How much do you spend a week feeding your dog?

[Chris Wilson]

I have been amazed and horrified by what various friends spend feeding one or two dogs, per week. I even have a friend who buys packs of fresh prawns and fresh salmon for his two ageing cats. How much do you spend per week, feeding how many dogs? Have you considered buying food in bulk?

[SILKYSMOOTH]

I only have 1 bitch and she costs me loads......... sorry darling, I couldn't resist

[JamieP]

My two get through one 3kg bag of bakers complete a week on average at about £6, they also get the odd left overs from dinner.

 

Edit, forgot about the bones, they get through one large (about 18" long) beef hide bone a week aswell, stops him chewing sticks:rolleyes:

[Vaughany]

I have a large German Shepherd dog, his diet consists of

• 1LB of tripe per day for breakfast
  
• Raw Liver
  
• Cooked Chicken Breast
  
• Fresh Vegetables
  
• Natures Menu (Organic Dog Food)
  
• Arden Grange Dry Dog biscuit
  

The tripe he has every morning, his tea varies made up of some or all of the above. In terms of costing, he costs us £17.50 per week excluding dog bones and treats. He is a very active GSD so average consumes about 1.3kg of food a day.

[Robzki]

2 working dogs 1 collie x alsation and 1 dobermann x get through 1 bag of complete biscuits and 30 cans of meat a month between them

 

grand total £14 a month....between them. and they look damn healthy on it. not bad for 25p ish a day each

[Gazboy]

A fiver???

 

I haven't really got the space to buy bulk.

[n boost]

I buy a 20 kg bag of dogfood and a couple of cans of meat and that will get him through 2-3 weeks.

About £8-10 a week.

[Syed Shah]

Know a good bulk supplier Chris?

 

I have not added it up, but it must be quite a bit. They get lots of meat, as I eat a lot myself anyway.

[brettjones]

i have a small j-r and a cat about £5 a week for both as they eat each others food all the time

[tbourner]

I have a large German Shepherd dog, his diet consists of

• 1LB of tripe per day for breakfast
  
• Raw Liver
  
• Cooked Chicken Breast
  
• Fresh Vegetables
  
• Natures Menu (Organic Dog Food)
  
• Arden Grange Dry Dog biscuit
  

The tripe he has every morning, his tea varies made up of some or all of the above. In terms of costing, he costs us £17.50 per week excluding dog bones and treats. He is a very active GSD so average consumes about 1.3kg of food a day.

 

Why cooked chicken? Should be raw surely? And do you mash the veg?

 

I'm still heavy into research on dog food, I've got a rabbit supplier who offering me free rabbits whenever I want! Gonna talk to some butchers as well about their waste bones and stuff, we always have veg so that's cool, should be pretty cheap to feed!!

[Chris Wilson]

Ours get 2 raw chicken carcasses twice a day, or a mix with raw meat scraps form the butchers, and biscuits, plus the odd fresh rabbit, that either I shoot or they catch If the meat supply dries up (it's not 100% reliable, sometimes too much, sometimes hardly any, so we use 2 big freezers), I give them complete working dog food and some cheap tinned meat, plus scraps. 9 dogs cost about £25 a week on average. Working dog food , a complete meal, is about 10.50 a bag here, and is VAT free. Since moving from complete food with some tinned meat, to fresh meat and chicken they are a LOT more active, have better coats, but tend more to aggression. I was very surprised at the overall difference in appearance and behaviour between the two types of feed.

[Havard]

I reckon mine only costs me £3 a week.

[Vaughany]

Why cooked chicken? Should be raw surely? And do you mash the veg?

 

I'm still heavy into research on dog food, I've got a rabbit supplier who offering me free rabbits whenever I want! Gonna talk to some butchers as well about their waste bones and stuff, we always have veg so that's cool, should be pretty cheap to feed!!

 

tbourner - yes mate we mash the vegetables, my GSD has never really liked complete biscuit so that why we vary his diet from day to day. Never thought about raw chicken, I will research this and evaluate the + and -.

 

Cost is always an issue, he feeds bettert than me, I am contemplating getting another GSD (PUPPY) so the costs will definitely increase.

 

Chris - Are you aware of any issues for dogs such as samonella as a result of eating raw chicken?

[tbourner]

Have you read any books or anything on BARF/raw diets, Chris? The Ian Billinghurst books are WAY biased towards it, practically claiming 'complete' dog foods to be the work of the devil!!! It's almost got me wanting to eat raw meat cos of the amount of times there's half a page of bold text saying 'DON'T COOK YOUR DOGs FOOD!!!!!'.

 

I'll definitely be doing the raw diet though, the amount of people that go over to it and can't say enough good about it is amazing!

[tbourner]

Chris - Are you aware of any issues for dogs such as samonella as a result of eating raw chicken?

 

There are definitely NO issues with disease from raw meat, dogs have a short digestive system unlike ours and can easily cope with the problems that we would have.

 

In fact, research hydatid disease, it comes from old meat from cattle and (I believe) sheep, the hydatid eggs lay in the intestine and come out in the poo, they exist in the poo for months, if the poo gets on the dogs coat or on other animals (sheep farmers get affected by it) it can get onto human hands and you may ingest some eggs, in the human intestine they hatch and burrow through the intestinal wall and get into the blood, where they migrate to all the internal organs. In the organs they grow and you get hydatid cysts, which can be fatal!!!!

The dog has ZERO effect from the hydatids, just one example of their strong stomachs.

The biggest concern of feeding raw is a splintered bone getting stuck, but that is why you NEVER feed cooked bones, especially chicken. They eat raw chicken meat, bones and eggs - all fine.

[Chris Wilson]

Only issue is raw red meat can pass heart worms on, depending on the source. I believe if it's frozen before feeding it kills the larvae. Salmonella isn't an issue, a dog can and does eat things that'd send us into the throne room for weeks I find raw eggs don't agree with our dogs too well, and can give them the trots.

[tbourner]

Needs to be frozen at -18 at least I think, and must be for 10 days or so.

 

I'm sure I heard that somewhere, maybe leerburg.

 

//edit: eggs, how many you feed and what else you've fed is an issue. They're high in something or other. Try just the yolks for a bit and only 2-3 a week most?

[keancy]

I buy a 6pk of Whiskas at £3 every week and about 1-2 packs of Whiskas Dry Food a month for my Cat. Inbetween that he will eat Mice, Spiders and Rabbit heads (rest is left for me to clean up,niiceeeee )

[Vaughany]

tbourner and Chris

 

Thanks for the info, I will try my dog on raw chicken and see how he gets on.

[keancy]

tbourner and Chris

 

Thanks for the info, I will try my dog on raw chicken and see how he gets on.

 

If he isn't used to it raw I would give small amounts at the beginning or you may end up with it having the shi*s big time

[tbourner]

Some people have problems with it, others don't. Mostly the issues seen with a sudden switch from complete food to raw is they don't eat it! This is where a lot of people give up, the thing to do is put the food out, leave it for 20 mins and take it away, after a couple of days they will eat it - they won't let themselves starve to death!!!

If they do get the $hits, you could try giving some 'friendly bacteria' plain yoghurt, should settle the stomach a bit.

[Wez]

Interesting reading guys, our dog only eats tinned food and dry biscuits.

 

With raw chicken are you buying a whole chicken, chopping it up and then feed a little a day. Would packaged raw chicken breasts be ok?

[Chris Wilson]

Yep, makes me laugh when people say their dog, cat, wolf, whatever won't eat X brand. They'll eat YOU if they are hungry enough, just give them time, a dog can easily go a week without food with no bother, in fact it'll probably do some of them a power of good I used to know a vet who came over from farm animals in S Ireland, years ago, on the strength of a friend telling bhim about the crazy English and their love of dogs and cats. His speciality was telling owners of grossly overweight pooches they were on death's door and having them left with him for a fortnight. A good laxative, 3 long walks a day with one of his kids, and hardly any food had them like spring chickens, and his reputation with the old dowagers in Cheshire bloomed. He charged in Guineas, too, which they kinda liked Made a fortune, and he never could believe some of the bills he got away with. Beat having his arm up a cows arse all day, for a few bob in the old country!

[tbourner]

You need to feed as much and as big pieces as your dog can handle, if you chop it the bones are more likely to cause damage.

 

Basically think of it as a natural eating diet, give your dog everything a wild wolf would eat, one day half a chicken (you're the pack leader so they wouldn't get a whole animal unless they caught it and hid it from you). If it's meat that wasn't wild, you need to give it vegetables, mashed up to as much of a pulp as possible, like you'd find in a wild rabbits stomach for example (also, dogs can't break down the cell membranes between vegetable cells, so if you don't blend the veg it won't get ANY nutrients from it!!). Don't try and balance every meal, give it a chicken one day, then some veg the next meal, then some yoghurt, then some pork, then something else. etc etc. a major flaw in the 'complete' diet is trying to give it 'complete' meals every time - that's not natural!

 

Another bonus with giving big lumps of animal is they clean their teeth while biting into it.

They also get exercise from ripping it to pieces.

They also are kept busy if you go out, they are less likely to bark etc.

 

 

//edit: Ooh, also, some people advise to fast your dog for about a day once every 2 weeks or so, does them a wonder of good apparently because the enzymes in their gut work in a different way when there's no food to digest, creates all new good bacteria and stuff - again, it's natural because wolves don't have food available all the time.

[Chris Wilson]

Interesting reading guys, our dog only eats tinned food and dry biscuits.

 

With raw chicken are you buying a whole chicken, chopping it up and then feed a little a day. Would packaged raw chicken breasts be ok?

 

No, no, ours get whole chicken carcases, with the breasts and legs off, the stuff that remains after the butcher has taken the best bits off. Still have a good deal of meat on them, and they get 2 in the morning, and 2 at night, with biscuits. Next day they get meat trimmings, and some meat on the bone, but they get a bit stroppy with that, so I split `em up until they've finished eating. A ten pound in weight bag is £1.00 in cost. I buy it in 50 to 100 pound lots, and share it with another lunatic with a load of dogs I know. There's some nice looking sausages and some tasty looking turkey fillets in this lot, I am tempted myself.