Giant Breed Dog Food Ideas

Poochifur

Hi everyone am looking for some ideas and am hoping you can help.

We have two dogs; a 7 year old Newfoundland and a 5 year old Saint Bernard. The Newf has a very slight heart murmur and is getting a little stiff in her old age (!), the Saint has a sensitive stomach, hip dysplacia and gum hyperplasia. We currently feed James Wellbeloved large kibble in lamb flavour (we were changing flavours regularly but this upsets Mike's stomach) and this is ok for them although I have read some stories about side effects and they do have a few of these i.e. moulting a lot, bad breath and loose stools occasionally.

I am due to finish work next month to become a FT mum to our 7month old twins and so money is going to be tight. We currently spend over £100 a month on dog food plus seraquin supplements for them both and as our food bill for the 4 humans in our house is only £220 a month this is getting difficult.

I'm not sure what to do for the best as I don't want to feed cheap rubbish to the dogs and risk their health or well being but equally I would like to save some money to ease the burden on the household budget. If however, this is not possible then we'll have to squeeze some money from elsewhere.

Any suggestions? I know it's possibly an impossible question!!

Caroline_a

Could you feed raw? A lot depends on whether you have a good local supply, but my two dogs cost me around a tenner a week, and that's a pretty large German Shep, and larger than expected Italian Spinone. I do supplement their meat with Skinners food, which is good stuff for working dogs and VAT free, but they only have a small scoop each day so one large sack lasts ages.

They also get at least one bone a day (I get bags of bones from same source as meat), which stops any gum and teeth problems. And they luuurve them!! And it keeps them entertained!! Win -win - win!

krlyr

Do you have room for a chest freezer at all? I made the switch to raw feeding a couple of years ago and haven't looked back. Not only has it stopped the constant wind, cleared up the teeth tartar and brought a gleam to their coats, but it actually works out cheaper than a premium brand kibble. OK, it's not freerange, organic meat - but neither are all the premium brand kibbles! At least I know exactly what I'm feeding them, rather than a concoction of various meats, cereals, fats and filler ingredients that can vary in proportions with every batch manufactured.
The cost of raw feeding can vary widely depending on source, but to feed my two (a GSD and a GSD x Rottie) it costs me £40-50 a month, and this is with me buying a huge variety - from chicken breasts, tripe, beef chunks, etc. to whole rabbits, chicken carcasses, etc. In kibble, I think that it'd be at least £80-100 for the brands I'd be happy feeding.
Going by the prices of my supplier, to feed the average Newfie (at, say, 100lb) and St Bernard (120lb - grabbing these weights off Google so sorry if I'm wrong!) could cost from as little as £50 a month. Costs go up a little if you provide more variety in meats, but still, even £60-70 would be an improvement on £100. Once you've invested in a chest freezer (I bought my last one from Ebay for £30 - a giant 4' wide one that served me well until I moved - and is still in working order, now rehomed to a friend who had more space than I do in my new house), the running costs of it are very little.
You can even save costs by getting freebies from butchers - plus abbatoirs, supermarket whoopies, roadkill (if you're not too squeamish to collect it!) etc.

Alternatively, as a sort of medium quality/prices kibble, check out the CSJ range. They do a lamb variety that might suit Mike's tummy well.

Poochifur

I have been really interested in feeding raw but would not have a clue where to start. The pre-packaged stuff seems expensive and so I'd want to source my own but how time consuming etc is it?

Might have to do some more research as I think it would be better for them and for us to switch even if it is a little more work initially.

krlyr

I've got a spreadsheet I'd be happy to send to you if you want. It goes on my supplier's prices but it is customisable (if I've got the formulas right!). Once you get used to it, you stop calculating percentages and grams etc. and it becomes a whole lot easier. I tend to order my balance of meat for the month (I base mine on the prey model diet, which is 80% meat, 10% bone and 10% offal) - so if I order 100lb, I get 80lb of various meat minces, chunks and fillets, 10lb of carcasses and other bones, and 10lb of ox and pig offal. I know that regardless of what I feed on which day, I've achieved the balance overall. Afterall, I don't eat Xg of protein, Yg of carb, Zg of sugar, etc. in exact proportions every meal, but achieve a balanced diet over time.
The most preparation I have to do is seperating the carcasses into individual bags when I get delivery (otherwise pulling a couple of carcasses off of a frozen 15kg lump gets tough!) or stuffing food into a Kong and putting it in the freezer the night before, so they have a slightly more challenging breakfast. If they get a whole rabbit, I may cut it in half but then I'll just sling it outside and let the dogs out, they have the equipment to manage it, fur and all, so no preparation needed. Day to day, I just grab a bag of meat, put it in a plastic tub to defrost ready for the next meal (so breakfast is grabbed out the night before, dinner is grabbed out in the morning) and split it between the pair of them, either into their bowls or their Kongs.

GT60

I feed my mal and JC Vitalin dry dog food and they love it better then Wafcol. you can also get samples off them to try.

StudioBeau

I am also a raw feeding advocate and can hugely recommend it for giant breeds (no pun intended!). My uncle Nick has 2 newfies, a 9 year old girl and a 6 year old boy, last year the 9 year old girl was showing a LOT of signs of arthritis and her teeth got really bad, really fast. My uncle started by half raw feeding and half kibble (he actually only started doing it for the teeth cleaning side of things - which now look great for her age!) and noticed she was walking a bit easier, then he increased the amount of raw and with every month, she was walking easier, not breathing so heavily, her muscles were becoming defined again. She looked amazing, like a much younger dog. Now she is 9 and she is more active and healthy and in far less pain than when she was 5 or 6!

He used to spend almost £200 a month on specialist newfie food, last time we spoke about raw (he lives down south and I live in Nottingham so we can't use the same suppliers unfortunately) he was saying for the 2 it costs him around £60 a month.

He used to savings to go on a holiday - lucky thing!

2manychildren

I have a large husky and an alaskan malamute. The husky has a very sensitive stomach, we did feed him on James Wellbeloved but with 2 of them it too expensive so someone recommended Skinners duck and rice(also has glucosamine in it for joints which is an added bonus). Both of them love it and when they do start to get bored of it I add some tuna in sunflower oil, chicken juice or just plain yogurt. I buy it online from Vet uk for under £22 for 15 kilo bag which lasts 3 weeks.
I rang Skinners and they sent me a trial pack

lisawood78

3 Great Danes here ,all raw fed.

Goodluck

Beckyy

Another Great Dane here, also fed raw. Comes in at around £35 per month for him - would work out cheaper per dog for extra dogs as the more food you buy the cheaper it costs.

It's no where near as complicated or expensive as some places lead you to think. My Dane has 3-4lb of minced meat (inc. bone) per day. Also chicken wings. Liver about once a week/fortnight, and the odd marrowbone to chew on from the butcher.

I would definitely give it a try, I'd never go back to coplete food now.