food for lurcher

Rev

Also you want meat meal not fresh meat. Nice trick food makers do, list fresh meat so it looks good to us. But the ingredients are listed before dehydration. Meat is 70% water. So if it says 20% fresh chicken. You can take 70% of that and that is the total amount of meat that will be in the food.

Meat meal is after dehydration. So you get that amount of meat in the finished product.

Second both wainwright a trays and raw feeding. I went from WW trays to raw.

OnAndUp

OP Hope you don't mind me butting into your thread!?!

Rev just wondering if you have ever come across this food from my other post?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4550959

Thanks!

PollyOnAMission

OnAndUp wrote: »

OP Hope you don't mind me butting into your thread!?!

Rev just wondering if you have ever come across this food from my other post?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4550959

Thanks!

I know this wasn't addressed to me, but I've heard good things about this food and it is well rated on that website
http://www.whichdogfood.co.uk/dog-food-reviews/0341/markus-muehle-naturnah

The downside is that it contains maize. It does seem pretty good for the price though.

PollyOnAMission

_Andy_ wrote: »

Hey Polly

Interesting reading - how long did it take you to switch over? As in did you phase it in? TBH I'd always assumed it was expensive until I just read your post!
Could you let me know where you order from? Reasonable amount of freezer space here

thanks!

I did actually phase it in, although when switching to raw food you don't really have to. It's not quite like switching from one complete food to another; they don't necessarily need gradual time to cope with the new "recipe" as such. Perhaps because it's so natural? If you do it gradually though, the important thing to consider is not to feed a mixture of raw and complete in the same meal. They digest at different rates and doing so can cause stomach upsets. It should be fine to feed, say, a complete meal in the morning and raw in the evening though.

I order a lot of my stuff from Durham Animal Feeds. They cover the North East, Midlands and up into Scotland I think. They also provide to other suppliers who deliver elsewhere in the country, and there are plenty of other similar raw suppliers around.
http://www.daf-petfood.co.uk/4-daf-frozen-dog-foods

They do 1lb packs of mince (box of 20 for £9 - £14, depending on which mince) that contain meat, bone and offal all mixed in together. I buy a variety of different minces and for a meal my dogs each get a quarter of a pound of mince (e.g. lamb, chicken, tripe, beef, pheasant, venison), plus "something boney". This could be a chicken wing or portion (cheapest from supermarket), chunk of chicken carcass (free from butcher if I'm lucky, or else from DAF), duck wing (DAF), lamb neck chunk (DAF), chicken neck (DAF), lamb ribs (DAF) etc. They get two of these meals each per day. Once a week they also share a tin of sardines or mackerel in oil and they get whole raw carrots to chomp on every other day or so. The carrots aren't really needed, they just like them Training treats are little pieces of heart of liver (Morrisons) either baked until dry or dehydrated. Other recreational treats are dried cow ears, hooves, pig snouts, pizzle sticks and other such delights (Zooplus). In the summer when they are happy to lie out in the garden they get marrowbones from the butcher as a treat too.

What goes in their bowls looks like a very small amount of food if you're used to feeding complete; because it is so nutritious with less "waste", you need to feed less of it. I believe the rough estimate for stable weight is 2-3% of ideal bodyweight per day, but obviously this depends on the individual dog and how active it is. It can take a bit of trial and error to get right at first; I reduced their food if they looked to be putting on weight and vice versa. You may also need to experiment with the proportions of meat, bone and offal; more bone tends to make poos more solid and more offal tends to have the opposite effect!

My dogs were never very enthusiastic about food when I fed dry complete. Now they are so excited about their meals and eat it all with gusto. One came to me in very poor coat condition: long, greasy, flaky, rough. Nothing like a whippet should be. He is so soft and shiny after switching him to raw food

_Andy_

That's great - thanks for taking time to write that, very helpful. Yep the amount was something I was a bit freaked out about when I did some reading earlier as I'm used to doing 2 cups of kubble/1/4 tinned each meal (2 per day).

Up til now I've been put off re price but it seems it could even be cheaper which is great!

thanks again

PollyOnAMission

You're welcome

quietheart

I've also changed to raw meat, mainly chicken pieces.
My greyhound was covered in sores and stunk to the high heavens on dry food, even the better quality ones.
Skinners wasn't too bad as it was gluten free.
She is like a different dog now, no stinks and small dry poops.
:j

Woody76

Thanks for all the replies.

I definitely will not be feeding raw diet but thank you so much for taking the time to reply.

A family member who is a dog groomer has just recently started stocking skinners so will have a look at that as she has the hypoallergenic working one.

I see what you mean about the ingredients with chappie, will maybes give that a miss

Woody xx