Newbie after advice on a raw dog food supplier

[Stephen Pearson]

Hi everyone
So basically I need to find a supplier online if possible and I want to make sure our dog is eating no rubbish

I want to start him on a raw diet as I've tried every dry and wet food possible and he is not taking to any of them. Sloppy stools and farts from morning till night. I tried all the brands the vets recommend and still none work so raw is my next option

He's a 4 yr old ridgeback and he's 50kg and I'm looking at feeding him about 1.25kg a day

Now who do I buy from please and obviously I'm trying to keep cost down but with him being such a large dog that's probably going to be difficult

Can I get these bags of mince that say 80/10/10 and then he's all fed for the day or do I need to be feeding him more on top of the Minced bags?

I have been looking at the following websites

K9 dogs supplies
The dogs butcher
Natural dogs direct

Any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Steve

 

[JudyN]

There's nothing wrong with the pre-prepared 80/10/10 mixtures, but you would probably want to add in bones - I feed chicken carcasses - which will throw the percentages out. But you don't need to be precise anyway - the best guide is what comes out of his bum (Note - chicken wings or necks would be too small for him and he could risk choking.)

I use Nurturing by Nature: Raw Pet Food for Dogs & Cats | BARF Diet - Nurturing by Nature They're local to me, but deliver across the country. Cheaper suppliers are available - MVM and Landywood's spring to mind. The minces don't tend to look as nice, and maybe not so ethically sourced, but might be as good in terms of nutrition - with such a big lad, you can end up spending more on his food than you do on your own!

This thread could help too: Raw dog food brands

 

[Stephen Pearson]

There's nothing wrong with the pre-prepared 80/10/10 mixtures, but you would probably want to add in bones - I feed chicken carcasses - which will throw the percentages out. But you don't need to be precise anyway - the best guide is what comes out of his bum (Note - chicken wings or necks would be too small for him and he could risk choking.)

I use Nurturing by Nature: Raw Pet Food for Dogs & Cats | BARF Diet - Nurturing by Nature They're local to me, but deliver across the country. Cheaper suppliers are available - MVM and Landywood's spring to mind. The minces don't tend to look as nice, and maybe not so ethically sourced, but might be as good in terms of nutrition - with such a big lad, you can end up spending more on his food than you do on your own!

This thread could help too: Raw dog food brands

Thanks Judy
Glad you said that about the chicken carcasses because I was going to get him the chicken wings. First good tip for me from coming on here

And yes your right about the food maybe costing more than ours

The best I've been able to find at the moment is from K9 supplies and it's £21 for a 10kg bag of chicken and lamb tripe mince

I'd require if my calculations are correct 4 x 10kg bags which would cost me £84 a month. He needs about 1.25kg a day so 40kg would just about do me for the month

Is this a reasonable price or is it possible to bring the monthly cost down with somebody else

 

[Stephen Pearson]

Do you feed the chicken carcass on a daily basis?

 

[Mad Murphy]

I cant help with a supplier but I can say we had much the same bum problems with Murphy but since changing to raw its improved immensely.

 

[JudyN]

Do you feed the chicken carcass on a daily basis?

Yes - this isn't the whole chicken, but what is left after the head, breasts, legs & wings have been removed (also known as chicken backs). They weigh around 220g each. At 35kg, he has a total of arund 850-900g a day: assorted mince in the morning, and the carcass plus some more mince in the afternoon (plus extras like egg, veg, etc.).

 

[excuseme]

Have a look at "WolfTucker. They produce lovely quality raw products, but I do not find them cheap. WolfTucker have, and breed their own Ridgbacks, I am sure they would be able to give you some good guidance. Ask for Mandy or Brian, 01243 641983

 

[Stephen Pearson]

Have a look at "WolfTucker. They produce lovely quality raw products, but I do not find them cheap. WolfTucker have, and breed their own Ridgbacks, I am sure they would be able to give you some good guidance. Ask for Mandy or Brian, 01243 641983

Thank you

 

[JudyN]

Thanks Judy
The best I've been able to find at the moment is from K9 supplies and it's £21 for a 10kg bag of chicken and lamb tripe mince

I'd require if my calculations are correct 4 x 10kg bags which would cost me £84 a month. He needs about 1.25kg a day so 40kg would just about do me for the month

Is this a reasonable price or is it possible to bring the monthly cost down with somebody else

Sorry, I missed this post earlier. Nurturing by Nature has a bulk buy of 24 x 500g packs (12kg) for £20.52, which is a little less than you found. MVM have tripe & chicken for 75p for 454g, which works out at £16.50 for 10kg, which is cheaper again.

You wouldn't want to just feed chicken & tripe - it's good to have a range of protein sources, and you want to include some offal. There's an excellent raw feeding guide by Honey's dog food company: Raw feeding advice - I've not read it myself but @excuseme often recommends it.

Some people manage to sweet-talk local butchers into giving them left-over scraps, or letting them having them cheap. Maybe worth a try?

 

[Stephen Pearson]

Sorry, I missed this post earlier. Nurturing by Nature has a bulk buy of 24 x 500g packs (12kg) for £20.52, which is a little less than you found. MVM have tripe & chicken for 75p for 454g, which works out at £16.50 for 10kg, which is cheaper again.

You wouldn't want to just feed chicken & tripe - it's good to have a range of protein sources, and you want to include some offal. There's an excellent raw feeding guide by Honey's dog food company: Raw feeding advice - I've not read it myself but @excuseme often recommends it.

Some people manage to sweet-talk local butchers into giving them left-over scraps, or letting them having them cheap. Maybe worth a try?

Excellent
Thanks for your help

 

[Stephen Pearson]

Some pretty bad reviews for nurturing by nature on their Facebook page

 

[JudyN]

Some pretty bad reviews for nurturing by nature on their Facebook page

I've just had a look - the second to top one, and a similar one lower down, look more than a little dodgy - for starters, the person lives in Minnesota, and NbN don't deliver overseas! There's also mention of plastic chards in the food - they have changed the plastic packaging they use now, but in all the time I used the food in plastic containers I never saw any embedded in the food (it occasionally splintered a little when you opened it, but I didn't see that as a problem).

That's not to say they're perfect of course - any food producer will occasionally let something slip through the net. But it's easy for people to blame the food if their dog should fall ill at random, and you'll see from the responses that they are very keen for dissatisfied customers to get in touch, giving batch nos. etc, so they can investigate.

Other than that, all I can say is that I've been using them for about 8 years and never had cause for complaint - the only time my dog's been ill is when there was a stomach bug doing the rounds. (I don't get commission from them BTW, I'm just a happy customer!)