Our weather is now below zero in the mornings, and about 70 km away people are relishing the snow. Richard has put straw in most of the kennels. The dingoes have developed quite thick coats. Those that come from warmer climates have short dense coats, whilst the alpine dingoes' coats are longer and slightly thicker.
For several days in a row last week very few of the dingoes ate. Whether it is because it is the end of the breeding season, or they just didn't want to eat their mince chicken, wings or beef mince, they just left the food in their bowls. We check each morning when we let each group of dingoes out for their morning exercise, and collect any food that is left. Good stuff is re-used. Bad stuff is discarded. On average we go thru 25 - 30 kg food a day. We refuse to use just dry dog food, or to just put out the occasional chicken neck or wing for them to crunch on. Some days we get to saw up ribs and backbones of cattle or horses, and the dingoes will ignore their usual food in preference for the bones. Other people who have large numbers of dingoes, and even those with only one or two, commonly feed their dingoes dry food. I wonder how they would like a diet of peanut butter sandwiches seven days a week, with no variety?
Two young bitches, sharing an enclosure with an older, black and tan dingo who is unrelated to them, have taken to having disagreements. The smaller one retreats to a den under one of the kennels, and will stay there most of the day, but this morning I took the three of them out for a long walk on lead. They got to smell where kangaroos and small native animals hade been, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. When we returned home, I made up some cereal with hot water, milk and an egg, and gave them a bowlfull each. It was consumed very quickly, especially by the smaller of the two bitches, who was born the runt of her litter.
