Spill the beans... on how to care for Fido or Tiddles for less

Arthog

My two cats catch mice and rabbits and always choose to eat them raw!

gsddusty1

Another method for cheap dog treats is to buy cheap liver from the butcher or supermarkets and put in a blender with 2 eggs and a little water. Mix the mixture with about a third to half a bag of self raising flour in a mixing bowl and add a little garlic crushed. You end up with a gooey cake mixture which you put in the microwave for about 20 minutes. You end up with a large cake which I cut into slices and freeze the slices. I defrost and cut into small cubes to use when I want for training treats. Dogs love it and dogs who won't normally accept treats according to their owners all take the liver cake. The whole cake only costs about £1.50 and I normally get about 10 good slices. Once defrosted the treats last about a week in the fridge.
You can also put the mixture in the oven but I find it hard to clean the baking tray afterwards as the mixture sticks.

monvalle

When my Cavalier needed medication for an on going condition I asked my vet for a private prescription explaining that I had found her tablets on line much cheaper than he was charging, after consulting the other partners in the practice they agreed to supply the medication at the online price!

pazzerbear

I have a 3 year old Staffie and she is my little baby!
I called my local vets for a price to get her spayed and they told me it was £184, this seemed to be about the average - I did call about 3 or 4 others and the cheapest I got quoted was around £145.

I contacted my local dogs home and they told me it would be £86, needless to say that I booked her in straight away!!!

They also do things like microchipping too which again is much cheaper than the vets - so I wouldnt hesitate in taking her there again.

As for food - she likes the Aldi tinned food which is 89p per can - I mix this with a bag of value mixer. When I go shopping I always look in the reduced section in the fresh foods to see if I can get her a treat of raw meat which I can freeze if there are a few items.

I think its like everything else in life - shop around & get the best buys!!

klritchie

I've found a lot of great deals on the websites zooplus and petplanet.

I use zooplus to buy my cat food. It's a brand called Smilla. Even though I'd never heard of it before I thought I'd give it a go becuase it had excellent nutritional value. My cats love it and their coats look so much healthier.

Petplanet is great for toys and cat scratching posts. I can't believe shops such as pets at home sell tiny cat scratching posts for £20+. I've just bought an almost 5 foot scratching post with loads of dangly toys and beds on it for £40.

When it comes to flea and worming treatment I find the supermarket or wilkos the best for price. My cats are allergic to frontline and the majority of other flea medication. Only Bob Martin or Wilko's own don't cause a reaction and out of those two only the Bob Martin one really works. Wilkos worming product is good though.

Katherna

morg_monster wrote: »

Just wanted to add - I don't know anything about dogs but raw feeding cats is not something to be entered into lightly - it might save you money but it will take up a bit of time researching as (among other issues) there is one nutrient in particular (taurine) which cats cannot synthesise themselves (like dogs and humans can), so it is added to all commercial cat foods and so must be added if you start feeding raw. Another issue is that they need a source of calcium too and if they don't crunch bones you need to add this somehow. Even the most staunch advocate of raw feeding cats that I have encountered still says it is better to feed the cheapest complete wet cat food than to feed them raw or cooked unadulterated meat without doing your research first. ...

Taurine is found in the brown chicken meat, beef hearts, most meats do contain some taurine. Raw chicken and beef contain the most taurine and this is plenty to keep the taurine levels in a cat healthy.
With regards to bones chicken wings are good for them - raw of course. They even come with a handle if the cat can't manage it in a dish. My old ginger tabby with hardly any teeth could manage one of these if it was skinned and was held while he chewed at it as he only had 3 back teeth (long story and most happened before I got him).
My oldest cat who passed away last summer was 23 almost 24 and was fed mainly on raw food from when I got him as an overweight and very unhealthy cat, he turned into a healthy, decent weight and active cat. My ginger tabby had lots of health problems when I got him due to commercial cat food - bladder problems, allergies to ingredients etc put him onto the raw diet and he blossomed. The cats and the dog enjoy their raw diet, to the point of if I sharpen a knife I have an audience.
I've also saved quite a few pounds by using my local farm shop butchers they do animal meat ready frozen at £5 for 12lb weight - haven't found anywhere cheaper locally.

ZivatheDiva

As someone who has had dogs for nearly 30 years and fed lots of different foods, I now feed raw too. If you want some good info there is a great book by Lew Olsen who has done this for some 30 odd years, called Raw & Natural Feeding for Dogs(you can find it on Amazon & there are bound to be some second hand copies available!) She is not evangelical(some raw feeders can be!) & gives lots of info on feeding raw, raw with kibble(complete food) & cooked diets. As someone else mentioned, bones are fine as long as they are NOT cooked! (I'm mum to 3 Cavaliers who love chicken wings and a nice juicy bone!) Also there is a company called Durham Pet Foods who do various types of meat & fish per packed in 1lb frozen blocks(mine love the green tripe -yuk!) - it's about 50 pence depending on the variety, they also do chicken necks, duck necks/ wings, turkey necks etc & they have distributors round the country and also deliver. I add minced up veg(dogs digest this more easily apparently) & occasionally add things like eggs, oily fish, etc - as someone else mentioned, it's about balance over time not at every meal(how many humans do you know who get a balanced diet every day?!!) I came to all this through having a spaniel with liver disease & after a lot of research, he had a home cooked diet instead of the horrible(& horribly expensive!) prescription diet from the vet(it worked!). Raw feeding doesn't suit every dog & owner but I think we owe it to our four legged friends to give them the best we can(& can afford)to keep them happy & healthy & not be taken in by all the hype round pet food & the advertising that goes with it. Just my 2 penneth and hope it helps!:D

ZivatheDiva

And that doesn't mean that there aren't occasions when a complete food is what I feed-travelling for example-I just go for a decent brand like Burns, CSJ or Orijen:)

StudioBeau

If I have to travel/leave them with someone not prepared to feed whole raw I get minced meat with little chunks of the liver/kidney/heart/tripe and put it in chinese take away containers, just like if they were feeding a tray of naturediet or something similar (just at a quarter of the price!).

paddypaws101

It IS more complicated to feed a cat on raw food than a dog....but you can fed up to 20% of total food as raw without worrying about those meals being 'complete'. That would be 3 meals a week of cheap cuts such as kidney, heart or chicken wings.
You can buy a complete balanced raw cat food such as
http://www.naturalinstinct.com/cart.php. It costs £4 for a 1kg tub, which will feed an adult 5kg cat for a week. If you fed one meal of good quality dry such as Orijen or Applaws and one of raw you could feed the cat for less than £3 a week...cheaper than Whiskas!
Good quality wet foods such as Bozita, Smilla and Animonda can be bought online through Zooplus and as they contain no grain as filler you fed less than regular supermarket brands. Buying from the German branch of the shop Zooplus.de works out even cheaper!
I agree with others who choose not to vaccinate my cats yearly....many vets will actually endorse this if you ak them directly, though obviously they have to be careful about broaching the subject.
I also strongly disagree with routine use of flea/wormers. Expensive and very harsh for the cat. I have had multiple outdoor cats for years and rarely had to use flea treatments. I do occasionally use a household spray such as Indorex but only every couple of years!