RAW/BARF

I've contemplated switching the dogs over BUT it is way to expensive. My dog food bill is around R1440.00 per month at the moment.
Doing all the preparations myself with cheaper meats from the butcher works me out almost R5000.00 per month. I've been looking for pre-packaged frozen food and so far have come in at R3380.00 as the cheapest. Problem with 7 dogs is I need about 3 kgs of meat a day.

I think we're lucky in the UK - there are several good raw food suppliers. If you have the freezer space it's quite cheap.

I wouldn't even to know where to start, to be honest!

I think the problem is that food stuffs is so expensive. We have quita a few suppliers here that prepack and freeze but transport is expensive then. Everything is so far in South Africa!

And yet, some people over here complain about having to walk five minutes to the nearest shop.

I'd never walk 5 minutes to a shop. I'd drive

Are you sure you're not from the UK? That's the general attitude here!

In South Africa we drive to the neighbour 2 houses over. We're not big walkers.
I'm weird because I love walking but not to shops. It's not the walk but carrying all those bags back.

Eh, I'm with you there. I don't like carrying shopping.

I don't suppose you could order in 2 or 3 months worth at a time? Shipping may well be cheaper that way.

Plus, of course, you need to feed less raw than you would commercial dog food.

Caryll wrote:I don't suppose you could order in 2 or 3 months worth at a time? Shipping may well be cheaper that way.

I did all the calculations for weight of food my dogs would need and I'm going to be spending a LOT more money to feed raw than keeping them on what they're eating now.
With 7 dogs it's just not a feasible idea, till I win the lottery.
It also works out to about 1/4 of the cost if I drive and collect than having the food couriered.

Sorry brats, you're going to keep munching your biscuits.

I'm sure they'll be fine on biscuits!

Besides, we can only do our best!

Shisa wrote:In South Africa we drive to the neighbour 2 houses over. We're not big walkers.
I'm weird because I love walking but not to shops. It's not the walk but carrying all those bags back.

That is so lazy! Get a backpack & some saddle bags for the puppies. Shouldn't they earn their keep?

I buy raw from the racetrack here, (but it is only a 5 min drive from home. Theres no petrol / courier cost really.) I combine it with brown rice. 60 meat, 30 rice, 10 vegies. Its a greyhound mix I buy. Rabbit, beef & ox. Really good. Sometimes I get the chicken mince but that has more fillers than the race mix so I only get it for a change for them once a month. $15 (about 160? rand for you I think) gets me 10kg of the race meat, $4 for rice , vegies are my leftovers or a mixed bag at the grocer for $3 & the dogs love it. It feeds mine 2 for a week. So it's very cost equal for me. Maybe our dry is more expensive? I can only get 20 kg for $90 at the cheapest unless I want poor grade. That is expensive! So mine only get dry in the morning.

3880 rand is just over 400 bucks here. That's actually very good for 7 dogs.

My neighbour feeds dry only & her dogs are quite happy, healthy, active & chasing mine often. I think yours will be just fine on biscuits. As long as it has all the gard in it.... I don't see the issue. Plus, the crunchiness helps cleen their toothy pegs!

(It must have steroids as mine run like freaks when I buy it.
maybe it's turning them into greyhounds?)

An awful lot depends on which raw regime you follow, although none of them require rice. All of them, however, need bone & a mix of meat species.

Dry dog food is actually no better for their teeth than good quality wet food, and may be worse. Dry food leaves a powdery deposit on the teeth which encourages plaque.

You can only get what you can afford! All of your dogs look in top condition, so I doubt they'll have a problem with staying on their current food!

Oh I think kibble is great. My neighbours great dane x mastiff & staffy are only fed it & are brilliant on it. I was just saying what I do. I have always added rice & vegies to raw.

What I do is not the only way, just another.

Demps eats wet food (Naturediet), which he loves! I think it depends on the dog.

tracyp wrote:Oh I think kibble is great. My neighbours great dane x mastiff & staffy are only fed it & are brilliant on it. I was just saying what I do. I have always added rice & vegies to raw.

What I do is not the only way, just another.

Do you not feed any bone or offal, then?

Caryll wrote:

tracyp wrote:Oh I think kibble is great. My neighbours great dane x mastiff & staffy are only fed it & are brilliant on it. I was just saying what I do. I have always added rice & vegies to raw.

What I do is not the only way, just another.

Do you not feed any bone or offal, then?

I feed alot of bone. But I do not feed offal.

tracyp wrote:

Caryll wrote:

tracyp wrote:Oh I think kibble is great. My neighbours great dane x mastiff & staffy are only fed it & are brilliant on it. I was just saying what I do. I have always added rice & vegies to raw.

What I do is not the only way, just another.

Do you not feed any bone or offal, then?

I feed alot of bone. But I do not feed offal.

No offense intended, but all raw diets must contain a little offal. The ratio for all the raw diets is (roughly) 80% meat, 10% bone & 10% offal. If you feed veg, then you should cut down on the meat content a little. But offal is very important.

Yes a raw diet should be raw meat bones and offal with the percents being tweaked slightly for the individual dog.

Veg can be given although there is little to no nutritional value unless it is cooked and pulped, I don't feed any as the boys can't stand it, but it's normally given to bulk out meals of dogs needing to loose weight or are scavengers.

But rice has no value to a dog and does not make up part of the raw diet and is a big factor for allergies in some dogs.

A raw diet should be varied again to the dogs tolerance, as this covers all bases in terms of vitamins and nutrients, particularly as white meat contains very different amounts of them to red meat, and yes offal is essential unless you have researched what offal provides and are supplementing these separately which really is more hard work then it's worth.

Looking at what you feed its not so much a raw diet but more a home cooked one, which there is nothing wrong with but it does take much more work, research and needs supplementing

Mine are 100% on their kibble. I add some meat, sardines, veggies, chicken carcass etc every once in a while for a treat. They are healthy, have shiny coats and loads of energy so I don't have anything to complain about.

No, absolutely not.

The diet you follow for your dog is very much a personal choice, and if your dog does well on it(unless it's Bakers), there's no real reason to change.

Raw is a great way to feed, but it isn't suitable for everyone. For me, I was limited by Dempsey's poultry/game intolerance & his weird digestive system which was caused by his major stomach surgery for bloat. It just didn't work for us.

I tried Xan on raw ages ago and I also struggled with an upset tummy for about a month. His problem is: he is a big, fat pig where it comes to food so he doesn't chew properly and gulps stuff half chewed.