I'm thinking of changing my dogs food

[TheCunnyFunt]

I have an ex racing Greyhound, I was told by the rescue when we got him that he requires a low protein diet, and as little wheat and gluten as possible. He is currently fed on this but he's grown to really dislike it. He'll occasionally eat a meal of just kibble but I usually end up mixing something with it to get him to eat it, sardines, warm water, occasional left over gravy etc.

I'd love to be able to feed raw but really don't have the funds or the space. The CSJ costs £25 every 5ish weeks (not including extras) and I'd like to keep it at that price.

So mumsnetters, hit me with your suggestions of what I should try him with please! Any suggestion is gratefully accepted and taken into consideration :)

I've recently changed mine onto the Barking Heads for sensitive stomachs , he loves it and his coat looks brilliant .not sure how it would work out price wise though .

Bloody hell, around £70 for a 20kg sack for that Floral, somehow I don't think we'll be going for that anytime soon.

cunny perhaps I have this wrong (it is late at night!) but the food you linked to is described as "a supplementary feed, replace up to 50% of your dogs normal diet or used as a wheat gluten free mixer"
Surely you should be adding something to it anyway?
And as floral said, we also use Barking Heads. It is pricey but I find we use much less of it and it lasts far longer than you would imagine. There is a comparison site somewhere that will give you cost per day figures and it is quite an eye opener

Just saw your bit on price as well. I have also in lean times use Skinners and also sometimes if the dogs are working hard during the season.
They are cheap enough, good quality but leave the boys a little too smelly at either end for living in a small cottage. I also find their poos can be a fair bit looser which isn't an issue when they are working, slightly more problematic when we are trotting across the village green :o

www.whichdogfood.co.uk/dog-food-reviews/0054/barking-heads-adult
Voila!!

Why does he need a low protein diet ?

I feed my cav a frozen chicken wing (Lidl £2 + for over a weeks supply) & then 1/5 of a pack of wainwrights wet food & 3 scoops of Arden grange lamb.

I would feed raw all the time but worried about balanced diet etc..

Topbanana you're right The rescue told me that food would be good as it's W&G free, low protein and also it's complete. It also says complete food on the sack

My dog is in the 30-40kg category, it works out at £1.15 a day. His CSJ works out at 0.6p a day. I really cannot afford £70 odd on a bag of less food.

I used to use SupaValue Greyhound food when I had a grey. £11 a 15kg bag which lasted about 6 weeks. She was always in good condition.

I agree with topbannana ,I feed less than the recommended amount for his weight as he also likes his leftovers and my husband feeds him digestive biscuits and cups of tea ! He looks really good on it though .

My younger hound with a sensitive tum is currently doing really well on CSJ Old Champ, with a few sardines/chicken wings thrown in. I've tried nearly all the hypoallergenic foods, throughout the entire eyewatering price range, and that's one of the few that hasn't set him off. Older dog is on CSJ CP18. Lower protein suits them both. When I ran out of food while staying at my mum's and had to give them emergency JWB (their old regular) the pair of them were all, ew, WTF? till I covered it in pilchards

I am another barking heads feeder here and also use less than it states on the bag or the dog gets fat, we have a rescue staffy thou not a grey hound but her coat is shiney and her bowel movements are perfect, we get the bag that costs 40 odd pounds and it lasts about 2 months.

That's me not paying attention, I can't afford an extra £50 on 5kg more (not less!) than the 15kg we currently get. I really can't. Barking Heads looks great but not for us unfortunately.

Also cunny (and I hope I do not sound patronising here) have you had your dog weighed recently? It's been a while since I had hounds but 30kg converts to 4.7 stone- my Rottweiler was only a shade over this. I don't remember many hounds being that weight.

Not recently no, the last time he was weighed was last January when we first got him. He weighed 35.5kg at the time, but he's put weight on, when he came to us his ribs were fairly prominent, now they're just small bumps on his side iyswim? He's not overweight though, he's just about right. Are you familiar with the poster ScuttleButter? One of her Greys is my dogs big brother, he weighs about 38kg iirc.

Greyhounds vary a lot in weight. The smallest girls can be in the 20's and I know of a monster sized boy who comes in at a whopping 42kg!!

Yep, Andy is 37kg at the moment, and looking fabulous. He and Cunny's dog are both big males, with good bone and lots of muscle. Our titchy little female who is a skinny little thing raced at 22kg and we've got her up to about 24kg - I'd love to put another kg on her but she stubbornly refuses to gain weight. The Norty Minx is around 27kg, and our old boy Mick is about 28 kg but he is a little shortarse.

Harringtons do a lovely kibble - ours like it very much. You can get a 15kg bag on Amazon for around £23/24. Our local Asda also now stocks it. We combine this with raw - all the dogs are looking great, and we have small, very solid poos. They also make a very good training treat, which we use a lot for reinforcing recall etc.

I think people forget just how big some greyhounds are, they might be lean, but if they're waist height, that's still a lot of dog, lol.

You can do a search on the site topbanana linked to by breed age, weight and pice and there's a box to exclude wheat... Autarky looks to come out ok? But it does have Maize in it, does Maize have gluten in it?

I just googled it Tabulahrasa, came up with this A gluten-free grain. It is used to make corn flour, corn starch, grits, hominy, and polenta, all of which are gluten free. Also called maize. Corn gluten does not contain the protein harmful to those who have celiac disease. So it looks like Maize is fine.

I was just looking at Harringtons actually Scuttle, it looks okay. I might get some when his CSJ has a couple of weeks left. Which one do you get? I was thinking about the Turkey and veg one.

Ok so, until it's time to get a new food, what do I do, keep feeding him as I am now (leftovers/sardines etc). Or should I get in some wet food to add to the CSJ? We have about 12kg (approx 4 weeks) left of it so when should I buy the next stuff to start introducing it?

Interesting thread.

Cunny I would buy the new food and start to very slowly add it bit by bit so you phase out the old one and phase in the new one. May as well if you can!

My GH eats Skinners duck and rice but has a stinky bum and slightly sloppy poos (eeew!). So I am considering changing her to something else. She hasn't seemed to want it this last week but that may be the heat putting her off.

I use CSJ or my local store brand (which is essentially the same thing and the same price) and give my greyhound 2 cups of it with 1/4 pack of nature diet senior/lite per meal www.naturediet.co.uk/

She's having the same thing every meal but seems to still enjoy it (after 2 years with us!). She gets occasional leftovers as an extra but i'm careful with them as it plays havock with her backside.

When I changed mine the instructions were to replace a quarter of the food for two days then half and half for two days then three quarter new ,quarter old for two days .i actually spread it out a bit more as I had more of the old food left than I thought and we didnt have any stomach problems .

Um, I think it's turkey and rice, Cunny DH buys a big bag, and then we decant it into a nice James Wellbeloved (ironically!) feed bin in the garage, and then bring in small quantities into the utility room so we are not overwhelmed by it. So we don't get to see the bags much.

I'm ever so pleased! Just had an email from Harringtons saying I've won a 5kg bag of dog food because I entered this competition and guessed Scunthorpe correctly before anyone else did! It'll save us buying a small tester bag anyway :o