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Feeding multiple dogs

2.9K views 38 replies 33 participants last post by  Oenoke  
#1 ·
Just curious really :D

For those who have multiple dogs ....

What do you feed?
How much would you say you spend monthly?
Do you feed them all the same?
Did you change food when you got the others?

I have 4 dogs, I feed them all the same, they're all on Trophy Agility, which is about £28 a bag. It's lasting between 2-3 weeks. I don't know how you'd feed different foods to different dogs.
 
#2 ·
Autarky Chicken mixed with either Butchers Tripe or NatureDiet. I would say it costs me £50-60 a month to feed them and yes, they are all fed the same thing and always have been. I couldn't be bothered to faff around with loads of different foods. :)
 
#3 ·
All 3 of mine are on Skinners working dog food (VAT free ;) ) depending on flavour it costs around £26 for 15kg which last my dogs (who have a total combined weight of 19kg) around 2-3 months :)

They are all fed the same - all bowls are put down at the same time, in the same room.
They know which bowl and corner of the kitchen is theirs and leave each other alone, once finished they all check out each others bowls incase there is anything left - but there never is :p
 
#4 · (Edited)
Only two dogs but fed vastly different amounts considering they are the same breed. Both raw fed morning and evening with a kibble meal early afternoon. Mia on Millies Countryside and Mylo on Millies Farmers.

Forgot to say cost so edited - Probably £40-50 a month depending on whether I need to get supermarket raw cos I haven't been to the abbatoir. That's for two GSP's weighing 25 and 32 KG.

Had to edit again cos everyone is also putting supplements - keepers Mix, Goats Yoghurt, Goats Milk, carrots and other veg and I make all my own dog treats or dry raw in a dehydrator. At a guess and additional £10 a month for that lot
 
#5 · (Edited)
3 dogs combined weight of 73kg fed 3% of their body weight, on raw. £60-70 a month including delivery. No freebies though.

Taste of the Wild dry food as treats/Kong filler £12 per 2.7kg bag. Lasts about 2-3 weeks.

Natures Menu wet food (kong filler x 3 tins) £6.75.

So all in all my dogs cost me around £80 a month, everything included. Lou has allergies to certain things so to save money and hassle - I just buy what he can eat as the other two have pretty good stomachs.

Depending on what they're having they get their food thrown to them, either outside or in the kitchen. Pen first as she can be quite possessive and has had a go at Sadie and Missy when they got food before her. Feeding her first means she runs off to eat it in a quiet corner and I can feed the boys next. Generally Lou second as he has more food. Then Jack as he waits patiently. If I feed Jack before Lou, he gets confused and waits until Lou has something.

Lou was on a number of dry foods, then we settled on Skinners D&R. His ears still weren't right so I switched him to raw after researching it. Pen came into the picture and was on dry food until we got back from our holidays then straight onto raw. Jack came to me on Wagg, switched to Skinners D&R. Then as it was costing me more to feed him that instead of what he'd be fed on raw - I switched him to raw a year after.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Shadow is on Applaws large breed dry food and I can't rate it highly enough so I emailed them asking what measurements of food I could give a puppy as I felt it had all the necessary ingredients I was looking for.

They replied v quickly that they wouldn't recommend it and gave me a lot of info about puppy food and no measurements which was all well and good but I can only get applaws delivered here so I had to quickly run out and buy a bag of Burns puppy puppy food as I wanted to get Russell weaned off dreadful Royal Canin that he came with.

So now I have one on Applaws who is fed from a kong wobbler in the kitchen and one on Burns fed in a baby bowl that was my daughters, then my sons and then Shadows in his crate. He would be game enough to try and take on Shadow and the wobbler and she would let him so it's not fair on her.

The Burns was £40 at hateful P@H but can be gotten cheaper online but will last ages and the Applaws was £40ish from Amazon subscribe and save and does just over two months.
I don't know what I'll feed when Mr Nash is up though as I don't think he will be as big as shadow and I thought of swopping them both to Acana Regionals but I will see what happens then.
 
#7 ·
I have 4 collie bitch including one almost 13 yrs old with severe food intolerance.
She is fed ghastly Purina HA (but it works) and the others get Arden Grange plus fresh chicken. They get a sprinkling of herbs on their breakfast, tinned Chappie mixed with their dinner (including the old girl), two of them have a scoop of GWF Joint Aid also added to their dinner, plus broccoli and carrot which is particularly good for the old lady to support her liver.

With regards to cost, I dread to think....LOL
 
#8 · (Edited)
Mine are 32kg, 10kg and 7.5kg, plus a large/giant breed puppy who is growing like a weed and eating like... something that eats a lot.

I'm a food boarder so have quite a few different bits... Millies (different flavours all mixed together), Lupo Sensitive, sardine Fish4Dogs, Fishmonger trays, Wainwrights grain free trays, Rocco tins, Lukullus tins, raw minces and raw bones/chunks.
Generally, all 4 have the same for whatever meal we are on (Sam puppy has dry and tins for his extra meals)

Dry, tins and mince are fed out of bowls in the kitchen, trays out of kongs (I make up about 6 in case they want to swap) and bones on towels or in the garden. They get dry in their wobbler too.
Supplements are Keepers Mix and Dia. Earth powder

If I wasn't ridiculously addicted to buying dog food and actually bought monthly, I worked out it would be around £80 - £90 for all including adult Sam
 
#10 ·
3 dogs here 1 large,2 medium.

They are fed 80% raw which I buy from supermarkets,it's an expensive way to do it but I do get bargains sometimes.That costs me about £100 -£110 a month.

They also get wet food a couple of times a week and in their kongs and that costs me about £15 a month.

They are all fed the same.
 
#12 ·
Mine are fed different food sometimes. I mix wet (Rocco) with warm water and mix kibble in. Ziggy has cereal-free food, Kite's OK with cereals but I still go for good quality. I recently bought a bag of Wainwrights senior for Ziggy when shopping without my glasses (always a mistake) and found it had barley in when I got home. So Kite had that and Ziggy had Lupo sensitive. Previously, Kite was on Skinners duck and rice and Ziggy was on Wainwrights grain free. Depends what's on offer.

I just stick each dog's bowl in front of them and they tuck in.
 
#13 ·
Well I don't have multiple dogs as yet but both my dog and cat are fed raw.

My cat is fed nutriment chicken, as well as the odd chicken wing or neck

The dog gets minces, chunks, offal, bones etc.

Dog is nearly 20kg

Cat is about 6kg

Costs me about 40 pounds a month currently, including delivery
 
#14 ·
Wow I thought mine were complicated lol :D

I find it impossible to feed them something different. They always want the 'new' food! Had to put the puppy (5 months) on chicken and rice for a bit and the others wouldn't eat unless they had some sprinkled on theirs too!

I was just curious as I always get "you have 4 dogs?! Do you spend loads on dog food??"

I don't think £28 is bad - compared to others! - for a good quality dog good, that all dogs are ok on (I have a shepherd x with a sensitive tummy).
I do buy the odd tinned food just as a treat and they get natural yoghurt in their kongs.

Didn't realise RAW/BARF was so expensive to do!
 
#16 ·
Didn't realise RAW/BARF was so expensive to do!
It can be ridiculously cheap (some butchers will give you the nasty bits, which dogs love!, for free or dirt cheap). Or really expensive if you go the supermarket route.
My lot have Nature Diet or Lilys Kitchen wet food for breakfast and raw for tea. I wouldnt like to work out the costs coz I buy from supermarkets as most of the cheap butcher shop stuff is just too big for my lot.
3 of them are fed in the kitchen (and usually disappear somewhere else to eat their chicken wings!) and Alfie in his crate as he has issues.
 
#17 ·
Didn't realise RAW/BARF was so expensive to do!
For me to feed raw it is £60-70 a month to feed 3.

For me to feed a dry food that doesn't upset Louie's allergies and that was of a decent/high quality it would cost me £100-120 a month to feed 3 not to mention the wet food I would add to it as I'm not a fan of feeding dry on it's own.

I don't get freebies and don't order from the cheapest place either - I like the quality of MVM over that of DAF. I also am not a fan of feeding minces so I spend a little more on chunks of stuff, so instead of minced Chicken carcasses which would cost me .55p/Lb I feed whole ones which cost me £5.50/5kg.

Due to the exercise my dogs get they are fed 3% of their body weight to maintain their ideal weights. Any less and they would be cruelty cases. I have tried them all on 2% and it didn't suit. I don't do loads of exercise but 3 miles for me is more for them as they aren't pottering along with me, but charging about.

So raw isn't more expensive when you factor in everything.
 
#18 ·
For me to feed raw it is £60-70 a month to feed 3.

For me to feed a dry food that doesn't upset Louie's allergies and that was of a decent/high quality it would cost me £100-120 a month to feed 3 not to mention the wet food I would add to it as I'm not a fan of feeding dry on it's own.

I don't get freebies and don't order from the cheapest place either - I like the quality of MVM over that of DAF. I also am not a fan of feeding minces so I spend a little more on chunks of stuff, so instead of minced Chicken carcasses which would cost me .55p/Lb I feed whole ones which cost me £5.50/5kg.

Due to the exercise my dogs get they are fed 3% of their body weight to maintain their ideal weights. Any less and they would be cruelty cases. I have tried them all on 2% and it didn't suit. I don't do loads of exercise but 3 miles for me is more for them as they aren't pottering along with me, but charging about.

So raw isn't more expensive when you factor in everything.
Indeed. For a big bag of TOTW or F4D etc it would be £50 range for a months supply, raw for me is £30/month and under. As you know I can get chicken backs and get more than a months supply of those for £1, so if I fed those every day for one meal and something else for the other meal such as a mince I would be laughing and pay like £15/month. :)
 
#19 ·
I meant to add that feeding raw means I know what my dogs are getting. And also that I can choose their menu for the month. This month they're having a mix of lamb, vension, duck, turkey and beef. As well as rabbit (wet food) and whatever is in the yellow bag of TOTW.

Indeed. For a big bag of TOTW or F4D etc it would be £50 range for a months supply, raw for me is £30/month and under. As you know I can get chicken backs and get more than a months supply of those for £1, so if I fed those every day for one meal and something else for the other meal such as a mince I would be laughing and pay like £15/month. :)
I keep passing that butcher on the tram but I can't take chicken backs into work and leave them in the staff room all night and I'm not allowed to use the freezers.. :(
 
#20 ·
I meant to add that feeding raw means I know what my dogs are getting. And also that I can choose their menu for the month. This month they're having a mix of lamb, vension, duck, turkey and beef. As well as rabbit (wet food) and whatever is in the yellow bag of TOTW.

I keep passing that butcher on the tram but I can't take chicken backs into work and leave them in the staff room all night and I'm not allowed to use the freezers.. :(
What a pain! Just let me know when you have freezer space for some and I'll grab them for you.
 
#21 ·
We feed Dr John's (I know it's not the best quality but suits our three's stomachs very well) made up into a warm mash, normally with water, occ with some meat juices/gravy over it. one sack lasts the three of them a week (or thereabouts). Tenner a sack so £40 a month

They do get topped up with plenty of treats - paddywack daily at £28 a box for about a month, and meaty strip stuff for outdoor training treats - £15 for a box that lasts us a couple of months.

All in all, I'd say £75 ish a month for all three (collective weight about 190kg ish - Tyton about 70kg and the pups slightly smaller at 60kg+).

All three are fed the same food. they each have a double bowl+stand set - water and food side by side. Mealtimes, they all sit (for some reason Beau on my left, Kahn on my right and Tyton behind me?) food is put down and when released they go to their respective bowls. Once a bowl is finished and it's owner leaves it; the others can go and clean up the last crumbs/smear. If, as happens to at least one dog at least once a day, they aren't interested at all and don't touch the meal, the others know not to go and help themselves.
 
#22 ·
Ours are fed on Burns Alert. It costs bewteen £60 to £90 per month for 6 dogs, but the pet shop in Worksop has a scheme for Burns food where you get every eighth sack free, which does help to keep the price down a bit.

We have to feed in two sessions - the border collies first, and then the bergies, because the border collies are greedy little horrors and would push the bergies out of the way and gorge themselves - and then Quinny would resource guard any that they couldn't manage to eat!
 
#23 ·
Just curious really :D

For those who have multiple dogs ....

What do you feed?
How much would you say you spend monthly?
Do you feed them all the same?
Did you change food when you got the others?

I have 4 dogs, I feed them all the same, they're all on Trophy Agility, which is about £28 a bag. It's lasting between 2-3 weeks. I don't know how you'd feed different foods to different dogs.
My 3 are raw fed - they weigh 38kg, 28 kg and 25 kg so 91 kg between them.
I'm still experimenting to find the right amounts for them so am probably still spending more than I need to which was £136.00 last month plus extras for treats at Zooplus.

They are all fed together - Indie is fed far less than the boys so I have to bulk her food out with some extra veggies - peas are good as they keep her busy chasing them round the bowl ;)

Previously when they were fed kibble/wet Indie and Arthur had the same but Colt was on a different one which was a bit of a pain, I never found one food that agreed with all of them so raw is easier in that respect.
 
#24 ·
I've got four medium sized dogs (17kg, 15kg, 12kg and a 7 month old pup who is currently 10kg) and they're fed on a mixture of Millies Wolfheart countryside mix and Wainwrights wet trays.

It costs about £20 a week to feed all four on that, so £80 a month.

I'm thinking of trying some different wet foods like Lukullus to get a bit more variety of flavour in. I think the Lukullus also works out a bit cheaper which I'm not going to complain about :laugh:

We only swapped them all onto MWH last year, prior to that they were on Acana Pacifica (plus the same wet) which was fine but much more expensive and it could be hard to get hold of sometimes. I'm very glad we swapped, the MWH is far, far better stuff in my opinion.
 
#25 ·
Both Zara and Oscar are fed exactly the same eventhough they have personal preferences to what they actually want to eat from their bowls. Zara much prefers pork to turkey/chicken and Oscar turkey/chicken to pork. As their bowls are being placed on the floor we will state 'Oscar's' and then 'Zara's' This way both dogs know exactly whose is whose.

The reason why we prepare their food identically and maintain the routine is because before they decide to eat they have this curious need to investigte each others bowls. :huh:

Obviously the quantity of Oscar's portions are greater than Zara's but we always keep something back from Oscar's bowl, the reason for which will soon become clear.

Once both dogs are satisfied they have the same food as each other they return to their respective bowls to commence scoffing. Ozzy attacks the turkey/chicken first and Zara the pork. Turkey/chicken all gone, Oscar will then stand and patiently watch Zara's more refined eating habits. As she devours the last of the pork and perhaps a little of her poultry she will walk away from her bowl and over to Oscar's to see what leftovers there are.
He in turn will stroll over to Zara's bowl, give it a sniff, look back to see what Zara's up to (eating Ozzy's pork) and then he'll chow down on the Turkey/chicken that Zara has left over.

We then add the extra to Zara's bowl for Ozzy. :001_smile:

Friday is always fresh Salmon day and as a special treat we hand feed them.:blush: The salmon is prepared in a frying pan and done in its own oils. Oscar will not eat the skin if its not crispy. :confused1:
However, the practice of hand feeding them as they sit side by side at the dining table is something they seem to adore. It is the only night we all eat together. :wink: and the only time either dog hangs around the table.

They have Canagan available all day and once Oscar's serving has gone he never attempts to eat Zara's portion. He might have a huge appetite but it certainly hasn't made him greedy with it.

Zara's appetite on the whole is quite varied and often eats vegetables whereas Oscar's just a meat eater and thinks Vegetables are poison. :lol:
Despite this he is not fed red meat.

I have no idea how much the dogs cost us in total, I don't really want to consider it. I'm sure the butcher appreciates the profit.

Nevertheless, a 12 kilo bag of Canagan costing €95:00. lasts approximately 10 days.
 
#26 ·
Three dogs here:

Dex - 33kg
Lucky - 32kg
Pearl - 20kg


Dex has mostly wet food, Wainwrights trays, with a bit of dry and also homecooked food.

Lucky has mostly dry food, currently on Waiwrights fish & veg, and a bit of the Wainwrights wet food

Pearl - is on mostly dry, Wainwrights salmon & potato

All three dogs get a lot of fish too, both tinned and fresh. They also all get yoghurt, cottage cheese, and any vegs that we eat, or meat or fish that we eat.