Great Feed, House and Keep Your Pets Hunt

DansMum_2

Dont know if this helps anyone at all, but with the kast 2 years being abysmal with hay for horses I have been buying big baled (400kg) haylage. Hay in our area is anything between £4.50-£7 for a regular bale, the big bale haylage is £35 and lasts my two horses 2 weeks.

Snowflake bedding is my current best buy at £6.20 a bale. Just like Bedmax but much cheaper and I only use one a week at the moment. Edlespan shavings are good too anything between £7.70 - £8.20 per bale....

louise_1981

Hayx4 bales £20 includes delivery
Allan and Page Natural rabbit pellets 20kg £9
Megazorbx2 £18
2x large bags of [EMAIL="p@H"]p@H[/EMAIL] hamster food 2kg £10

£57 /4 months = £12.50 Per month

That keeps 6 medium sized rabbits and 6 syrian hamsters

It doesn't include their veggies (rabbits) or titbits (Hamsters sometimes get cooked pasta, chicken, prawns etc)

Hamsters have megazorb as a base, then shredded paper (envelopes with little ink on them) and cardboard boxes from food we are having.

Rabbits use the cardboard fruit boxes as litter trays/ beds.

rita-rabbit

Gaia wrote: »

or you could just shred waste paper to use as cat litter, works a treat, is environmentally friendly (recycling), nobody will want to read your shredded documents and, best of all for an MSE thread, it's FREE

& does not hide any `odours'!:(

Honey_Bear

I posted originally because I needed help and advice, and it's now a year later and the dog's digestion has settled completely. Just in case anyone else has the same problem, this is how her problems got sorted out. She's 14 years old and I adopted her about 15 months ago.

1 She is on a low dose antibiotic permanently (one pill morning and evening). If I take her off it, she gets the runs. Even though some of the other vets in the practice disapprove, it works and my vet and I think it is the best thing for this particular dog.

2 She has a liver problem, but we don't know how serious it is. At 14 I do not intend to have her admitted as a day case for the battery of tests that would be necessary to get a spot on diagnosis. She's terrified of the vet's surgery anyway and, ultimately, just how much treatment would anyone be willing to put a dog that old through? No surgery, no chemo, under any circumstances for this dog. Quality of life today is what matters to her. She is on half a Zentonil a day which supports her liver.

3 She has a urinary continence problem because she is an elderly spayed lady. She is on Propalin syrup for that.

4 Because every single commerical dog food gives her the squits her diet is very restricted indeed. She is on a (human) multi vitamin and mineral tablet occasionally, no more than one a week, and often less because I forget. Doesn't do her any harm, and the vet thinks it may be doing some good.

5 She has a course of Cartrophen injections every three months for her arthritus, which increases her mobility and also acts as a pain killer - it's a lot cheaper in the long run than giving her Previcox.

I give her all her medicine in rolled up chicken slices, and she is amazingly adept at eating the chicken and spitting out the pills.

Diet-wise, the hardest thing has been to provide interest for her over such a prolonged period of, basically, boiled rice with chicken or white fish. She's now got to the point where she won't eat it on its own, and I don't blame her. I now buy small packets of good quality ham and beef and give her about a teaspoon full chopped very finely and stirred through her food (she's fed three times a day). Alternatively I give her the spring water from tinned tuna on her lunch, plus a teaspoon of the tuna fish (and eat the rest myself). Very, very occasionally I allow her the same amount of venison, lamb or salmon, but that means we have to eat it, too!

I boil 1 kilo of her rice in water to which I have added 1 teaspoon of Bovril when I've run out of frozen white fish to give the rice flavour. I know Bovril's salty, but in that volume the salt content is almost negligible. (She wouldn't touch any of the low salt stock cubes or powder, so I've ended up with a cupboard of the stuff!)

After about six months of realtively stable digestion, I now allow her a tiny treat every few days - a tiny lump of cheese, or a finger of peanut butter.

She's bright, happy, energetic and her weight is stable, with no sign of anaemia.

I hope some of that may be of help to anyone who has a dog that just can't cope with any commercial dog food long term, or an elderly dog with a dodgy digestion.

AmM_3

You sound like a very very devoted pet owner. :A

Have you really tried all commerical dog foods? I've foud that the dogs I have taken care of that have stomach issues responded well to both Gluten Free food (Yarrah Bio Sensitive) and Forza food which contains organic meat.

I use the site below. If one of these works then it would mean at list a "little" less work for you! And zooplus is pretty inexpensive compared to other sites!

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/dogs/dry_dog_food/yarrah

bigfatpig

Haven't read all this thread so apologise if this has been mentioned before.

To save money on my Guinea Pigs bedding I use shredded paper. Any junk mail goes straight through the shredder. I also use paper from work, instead of throwing in the bin I make my colleagues put used paper in a pile which I take home and shred. Before, all the paper at work was going straight in the bin, now gets used for my GPs and then goes on the composter :j

My boys love it, they burrow right in it and because it's free I can afford to be generous with it so they have a lovely deep bed changed daily. Before this I was using hay which worked out quite costly, now they just have the hay for eating.

VeggieCatLady

I have 4 cat so have learnt a few moneysaving tips!

the best toys are the free ones! Primark paper carrier bags are favourite for mine, as well as any bag that holds its shape when put on one side. Boxes are also great! Crisp packets folded into triangles too. A piece of ribbon or string will provide hours of entertainment!

When it comes to food,check the vitamin content on the packaging. The cheapest food isn't always the least nutritious.'posh cat' food which is available from pound shops is higher in vitamins than whiskas and is anti hairball, looks after teeth and contains no artificial colours.

Never try and save money by buying very cheap flea spot on-they do not work and it has been discovered that some are actually poisonous to cats. Buy frontline or advantage in bulk from ebay to save money per treatment.

Always insure cats and check your policy details. Some policies will pay a certain amount per illness whereas the better ones will pay an amount per illness per year-this will save you a fortune if your cat needs ongoing treatment.

Use newspaper to line your litter trays and ripped paper to fill them.I use all sorts-free takeaway menus, leaflets, envelopes etc.it saves a lot of moneydoing this!

Gaia

robinchen wrote: »

i am looking for some pet supplies,i have bought some from newfrog.com online shop,the quality is good,i hope i can get more..

this is the second ad, on the second thread, you've posted for this website already this morning, and as a new member I wonder if you're here to advertise your website?

Caroline_a

I had a quick look, it's a rubbish american site... troll!

h007

tesco has whiskas on bogof at the moment
- details on the grabbit board

also someone is saying they are going through for only £2.52 and bogof but not sure if that is just the one store or everywhere