What kibble do you all feed?

[Orcagirl]

Just that really.

We get our new pup soon, I plan on feeding half raw and then a meal of kibble too, something that doesn’t break the bank.

I had a look at step up to naturals from pets at home, anyone used this?

Thanks in advance :)

Ah, I see OP. In that case, Millie's is the best at a relatively low price, IMO. I switch Battendog's food often but Millie's is one of the ones I use and it always goes down well. They also do a large variety so you can switch flavours easily and get a meat % to suit your dog.

Others that go down well here are:
Canagan
Akela
Aatu
Eden
Forthglade

I think when I last looked these were all more expensive per day than Millie's but equally good.

I've fed Millies Wolfheart for years now and yet to meet a dog who doesn't thrive on it.
They don't have a separate puppy food, which is useful as you just feed the same food from the start.

Why do you want to feed half and half?
Mine are raw fed and I am just trying to think of the reason to do both. Is it cost or convenience?
Cost wise, i have found it really cost effective to feed raw. I found it a bit grim when i started, to sort out their 'breakfast' first thing in the morning, but I solved that by boxing up a few portions and sticking them in the fridge so I could just tip them out.

Just curious why you want to mix......

We feed:
50% diet raw - nature's menu, Kiezebrink, duck and chicken necks, meaty bones etc
30% kibble - Skinner's hypoallergenic and Farmina N&D, transitioning away from hills science plan which breeder used
20% training treats - carrot, peas, sprats, cheese, frankfurters in v small quantities, liver treats etc etc.

He enjoys the variety and mixing up the training treats helps keep him interested. He would be fine on 100% raw but we keep kibble in the diet for times when raw isn't easy (backpacking etc)

I use Essentials, the dog loves it, it is big enough to use a treats too so it makes it easy to weigh out her daily allowance.

Spot2 (4 month puppy) is on Natural Instinct (frozen raw meat and veg) + chicken pieces. NI not available from Pets at Home, but has a network of suppliers and can be mail ordered. I'm quite happy with it. Chicken pieces available from local supermarket (I swear Jack the Russell would live on these exclusively if he could).

The late Spot1 was on chicken pieces + wet food/leftovers (not kibble). Spot2 will be transitioned to similar eventually.

Spot1 (when a puppy) was fed kibble (by breeder, but I continued), but always seemed overly hungry, as did the other dog we had at the time, so we had to think of something else. Kibble is also very dry and Spot breed prone to urinary problems, so avoided ever since. Went onto raw bones/veg diet which was good but had 2 main problems 1 was conveniently sourcing of meat/bones at a reasonable price 2 was that Spot1 would take the larger bones and bury them in the kids toys, then have a go at the kids when they went to play with their toys as she thought they were stealing here bones. Hence we stopped giving her anything bigger than chicken bones, which she could destroy in a couple of bites and supplemented with leftover meat, veg and rice or wet food of whatever variety looked attractive at the time. She had a pretty cast iron stomach and always had nice firm poo to pick up. I was working on the theory that dogs are naturally scavengers and should be able to cope with a varied diet, also saves going into meltdown if the 'normal' food isn't available for whatever reason

Thinking about it, I don't think the current variety of frozen raw was around when Spot1 was little either, I've only just realised how much there is now!

Markus Mühle

Raw factory. You take it out the freezer bang the bag to break it up and pour it out into the bowl easy peasy

Marks Muhle cold pressed. Our dog's coat is beautiful since we changed her onto this a year ago. Her poos are the right consist ency according to online charts. We used to feed Burns lamb and rice but the kibble size changed and with it, I believe, the recipe. My dogs poos got sloppier and she emitted a 'doggy' smell out of her pores. So, we changed to Marks Muhle.

Want to do both to help with both cost and convenience... ie if we went on holiday we could take dry with us.

I like the look of marks muhle, Thankyou.

Sorry one more question! Does the kibble have to be puppy specific? Have read this is just a marketing ploy...

No not if feeding Millies but a few of their recipes are higher in fat & calcium which younger puppies need .
Countryside is one of the best for pups ,I weaned a litter on it last year & had solid poo straight away ,was so impressed

They've a nutritionist available on their helpline who can recommend which others are best for pups ,I can't remember the others recommend but if your pup is an older pup then I'd think all the recipes would be suitable .
They also have a section online where you put your dogs info & it recommends recipes according to age & activity levels.

Convenience when traveling is why a lot of people combine,many who feed Millies Wolfheart travel for competitive sports etc so combining raw & Millies works well .

Here it is

www.millieswolfheart.co.uk/food-calculator

It isn’t recommended to mix raw and dry for many reasons. If raw doesn’t suit then stick to dry.

Burns chicken and rice. I recently tried to switch to a different brand as my local vet stopped doing Burns but the dustbin (usually) dog refused to eat. Back to Burns (dry food only) and she is happy again. Previous dog was on science plan for first 8 years then recession hit and she was on Aldi for the last 6 years. She was a GR and lived medicine free to 14. Not sure food had as much to do with that as breeding though.

Our Springer has been on Millies Wolfheart since she was about 10 months, suits her perfectly and never any tummy issues. A 12kg bag lasts us about 8-9 weeks so about £40 every other month.

Another Millie’s Wolfheart fan here. Our lab was on Countryside mix but recently changed to salmon and veg for a bit of variety - she loves both.

We swap between Farmers, Riverside and Gamekeepers with no issues at all. All of them are from the 60/40 range.

I feed by boxer step up, it's the only one that hasn't upset his stomach( he came to us on whatever they had in the rescue and had caused him to have a bad stomach. ) a 14kg bag last us about a month.

I think the avoiding raw & dry combo is breed specific - maybe not a good idea in large breeds prone to bloat but it's what the breeder who sold us our collie feeds all her agility dogs on (even combined in the same meal which we don't do).

Wolfiefan, there isn't any evidence on it being bad for dogs to mix raw and kibble. See e.g here: therawfeedingcommunity.com/2015/01/08/digest-this-kibble-may-actually-digest-faster-than-raw/

However I can see with large breeds that might be more prone to bloat it would be best to be conservative just in case.

Sorry, sort of a double post, not meant to sound repetitive!

It’s not to do with bloat. They don’t digest in the same way and switching from one to the other isn’t good. (Something to do with gut conditions but I can’t remember what!! Stomach acid?)

Wolfie my breeder feeds 1 meal raw, 1 meal cold pressed, so it’s off her advice that I’m happy to go along with it. But will see how pup gets on with it.

Off to have a look at MW :)

Just been to Aldi- their grain free recipe is 2.99 for 1.5kg! Pretty cheap but is it rubbish?

@Wolfiefan that used to be the case but there are foods now that can be fed in conjunction with Raw ,Millies Wolfheart is one of them if you feed one of their 70/30 or higher .
I've fed my Lab on this & nutriment plus other selected raw for 5 years+ .
He's one of the healthiest dogs I know ,he is tip top & I know many others the same .

There are many,many foods that wouldn't combine well though.