Any natural instinct raw users?

Rev

Apologies if this isn't allowed but this is a money saving site so....

Any pet owners who order from natural instinct fancy referring a friend? We both get £10 discount.


Fancy giving them a go and there's no local stockists so was hoping there's was another owner here who used them and would refer me and take advantage of the £10 refer a friend code.


Again apologies if not allowed but I thought it worth an ask.


Thanks!

Fosterdog

Are you on Facebook at all? There are a few raw feeding groups on there, I'm sure someone on there will be able to help with a referral for a discount.

Although NI are not the best raw supplier around, and their pricing is not the greatest.

gettingtheresometime

I buy from nutriment....I think the people who run that co were in some way connected with natural instinct before there was a falling out of some sort.

Tbh the products from both companies look exactly the same.

Rev

Fosterdog wrote: »

Are you on Facebook at all? There are a few raw feeding groups on there, I'm sure someone on there will be able to help with a referral for a discount.

Although NI are not the best raw supplier around, and their pricing is not the greatest.

I'm not a member of any raw feeding groups. I was when I first started feeding raw several years back but to be honest I found them quite militant and if I'm being frank, full of 'I feed my dog better than you' idiots. So I left.


Who else besides NI and nutriment sell 'complete' minces?


I know it's cheaper to make up your own as I've been doing it for years I just fancy a few months off so am specifically looking for complete raw minces.

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

I buy from nutriment....I think the people who run that co were in some way connected with natural instinct before there was a falling out of some sort.

Tbh the products from both companies look exactly the same.

They were indeed. They original NI owners left and started up nutriment.


I realise they look the same but if there's £10 off NI works out cheaper for the same amount (I'm looking to order around 20kg).

krlyr

Natural Instinct also send out 5kg sample packs on request - can take a few weeks but it's a very generous sample pack!

I personally 'DIY' as NI/Nutriment would be very costly for my bigger dogs. If you want something that's a step away from the pricier stuff, but not full DIY, I would check out the companies like Paleoridge, The Dogs Butcher and similar. They make their own complete ranges from the same ingredients as they sell for DIY, so you don't have to worry about balancing it, but it's a bit cheaper than the more commercial stuff.

E.g. NI charge £5.35 for 1kg of their lamb variety, vs Paleoridge charging £4.75 for the lamb breast complete. NI beef tripe £3.65/kg, Paleoridge beef tripe & duck or beef tripe & chicken, only £2.30/kg

Paleoridge also have a good reputation and are one of the more pricier of the raw suppliers - you could save even more elsewhere. DAF are one of the lower cost ones, for example, and do a range of 'premium dinners' that are complete, at around £2-2.50 per kg depending on flavour. You could even make it cheaper (yet avoid the need to balance meals) by buying some of their minced whole prey stuff (which will naturally fall within the 80:10:10 ratio of prey model feeding), e.g. minced pheasant at £1.27/kg, minced rabbit at £2.13, minced oily fish at £1.63

krlyr

Another option to consider is doing the DIY method but taking a lax approach to preparing meals. You don't haev to mix up each meal to be perfectly balanced.

I often just make sure that my order (whether that's an order for 1 week, 2 weeks, a month of meals) is in the 80:10:10 ratio (I've got a spreadsheet to doublecheck, taking into account bone-in minces etc. but that's getting very specific) and then I know that by the end of the week/fortnight/month, I've fed my balance, no matter what order I gave it in.

Of course, you don't want to feed 1kg of liver in one go - so I defrost the offal, throw into the food processor, and then make little offal puree icecubes to feed daily, but other than that, I can just grab out a bag of chicken mince, or a carcass, or a chunk of tripe, and know that no matter what order I feed, I can't mess up the 80:10:10 balance because I've already balanced it within my freezer load! I also know that I've ordered the right quantity for their weights, so if I overfeed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I'd end up underfeeding the rest of the week because I only have enough food for that fixed period, I can't keep overfeeding all week because I would run out of food first - so again, it would balance itself.

yellowbear

I use wolftucker. No problems, next day delivery (Tuesday to Friday)
Very helpful.

Rev

krlyr wrote: »

Natural Instinct also send out 5kg sample packs on request - can take a few weeks but it's a very generous sample pack!

I personally 'DIY' as NI/Nutriment would be very costly for my bigger dogs. If you want something that's a step away from the pricier stuff, but not full DIY, I would check out the companies like Paleoridge, The Dogs Butcher and similar. They make their own complete ranges from the same ingredients as they sell for DIY, so you don't have to worry about balancing it, but it's a bit cheaper than the more commercial stuff.

E.g. NI charge £5.35 for 1kg of their lamb variety, vs Paleoridge charging £4.75 for the lamb breast complete. NI beef tripe £3.65/kg, Paleoridge beef tripe & duck or beef tripe & chicken, only £2.30/kg

Paleoridge also have a good reputation and are one of the more pricier of the raw suppliers - you could save even more elsewhere. DAF are one of the lower cost ones, for example, and do a range of 'premium dinners' that are complete, at around £2-2.50 per kg depending on flavour. You could even make it cheaper (yet avoid the need to balance meals) by buying some of their minced whole prey stuff (which will naturally fall within the 80:10:10 ratio of prey model feeding), e.g. minced pheasant at £1.27/kg, minced rabbit at £2.13, minced oily fish at £1.63

Thanks. I'll check them out. Paleoridge looks fantastic! I've never heard of them before.


I used to use DAF when I first started raw but switched to the local manifold valley meats supplier. I did look at their dinner range but non seem to follow the 80/10/10 some have more bone less meat etc. I'll have another look!


MVM do completes but don't seem to sell them themselves. If you look on places like naturaw they lost a few completes as MVM but they're not available on the MVM site so my supplier can't get them.

Rev

krlyr wrote: »

Another option to consider is doing the DIY method but taking a lax approach to preparing meals. You don't haev to mix up each meal to be perfectly balanced.

I often just make sure that my order (whether that's an order for 1 week, 2 weeks, a month of meals) is in the 80:10:10 ratio (I've got a spreadsheet to doublecheck, taking into account bone-in minces etc. but that's getting very specific) and then I know that by the end of the week/fortnight/month, I've fed my balance, no matter what order I gave it in.

Of course, you don't want to feed 1kg of liver in one go - so I defrost the offal, throw into the food processor, and then make little offal puree icecubes to feed daily, but other than that, I can just grab out a bag of chicken mince, or a carcass, or a chunk of tripe, and know that no matter what order I feed, I can't mess up the 80:10:10 balance because I've already balanced it within my freezer load! I also know that I've ordered the right quantity for their weights, so if I overfeed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I'd end up underfeeding the rest of the week because I only have enough food for that fixed period, I can't keep overfeeding all week because I would run out of food first - so again, it would balance itself.

Thanks. That's basically what I have been doing. I don't make every meal perfect but feed over a week of that makes sense.


Basically my dog has developed a strange brown patch on his lower back (he's white). The vet seems to think it's food related, he's missing some vitamin/mineral. Isn't a fan of raw. She's convinced it's impossible for me to get the ratios right etc.


She has asked me to change him to kibble for a few months. I refused because kibble caused him no end of problems as a pup. I could feed wet but to be honest I couldn't afford a decent grain free wet (I'd be looking at triple what I pay now for raw), so we compromised. I said I'd switch him to a complete raw for a few months and see how he goes.


Now don't get me wrong I don't think I've been getting it wrong for years but I'm not going to rule it out especially not as its my dog's health I'm possibly being flippant about so I'll be ordering a complete for a few months to see if it changes anything.

Rev

yellowbear wrote: »

I use wolftucker. No problems, next day delivery (Tuesday to Friday)
Very helpful.

Thank you. Do you know which if any of their range is complete?

Their sustain range makes no mention of offal neither does the naked range.

Rev

The paleo ridge completes looks great but one of my dogs is a bit sensitive to beef. And most minces seem to contain beef.

Not sure what to do now. There's more choice than PR and they seem to stick more closely to the 80/10/10.

But NI don't all contain beef in some way.

Decisions decisions!