My dog

[ARION]

Your buying from the wrong places if your paying £40 for a bag of decent dog food? lukullus is less then £29

Not really, it depends on what you want to feed your dog - I am not a big fan of feeding my dog full of *****.

Having a quick look at lukullus chicken, it only contains 25% chicken and it is also not grain free.

 

[Street]

Some of the decent smaller brands avoid this as the food is marketed for working dogs which means no VAT.

We feed our Collie Fish4Dogs working dog food which is VAT free. It's still £55 a bag though but one bag lasts Burt over 2 months so it's about 80p a day. Burt is literally a 4 legged dustbin though, usually the more disgusting the item the better for him. Also to get him to eat quicker I just have to mention the cats names and he wolfs his food down!

 

[fadetoblack]

Not really, it depends on what you want to feed your dog - I am not a big fan of feeding my dog full of *****.

Having a quick look at lukullus chicken, it only contains 25% chicken and it is also not grain free.

we don't feed our border terrier on lukullus but use James well beloved senior lamb and rice. Have done for a few good years fingers crossed at 16 years old she's still fighting fit but saying that my wife is a vet

 

[ScoTTyBEEE]

Some of the decent smaller brands avoid this as the food is marketed for working dogs which means no VAT..

That's good to know, thanks. Always thought it was a difference in the food, not one of taxation. I take it you don't need to prove they are actually working in any way?

 

[ScoTTyBEEE]

Your buying from the wrong places if your paying £40 for a bag of decent dog food? lukullus is less then £29

I buy from zooplus, lukullus is a brand owned by zooplus.

 

[ARION]

we don't feed our border terrier on lukullus but use James well beloved senior lamb and rice. Have done for a few good years fingers crossed at 16 years old she's still fighting fit but saying that my wife is a vet

Glad she is still going.

My grandfather smoked 60 a day all his life and lived till 90 if we are going by that comparison

Although your Mrs is a vet I bet she doesn't specialise in nutrition.

 

[fadetoblack]

Glad she is still going.

My grandfather smoked 60 a day all his life and lived till 90 if we are going by that comparison

Although your Mrs is a vet I bet she doesn't specialise in nutrition.

Her first degree was in animal nutrition so knows I thing or two.

 

[ARION]

Her first degree was in animal nutrition so knows I thing or two.

Well if true, I will gladly eat my hat

You go to most vets these days and they use google right in front of you!

 

[fadetoblack]

Well if true, I will gladly eat my hat

You go to most vets these days and they use google right in front of you!

That not good is it

 

[MoRT489]

We used to feed our dogs Science Plan kibble but a year ago or so switched to Pure Pet Food - https://purepetfood.co.uk/ - it uses what they call "human grade" ingredients which are dehydrated/air-dried, which you hydrate with water before serving. Have definitely seen an improvement in their coats and overall energy levels, and they love it every time! We switch it up between the various flavours. It is expensive mind. One is a small dog with a very fussy tummy, the other is a mutt that will eat anything

 

[hudson86]

So , anyone have anyone recommendation for a 7.5 year old, still very active, slim male lab... semi fussy.

Currently on Wainwrights Lamb and Rice large breed dried at £40 ish from Pets at Home for a 15kg bag ( not the grain free ) , plus half a tin of Wainwrights Lamb and Rice meat on top each day at £6 ish for 6 cans.

No problem paying more, just a bit confused by the massive variety of stuff in shops and online.

 

[fadetoblack]

So , anyone have anyone recommendation for a 7.5 year old, still very active, slim male lab... semi fussy.

Currently on Wainwrights Lamb and Rice large breed dried at £40 ish from Pets at Home for a 15kg bag ( not the grain free ) , plus half a tin of Wainwrights Lamb and Rice meat on top each day at £6 ish for 6 cans.

No problem paying more, just a bit confused by the massive variety of stuff in shops and online.

Sorry mate quick question you do break down the meal into 2 meals a day not just one large bowl of food?

 

[ARION]

So , anyone have anyone recommendation for a 7.5 year old, still very active, slim male lab... semi fussy.

Currently on Wainwrights Lamb and Rice large breed dried at £40 ish from Pets at Home for a 15kg bag ( not the grain free ) , plus half a tin of Wainwrights Lamb and Rice meat on top each day at £6 ish for 6 cans.

No problem paying more, just a bit confused by the massive variety of stuff in shops and online.

If you don't mind paying then Acana or Orijen. Your lab shouldn't be fussy, how much are you feeding him?

We feed ours this http://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/dog-food-reviews/0081/acana-regionals.

You have to be prepared to plan though as it is imported from Canada.

Agree with fadetoblack on splitting into two smaller meals per day.

 

[ScoTTyBEEE]

So , anyone have anyone recommendation for a 7.5 year old, still very active, slim male lab... semi fussy.

Currently on Wainwrights Lamb and Rice large breed dried at £40 ish from Pets at Home for a 15kg bag ( not the grain free ) , plus half a tin of Wainwrights Lamb and Rice meat on top each day at £6 ish for 6 cans.

No problem paying more, just a bit confused by the massive variety of stuff in shops and online.

Don't use P@H as they're a rip off. Go to zooplus and like mentioned Orijen is the best you can get at £60 for 13.6kg, otherwise pick one of the slightly cheaper ones, Acana (owned by Orijen), Purizon, Markus Muhle (black angus, otherwise the cheaper one is the best one going if money is tight), Applaws etc. Just look at the ingredients and make sure it's not bulked out with maize and wheat (compare Orijen ingredients to Pedigree and you'll see what I mean). I just look in the special offers and buy whatever is best at the time, my dogs food get constantly rotated against most advice with no ill effect.

As for cans, buy the 24 x 800g Rocco or Lukullus for around £30. They're essentially the same as they're both owned by zooplus, the Lukullus just has some added herbs or some such. It's just minced offal, but I've seen big bits of ham in them at times that looked quite tasty hehe.

Expensive food isn't expensive as it's far more nutrient dense.

If you sign up to zooplus discount thing you get 5% off every time, plus they use DPD which is the best courier going with hourly slots and tracking.

You can go down the route of the independent like others have mentioned but it's how far down the rabbit hole do you want to go! I think there's only one major dog food manufacturing plant in the country (other than Mars and Nestle), so everything is made in the same place. Brands just go there, tell them what they want and sell it on.

 

[no_1_dave]

My lab was a walking hoover. He used to eat anything and everything. The only time he was picky was when you tried to feed him a tablet. If you put a pill in his food he would demolish the food, the bowl would look sparkling clean, but the pill would still be sat there

 

[ARION]

Haha, mine is too stupid to do that. He will wolf a tablet down too. Even has a go at lemon!

 

[R B Customs]

A few have mentioned already - but try raw meat...

Our greyhound eats around 1200g of raw meat with bones per day, and it's done wonders for him since ditching the kibble & tinned tripe he was eating when we got him. he gets a mixture of stuff everyday with a little bit of coconut oil, and sometimes sardines. Tinned / fresh pumpkin can be useful to have on hand too to either soften or harden the poops.

We buy from the local butcher and it's pretty cheap as most of it is offcuts. lamb ribs are a favourite, as well as ox tongue and heart. it's always fresh and doesn't smell much different than what we may eat. we have had 'pet mince' before which isn't much cheaper than actual cuts of meat, and you're back to the same problem of not knowing exactly what's in it and your dog just eating slop.

-no farts
-no bad breath
-much easier to pick up after (small, hard scats instead of orange shaving foam)
-teeth are keeping clean and white
-no smelly tins
-coat is shiny

our dog-walker's 2 labs are on a full raw diet too, one is getting on a bit as well.

 

[Chris Wilson]

Slaughter house, whole sheep's stomachs, whole cow's stomachs, a strong constitution until you get used to cutting it up, and a decent butcher's knife. Freeze what you don't use. Chicken trimmings from the butcher are good value if bought in bulk. Some of these prices are frightening. I pay £12.80 for a 25kg bag of dried food, VAT free... I'm not spending more on a dog's meal than I do on my own <LOL>

 

[hudson86]

Don't use P@H as they're a rip off. Go to zooplus and like mentioned Orijen is the best you can get at £60 for 13.6kg, otherwise pick one of the slightly cheaper ones, Acana (owned by Orijen), Purizon, Markus Muhle (black angus, otherwise the cheaper one is the best one going if money is tight), Applaws etc. Just look at the ingredients and make sure it's not bulked out with maize and wheat (compare Orijen ingredients to Pedigree and you'll see what I mean). I just look in the special offers and buy whatever is best at the time, my dogs food get constantly rotated against most advice with no ill effect.

As for cans, buy the 24 x 800g Rocco or Lukullus for around £30. They're essentially the same as they're both owned by zooplus, the Lukullus just has some added herbs or some such. It's just minced offal, but I've seen big bits of ham in them at times that looked quite tasty hehe.

Expensive food isn't expensive as it's far more nutrient dense.

If you sign up to zooplus discount thing you get 5% off every time, plus they use DPD which is the best courier going with hourly slots and tracking.

You can go down the route of the independent like others have mentioned but it's how far down the rabbit hole do you want to go! I think there's only one major dog food manufacturing plant in the country (other than Mars and Nestle), so everything is made in the same place. Brands just go there, tell them what they want and sell it on.

Nice one , thanks that's really helpfull , I'll give that a go.

Sounds silly, but the main reason I get it from Poh is the dog absolutely loves going, he goes mad in the car when we get on the dual carriageway nearby. They generally send a 10% voucher every few months so always save a bit over store price.

As for raw, tempted, but the only thing that worries me is the hound hasn't a very strong stomach and sometimes even chicken has him off like a watering can. I guess that might at go away once he's used to it.

 

[Street]

That's good to know, thanks. Always thought it was a difference in the food, not one of taxation. I take it you don't need to prove they are actually working in any way?

Nope, not at all! The only difference with the F4D food is that it comes in plain pouches with no fancy pictures etc on, the actual food is the same.