BOYS ON A BUDGET

[scent 509]

arkwright nuts are a great nut

[dodger 2,765]

I've just read this thread with interest.............and sadness. It seems that some people feel proud to feed their dogs as cheaply as possible, and with little knowledge of what dogs really need to be healthy. But there again, when I was in my teens and twenties, I didn't have much idea about how to eat properly myself, let alone what a dog needs to stay healthy for a long working life.

 

The main problem with eating rubbish processed foods (talking humans here) is that for quite a few years you can do that without any ill effects. It's only as you get older that bad eating, (and drinking) habits start to take their toll on your body. The body can cope with a lot of junk food, but only for so long.

 

The same is true for any animal, and especially for working dogs which have a greater need for good quality food of a sort their bodies can really use: a lot of dogs can get by on wheat, soya, and beet pulp which can be found in cheap dog foods: read the ingredients on the side of the bag! But it won't do them much good in the long run.

 

And by the way, when it says 'meat by products' in the list of ingredients: that includes: chicken feathers, feet, beaks, skins. Figure it out: chickens (let's use chickens as an example as there are so many sent to slaughter every day in the UK) are killed: they are either plucked and gutted, feet and heads taken off, or they are portioned up and sold as breast, legs etc. So what happens to all the bits we humans don't eat? They get cooked, ground up and put into dog food, yep, feathers and all.

 

Now if a dog was to eat all those things as they naturally are, on the chicken, they'd form part of a relatively balanced meal, but they'd have to be raw to give a dog the maximum amount of nutrients. As it is, those by products are heat treated to mega high temperatures to kill of any nasty bacteria, of which there will be quite a lot by the time the stinking mess gets to the dog food factory. High temperatures kill a lot of vitamins and nutrients, so the factory have to put them back in artificially: man made vitamins, which ain't a patch on the real, fresh ones.

 

Now, even with all these meat by products, the food couldn't be sold as dog food: how the hell do you make a dried, cooked pile of feet, feathers and guts look attractive to the dog owner??? So they have to bulk it all out with a very cheap filler (let's not forget that the dog food market is a multi million pound business these days: a lot of people are getting very rich packaging the waste from human food products into pretty coloured shapes for dogs!)

 

Wheat is cheap, soya is cheap, beet pulp is even cheaper. That's the stuff which is left over after they have taken the sugar out of the beet for human use. Look at Wagg dog food ingredients:

 

Wheat, Meat Meal, Wheatfeed, Rice (min 4% in rice disc), Maize, Chicken Meat Meal (min 4% in brown chunk), Digest, Poultry Fat, Linseed, Beet Pulp, Peas (min 4% in pea kibble), Carrots (min 4% in carrot kibble), Lucerne, Minerals, Yeast (0.08%), Citrus Extract (0.04%) & Yucca Extract (0.01

 

Notice that it doesn't give you the percentages of Wheat, Wheatfeed, Digest (what the hell is digest???) Beet pulp: I wonder if they would tell you if you asked!

 

If you're still reading this: have a look at a sensible website which analyses exactly what each type of food on the bags of food really contains:

http://www.dog-nutri...e-dog-food.html

 

I'll leave it at that for the moment: but have a think about what a dog really needs to eat, and then ask yourselves why the dog food manufacturers are selling you feeds with all sorts of ingredients that have been so highly processed that the dog might as well be eating Pot Noodles!

[skycat 6,173]

Have a look at this website: makes for interesting reading. I learned a thing or two here as well! Apparently Purina, which I used to think was a decent dry food, doesn't score highly at all: read at the bottom of the page on the link.

 

Damn: forgot to put in link and now I've lost it: here's another one of interest though, while I look for the first onehttp://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=dog_food_reviews

 

There are very few foods which seem to be really committed to providing a healthy diet for dogs: Farm Fresh, http://www.farmfood....life-stage.html and Markus Muelhle,http://www.markus-mu...urnahfutter.htm both of which are cold pressed as opposed to heat treated for long periods of time at a very high temperature. Orijen is supposed to be the best top of the range dog food, but it isn't cold pressed, so still needs to have all the vits and mins put back into it artificially as they are destroyed at high temperatures.

 

I did a trial for Markus Muehle recently and I was impressed by it and would definitely keep a bag in case of emergencies IF I COULD AFFORD IT. As it is, it works out a lot cheaper to feed my dogs on raw, and the only supplements I use are Cod Liver Oil and Kelp seaweed powder. Even the old dogs are still going strong so that says something.

 

If anyone wants to read my findings on feeding and how I do it, whether or not you agree with what I say, I'm happy to send the chapter on nutrition from my book for you to read through. Just let me have your email address as I have to send the file by email: can't do it by pm on this site.

 

I'm not trying to change anyone's minds on how they feed their dogs, and the working dog world does seem to be divided into those who feed their dogs as cheaply as possible, and those who try and feed their dogs the best possible food for their requirements. AND I know that there will be loads of people who will read this and say, "But my dad always fed such and such a food and the dogs have always been fine on it" BUT how much finer would they have been if they had been getting the best diet possible?

 

Times change, and as an example, people didn't used to realise that eating too much fried food was bad for them. Just as some people still don't! There is new information coming all the time on health and medical matters. And take the high incidence of cancer in dogs and humans nowadays, something which many people believe is a direct result of eating the wrong sort of food over a life time.

[DanRaistrick 53]

cant beat good ol' sunday dinner left overs

 

my pooch loves it

[judge2010 196]

i feed my pair of c**ts bakers and raw.

[morton 5,368]

ALRIGHT BOY,S N GIRL,S

I WAS IN WILLKINSONS TODAY 2TYPES OF WAGG MEAL 1 QUID FOR 2.5KG.

I KNOW WAGG,S NOT EVERYBODY,S MEAL .

A FULL BELLY,S BETTER THAN AN EMPTY ONE,WHEN YOUR GETTING THE TEAM READY FOR THE AUTUM COMING :boogy:

If feeding on a budget you sometimes,for the benefit of the dog,have to take the time to source some bones and meat scraps.Butchers,abbatoirs,supermarket skips.Or even freeze and feed stuff the dog should be catching.

[billy bronk 76]

chicken carcuss 45 p a kilo

[WILF 47,202]

Stop me if this idea seems too crazy and left field, but what about feeding what you catch?..........if your out lifting a few bunnies, your average rabbit will weigh around a 1 1/2 to 2 lb........thats about right for most dogs and a couple of them is a real belly full.

 

Even on an hours walk out every night most dogs can catch more than enough to feed them selves.........I do feed chicken but I alternate caught & bought.

 

Mad I know......................

[DottyDoo 500]

Stop me if this idea seems too crazy and left field, but what about feeding what you catch?..........if your out lifting a few bunnies, your average rabbit will weigh around a 1 1/2 to 2 lb........thats about right for most dogs and a couple of them is a real belly full.

 

Even on an hours walk out every night most dogs can catch more than enough to feed them selves.........I do feed chicken but I alternate caught & bought.

 

Mad I know......................

 

 

[skycat 6,173]

In the winter we feed what the dogs catch. I guess if you only have one or two dogs then feeding rabbit all year round isn't a problem, if your'e lucky enough to be able to mooch about on your doorstep and have enough rabbits to warrant thinning them out all summer, though rabbit alone won't have enough fat for a hard working dog. Depends where you live as well I guess: I don't have access to most of my land in summer as it is all arable.

[WILF 47,202]

In the winter we feed what the dogs catch. I guess if you only have one or two dogs then feeding rabbit all year round isn't a problem, if your'e lucky enough to be able to mooch about on your doorstep and have enough rabbits to warrant thinning them out all summer, though rabbit alone won't have enough fat for a hard working dog. Depends where you live as well I guess: I don't have access to most of my land in summer as it is all arable.

 

Bang on Skycat, rabbit is a bit lean for a dog that is out running a good few nights a week.........it was a post aimed more at chaps as they say "on a budget"..........it dont get much cheaper than free.

As I said, I feed the chicken as well as all leftovers, raw eggs, fish.......all sorts.

In the winter I make sure they get a LOT of fat on top of the meat as well.

[reavo2k9 20]

mine get tripe from the slaughterhouse and always leave some dry food in for them £2.50 a full tripe cut it up and away i go costs me £7.50 a week on tripe and a sack of dry £12 every two or 3 weeks for me 2 big dogs ,

[dodger 2,765]

In the winter we feed what the dogs catch. I guess if you only have one or two dogs then feeding rabbit all year round isn't a problem, if your'e lucky enough to be able to mooch about on your doorstep and have enough rabbits to warrant thinning them out all summer, though rabbit alone won't have enough fat for a hard working dog. Depends where you live as well I guess: I don't have access to most of my land in summer as it is all arable.

 

Bang on Skycat, rabbit is a bit lean for a dog that is out running a good few nights a week.........it was a post aimed more at chaps as they say "on a budget"..........it dont get much cheaper than free.

As I said, I feed the chicken as well as all leftovers, raw eggs, fish.......all sorts.

In the winter I make sure they get a LOT of fat on top of the meat as well.

I bag up some spare lamb fat in the freezer, then when i give them a rabbit i pull out a few chunks of the lamb fat to give them with it.