Raw food recommendations

[Caplin]

Hi,

Picked up our puppy on Friday after over a year of hunting, researching etc. He is fab! Aged 9 weeks.

Things have changed quite a bit around food since I had my last dog and I am finding the options a bit bewildering. Couple of questions.

For those who use raw food, what brands do you recommend? There are so many!

Do you only give raw food, or do you add any rehydrated dry food (I've seen some that look good quality).

Basically I am being inundated by Facebook ads for all kinds of 'high quality', 'raw', 'paleo', 'vet recommended' foods. But ideally I want people to say, yes, these ones are decent!

We are in a similar situation. Our puppy joined us 2 weeks ago, she is 10 weeks old now. She had been weaned onto raw by her breeder. She was on Nutriment puppy food and the breeder gave us a voucher for a free starter pack of it, so we're starting off with that (and it's currently taking up one third of the space in our freezer!) but I think we will add another brand for variety soon. There are some facebook groups that are very informative, although it's still quite overwhelming trying to get up to speed to learn about nutritional requirement and all the different brands/options available. There's a fb group called BARF UK and one called Raw Feeding UK, I would recommend joining. A few of the brands that keep being mentioned on those groups as respected/recommended are The Dogs Butcher, Manifold Valley Meats and Paleo Ridge, all of whom have websites and deliver. If you want to try out different brands to see which you/your dog prefer it may be worth looking to see if you have a pet shop or raw feeding supplier near you who stocks several different brands as then you can try a few and won't need to buy in such bulk from one supplier. I had no idea that there are specialist raw feeding suppliers around the country who stock a range of frozen raw foods from different companies, I've discovered we have one near us that stocks some of the good brands so I think we will try that as a next step - as the minimum online orders from the individual companies mean you have to order a LOT at once. (We're gonna need a bigger freezer anyway!) Many people use and recommend DAF (Durham Animal Feeds) who are very cheap and have a huge range of different meats and formulations, although they generally get talked about in the groups as being less high in quality. For what it's worth, with my limited experience, Nutriment seems fine but I haven't done price comparisons yet and I feel that pup doesn't love it (she's more interested in the cats food )

Thanks so much! I'll get on those Facebook groups and check them out!

Bit concerned about the freezer space! This might take some planning!!

Agree with everything Dappled said... great advice

And two key things I've picked up....

1. "Working dog" raw food is not just for working dogs... it is because they don't have to charge you VAT, so better quality for less money typically. Technically working dogs would get more fat but when I compared content that didnt seem to be the case
2. Completes - key difference, apart from texture, quality and whether package is biodegradable (several now are) is whether it has veggies/other nutrients in it or not. So Paleo ridge is classic 80% meat 10% bone 10% offal (half of it liver) ... with their upmarket brand having 5% superfoods added for vitamins and minerals ... whereas many others do same proportions with an additional 10-20% veggies on top.

I couldn't really get my head around this last point so am trying several brands and liked Stef (of Stef's Pet Pantry) recommendation that you include veggies 2-3 times a week (or more). And that by using different brands you get different mixes. This feels more important when raw feeding as there seem to be lots of different opinions about what dogs need so unless you have a strong viewpoint, just tapping into different mixes feels like it covers the bases

Do look at allaboutdogfood website - great advice and ratings of quality of different foods. I was shocked that our expensive kibble (Lilys Kitchen) was such poor quality!

Nutriment and Vince the vet.
Looking into trying a bag of fresco dry raw soon

I use Hunter’s Choice - very reasonable prices especially if you get their selection pack. My dog gets a lot of compliments for his coat from strangers and from the vet on his body condition.

I use Paleo Ridge and Durham Animal Feeds. I think PR's a bit better but most of it's in 1kg packs and it takes Small Dog six days to get through that, which seems a long time for it to be hanging round in the fridge. DAF are 500g packs for a similar price but they seem to have a bit more bone in them.

Both good quality. PR say they're complete and DAF say they're complementary but I can't see a difference in composition - maybe DAF think you should add vegetables.

If your dog's going to be big you can look at buying larger quantities of individual items and doing your own mixes. I did this when I had Big Dog - 5kg each of beef heart, beef liver, beef chunks and other assorted bits - and spent an evening every few weeks making up mixed packs to freeze. It's much easier to make sure that 800g of food contains about 5% liver than 80g, especially when you have a Small Dog who'll pick the offal out of his bowl and drop it over the side. Minces are much better for that.

If you live in east anglia, Norfolk dog foods will talk through all your options and deliver your order to you in their own van (so you're not relying on a courier company to get it to you before it defrosts).

As above the BARF UK FB group is really good, there is a starter guide on there and the admins are very helpful. I use mainly MVM and The Dogs Butcher but my local stockist has a range so I vary what i get. I do a mixture of completes and DIY. Once you get used to it and as your pup grows you will become more confident in doing your own but to start with follow some guidance.