Lidl dried dog food anyone?

rita-rabbit

Dried: tempted to try it now for my cats - every little bit helps!

Kinski

suki1964 wrote: »

I would hardly say that the ingredients are practically the same

This is the contents list for the Beef variety:
contents.
cereal
veg derivavtives
meat and animal derivatives 4% beef
oils
fats
minerals
veg 4% peas
yeast
protein 23%
fat 8%
fibre 2.5%
ash 7.5%
moisture 8%
vitamins A,D3,E
copper
E320/321 antioxidants

Compare that to JWB and there is no comparison

However thats not to say that its going to do any dog any harm. However if your dog has a sensitive tum I wouldnt advise it - stick to a food that has human grade meats, isnt packed full of cereals and avoids beefs and dairy

Going on the above there is no way I would feed that stuff to my dogs.
The first ingredient it cereals, if they don't name a cereal it means they are buying in the cheapest one on the market so it will be changing all the time. Dogs don't need cereals all they are are cheap fillers and have no nutritional value.
Animal derivatives as already stated are all the bits left over after the animal has been stripped for humans to eat, it's beaks, hooves, fur ect.
E320/321 antioxidants a quick google and they come up as BHA and BHT both of which are thought to cause cancer by a lot of experts.
Sorry but it really is a nasty food.

ash28

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

But that is from a US website - I would imagine the rules may well be different in Europe, but, even if not - I believe that anything described as "human food grade" cannot include condemned animals, roadkill, etc etc...

However, it may well be the less desirable/useable bits of meat animals - eg. chicken necks, feet, giblets etc... (however, over on OS some people could probably rustle up a lovely dinner from them!:rotfl: )

You're right about the less desirable bits of meat - chicken gizzards (2nd stomach of a chicken and full of stones) spring to mind - I couldn't bring myself to eat them - but very popular in the south eastern states in the USA, fried, naturally, chicken necks are quite popular fried too- the Chinese eat chicken feet.

I was brought up to believe the only bit of a chicken you couldn't eat was the beak!

We seem to have an aversion to offal in this country (even for our pets) - while in Europe, the US and probably most of the rest of the world they don't - have we become spoilt?

I feed our dog Autarky - £12.99 for a 15kg bag in Costco - she seems to do well on it. Her favourite meal is Sunday lunch complete with yorkshire pudding.
OH cooked a Fray Bentos pie the other day - the one in a tin - I didn't know you could still buy them - the dog almost had her head in the oven.

Beckyy

Most dogs might 'seem' okay on cheaper food but it doesn't mean to say it's good for them, it's definitely not something to scrimp on. I wouldn't touch it.

orangesmartie

I've bought the lidl dried food for my dog before, the one in the yellow bag. after two days of feeding it to him he really smelled. His coat/skin smelled, he was very windy and his waste was practically liquid. It went in the bin pretty quick.

LilacLouisa

I have found this thread really interesting. I received a free packet of Hills Scientific diet dried food with some meds. When I opened it it smelled quite good, so I tried it on the dogs as a treat and they loved it.

I normally cook chicken or casserole steak for them in the SC. As we are going away in a few weeks I thought dried food might be handy. I looked up Hills though and apparently it is tested on animals, so I won`t buy it.

Uncaged recommend Arden Grange or Burns, but I don`t think I can get them locally (Southport).

Does anyone know if it is ok just to switch over from fresh meat to dried for a while? Otherwise it will have to be tinned ham or coorned beef for a week.

foreign_correspondent

dried dog food is infintiely better than corned beef or tinned ham - both are full of stuff like nitrates and far too high in salt!! All complete dog foods have the nutrients your dog needs - cooked chicken and casserole steak may not. You can feed dogs bones and raw meat (google barf diet) but it does have to be balenced, and include certain elements like (Raw - not cooked!) bones and offal - generally just cooked meat does not provide the nutrients they need - and there is nothing in there for them to chew and use their teeth on.

However, when swapping over, I would start by mixing in a little of the dried food with what they would normally eat, and increase the proportions over several days till they are eating all dried. Suddenly changing diets can cause an upset tum in some dogs.

LilacLouisa

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

dried dog food is infintiely better than corned beef or tinned ham - both are full of stuff like nitrates and far too high in salt!! All complete dog foods have the nutrients your dog needs - cooked chicken and casserole steak may not. You can feed dogs bones and raw meat (google barf diet) but it does have to be balenced, and include certain elements like (Raw - not cooked!) bones and offal - generally just cooked meat does not provide the nutrients they need - and there is nothing in there for them to chew and use their teeth on.

However, when swapping over, I would start by mixing in a little of the dried food with what they would normally eat, and increase the proportions over several days till they are eating all dried. Suddenly changing diets can cause an upset tum in some dogs.

It is worrying me a bit. They are both oldies so they need low protein (I give them quite a high proportion of mixer meal) and their teeth are now a bit wonky. I buy those dental chews for them to have daily.

They also like what they like iykwim, and as they are now getting on, 14 and 10ish we think, I don't want to do anything too drastic. If it was up to them they would have a roast on a daily basis.

As we are veggies (their food bill is higher than ours) if I had any more dogs I would try them on a veggie diet I think.

I have always cooked for my dogs (was recommended to me by a vet, many years ago) chicken and fish he said. the 10ish one (Tysha) wont eat fish of any sort. She won`t eat any tinned dog food either. They did tell us at the sanctuary she was a fussy eater. Mac is quite happy to have a bit of tinned dog food once in a while though.

Will have to have a rethink if tinned ham and corned beef are off then! Perhaps I will start trying some dried food before we go so that it won`t be too much of a shock to them, thanks :-)

foreign_correspondent

aah I didnt know they had mixer too - if they do, switching over to dry food wont be such a shock to the system! I would definitely avoid corned beef and ham - maybe try something like those trays of food which are supposed to be decent quality to mix in to make it tastier - nature diet I think it is? (sure someone will be along who knows!) - or mix in a bit of something like cooked egg or meat to make it more interesting for them.

Alternatively, soaking the kibble in hot water so it goes a bit soft can make it more apealing to dogs who are used to wet food.

Good luck!

LilacLouisa

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

aah I didnt know they had mixer too - if they do, switching over to dry food wont be such a shock to the system! I would definitely avoid corned beef and ham - maybe try something like those trays of food which are supposed to be decent quality to mix in to make it tastier - nature diet I think it is? (sure someone will be along who knows!) - or mix in a bit of something like cooked egg or meat to make it more interesting for them.

Alternatively, soaking the kibble in hot water so it goes a bit soft can make it more apealing to dogs who are used to wet food.

Good luck!

Thanks, I'll give it a go, looking for some dry food which isn`t tested on animals now. Afraid the nature diet is a no go though. Ty came from the sanctuary with a couple of tubs of that, but she hated it with a passion.

I have to say that she is almost unrecognisable from what she was when we brought her home, in fact her coat is now so lush that it is a pitb! :-)