The best dog food??

KK, what exactly do you get from your butcher, I'm impressed by the £10 a month figure. As already mentioned I was a very brave girl and gave Evie a turkey drumstick yesterday, she was really funny, just licked it for ages, then started crunching. I checked after 5 mins and she had just started on the meat, then 5 minutes more not a scrap left. It cost around £1.70 so great for a treat but quite pricey. I get bandsaw mince from butchers which is great, bone ground into the mince, it is 26p a pound but i wouldn't feed that in large quantities as it really does "bung'em up". I have on a couple of occasions got a bag of dog scraps from another butcher, carrier bag size for a £1 which I thought was great value, but when I got down to it a lot of it was stuff like cooked ham scraps, stuff in barbecue sauce etc which I didn't feed them as decided it was as processed as dog foods.
 
If you can find a supplier, then Healthy Options kibble is great stuff :) I swear it gave another 18 months of life to my GSD who had terrible digestive troubles towards the end of her life. I tend to feed that, with a variety of either Wainwights meat, home cooked liver and mince, tuna in sunflower oil, and often veggies, mostly carrots and peas, but she likes courgettes, green beans etc too. Vets ask me what I feed Pops, so I guess she looks quite good on it! ;)
 
MM, my butcher will give me chicken carcasses and large marrowbone type things with a decent bit of meat on for free so long as I buy a reasonable amount of human food too. He hasn't quite grasped the idea of pet mince yet so I still have to buy minced beef, lol. I then also buy mixed packets of chicken thighs and drumsticks from Sainsburys, it's £3 for two packs. :)

Have you got a meat wholesaler near you? There's a fab one near us but I just don't have the freezer space for that kind of bulk, shame as I could do it really cheaply that way. They do big polystyrene trays of wings for £2, that kind of thing.
 
Would`nt feed anything but raw I`m afraid..the ingredients to dried food would horify you,premium ones are no better.I can get 10 kilo boxes of chook carcases..still with a fair bit of meat on them..for a fiver a box of lamb flaps, the ribs and some meat ,are eight pounds a 10 kilo box.One of either of these provides a lab sized dog with it`s daily meal,any rescue thinnies get two or three..fatties get just one, we also feed a bit of minced ox head meat as wel .As for kibble..well we do have an ocasional bag of Wagg,or Gilpa Superdog around,but it is more of a treat thrown onto their meat..bit like a big mac for a kid.

Katie being arrogant..no ,just being informative ..as I am.
 
druid said:
We're using Acana - it's completely grain free which I think is appropriate for dogs as they weren't really evolved to eat something that's 70% wheat. Of course lots do fine on those foods though!
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Where do you get your Acana from ?

I am in the West and would be interested to know if it were accessible for me to use on our tribe too. Thanks :)
 
Sorry MM not ignoring you been away, I get a big bin liner full of chicken carcasses for £1, a couple of bags of 30 or so chicken wings and breast of lamb, lamb bones sort of a carrier bag full plus anything that is going out of date that he chucks in, but like Black Cob says if you start buying human food from them they do give you a lot of stuff as well and it means that you support your local butcher as well!! They actually have to pay someone to take it away!

I also buy a few bits from the supermarket if I see them, like fish and sometimes chopped liver (mine are not keen on offal) and lambs hearts that are about 50p in Morrison's and Asda do a cheap mince that is a mix of beef and pork that they like and local free range eggs. I add a bit of raw fish to their tins of pilchards in tomato sauce and they eat them, but my old dogs used to love Salmon heads and fish bones from the local fishmonger, but the ACD's don't do that, apparently they don't have fish in the middle of Australia !

I am lucky that I have a game Butcher across the road and they quite often get deer ribs, Rabbits left over in the Freezer and game birds sometimes too and that is all free.

They do sometimes have the Turkey legs but like you say they are a huge meal and not cheap, especially if you have 2 or more!

One meaty chicken carcass is a meal for my two who weigh around 22kg, My sisters GSD has 1 1/2.
 
So can any people please recommend a food that is sold at a reasonable price with minimal E numbers, sugar and cereal (bakers has horrified me).
Having found out what goes into preserving pig ears :eek: and having butchered two pigs on Saturday, long story, I cooked all four ears as instructed on the internet for 5 hours at 80oC to give to pippin.
Was easy and apparently they are free from butchers. And she loved them far more than all her other treats.
Bought her a big raw bone tonight to see how she gets on (from an independant petshop). ANYTHING seems to be better than bakers no wonder she has hyperactivity and concentration issues I would never eat anything with all those colours in.
Any recommendations appreciated.
 
Taz's mum said:
Where do you get your Acana from ?

I am in the West and would be interested to know if it were accessible for me to use on our tribe too. Thanks :)
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Sorry to butt in :o

I feed Orijen which is produced by the same company as Acana. I believe the orijen to be slightly better than the Acana, although the price of Acana has gone up and there is not a huge difference between them price wise.

I order from http://www.berriewoodwholesale.co.uk/pages/orijen-1533.htm and they are fantastic.

I have also ordered from http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/dogs/dry_dog_food/acana who were very reliable (only ordered orijen though!)

Am I correct in thinking you do not currently feed this product? If not here are some links, if you do I apologise :o

http://www.orijen.ca/orijen/products/

http://www.orijenpetfoods.co.uk/acatalog/info.html

http://www.acanapetfoods.co.uk/

Hope thats of some help :D
 
Thanks for the info KK, will do a bit more asking. My usual butcher is where I got the bag of scraps from and as I said not too impressed with those. It might be worth asking butcher where I get the pet mince from although its possible chicken carcasses already go in the mince, he is very pricey, and mainly sells in bulk so can't afford to use him regularly for my meat though. A friend can get beef hearts for free, how often would you feed them, I thought maybe a bit rich to give more than once or twice a week maximum.
 
Oh and Evie is embracing the raw diet a bit too enthusiastically for my liking. Saturday morning she woke me at 6 am howling to go out. I thought she must be desperate so went down to her, she shot out the back door into the garden, a second later there was a squeal and she reappeared with a rabbit in her mouth. Luckily she quickly killed it and then proceeded to devour half of it before I could get it off the little s*d. Good job I don't have neighbours, not a pretty sight chasing her round the garden in my pj's. :D
Can't believe she heard the rabbit from the house but she must have sensed it was there, or got its scent (window was open) .
 
Go Evie good girl, send her down I have a job for her, promise I will send her back when mine are all eaten! Little darlings are eating precious grass and digging scrapes. Have just lined up someone to shoot and ferret the beggars in return for some for the dogs!

They are real complete food for dogs though, maybe you should give her the half that's left back!
 
little_legs said:
My German short haired pointer is on Burns.
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Ditto!

I would REALLY like to feed H RAW. But I just don't have any freezer space and no where to put another one. When eventually we move house though I definitly will.

I did want to then use Orijen. But can't afford £70/bag!!! So Burns was my compromise. He does really well. Better than he did on Hills Natures Best which is what he was on when I got him.
 
Taz's mum said:
Where do you get your Acana from ?

I am in the West and would be interested to know if it were accessible for me to use on our tribe too. Thanks :)
Click to expand...

I order from Zooplus.ie

I don't feed Orijen as my boy is a pup and there's debate over the high protein levels being suitable for young dogs
 
Mine refused to eat dry dog food until she was 4 so was feed on the cans of Pedigree. Now shes 5 and gets Bakers dry food and she loves it :) she also likes the Pedigree dry food now aswell. And on a sunday she gets sunday dinner left overs :p Mine doesnt like bones for some reason!! or pigs ears to think of it!!
 
NicoleS_007 said:
Mine refused to eat dry dog food until she was 4 so was feed on the cans of Pedigree. Now shes 5 and gets Bakers dry food and she loves it :) she also likes the Pedigree dry food now aswell. And on a sunday she gets sunday dinner left overs :p Mine doesnt like bones for some reason!! or pigs ears to think of it!!
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I would really really urge you to change foods. That is such a bad food for dogs.
Look at the ingredients. Yuk!
 
druid said:
We're using Acana - it's completely grain free which I think is appropriate for dogs as they weren't really evolved to eat something that's 70% wheat. Of course lots do fine on those foods though!
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I feed Otto acana too. He was fed Skinner's duck and rice and did well on it until he suddenly refused to eat it and had a chronic upset tum. He's not a fussy dog normally so we decided to change him on to something a bit more 'natural' without going to raw (we don't have a freezer!)
He is doing incredible on it, he looks amazing, has firm stools, wolfs down every last crumb and has suddenly filled out his previously scrawny frame. Can't believe how well he does on it, and a big bag lasts us ages as he is doing better on half the amount! (He was being fed twice the recommended amount of skinners just to keep his ribs covered!)
 
druid said:
I... there's debate over the high protein levels being suitable for young dogs
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Now this is what makes me ask questions why should a carnivore who has no nutritional need for any carbohydrates have a problem with protein content?

I think that there are several reasons for this:
Lack of bone content alongside the protein
Cooked food alters the quality of the protein
Poor quality protein is used in many feeds
Lack of wider research into raw alternatives

All the research is concentrated in dry or wet cooked foods and most of those that commission the research do have a vested interest in upping the carb content and keeping the price down so you have to treat funded research with caution, I’m not necessarily suggesting anything underhand, but by presenting a food for research in comparison with something similar you limit the extent of that research. Whenever you change food you are going to get a period of benefit, even between the cheap ones nutrients vary between the feeds and something lacking in one will be gained from another and this will not help research results if not allowed for.

From brief reports on here dogs fed on orijen do not feel full on the ration required, which is a shame as the quality of content is by far the best, so if you cook quality protein it appears that you need something to bulk the food to replace natural bones and fur.
 
mine gets Dr Johns silver and they have done really well on it they have fab coats touch wood never at the vets ben my old dog was on it all his life (17 years) and it did him no harm at all up until the day he died he looked well.

Ive never fed raw as i have a massive thing about bones and dogs scared to death about them eating them i know they do it fine in the wild i just dont want to do it, our pet shop sells frozen meat for dogs may look into that for a treat.
 
At the risk of being shot down in flames here, I've yet to see a convincing piece of evidence for/against ANY type or brand of dog food, other than the fact that different kinds seem to suit different dogs. I have a dachshund who eats a mixture of tinned and dried - he won't touch dried on its own. But I deliberately vary the brands of both. And sometimes I even add a bit of pasta, rice or meat scraps, heaven forbid!!!!

I read a very interesting article (unfortunately I can't remember where) which pointed out that it's no wonder so many dogs become intolerant, when they're fed the same thing day in, day out. After all, how many of us would becomg allergic/intolerant if we only ate chicken and veg at every meal, and nothing else? My dog seems pretty happy on his varied diet, which he's had since a puppy (how many wolves turn down a hare because it's a sudden change from deer?). Good skin, shiny coat, lots of energy and a good weight - the lean side of normal, although he does get plenty of exercise.
 
Nudibranch said:
At the risk of being shot down in flames here, I've yet to see a convincing piece of evidence for/against ANY type or brand of dog food, other than the fact that different kinds seem to suit different dogs...
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I don't think you will find anything published against the might of the dog food industry, they are very powerful and fund their own research which will of course be unlikely to find against a product and if it does it is probably unlikely to find itself anywhere public. The growing number of raw feeders mostly source their own diets and do not buy from a single point which means that there is no incentive to fund research into raw vs commercial diets.

Basically if you are aware of what the label means and bear in mind the lack of regulation in the dog food industry, how they can avoid listing ingredients legally and can misleadingly describe the food then you are armed and best able to ask searching questions of any food company before you let their product near your dog, that way you can be satisfied that you are getting as good a food as possible.

I quite agree that getting the same food especially dried day in day out must be boring, but again with the lack of regulation in labelling they are probably getting the same meat type in most foods with only the "flavour" differing.
 
Nudibranch said:
At the risk of being shot down in flames here, I've yet to see a convincing piece of evidence for/against ANY type or brand of dog food, other than the fact that different kinds seem to suit different dogs. I have a dachshund who eats a mixture of tinned and dried - he won't touch dried on its own. But I deliberately vary the brands of both. And sometimes I even add a bit of pasta, rice or meat scraps, heaven forbid!!!!
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I totally agree with you. My scottie is the same. She has a mixture of dried and tinned, gets plenty of exercise and has never had an ill day in her life. She is now 7.

Its what suits the dog and you can see that in the dog.
 
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