Saving money on dog food....

rising_from_the_ashes

nicolula87 wrote: »

I think we are going to give Skinners a go, although we will have to gradually introduce it as a sudden change might result in some seriously bad bowel movements (sorry!).

Ohhhhh very slowly, especially if he's known to have a bit of a delicate tum!

Replace a small (20%) of his current food with the new food, do that for a few days & if everything is fine, increase it by a bit (30%) and keep going like that - very slowly!

For anyone with a dog with a "normal" tum, you do still need to do it gradually, but probably not quite as slowly - it should take a good couple of weeks to do a total changeover

ice_babe wrote: »

I believe that rice is easly digestible to dogs, where as most cereals are not. I do sometimes add left over meat or tinned fish to the skinners and give my girl the odd bone from the butchers

I'm just trying to introduce some wet to Maisie - she's getting the Wain*wrights trays which get really good reviews & also Nature*Diet and is doing fine with a very small amount of both :T.

Hope to be able to increase this gradually over time as I do prefer to be able to feed a mix of kibble/wet.

ice_babe

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Ohhhhh very slowly, especially if he's known to have a bit of a delicate tum!

Replace a small (20%) of his current food with the new food, do that for a few days & if everything is fine, increase it by a bit (30%) and keep going like that - very slowly!

For anyone with a dog with a "normal" tum, you do still need to do it gradually, but probably not quite as slowly - it should take a good couple of weeks to do a total changeover



I'm just trying to introduce some wet to Maisie - she's getting the Wain*wrights trays which get really good reviews & also Nature*Diet and is doing fine with a very small amount of both :T.

Hope to be able to increase this gradually over time as I do prefer to be able to feed a mix of kibble/wet.

My girl is also called Maizie, or Maizie Daisy as my son calls her

mugatea

I know it sounds a bit spammy but I have a canine dietitian who writes for my website. She has 5-6 dogs and feeds them all on just pennies a day by making her own dog food.

Here are some of her recipes..

liver and heart

cooked lites

pigs head

Find yourself a good butcher and you can make amazing dog food at very little cost!

Giraffeseeker

This was recommended to me - awaiting my sample bag:

http://edenpetfoods.com/

It is 80% Chicken, Duck, Salmon, Herring, White Fish and Whole Eggs and 20% Fruit, Vegetables, Herbs, Vitamins and Minerals

No grain or gluten at all.

Bromley86

One thing I have tried to do is keep him on a food where the first ingredient is meat

Meat good, but remember the tricks re. dry food. Meat is ~2/3rds water, whereas meal is directly comparable to the the other ingredients.

gettingready

Katiehound wrote: »

One of my hounds has a weird skin rash,unidentified - at- first-sight by vet so I have been trying different foods to see if that made a difference.

Dogs look good on this, and they enjoy it, skin problem seems to have settled.
Autarky Salmon & veg, bought from Berriewood- 2 x 15kg bags £38.98 including free delivery. Have ordered by phone instead of internet- very efficient
Here's the link:
http://www.berriewoodwholesale.co.uk/det/1924/Buy-2-Autarky-Adult-Chicken-Rice-or-Salmon-Rice-15Kg-from-17-49-per-Bag-FREE-DELIVERY/

My friend (3 GS and one little "other" dog) has oirdered one day and was delivered the next. Dogs like it so now I have ordered 2 bags just now, will see...

Carer

I use Autarky for my German Shepherd. Tried her with many others over the years and most other foods either make her smell terrible or give her D and V.
Autarky is the only one we've tried that she is fine on, although we haven't tried Skinners (that was my last hope if the Autarky didn't do the trick)
Been on it a couple of years now and is thriving on it.

gettingready

Autarky Salmon & veg, bought from Berriewood- 2 x 15kg bags £38.98 including free delivery

ordered yesterday, arrived today - 2 sms, one that it was going to be delivered today (sms yesterday after ordering) , second sms today giving a one hour time slot for delivery.

Left with neighbours as instructed.

Zara, my VERY fussy dog has just eaten a whole bowl ot this one so a definiote winner.......Cheaper than Skinners AND Zara likes it - wohooooooooo

Thanks for this recoimmendation and link Katiehound

rising_from_the_ashes

gettingready wrote: »

Zara, my VERY fussy dog has just eaten a whole bowl ot this one so a definiote winner.......Cheaper than Skinners AND Zara likes it - wohooooooooo

Great news GR :T - too many ingredients for Maisie unfortunately:( .... have you got enough Skinners left to do a gradual swap (wouldn't want an upset tum ... esp on cage rest :eek:)

gettingready

Thanks, I am really happy as every little helps

Yes, will be mixing it half half just gave her this portion to see how she likes it and she loves it