is the basis for puppy food, adult maintenance diets, senior diets, “lite” diets and performance diets. While the concept of life stage nutrition is useful for the majority of dogs there are individuals who don’t fit into this plan. I tend to make dietary recommendations based on the individual and their age, body condition, activity level, performance level and other factors. As an example, most Shar-Pei puppies can develop quite normally on an adult maintenance diet. As another example, many young, hyperactive dogs may need a puppy diet or a performance diet to maintain body weight even though they aren’t considered “working” dogs. I also talked about senior dogs who may need adult amintenance diets to maintain adequate muscle mass as they age. The point here is to not get locked into using a diet because your dog fits the life stage but use the diet that best suits your dog whatever the age if the dog is.

Source, Dr Jeff Vidt.

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How Shar-Pei dogs got their wrinkles

A genetic mutation that causes wrinkled skin in Shar-Pei dogs may also be responsible for familial Shar-Pei fever, an inflammatory disease that plagues the breed, according to an international investigation.

Scientists are now working on designing a genetic screening test, which will help people to breed Shar-Pei dogs with a reduced risk of the disease. The research will also aid investigations of the genetic causes of periodic fever syndromes in humans, which lead to uncontrolled inflammation throughout the body.

“Our findings will assist the canine community and provide clues about the mechanisms of human inflammatory disorders,” said Jennifer Meadows, a geneticist at Uppsala University in Sweden and co-author of the journal article published in PLoS Genetics.

Familial Shar-Pei fever

Shar-Pei dogs, known for their thick wrinkly skin, exhibit a high prevalence of familial Shar-Pei fever (FSF), a congenital autoinflammatory disease causing fever and swelling of the dog’s ankle joints (hocks).

Chronic inflammation from FSF can lead to organ failure and premature death for Shar-Pei dogs.

The wrinkly skin of the Shar-Pei contains an excess of a disaccharide polymer called hyaluronan, most likely due to over-activation of a gene called hyaluronan synthase 2 (HAS2). If hyaluronan becomes fragmented, it can stimulate an immune reaction in the body and cause inflammation and fever.

Same mutation causes wrinkles and fever

The researchers compared the genomes of more than 100 Shar-Pei with genomes of other dog breeds. At the same time, genomes of healthy Shar-Pei dogs were compared with genomes of Shar-Pei suffering from FSF.

Both genome comparisons pointed to the same segment of DNA, close to the HAS2 gene, that had been duplicated in error. In some cases the segment had been duplicated multiple times, increasing the risk of FSF for these dogs while also causing the wrinkled skin.

The association of HAS2 dysregulation and autoinflammation is also of wide interest since the genetic cause of approximately 60% of human periodic fever syndrome cases remains unexplained.

"The finding that hyaluronan is a major trigger of fever opens a new research field in canine and human inflammatory disease," said senior author Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, a professor in comparative genomics at Uppsala University.

Side effects of selective breeding

This type of genetic control, where one gene can control multiple traits, is called pleiotropy. Understanding pleiotropy in domestic animals is particularly important, since selective breeding for a specific trait can inadvertently increase the frequency of other sometimes undesirable characteristics in the breed.

Meadows and her co-authors are in the process of developing a test for the mutation, although it has not been determined when the test will be available for commercial use.

“Our hope is that a genetic test may help breeders to reduce the prevalence of risk alleles in the Shar-Pei breeding population,” said Meadows.

Improving dog health and welfare

Claire Wade, a professor of animal genetics at the University of Sydney, said that genomic studies are helping to improve the health and welfare of all dogs, not just those of specific breeds.

The Australian National Kennel Council has promised to adjust breeding standards to improve animal welfare if scientific evidence suggests a link between a disorder and a characteristic that is standard for the breed. The Shar Pei breed standard was recently adjusted in 2009 to discourage breeding dogs with heavy wrinkling.

“There is a strong commitment by the pedigree dog community to breed healthier dogs. Dog breeders are very good at applying tests relevant to their breeds as they become available,” said Wade.

Source, by Bridget Murphy

Cosmos Online

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Shar-pei wrinkles explained by dog geneticists

Just how did the Shar-pei get its famous wrinkled appearance?

Scientists who have analysed the genetics of 10 pedigree dog breeds believe they now have the answer.

Their research identifies 155 distinct locations in the animals' genetic code that could play a role in giving breeds their distinctive appearances.

In the Shar-pei, the team found differences in a gene known as HAS2 which makes an enzyme known to be important in the production of skin.

"There was probably a mutation that arose in that gene that led to a really wrinkly puppy and a breeder said, 'hey, that looks interesting, I'm going to try to selectively breed this trait and make more of these dogs'," explained Joshua Akey from the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle, US.

Small differences

The pedigree dog has become a fascination - and a remarkably useful research tool - for geneticists.

The domestication of the grey wolf more than 10,000 years ago, and the selective breeding that followed, has resulted in more than 400 breeds - each with a distinctive physique, coat colour and temperament.

The study compared the genetics of 10 pure-bred dog groups

These discrete populations give scientists the opportunity to compare and contrast the genetics of the different groups, making it easier to find the causes of specific traits.

"Man's best friend" is helping scientists locate the faulty genes that cause disease in both dogsand humans, as well giving a useful insight into how evolution works at a molecular level.

Dr Akey and colleagues studied 32 wrinkled and 18 smooth-coated Shar-peis and compared a specific stretch of their DNA with that of other breeds.

The team found four small, but significant, differences in the genetics of the two skin types of the Shar-pei versus the other breeds. These single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), as they are called, were located in the HAS2 gene.

New targets

"HAS2 makes hyaluronic acid synthase 2, and it's an enzyme that makes hyaluronic acid, and that's one of the principal constituents of the skin," explained Dr Akey.

"There are rare human cases where there are mutations that lead to really severe wrinkling in humans, too.

"So, that suggested it was a good candidate to look at; and sure enough, when we sequenced it we saw that that gene explained wrinkling in Shar-peis," he told BBC News.

Click to play

Science explained: What is a genome?

As well as giving insights into the Shar-pei, the research has also identified a raft of other locations in the dog genome that can now be investigated further to understand better why pedigree animals look the way they do.

"The thing that excites me most about our study is that in the last five years, five genes have been identified that contribute to this vast diversity in dog breeds," said Dr Akey.

"So our study found all five of those genes and then we found 150 new targets to explore. It's a powerful approach to look at the genetic legacy of selective breeding."

Dr Akey and colleagues report their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Source, Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

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