sas Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 If your dogs do ok on items like Bonnie/Uncle Albers/Optimum then there's no reason you can't feed them that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BC Crazy Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 I use Black Hawk and I find both of mine thrive on it & they are lovely & shiny & healthy. You don't seem to need to give them much either. I also give mine other stuff, chic carcess, roo mince veges, pasta, e.t.c but you don't have to if things are a bit tight. Excellent product & service & really reasonably priced & my dogs love it !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulesP Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 Frenzied1 if you liked Advance you could try Optimum. Plenty of people are very happily feeding that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
best4koda Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 I just moved to SuperCoat Sensative from Proplan and it seems to agree with my dog. Supercoat works out at about $62 for 15kg if you want to compare. Bonnie usually sells for about $45-49 here. Chicken frames you can get for $1.50 - $1.90 at any good chicken shop. We also buy the chicken frame mince from Lenards $1.50/kg. You can also buy fish off cuts for about $3.50/kilo, I got sardines this week for $3.50/kilo to add to food. Check out the pinned topic "where to buy raw" for some tips as well. Unfortunately at the moment we have to feed what we can afford as well. Perhaps if you add some other things to your current kibble (sardines, oils, eggs and other fresh) it may help with the dryness of coats etc without having to change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kobi'sDaisy Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 Another Raw feeder here! We go with a good kibble for one meal and raw meaty bones for another (1.99kg chicken wings at our butcher!) Much more economical and still get all the good stuff from the good kibble!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakeyjangels Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 At $110 for $15 kilos of Advance, you're paying about $7.30 a kilo. Rather than feeding a cheaper grade of kibble (although a lot of folk swear by Blackhawk), I'd be feeding less kibble by feeding RMBs two meals out of three. With a bit of shopping around you could find chicken wings or frames, lamb ribs etc for less than that. Excellent point! Tom's Poultry in Fyshwick sells wings, frames etc at a good price for larger orders. A freezer will be your best friend for feeding dogs cheaply and well. I feed completely raw.... Purchased a secondhand couple year old chest freezer from Gumtree for about $90 specifically for bulk buying & couldn't do without it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frenzied1 Posted May 26, 2011 Author Share Posted May 26, 2011 Thanks for all the advice I really appreicate it. I have tried the BARF diet for my dogs but my biggest girl kept throwing up, expecially with the sardines. I will definitely try the chicken wings but as for lamb bones my biggest girl again had the horrendous runs. Anyway I will continue on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCPuppy Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 :DRaw for me. If you can utilise freezer space and afford to buy a little in bulk it is great. I love Leonards pet mince, they usually let me have 5kg for $6. A pet food place also does their miss labeled roo meat at less than half it is in the shops, at $1.50 for 400g, have to buy a box of 24 though. Chicken necks are really cheap, as are frames & wings, most of the big chains do bags of offcuts/ends/scraps for aroung $1.99-3.99 kg, dont always look in the pet food area, quite often they are in the human food area. Chicken livers, any cheap offal on special or markdown. Cheap sardines are good, try them on small quantities first until they are used to them. Vegies & fruit I buy the cheapest and whatever is out of date or bruised and process to a pulp and freeze. Any leftover scraps of meat, vegies, rice or pasta from our meals go into her tub in the fridge, pan juices and gravy which she adores too. It does take a little more effort and I still weigh out and bag up most of her meals for a week at a time, but have been doing it for nearly 2 years now and it is not a chore! She gets around 400g per day, (bones, mince, vegies) one day a week is just bones (big chewie ones), and fish one day instead of mince. I recon it costs me around $2 a day for food. Other than vegies I only shop once every 4-6 months, mainly as I am in a remote area, thosein the city will have the advantage of being able to shop around more and take advantage of specials. I also buy all my treats online, some great bargains to be had. Shop around and as always there is lots of advice here especially if you decide to feed more raw, change them slowly if you do. Good Luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
espinay2 Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 (edited) Raw is easy to do on the cheap. You can provide a very healthy diet on a tight budget. One way to do it as an example is as follows: The main ingredients: *chicken frames *Pet mince - whatever your local butcher does for a good price as long as it includes some organ meats such as liver etc (they usually do though) This is the bulk of your daily ration. Feed mostly chicken carcasses, but with a small portion of the pet mince. Just shove a cup to half a cupful in the carcass for example (or feed chicken frames most days and a pet mince meal once a week or so) In additon feed the following when available: *an egg or two once a week *healthy leftovers from your own meals such as veggies/pasta/rice etc (no need to go out of your way and prepare extra veggies) *Some canned fish such as sardines or salmon (not essential but good if you can - at least once a fortnight). If the budget is tight look for the home brand cat food sardines. These generally have no additives so are a very economical way to feed fish. If you are concerned about supplements the one I would suggest is fish oil capsules. A large bottle of 400 capsules can usually be purchased from discount chemist outlets for under $20. (for canberra folks the discount chemist at the airport for example) If you want to give a biscuit as a regular treat etc or in addition to the meal, look at 'Box One' 2x2 or 2x4. There is a page on diet on my website: http://www.espinay.com/feedingourdogs.cfm Edited May 28, 2011 by espinay2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laneka Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 I agree, homemade barf is a lot cheaper than buying premium dryfood. I used to feed raw beef mince and a dryfood then swapped to veges and minced beef with bones every second night, much cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gayle. Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 At $110 for $15 kilos of Advance, you're paying about $7.30 a kilo. Rather than feeding a cheaper grade of kibble (although a lot of folk swear by Blackhawk), I'd be feeding less kibble by feeding RMBs two meals out of three. With a bit of shopping around you could find chicken wings or frames, lamb ribs etc for less than that. Black Hawk isn't a "cheaper grade of kibble", it is easily equivelant to the likes of Nutro, Eagle Pack etc. But it is locally made, plainly packaged and sold through distributors rather than retail outlets, which keeps the price way down to affordable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frenzied1 Posted May 29, 2011 Author Share Posted May 29, 2011 Thanks guys, just out of interest what oils would best help my dogs overall? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakeyjangels Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 I use cod liver oil & flaxseed oil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Fox Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 Thanks guys, just out of interest what oils would best help my dogs overall? You can buy Melrose Omega Pet oil from most health food shops (or online) which has a balanced ratio of Omega 3 & 6 http://www.melrosehealth.com.au/health_products/Healthy_Pet_Care.aspx If the only problem you are having with the cheaper food is dry coats I'd stick to that, add some omega oils, whole eggs and sardines here and there and bulk it all up with cheap RMBs for the dogs that can handle them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skruffy n Flea Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Thanks guys, just out of interest what oils would best help my dogs overall? You can buy Melrose Omega Pet oil from most health food shops (or online) which has a balanced ratio of Omega 3 & 6 http://www.melrosehealth.com.au/health_products/Healthy_Pet_Care.aspx If the only problem you are having with the cheaper food is dry coats I'd stick to that, add some omega oils, whole eggs and sardines here and there and bulk it all up with cheap RMBs for the dogs that can handle them. THIS! melrose omega pet oil at 250ml for less than $10 at my local gnc [health food] store and thanks to secretkei for putting me onto it --- it of course depends on the size of your dog as to how much you provide [1 tspn per 10kg per day for mine]... as for <click> black hawk, it costs $4.25 p/kg for [what i consider to be] top quality product [$4.50 p/kg for 10kg and $5 p/kg for the 3kg option] --- clinky here for puppy and here for kitty [ima fan :D] if you can collect it from your distributor, great but if that's not an option it will cost i think $10 postage [which will blow the budget] --- as an aside, my distributor informed me at easter that black hawk will be hitting the shelves in the next few months BUT the distributorship [hers at least] will continue. frenzied1, for all the great advice you've received about raw feeding and if also feeding dry, i reckon black hawk in combination is a better option... jmho Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gayle. Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 Black Hawk works out for me at $3.75 per kg as compared to Eagle Pack which is $8.66 per kg. BH is easily as good of a quality as Eagle Pack, if not better as it's a lot fresher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frenzied1 Posted June 2, 2011 Author Share Posted June 2, 2011 Yep I will get the oil and I will order some Blackhawk. TO YOU FOR ALL YOUR ADVICE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diva Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 (edited) frenzied, you posted that lamb bones give your old girl horrendous runs, and lamb is the principle protein in Black Hawk I think - so you may want to watch that. Edited June 2, 2011 by Diva Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poodlefan Posted June 2, 2011 Share Posted June 2, 2011 frenzied, you posted that lamb bones give her old girl horrendous runs, and lamb is the principle protein in Black Hawk I think - so you may want to watch that. Why not ask for a sample bag before committing to an order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frenzied1 Posted June 2, 2011 Author Share Posted June 2, 2011 I am glad that you lot are paying attention............. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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