Looking at this, and the dry food thread, both my dogs are on "orange" foods- Skinners and a topper of Butchers tins or P@H advanced nutrition tins, depends.

Mix in the odd bit of raw and a chicken wing/thigh every now and then.

Must be working for them though! They are happy and Roo doesn't itch, which is a big thing for me.

__________________

I am currently looking at Ellie's diet after changing it a few months back. Shes currently on wainwrights trays with arden grange kibble. They both seem to rate fairly well in your guides. I am wondering what the benefits of feeding raw are though, how would you say a raw diet would compare to what I currently feed her? Bare in mind that I think I will be mixing in some veg if I feed her raw, it won't be 100% meat - unless it is possible to feed 100% meat on roughly the same amount of £ as I spend now? (I don't mind a small increase in spending, but I imagine if I was to feed 100% raw then it would cost a lot more than her current diet?)

Obviously it depends on the size of your dog, but I feed two 25kg(ish) staffs on at least £30 less then I used to spend on commercial food (I fed wainwrights or nature diet trays and a few different kibbles on rotation). I spent close to £80 on their food. Not I spend £30-£40 per month. I mixed in veg for a few months too but it actually turned out to be more expensive that meat and a huge amount more effort (chopping, wishing, mashing etc so they can digest it properly). So I not feed 100% raw. I use DAF minces as the basis for the boys diets.

But that's just me, a lot of raw feeders feed veg, and I give them left over veg.

I think the benefits are something you have to decide for yourself. For me, the benefits are my dog with a sensitive tum no longer has any issues and it's much cheaper. But every dog is different. I'd suggest reading, reading and reading some more.. Get it all right in your head. Thenratios offbeat, offal bone and liver, how much per day, what veg you'll add and why, will you use supplements? If so what ones and why?

I think it's easier to decide if raw is for you and your dogs once you have everything together in your own mind. Then you can price it up when you decide when/who to order from and see if you save cash.

__________________

ditto what Lyceum says - I've looked at going down the raw route many a time and come v close!!

I decided that for me, raw is feeding naturally i.e. chunks of animal, inc, fur and feathers as well as or instead of raw minces. The hygiene element of bits of raw animal dragged around, inside or out isnt something I could do. I have young grand children and couldnt deal with it. Hats off to those who do!!
That leaves me with minces and recreational bones. I'd rather feed a good quality wet that she's happy with and the occasional chicken wing. The minces would work out cheaper but my wet food is balanced and has everything she needs. I'm a worry wort and that means a lot to me. The alternative would be something like Natural Instinct which is too expensive or Natures Menu minces/nuggets but they have a lower meat content than my wet food.
Naturediet is steam sterilised and has minimal processing. At one point, I considered feeding part ND and part raw, then if the minces weren't balanced, ND would make up for it. After much deliberation, wet food is my choice.

As Lyceum says, do your research, if you run aground, have a bit of time out and start again. There's lots of help here.

__________________

"Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another’s trouble, Courage in your own”

What????? How did you spend so much on commercial food??? Ellie is a Labrador, around 20kg. A box of 12 wainwright trays lasts 24 days, that's aruond 30p (?) a day, plus 2 15kg bags of AG, which last, maybe 3 months? That's around 60p (?) a day. That's less than £30 a month. Well I suppose after adding it all up, and allowing for mistakes here and there from both of us, it could roughly be the same (I think I spend around £30 a month, you estimate you spent around £40 a month per doggy).

Compared to feeding raw. Well I always just assumed that it would be atleast twice as much or something! How do yuo manage to get such good deals? Have to say I'm even more confused when you say that it worked out cheaper for you to feed all meat rather than meat and veg???

Well as long it's not going to double my costs then I don't see much of a reason why I shouldn't put ellie or some sort of meat diet (raw or cooked as I am yet to convince my mum about raw). In your opinion, and anyone else please, would feeding raw, or possibly cooked meat, be a much better alternative to wainwrights trays + AG kibble Ellie currently gets (WW trays are green according to this list and I think AG kibble was orange?)

I've actually recently had a lung transplant so find interesting what you mention about hygiene. If Ellie is going to start dragging dead animals around the house I don't think the docs would think that is very good for me! Is mince meat not good raw food? I saw a tray of chicken casserole pieces in the Supermarket the other day, so would have some bones in it. I imagined giving Ellie something like a piece of that, some mince and maybe some fish. Obviously it depends on the dog but would yuo imagine she would start taking the chicken around the house to munch it up? I definitely wouldn't want to be giving her a big bone that she would be carrying around for a few hours!

Goodness me - I cant begin to imagine what you've been thro but hope that you are feeling much better.

Hygiene is me being overly fussy I'm led to believe. If raw feeders all felt the same there wouldnt be many raw fed animals I think if you have an area you can designate it helps. As for dragging meat around the floor, mine has chicken wings (excellent for teeth cleaning on the way in and anal glands on the way out). I put an old hand towel on the floor and taught her to keep there which she does. If you put chunks of meat in a bowl I'm sure you would be able to discourage them being carted around.
Mince is fine!! Just that from what I've read here, not necessarily a balanced meal so you would need to ensure it has bone and offal content, inc some in your regime, or feed alongside a good quality wet/kibble to maintain a balanced diet. Altho kibble takes a lot longer to go thro their system and raw is much quicker. Thoughts are that if kibble is fed with or too quickly after raw, it can delay it's natural passage. Theory being that dogs get away with eating meat that's not too fresh in the wild because it doesnt spend long enough for bacteria to take hold. That said, their digestive juices are pretty lethal and if you are feeding fresh mince.......................
As you can see, I've gone into it somewhat but hands up, I got bogged down, lacked confidence and decided I'm happier as I am.

It's important you do your own research and decide what you feel is the best way forward for you and your dog.

I'm only putting forward my thoughts to give you another side of the coin.

__________________

"Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another’s trouble, Courage in your own”

I fed wither wainwrights trays or naturediet trays. I fed 50% wet and 50% dry. So I'd need 60 trays of either WW or ND a month (one a day each for each dog), with WW that worked out around £45, with ND a slight bit more. Than I had to get grain free kibble as Novak gets the runs with anything more than a bit of rice. So I'd feed Simpsons or taste of the wild, Simpsons is £35 a bag taste of the wild is £27. So minimum I'd spend a month on commercial foods is £72, most was £85.

I feed Durham Animal Feeds minces now. I get 20 1lb blocks of mince in a box. Last month I got a box of chicken, lamb, beef and heart and minced oily fish and beef. Plus two pints of goats milk and I paid £45. That does both dogs for just over a month.

The month before I used veg, I checked what veg sleeping lion used in the raw thread, went out and got enough to last a month, it cost £15, I spent about 3 hours chopping it up, then puréeing it in the food processor then portioning it up into bags for the freezer. Then just defrosted as needed. I'd got 1 box less of meat that month, so had spent £34 on raw meat.

So the month after I ditched the veg and got an extra box of meat and saved myself about £5. The boys get around 600g per day and are doing very well indeed.

Look at the raw suppliers sticky. See the prices of stuff, see how much your dog needs and work out how much you'll need per month.

The premade minces are short on liver so you'd have to add that, I got about 2kg from the local butcher for a few quid, froze it and defrost as needed.

Honestly if you're going to cook the meat I'd stick with commercial food, it's much much harder to get everything a dog needs in a cooked diet because cooking takes out so much of the good stuff (for the dog anyway), you'd almost certainly have to use supplements. And sticking to a complete commercial diet would just be much easier.

__________________

Like the dry foodstuff entertainment guide, I’ve base the below in order on a 15kg adult dog, livelihood in a home environment with reasonable activity levels, and all prices are approximate and based on purchasing the packets of food singularly, where possible. All the foods are complete diets, except those marked with a star (*). The foods marked with a star (*) should be fed alongside another complete food, either wet or dry.

__________________
Dog Boarding San Francisco

hello, there's so many choices out there...
i'm wondering what you look for in a good wet dog food?
I came across a brand which is quite interesting, nose2tail. It has a high meat content and has the herbal qualities which claims to good for all round health.

Nose 2 Tail | Products | nose2tail

Anyone have heard of them?