Being more MSE with wet dog food

Shelly1986

Hi everyone,

Trying to do a 'financial diet' and it seems I spend a lot on my dog's food.

I don't mind paying for their dry food, but one of my dogs refuses to eat plain dry food :mad: so I mix in some wet, and if I give one dog it I have to give the other dog it... so I go through a packet every 2 days.

Anyone have any suggestions how I can reduce this, or replace it, or alternatively any websites were I can buy some cheaper wet stuff for Mr Fussy.

I give them Wainwright's Grain Free Turkey with vegetables currently.

[Deleted User]

Have you tried adding a little bit of water to the dry food and microwaving it for a few seconds? This tends to bring out the natural oils and flavours which will make the food more palatable as well as making it a little bit moist like wet food!

supermassive

Depends on the size of your dogs, but one answer would be to buy frozen meat, or offal & mix that in with their dry food. Tripe's not exactly expensive, if you can put up with the smell (before AND after they eat it!)

sheramber

Mix the wet food with water to make it more of a gravy.

Boil up some veg with water then add the stock over the dry food. You could also mash up the veg and add them too. You could use packs of mixed frozen veg.

littlesnuggy

Feed the two dogs separately, thus only having to give Mr Fussy the wet food? What Mr Non-Fussy doesn't know won't hurt him! Dish his out in one room before you get the wet food out for the other one. Bill halved.

krlyr

Have you experimented with how much wet food you need to feed? My previous dog would refuse dry without wet - to the point of going without food for days (we tried the firm approach of taking food up after 10 mins). However, we did manage to drop the quantity of wet food gradually, until she was only having a slither of a tray of NatureDiet mixed with her bowl of dry, which meant a packet lasted most of the week and dramatically dropped the cost.

pawsies

Ignore the feeding guidelines on the packet.

My corgi (15kg) is on 1/2 pack a day of naturediet and that is it. The guidelines say 1-2 packs!!

She has treats and chews as well which is why she is fed so little but it costs me so little to feed her relatively (and she is slightly overweight even with being given a half a pack!)

happysaz133

Mixing a spoon of plain yoghurt with the dry food every so often saves me half a tin of dog food. Also, mashing one tin with water makes it go further too.

rising_from_the_ashes

How much do they get a day?

Is there any reason it has to be grain free?

I'm confused why you're happy to pay for kibble but not wet?

What kibble are they on - could you change that to reduce the costs to help with the wet costs?

I used to feed Wainwrights but imho it's started to price itself out the market as there are loads of same / better quality wet foods around now.

The supermarkets all stock a decent wet - Tesco do Naturo, Asda Weebox trays, Sainsbury's own Delicious Collection which aren't any more expensive than the WW

I use a rotation of foods (we're limited as Maisie has Colitis so can only have a few) but there are a few decent quality (so you generally need to feed less) that come in big tins

This is great http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/dogs/wet_dog_food/lukullus/natural_dog_food/462915 - £1.37 / tin!

I'd say watch their offers though - eg the 12 packs are on offer atm so it's actually cheaper to buy 2 of those rather than a 24 pack!
http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/dogs/wet_dog_food/lukullus/natural_dog_food/170860 - works out at £1.49 for an 800g tin -

Maisie gets through 200g / day - when I open a tin, I divide up into 200g portions and put into airtight snap & lock style containers. They keep fine in the fridge for the time it takes her to get through them (I think because theyre not opened/closed so air can get in every meal makes a big difference)

They do different ranges at different times of the year which is great!

There's also cashback available (3%) a bulk buyer discount if you spend over £75 if you can stock up (3%) and a savings plan you can sign up to (either 3% or 5%) - you have to buy this but, for example, mine cost £3.90 and I've saved £35.57 and have nearly 2 years left!)

Shelly1986

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

How much do they get a day?

Is there any reason it has to be grain free?

I'm confused why you're happy to pay for kibble but not wet?

What kibble are they on - could you change that to reduce the costs to help with the wet costs?

They get a quarter tray each meal so 1 trays lasts 2 days.

It doesn't have to be grain free, that was just what was cheap last time, and they love turkey.

They only have wet because Mister Fussy won't eat dry food by itself, they're on Lamb Barking Heads (ingredients are: Freshly Prepared Deboned Lamb 26%, Dried Lamb 20%, Brown Rice, Oats, White Rice, Lucerne, Freshly Prepared Deboned Trout 5%, Peas, Lamb Fat 4%, Salmon Oil 2%, Lamb Stock 1.5%, Seaweed, Dried Tomato, Hip & Joint Care (Glucosamine 350mg/kg, MSM 350mg/kg, Chondroitin 240mg/kg).

The issue with the wet vs dry is that they get complete nutrition for about £1.20 a day with dry food, but am spending 50p a day minimum on wet food just for flavour.

I appreciate all the answers, am definitely going to try them, thank you :T:T

madvixen

My dog goes through phases of refusing dry food. I mix up a beef stock cube and pour some of it onto the food and let it soak in. He loves it. A stock cube costs me about 25p (I use the knorr stock pots) and a pint will last me about 4 meals.