Feeding!

[Guest Tiggy]

I remember the good old days of buying supermarket dog food and never giving a second thought to the quality of it then the internet opened a whole new world of feeding to me. Don't get me wrong I'm glad but is it just me that's going insane with all the information out there. I'm over making up my own BARF as I just don't have the free time and I think Dr B's BARF Patties are a better product anyway. So I feed raw meaty bones and BARF patties but feeding 3 dogs the BARF Patties is getting too expensive so I'm considering feeding Eagle Pack Holistic to but then I feel bad about feeding a cooked product. I guess it's about feeding the best diet you can afford. Hopefully it's not just me with the constant headache of what should I feed!

[Dog_Horse_Girl]

Why not try RAW instead of BARF? Less work IMO.

With RAW, you're doing a similar thing to BARF but less emphasis on the vegetable side of things. My dogs are fed primarily RMBs, and I've now adjusted their meals to account for what I can't buy here in Darwin. I am giving them human grade minced meats in addition or in place of meaty bones every couple of days. I give offal at least four times a week, sometimes every day for a couple of weeks at a time. I give yoghurt every second week, although Lilly is on yoghurt every meal ATM to build her system back up after her neck playing up. I do a veg/fruit pulp mix every couple of months and freeze it into ziplock bags. And I give sardines and raw eggs weekly or so.

BARF is a great philosophy and I've just played around with it so it works for me and my dogs. It doesn't take a lot of work or time...it's as labour-intensive as you want to make it if you ask me.

[Roux]

I feed a kinda modified version of BARF. It is so much cheaper, no packaging rubbish and certainly not farty bums!!

I use fresh minced beef, roo or venison mixed up with porridge, grated carrots, frozen peas and corn (the cats love the corn) and some Phuds. Costs me about $10 a week to feed 4 - three large cats and one Iggy. Sometimes I add chicken legs, wings or mince. Fresh meaty bones every now and then. Sometimes I add oil and sardines.

They do all do very well. I love the lack of mess and rotten empty cans and wrappers. It is an added bonus that it is so much cheaper.

[Poodle wrangler]

Don't feel guilty about what you feed.

I suspect your dogs are better cared for than many .

[zoo]

Yes - there seems to be lots of different opinions about the best things to feed your dog.

I wish I took as much care with my own diet!

[cavNrott]

I feed a kinda modified version of BARF. It is so much cheaper, no packaging rubbish and certainly not farty bums!!

I use fresh minced beef, roo or venison mixed up with porridge, grated carrots, frozen peas and corn (the cats love the corn) and some Phuds. Costs me about $10 a week to feed 4 - three large cats and one Iggy. Sometimes I add chicken legs, wings or mince. Fresh meaty bones every now and then. Sometimes I add oil and sardines.

Phuds? What are Phuds I really do want to know .

Actually a BARF diet requires that the vegies are either put through a juicer or into a blender and pulped. The digestive system of a dog can't break down the cellulose unless the vegies are liquified or pulped. Corn will go straight through the dog without being digested so it's not of much value.

[Staff'n'Toller]

I feed Eagle Pack to my Toller and I think he looks awesome on it.

Now when I open up the Hills food all I can smell is corn.

You can do much much worse than Eagle Pack IMHO. I feed the holistic fish.

Mel.

[cavNrott]

I also feed Eagle Pack for their breakfast and they get BARF at night.

[Hazz]

I've got a variety here, some dogs are fed half and half (half BARF - our own mix and half premium food) others are fed only BARF. It all depends on the individual dogs.

IMO; I personally prefer our own mix to the pre-made brought BARF patties.

As for premium foods I'd reccomend, Eagle Pack Holistic, Nutro and Royal Canin.

[Guest Pandii]

The best food to feed your dogs is the one they do best on

I had the headache of what to feed and what not to feed

I have settled for BOnnie Dry with raw mince chicken frames fresh roo and rabitt plus house scraps and bones once a week

This works for me my family my budget and my dogs

[goldielover]

I agree with Pandii. If you are happy with the BARF rolls you could try doing your own BARF - much cheaper! Everyone here will have their own opininon of what is best for their dogs, but everyone has different circumstances. I usually feed Eagle Pack Holistic, plus some bones, cottage cheese, yoghurt, sardines in oil, the odd egg, etc. However paying off a house on 1 wage isn't easy so if there are good deals on foods i think are pretty good, i take them! ProPlan has recently had a 2 for 1 at a local store, and Optimum has it's PHD program running, so i do take advantage of these deals when i'm a bit less financial!

[shellbyville]

I have also really struggled with what I feed my dogs and whether I am doing the right thing! Everyone has their opinion of what is the best dry food/diet etc, which is great, I am all for finding out what works for others.

However I found I was getting very confused and ended up spending a lot of money on dry food, as well as the raw food I also feed. I have 7 dogs though and just couldn't keep spending over $100 a bag for a dry food that didn't last too long. So I have since decided I will buy a dry food that I can afford (which yes, is a supermarket brand), the dogs get about 1/2 - 1 cup of this a day. There main source of nutrition though, comes from raw mince, raw meaty bones, chicken wings/necks, sardines in vege oil, natural yoghurt/cottage cheese/ eggs once a week. My dogs do not look any different since I stopped feeding the higher quality dry food, I would love to feed a better quality dry food, but it is just not possible. My dogs are happy, healthy, well fed and look pretty darn good in my opinion.