Daisies (the flower) boiled in milk were once given to puppies to keep them of a diminutive size. Would this work? Is there some toxic substance in the flower that stunts growth?
Daisies will cause skin irritation in dogs, but I don’t know about keeping them small.
Is that why Snoopy was bought at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm?
I used to know a woman who bred toy poodles for the show ring. If an otherwise “good” puppy was growing too fast, she would force feed whiskey, which slowed growth. They typically had liver problems later in life, however.
I wish I’d never read this.
Some breeders . . . . grrrrr.
Never once have heard this myth nor does any google search turn up anything even similar to this other than this thread. What’s your source of the myth?
I wonder if the pyrethrin (insecticide, basically) (or maybe spelled pyrethrum?) within the daisies have an effect on growth?
Insecticides are fairly non-conducive to good healthy living (usually anyways)…and just might cause negative effects upon a growing ‘mammal’, per se (??).
John Gerarde, The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes (1597): “[The iuice of the leaues and rootes] giuen to little dogs with milke, keepeth them from growing great.” Nicholas Culpeper wrote the same I think. I’ve also seen it repeated in some modern places, but can’t remember where just now.
I’ve heard some crazy shit during my career working with animals. Never heard this one before! Where did you hear it? The only reason it would work would be from the gastrointestinal issues puppies would have, and nutritional deficiencies, from drinking boiled milk. That would at the very least cause a growth consequence I would think, along with lifetime digestive issues.
I would think that the if you feed any animal a diet that is deficient in nutrients it will stunt growth. Perhaps boiled milk contains enough calcium/protein and other nutrients to keep the dog alive but not enough to allow it to thrive, I suspect the daisies are superfluous.