Pet Food
Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 4:26 pm
When it comes to pet food it does make you wonder about the manufacturers and the stuff they have on sale. Now I have to put my hands up and say that I never skimp when it comes to Annie’s welfare, so she gets the best I can buy her. I tried as a puppy to keep her on a kibble type food which was very expensive, but that did not matter, a 5Kg bag would cost around £12 and last her about a month. She soon grew out of that and refused to eat it any-more, so I changed to getting her the small foils of Caesar beef & heart which she would eat with no problem and supplemented with a few dog biscuits. Regarding the biscuits I have tried all the top manufacturers stuff that claim to be this that and the other, but once again experience taught me that she preferred the cheapo biscuits from our local Home Bargain store at £1 a bag which I might add look and smell exactly like dog biscuits used to smell, as to the taste I cannot comment, but she seems to like them.
About 12 months ago the manufacturers started to drop the sale of her preferred food and it became harder to get until it finally went off the shelves. Yes they had other exotic varieties, this and that meat with jelly or with gravy and even seasonal vegetables thrown in, but I have never yet owned a dog that would knowingly eat peas. The result was that I was wasting money on buying her food that she would leave and I mean leave, even after 3 days it would go uneaten. Eventually I hit on the idea of buying her fresh chicken thighs and cooking them myself and at around £1.40 for 4 it was actually no more expensive than dog food, in fact it worked out cheaper as I paid around 60 pence each for the foils of dog food. Just one chicken thigh cut up and some crushed dog biscuits added for roughage seemed to keep her happy enough, I had tried all variants of rice added to the chicken, but if you added say 2 ounces of brown rice to her food you could guarantee that there would be 2 ounces of rice left in the dish after all the chicken had gone, dogs are good at that sort of thing.
As I didn’t like the idea of her just having chicken I started to buy her Lambs hearts when available and again as she only ate 1 per meal it was still not an expensive option and I could alternate the food on a basis of say 3 hearts then 3 chicken thighs as I would cook them in small batches. Recently my daughter asked me if I wanted to try her with Ox heart from the local abattoir so I said I would give one a go, she absolutely loves it. I have just cut up another fresh one and then individually bagged it up for the freezer, it weighed in at nearly 2.4 Kg so I made up 6 (two dinner) portions giving her roughly 200 gram per meal and all it cost me was £3.50. So on reflection providing you have the time (as I do) to buy in the fresh stuff and cook it yourself then it is in reality no more expensive that buying manufactured dog food and at least you know its all good meat.
About 12 months ago the manufacturers started to drop the sale of her preferred food and it became harder to get until it finally went off the shelves. Yes they had other exotic varieties, this and that meat with jelly or with gravy and even seasonal vegetables thrown in, but I have never yet owned a dog that would knowingly eat peas. The result was that I was wasting money on buying her food that she would leave and I mean leave, even after 3 days it would go uneaten. Eventually I hit on the idea of buying her fresh chicken thighs and cooking them myself and at around £1.40 for 4 it was actually no more expensive than dog food, in fact it worked out cheaper as I paid around 60 pence each for the foils of dog food. Just one chicken thigh cut up and some crushed dog biscuits added for roughage seemed to keep her happy enough, I had tried all variants of rice added to the chicken, but if you added say 2 ounces of brown rice to her food you could guarantee that there would be 2 ounces of rice left in the dish after all the chicken had gone, dogs are good at that sort of thing.
As I didn’t like the idea of her just having chicken I started to buy her Lambs hearts when available and again as she only ate 1 per meal it was still not an expensive option and I could alternate the food on a basis of say 3 hearts then 3 chicken thighs as I would cook them in small batches. Recently my daughter asked me if I wanted to try her with Ox heart from the local abattoir so I said I would give one a go, she absolutely loves it. I have just cut up another fresh one and then individually bagged it up for the freezer, it weighed in at nearly 2.4 Kg so I made up 6 (two dinner) portions giving her roughly 200 gram per meal and all it cost me was £3.50. So on reflection providing you have the time (as I do) to buy in the fresh stuff and cook it yourself then it is in reality no more expensive that buying manufactured dog food and at least you know its all good meat.