Dog food (and raw diets) - small update on page 2

I love this site: https://www.petforums.co.uk/dog-health-nutrition/

I use the cat health and nutrition section and everyone was so helpful and knowledgeable when I asked about specialist diets etc, I'm sure the dog section would be just as good

Hello,

Not a dog owner at present (but have been brought up with dogs) but I have a cat (who is my baby!) and I have recently started giving her raw meat. She loves all meat, but she's not keen on fish, which is strange for a cat. I'm not upset she doesn't like it as it stinks!

I don't like fish that much, but I was v brave and got her some whole makerel (sp?) the other day. It was gutted, but had bones in it, which concerned me, but according to the websites I've read, raw bones are fine to give to animals, but cooked bones aren't so good as they splinter which causes them damage.

I HATE wet cat food. I think it stinks and don't see any nutitional benefit of feeding it to pets. Blossom (my cat) usually has Purina dry food, which the vet recommended. She likes it, but I am going to give her a mixture of both, but not at the same time. Small amounts of raw meat, including liver & kidney in the day and a small amound of dry food at night, as she likes to nibble in the evenings.

I like this site: https://www.petforums.co.uk/dog-health-nutrition/

I use the cat heath and nutrition section and they were all helpful and knowledgable when I was asking about specialist diets. I'm sure the dog section would be just as good.

Pet food is a really contensious issue and a lot of it is personal preference.

There are some real advocates of raw meat diets - and I agree I can see the benefits. I however feed both my dogs dry food.

The pouches/tins etc are mainly water so you pay for a lot of waste.

I feed James Wellbeloved to my 2 -a springer and boxer - mainly as the boxer has a sensitive tum so I wanted a food without lots of additives/colourings etc.

HTH but that is just my opinion.

Oh BTW I feed my cats JW cat!!!

And they feed themselves extra mice and birds.

Thanks guys.

That forum looks good - thanks for that Anna!

Sparks - I did wonder about doing a bit of both. My main concern is that we do quite a lot of caravanning and the kitchen and fridge are tiny. The thought of keeping raw dog meat (tripe, offel, etc) along side my children's food in the friedge and preparation areas concerns me slightly I guess (perhaps illogocally, but still)

Mavis - thank you. I did see the James Wellbeloved but I'm still a dunce at analysing the ingredients label. High meat content is good, carbs and fillers bad, right?

Until recently, Woody (Cocker Spaniel) was always fed on offal which we cooked up every evening for him. I used to be quite meticulous and remove as much fat as possible (usually lamb hearts) but H didn't and as a result, Woody started putting on weight. His movements were also never solid.

Our breeder suggested we offer him only Arden Grange kibbles (which he'd always grazed on) but he now has these as his main diet and we only offer him "real" meat about once a week. He's fighting fit on the kibbles (which we order direct from Arden Grange online) which have to be a more balanced food for him and it's wonderful to be able to pick up his mess cleanly rather than with a spatula!! ?

So for me it's "complete" dry food all the way and for us, we use Arden Grange.

I am a great advocate of a raw diet - which is 2-3% of the animal's bodyweight and should be 60% bone, 20-30% muscle meat, 10% offal (heart, tripe, liver etc) and small amounts of veggies, fruit, kitchen scraps etc - but when even when I read the title of the post I was thinking 'I'm not sure I'd suggest it in your case because of small children, flexibility' then I read your full post and completely agree with your thinking.

We feed raw, and I find it no more hassle and a lot cheaper than feeding a processed diet - but we have three butchers who will provide us with a wide range of meaty bones (lamb, beef, rabbit, turkey, chicken, deer) for free so the main part of their diet doesn't cost us anything. The rest - frozen tripe, liver, hearts, chicken wings and various minced muscle meats - comes from a pet food delivery company (www.mobilepetfoods.com) but we do need a second freezer to store it all.

When we're in situations where we can't feed raw then I use Orijen https://www.orijenpetfoods.co.uk/

as it seems to cause less upset when switching between the two ways of feeding. It seems expensive, but you only feed a small amount so the bags last longer. Other alternatives are things like Nature Diet and Nature's Menu which also try to provide as close to a raw diet as possible but with more convenience.

A raw diet done properly with all the variety that there should be in the diet can be extremely beneficial for dogs, and cats, but a good quality food isn't a bad option either. (Bit like breast milk / formula milk !)

We have 2 Shih Tzu's who seem to be very prone to weight gain, we used to feed them a mix of wet and dry but on advice from a vet freind (Monkey Mavis!) we've moved to a fully dry diet and now measure portions. We feed hard Chappie food as it seems like a good complete option and they both enjoy it, historically we've tried Science Plan and Eukanuba but they were so fussy with it we had to move to the Chappie which they both love. HTH x

I used to prepare fresh food for Hugo but when we got Hudson is was all a bit too much. Plus, it's quite tricky if you go on holiday, especially in hotels as you can't refrigerate the food.

When we got Hudson he'd been on Royal Canin so we switched Hugo to that and I have to say he's rather fabulous on it, we noticed a massive difference in his overall look and energy levels. Hugo is 7 so he has the light range and Hudson has the normal adult food. They won't eat it dry so I mix in a 1/4 tin of bakers Supreme (40% meat compared to 4% of most tinned) or a little fresh meat. The vet worked out all the amounts to give and to compensate for the 1/4 tin. I have to watch Hugo's weight but Hudson is very skinny so it's important he eats all of his.

Of course you possibly know all the stuff about slowly introducing the new food, so you will have to stick to raw for a while. I'd have thought that was quite young to be on a raw diet, Hugo was on very soft foods until about 12 weeks. No expert though and I guess they eat bones in the wilds ?

I think the key is, there are lots of very good complete foods on the market and really in the higher en bracket you can't go wrong so it's about personal choice, be that availability, cost etc. I do find that they get very bored of the food though, I order it in 15kg bags and about 3/4 of the way through the stop eating so I have to jazz it up a bit more. I do wish they did different flavours so it wasn't always the same old same old. I have considered looking at a range that offers variety.

I have met so many people who talk about feeding a raw or natural diet but who don't properly research the correct balance, that I am going to say a good dry food is better. On the other hand, I sell dry petfood for a living (for about another month) so I would say that.

I think, if you have the time to put the effort in a raw diet is probably healthiest of all. But most people don't so a really good complete food is the next best thing.

L
xx

I like the look of that food Boop! Assuming the feed rate is lower than RC then it's about the same price. I pay £43 for a 15kg bag and Hugo has 300g a day and Hudson 400g.

There's a feeding guide on the top right of the website that should tell you how much they'd need of the Orijen. As there's no grain then it tends to be a lot lower weight than other foods - less 'waste' out the other end too!

Just thought, I hope my post didn't read like I wanted you to work it out for me (how rude!) I was just bimbling out loud ?

It looks to be about 50g less a day so should work out about the same cost wise.

Brilliant, thanks you guys. I knew I would get good advice!

At the moment she's being fed on very soft meat with ground bone. I plan on keeping her on her raw diet for a fortnight, then gradually changing her over to something else over about 4 weeks, so very gradual as she'll still be so young.

I'll have a look at complete foods - I bought a Nature Diet portion so I could have a good look at it. It says you should use one a day, and they're 79p each. So that's about £24 per month, is that comparable with other high end foods?

I shall look in to all the brands you've all mentioned. Thank you x

Well I looked at the forum that Anna posted about, and took on board everything you've all said. After a few hours of researching, I've bought a trial size of Orijen Puppy. So I now have a little bit of Nature Diet and Orijen. I figure that if I have a wet and a dry to try her on I'm coverning all bases, and thought that the wet one might be better to introduce gradually at first, as it'll be closer to the texture that she's used to (minced meat)

thanks again everyone.

We have three dogs and feed them on a mix of kibble, cooked, and raw meet, along with the odd scrap, veggies etc.

We don’t stick religiously to one brand all the time but usually stick to just a couple of the better brands, buying them when they’re on offer. We don’t buy wet food as it’s mostly water (tho Mr GMT bought some foil trays the other day by accident as he thought they were cat food doh! And they are gradually having this just a little at a time mixed in with everything else),

All three hounds are very healthy and have lovely glossy coats. The vet always says what good nick they’re in.

Good luck with your impending arrival!

We feed dry and tend to go with with Burns due to them sponsoring the foster dogs we have in rescue but we do give raw bones etc too.

On the doodle forum there is a whole section on raw diets and feeding etc, Quite a few do feed barf and it works well for them

Not long now till pup comes home...exciting

GMT - Hopefully we'll get to a point where she can have a bit of everything - but given she's so young when she arrives, we're going to go very slowly to start off with. She's a labradoodle so her lab genes might mean she's a total hoover of anything anyway! ?

Clodders - thank you again for introducing me to the site, I love it. It's been so useful and I've gone through the nutrition forum thoroughly. I really like that weekly meal planner that Frosty did for BARF. I will do it for a few weeks, and I might be pleasantly surprised, but at the moment I suspect I'll want swap her over gradually.

3 weeks until we pick her up. Never has time dragged for so long! I didn't anticipate the arrival of my children this much, or any Christmas or even my wedding I don't think ? Her tag arrived in the post today and I cried. I need help ?

Janna - you are not alone, we got Marley our pup on Sunday and I was on countdown for weeks. I even had an online countdown on my homepage ? .

Ooh, I didn't know you'd got him yet, Sherry! A black lab, right? Hope you're all having fun. Any pics?

I found the breeder back at the beginning of May, when she wasn't even sure if she had a pregnancy or not. So it's been a loooooong wait ? I've filled the time with reading as many books on dog behaviour and training as Boop would recommend ?