Raw / clean dog food

Dopeydapple

Dopeydapple

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Tala is quite a fussy eater, I did want to transition her onto clean meat and veg rather than processed dog food. Does anyone have any good resources for creating a balanced diet for a dog? Also anyone on here feed a large (40kg) dog raw / clean? What's it roughly costing per month?
 
I dont feed veg, they just get meat and bones. I use DAF aka Durham Animal Feeds at the minute. A mixture of premade, free flow minces and straights. I top it up with whatever I see cheap in the supermarket. You balance it with 80/10/10. 80% meat, 10% bone and 10% organ meats. I stick roughly to that and feed 6 or 7 different protein sources most months. I just rotate them round. I check consistency of poos and add or remove bone from their diet based on that. Mine detest liver and kidney, but will eat heart/lung etc so we tend to go with that as organ meat.

It costs me about £80 a month to feed a 15kg and 20kg dog, but they get 3 to 5% of their body weight rather than the 1.5 to 2% recommended. It seems to be a sight hound thing to need buckets of food to keep condition on. Mine do a fair amount of hard exercise and I balance the amounts to work done. So a 10mile walks off lead and galloping would be a 5% day. An amble round the village on lead sniffing things would be a 3% day, possibly less if anyone is looking too well covered.

I've probably missed stuff as I'm tired and hot my brain doesnt want to function properly!
 
Just to point out that neither heart nor lung count as organs in a balanced 80/10/10 ratio - the 10% organ needs to be secreting organs (ideally 5% liver and the remaining 5% spleen, kidney, pancreas, brain, testicle depending on what you can get!). It's always good to check in complete minces what the organ content is and where it comes from, there's plenty that are say lamb but use beef organs which isn't much us if you have any sensitivities.

We use venison, pheasant and partridge we shoot and butcher ourselves so can't help on cost, sorry
 
They get a mix from DAF which is testicles, spleen and other stuff that they eat thankfully. They just will not touch liver or kidney which is irritating.
 
I bought her some of the cotswolds raw stuff at the local pet store, she won't eat it! Cooked a bit of it and she was happy then! I'm guessing that even though there's bone in it it's OK cooked when it's already minced??
 
Dopeydapple said:
I bought her some of the cotswolds raw stuff at the local pet store, she won't eat it! Cooked a bit of it and she was happy then! I'm guessing that even though there's bone in it it's OK cooked when it's already minced??
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Some do object to the change. The danger with cooked bone is splinters but I'm guessing as they are minced to tiny bits they should be ok. But I'm just guessing and dont actually know.

Interestingly, I just moved to near where they make cotswold raw and got some of that and some southcliffe and mine turned their noses up. Theres been 4 bitches in season surrounding us so I dont know if thats the issue or the food is. My big DAF delivery comes Monday so will be interesting to see if they are back to doing happy dances about their dinners again. They arent usually bothered about bitches so it does seem odd, but who knows with dogs! They wont be getting the expensive stuff again though 😂 😂
 
I put my two terrier-sized dogs and cat on The Dog’s Butcher Ox and Duck Mince puppy 80:10:10 (6mm grind size) I add 2 raw eggs plus shells and a tin of sardines to each kg pack and for the dogs, some sweet potato and broccoli. Split into two trays, sprinkle linseeds and chia seeds on top and re freeze. Smells lovely and they all go mad for it! Currently £5.80/ kg but don’t ask me the monthly cost! I run my pets lean. Oh no tripe in the mix as I can’t cope with the smell. They do an adult dog mince of the same but it’s just 12mm grind size that’s different.
 
Mine had their usual brand last night and wolfed their food down, so its either a weird coincidence or they dont like something in the Cotswold stuff.
 
I'm trying to decide if she's got a bit of an intolerance to chicken. She has been picking/ nibbling her feet a bit more recently, although she's also been out in the wet and may just be a dog that thoroughly cleans herself. Her poo is a bit loose sometimes but not something that would worry me but OH says this morning was very runny and there was lots of "toilet noise" as she went. Tricky to tell if it's the chicken when he shares his sausage from the chippy and pork pies etc with her. She apparently went nuts on the lead again this morning with him. Not sure if an intolerance to chicken can cause excessive zoomies? Will try finding some space that she can safely let off steam in more regularly and look into ways to use her brain on a walk more, she does love to sniff though so thought she would be mentally doing stuff with that anyway.
 
We feed our lab this. She has the duck and lamb ones, turns her nose up at the other ones. She will have some sprats, an egg, blueberries sometimes as well
newlandspets.co.uk

Neewdog Complete Duck 1kg

The Neewdog Duck recipe has been created not only to be nutritious but tasty too. All of our recipes are as simple as possible so you know exactly what you are feeding your dog. This recipe is completely free of chicken making it a perfect choice for dogs with allergies.About Neewdog (part of...
newlandspets.co.uk newlandspets.co.uk
 
DAF does some random combos, the latest we've tried are beef and blueberry and turkey and strawberry. Mine are going mad for the turkey one. I think it sounds disgusting!
 
I feed my 38kg curly coat Naturaw Original. She eats 600g of it a day, plus I give her a handful of broccoli and beans in each meal as otherwise it takes her about 5 minutes to have a poo. It costs about £100 a month, depending on the mixes that I select.
 
Well I've tried 5 different brands of 80.10.10 raw feeds, she's not keen on any of them, lives the pure mince from the butchers or the beef and liver mince from him but not any of the "intended and balanced for dogs" ones. I'm wondering if I can leave her on the butchers meat and add a supplement to give her her vit and mins?
 
Dopeydapple said:
Well I've tried 5 different brands of 80.10.10 raw feeds, she's not keen on any of them, lives the pure mince from the butchers or the beef and liver mince from him but not any of the "intended and balanced for dogs" ones. I'm wondering if I can leave her on the butchers meat and add a supplement to give her her vit and mins?
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Follow the advice of the canine nutritionist?

Dopeydapple said:
I did consult a dog nutritionist when we made the changes to make sure she was getting everything she needed as she wouldn't eat the commercially prepared one I bought her ( only tried 1 brand though, but it's more convenient to pop to aldi and the butchers regularly and pick it up as I need it)
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skinnydipper said:
Follow the advice of the canine nutritionist?
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It's just a bit of a faf mixing everything, giving different proteins on different days etc and I seem to be constantly shopping to top up so was looking for something a bit more convenient, also I'm away for a few weeks next month and wanted a simple system that OH can't mess up lol.
 
Dopeydapple said:
It's just a bit of a faf mixing everything, giving different proteins on different days etc and I seem to be constantly shopping to top up so was looking for something a bit more convenient, also I'm away for a few weeks next month and wanted a simple system that OH can't mess up lol.
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If you want convenience, feed her a good quality, tasty kibble.
 
This really got me into raw many years ago. https://www.petforums.co.uk/threads/raw-feeding-everything-you-need-to-know.111437/. She basically says 2.5% of bodyweight for active full grown dogs. You need to of course consider extras, ours get scraps/treats. No amount is the perfect percentage, you need to look at the individual in front of you.

I think you evolve as you go, I’m nowhere near as fierce about what they have these days, but there are useful guides re amounts/activity levels etc in here.

I echo @I’m Dun re using DAF, they deliver, huge bonus, plus good variety, although we have a supplier in the next village who does meaty bones, minced chicken, green tripe, lamb and a barf mix I made him create years ago following the 80:10:10 rule. He does trays of 12kg.

Morrisons used to be great for pig trotters and organs, but not so much these days. They also do 3 boxes of whitebait for a £10 for variety. Markets can be good, a local butcher gave me many kilos of turkey wings/necks one Christmas. I see Pets at Home do raw now, as does a local tack shop, probably not cheap, but when I buy PAH Wainwrights trays for their breakfast and for trips away, it certainly doesn’t work out cheap.

We bought a big freezer, half of which is full of dog food. Obviously it’s dependent on space available and frequency of deliveries/pick up.
 
Dopeydapple said:
I'm trying to decide if she's got a bit of an intolerance to chicken. She has been picking/ nibbling her feet a bit more recently, although she's also been out in the wet and may just be a dog that thoroughly cleans herself. Her poo is a bit loose sometimes but not something that would worry me but OH says this morning was very runny and there was lots of "toilet noise" as she went. Tricky to tell if it's the chicken when he shares his sausage from the chippy and pork pies etc with her. She apparently went nuts on the lead again this morning with him. Not sure if an intolerance to chicken can cause excessive zoomies? Will try finding some space that she can safely let off steam in more regularly and look into ways to use her brain on a walk more, she does love to sniff though so thought she would be mentally doing stuff with that anyway.
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I removed chicken when Goose was chewing his paw, he stopped. It’s a very common allergen, as is pork. If you go fully/main raw, the advice is to try one protein at a time, at least a fortnight. Mixing doesn’t have to be every day if you’re bothered about the 80:10:10 mix.
I'm Dun said:
I got one free from faceook and its outside in a shed so doesnt matter its scruffy
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Mine was pristine, now covered in paint. Also in the shed and therefore a useful surface for the OH’s projects! I’m more bothered about the garden mosaic table being used!
Dopeydapple said:
It's just a bit of a faf mixing everything, giving different proteins on different days etc and I seem to be constantly shopping to top up so was looking for something a bit more convenient, also I'm away for a few weeks next month and wanted a simple system that OH can't mess up lol.
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But again, you can do pure proteins unless you can find a good barf mix. I’m not too concerned about mixing, they get trip and lamb, or tripe and beef barf mix, then kidney/liver/heart when I have it in. I defrost 2 kilos of different proteins at a time.
 
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