feeding pets on a budget

mirry

Hi every one,
Thought i would get this post started on feeding pets on a budget,
all pets welcome

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My border terrier is 10 months old and has expensive taste.
She loves the ceasar dog food which is very expensive.
and doesnt like dry mix much.

I just wondered does anyone make thier own dog food ?
any recipes or ideas would be great.

Gryfon

I feed my dog and cats dried food. TBH they'll eat what you put in front of them and like it whether it's dry or tinned! Just that tinned tends to be eaten quicker.

I also give the dog any scraps like dried crusts, food the children don't want, fat cutting etc etc etc.

Oh and some people boil the carcasses of chickens etc to use as stock to pour over dried food for their pets.

mirry

my dog will not eat crusts , infact shes sooooooo fussy.
she will only eat meat and it costs a fortune also it makes her poo too loose.

I like the idea of pouring a stock over the dried mix, may try that out today.

Pink.

Hi Mirry,

Here are some older threads that have some recipes for dog food on them:

HM dog food

Feeding Animals OS?

Saving Money for Pets (OK, their owners)

Comercial dog food:Is there anyone who does`nt buy it?


Also you may be interested to read this thread that Martin started recently on the Families board: Great Feed, House and Treat Your Pets For Less Hunt

Pink

Gryfon

mirry wrote:

my dog will not eat crusts , infact shes sooooooo fussy.
she will only eat meat and it costs a fortune also it makes her poo too loose.

I like the idea of pouring a stock over the dried mix, may try that out today.

Personally I'd just get the dried food in and she'll soon learn that it's that or nothing! Mika has a bowl in the morning and picks at it throughout the day so she doesn't get loads all at once which she would with meat and then be hungry again by the evening!

They also suggest that dogs should have a day off being fed as it's prolongs their life...can't remember where I read it but it was something to do with the fact that wolves don't eat every day and manage fine!

melt71

We have a Boxer and they are notorious for having iffy digestive systems. We can't feed her anything other than pedigree tins and a dry mixer. If we feed her anything else she gets the runs. We used to buy the dry mixer from a pet shop - cost £30. We now buy a really good one from Lidl which costs just £5.99! The bag lasts for about 2.5 weeks.
She doesn't like dry food as much as the meat but when she's hungry she'll eat it. If it looks too dry, I mix a bit of warm water into it and leave it to soak for a couple of minutes. I've also given her just the dry food with stock mixed instead of just water. She loved that!

PoshPaws_3

Mr Jack (Greyhound) and Jonty (Saluki, see avatar) both eat Gusto dry complete food. £4.99 for a HUGE sack from Tesco and its fantastic stuff. Made by the same people as make Autarky and it keeps their weight on, their coats shiny and their poo is perfectly formed. :laugh:

In fact, now that Mr Jack is getting on in years, we bless the day we discovered Gusto. Since he has become a bit unreliable in the bottom department, leaving large rabbit poo behind him is completely bearable. Anything else would be rather less than bearable.

As for picky pooches - well, they're picky because (forgive me), they've trained you to let them be.

My boys get their Gusto with a share in a tin of Asda dog meat and whatever leftovers have come from our dinner. They always get warm water or gravy on their dinner, as I believe that dogs were made to enjoy hot meat (what with chasing it before the kill etc.) and it helps to mobilise the fat content, which helps to make it tastier. With the inclusion of leftovers, their dinners are always different - although they love curry, chilli and fish days especially well.

Gryfon

Oh and another thing...when you change their diets you will get a few dodgy poos for a week or so as their digestive system gets used to the new food. So unless you feed them the same food for a few weeks and they still have the runs then you can't really blame it on the food.

That's why it's recommended you stick with one brand! Or be prepared if you change

davsidipp

winalot dried dog food and winalot casserole tinned food for my two jrt works well for me as there poo is not runny but firm and does not upset there tummy. both are different nature one has stomach of steel while the little one has a weaker stomach so i think with a lot of foods its trial and error.

mirakl

I buy working dog food because there's no VAT on it. This is perfect for our spaniel who exercises enough that it doesn't make him fat.

*warning if you don't exercise your dog much don't feed it working dog food, it will get fat*

Occasionally when I see liver and kidneys reduced to 10 or 20p in the supermarkets I'll buy that and feed it to both the dog and cats. They love it.

arnie&caseysma!

We buy the chubbs of meat from Lidl at around 39p each and also the Lidl complete food which is about £1.79 a bag. One chubb does both A&C each day and the bag of complete food lasts about a week. We could make it cheaper by giving them mixer instead but we like to keep them filled up!

When we have pasta or rice we cook a little extra to add to their meat, not much, just something to make it a little different and it costs pennies when used for a feed instead of dry food. We also do the same with potatoes.

The dogs love it and it gives them variety in their diet so that they do not get bored with the same thing every day!