RAW to kibble

Country_gal

Country_gal

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my two whippets are raw fed and I am always telling everyone about the benefits of raw feeding and the condition in the dogs is wonderful. No doubt about it though it is expensive. Now that I am on my own paying for a house etc etc single handedly I am having to look at finances and I could half my spend on dog food if I put them back on kibble. I am really considering it but feel wracked with guilt about it! Has anyone ever went back to kibble after raw feeding for a while? Or does anyone half and half and find it works?
 
I feed JWB with occasional raw (chicken wings, fish, liver). I leave a good gap between feeds because of the different digestion rates. Mine also gets an egg and coconut oil every day.
 
I have die to practicalities of walking holidays with the dogs, I put them on millers Wolf heart.
Current dog can't eat meat so raw is out for her too.
Whatever you feed has to be practical
 
CorvusCorax said:
I feed JWB with occasional raw (chicken wings, fish, liver). I leave a good gap between feeds because of the different digestion rates. Mine also gets an egg and coconut oil every day.
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Thank you. They get two meals a day so I was thinking one meal raw and one kibble? That would still cut costs. They love wings, ribs etc so I would like them to still get them now and then. I can get a bag of wings for £1.50-£2 so they aren't too much of a financial burden lol
 
Mine eat raw at home but kibble and tins when away for rallies, holidays etc. and it works for us. It's partly through cost (bags of kibble often given as prizes or blagged from suppliers/sponsors, be a shame not to use them) but mostly for convenience, I lugged round a cooler of frozen meat for a long time before coming to the conclusion that they did just as well on processed stuff for short periods and it's a lot more convenient when you're stuck in the woods in all weathers.

The reason I switched to raw is that one of mine does poorly on grain-based foods, I think mostly wheat sensitivity, so as long as it's a 'premium' grain free type food I am reasonably content to switch between. Incidentally Zooplus is a great source of cheaper grain-free type foods and often offer discounts on bulk orders. :)
 
what are you using currently for RAW? Maybe someone could suggest a cheaper option for you? I use Raw2go and can buy 1lb bags from 85p-£1 depending on what it is
 
Karran said:
what are you using currently for RAW? Maybe someone could suggest a cheaper option for you? I use Raw2go and can buy 1lb bags from 85p-£1 depending on what it is
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I do a mix of DIY and Nature's menu. nature's menu are about £3.50 per bag ( about a day's worth) and I wouldn't even like to know what I spend on the rest - wings, ribs, minces, tripe, fish, necks etc etc
 
others will probably be along with their suggestions, but the ones I use and mentioned above, do minced green tripe and chicken feet/wings turkey necks etc, so may well work out cheaper. I used NM to begin with but found Mrs Spaniel to poo out a lot of the veg so seemed a waste (and expensive!)

When I take her away for competitions I switch onto AATU kibble and she's always coped fine with that https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/dog-food-reviews/0997/aatu-80-20
 
I use Landywoods which seems to be one of the cheaper ones but is better quality than DAF for eg who I found really variable and had some really manky stuff from
 
I also found raw just too expensive when I was looking to cut costs a bit.

I used to buy in bulk and fill up a chest freezer so I was doing it the most economical way.

It makes me sad because I much prefer feeding raw, but they are all on Skinners now.
 
I had to swap 3 out of the 4 of mine to kibble because of the cost when I became single - so my oldest is mostly on raw, but otherwise I feed Skinners Duck and Rice. My oldest will not keep condition on with kibble and neither will my big greyhound dog, so I have to feed him raw intermittently too - I buy from Manifold Valley Meats, I tried Landywoods and found their products absolute rubbish compared to the quality of MVM, never again!
 
I feed half and half. Mostly raw for breakfast and kibble for their evening meal. I do sometimes mix a raw mince through their kibble though and never had any problems at all. They also get regular raw egg, coconut oil and daily salmon oil as well as bones a couple of times a week.
 
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Leo Walker said:
I swapped from MVM to Landywoods as I found them better :lol:
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LOL! I suppose it might have been just the batch I had, but it was sloppy and awful - Islay (with no teeth!) really struggled with it, never again! I have always found Teressa from MVM the best in customer service which influences my decision :)
 
A good quality kibble should be suitable although they may turn up their noses.Its not very palatable once its been sitting out for a while.Soaking it in boiled water can help and the is healthier for their system than totally dry.You could always add a little fresh meat and veg.Of course any changes need to be gradual.
 
I have had my 3 dogs and previous ones on raw for at least 12 years now, I find it relatively cheap and can feed them for £30-50 per month, depends on what I am feeding.
I mix all my own food for them so I can control their intake.
I have used mainly Landywoods but have recently found other sources that are cheaper locally.
I certainly would never feed them anything else as I know the real benefits of a raw diet and
I have to resist the temptation in supermarkets of not trying to point out to people that the big bag of Bakers they are buying is basically crap!
But I realise people feed different foods for different reasons but raw being more expensive is in my experience not one of them.
Oz
 
I do raw, using my butcher for chicken necks and minced meat, which contains offal. I pay £3 a dog per week. Plus a couple of cans of oily fish each which is about 59p a tin so roughly £4 a dog a week. I cannot feed a decent kibble for anywhere near that. So I would look to your supplier. They do only have one meal a day. I do use Natures menu if Im going away and leaving them with someone else, but they only have 1 square block of Natures Menu each which is about £1 each a day. I can get bones free from my butcher as well. And I do look at the cheap meat clearance on a Sunday at the supermarkets. I never feed chicken wings as they are eaten by humans so far more expensive, but chicken carcasses are as cheap as necks from the butchers.
 
Lévrier;13483063 said:
LOL! I suppose it might have been just the batch I had, but it was sloppy and awful - Islay (with no teeth!) really struggled with it, never again! I have always found Teressa from MVM the best in customer service which influences my decision :)
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Ah,that will be it! Mine like it a bit sloppy and eat it like pigs in a trough :lol: Landywoods deliver weekly as well which is useful for the many times I forget to re order!
 
I've fed mine a mixture of kibble & raw for a while now - kibble in the morning & raw in the evenings. Like Blackcob, this means when we go away to rallies we can just switch back to pure kibble & it's much easier. I suspect the pre-made raw may be more expensive (although i don't know as i do DIY) so perhaps as opposed to doing a mixture of DIY & pre-made raw like you do now, feeding kibble & DIY raw may work out cheaper for you?
 
The multi breed, breeding/show home I got one of my dogs from would be very much of the mindset of natural feeding with no expense spared.

My dog came to me on Millie's Wolfheart kibble and I've kept her on it and since switched my other dog over to Millie's from Acana.

The breeders were telling me they tried for quite a while to get the raw feeding right, but eventually went back to kibble and all the dogs were better for it.
 
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