Changing from RAW to kibble....:(

dahat

As i can't afford raw feeding anymore as sourcing good quality cuts is gone very expensive,i am after recommendations of a dog kibble..

Looking at 40 euro for 15kgs,that is my budget,JRT type dogs......
At the moment i have looked into Whites,still awaiting a sample to come.......

Any advice or recommendations welcome...........

DBB

Hi Dahat,
Would you prefer to keep your dog on the natural diet? If not, the rest of this post is a waste of time, but if you'd like to look at perhaps not-so-expensive ways of continuing, I hope my post helps!
Did you ever try Prize Choice frozen meats for natural diets? It's about €6 for 2kg of minced meat (beef, checken, trip, fish) which, the manufacturers say, is human-grade meat. There is bone minced into it too for the bone component of the diet.
http://www.prizechoice.co.uk/
There are several suppliers in Ireland, some of which will deliver to you.
I don't know what ratio of meat you were using, but say the BARF diet advocates feeding about 2 units of meat to 1 unit of veg/nuts etc. And say your dog is 10kg so should get in and around 200g of food per day (based on feeding to 2% of body weight). That's 130g (ish) of meat per day.
A 2kg bag of Prize Choice will last you about 15 days. Soooo, that's 40c on meat per day.
I wonder how that compares to what your were feeinf? Or how it compares to feeding the kibble diet?
How about going for half-and-half natural and kibble? Might that be an option?

TooManyDogs

I get my chicken bones and meat for €1 a kg, definitely cheaper for me than dry food, I can pm you where I get it if you want. My dogs food works out about €1.50 a kg adding in extras and the veggies I give them (stops them eating the feckin grass )

TooManyDogs

DBB wrote: »

How about going for half-and-half natural and kibble? Might that be an option?

But not at the same time, dry food and raw food have different digestion rates, dry food stays in the system longer forcing the raw meat to stay in the gut the same lenght of time and sometimes results in bacterial infections due to the nature of the raw meat not being sterile.

dahat

Sorry about the late reply..

Have decided to try stick it out for another while
Meats like chicken,lamb+beef hearts i can source cheaply but it is getting other meats is the problem
The price of beef and lamb etc is crazy,even the butchers dont wanna give out non bony stuff anymore.A few where i am are selling waste meat as dog mince at 4 euro a kilo!

I do need to find other sources of quality cheap meat
Following on from DBB link i found these,turns out they have a supplier where i live,must check them out tomorrow.
While not 100% mea ti can live with that as they are grass munchers and a little veg might help as it did with toomanydogs!

BARF suppliers..

Chris_Heilong

I feed RAW and I always buy special offers, in tesco there is always a section where damaged packages or meat near it's off date go, yesterday I got 1kg of beef for 45 cent, thats my dogs food for today one half in the morning and another at 6. I would not feed minced meats as it tends to stick to their teeth causing tarter, whole cuts are the best option, most places sell a full 1.8kg chicken for around 5 euro so that is an option and the Chinese shops in Dublin sell things like green offal for about 3 euro a kg. Chicken thighs are also a cheap option, in Tesco you can get 4 thighs(1kg) for 2.64 euro. If you are doing BARF as opposed to true RAW then you may want to look at true RAW feeding as there is no need to feed nuts and veg in that diet.

dahat

Do feed true RAW just now but not bound to it religously,just happened that way.
I do shop around the bargain section myself,Tescos tend to keep reductions to a minimum for meat near its date,i find Dunnes better as i can get mince real cheap,not ideal but only get it 1/2 weekly.
Thighs i also think are great for smaller dogs,LILD/ALDI are way cheaper than Tescos for those.

dahat

Picked up some stuff from here today,Frozen Green tripe as well as others to see how it is.
Might compliment other meat i feed......
http://www.foodforpets.ie/naturesmenu/products/Frozen_Nuggets/Frozen_Nuggets

Graces7

If there is a chicken "factory" near you, ask what they have. We get 10 k packs of necks/legs very cheaply.

We feed mixed; never vary the meat from chicken and make a stew with stock and vegetables, pulses etc. With our garden supplying all the vegetables it works fine. Always the chicken raw also.