Can I pick your brains guys and ask what food you all feed you BC's?

My sister seems to swap and change with her dog as he seems to get bored of the same thing every day.

We feed ours on CSJ dried food. smile

CSJ CP24 here as well.

If your sister keeps changing the dogs diet there is probably where the problem lies.

Does she leave the food down continuously throughout the day for the dog to eat? If so, tell her to put it down, leave it down for 15 mins, if the dog doesnt finish it or eat it, take it back up again until the next meal time is due.

Also swopping the food all the time is not going to help the dog at all. The dog probably has her very well trained. Tell her to stick to one food that the dog appears to initially like, and do the above. Believe me it is unlikely the dog will starve itself.

flynn is the most awful dog on earth for food,but he has ate Genesis for a year & half now, Mav is on it too. its expsensive but good value (if that makes sense)

Mine get Natural Choice Holistic biscuit in the morning and raw meat in the evening.

I feed all of my dogs on the RAW diet.

mine are csj fed

Mine are all on BARF. I've been feeding it for three years now and can say that I wouldn't have a dog if I couldn't feed it raw waggingd

Siobhain.

CSJ CP 21, Cas used to be a fussy eater but loves CSJ

Mine are all raw fed & I wouldn't have it any other way as I now know exactly what is going into them, they're happy & healthy & :wub: their food waggingd

i barfed the girls for two years,so when i got flynn i put him on it too, & it was a NIGHTMARE,just couldnt get him to eat more than 1 or maybe two chicken wings,hed hide bits of organ meat atround the house when i fed that, hed not touch more than a few mouth fulls of mince,wouldnt go NEAR any veggies,he liked lamb breast but it didnt like him. TOTAL nightmare,so had to take him off it

Sorry to hijack the post a bit. Michflynn, did you try lightly frying the chicken wings, or smothering them in pilchards in tomato sauce? Not trying ot pull you up on it, but just curious. smile

I have one dog who won't eat chunks of meat or large bones, such as lamb ribs or turkey wings, but that's moe to to with the fact that she's the lowest in the rankings. So now we feed mostly minces with bone in them. I also looked after a dog who hated chicken wings, but she was happy with other things (except liver unless I disguised it in tinned fish).

Raw for my lot. They thrive on it! Merry used to refuse to eat for up to 3 days in the days of dried cereal.

Hi Lyndsay, nice to see you here! And a fellow raw feeder too, even better. mexicanwave

Hiya Fiona beersmilie Yep all raw fed for the last 3 years & all my puppies weaned raw too waggingd

I made the switch back in April 2002 - never looked back! except perhaps when opening a bag of raw tripe yikes

Raised Bliss on raw from the moment she set foot in the house. Threw the bag of dried puppy food her breeder had provided in the bin, as I couldn't bring myself to give her as much as a mouthful of the stuff. If she ever has pups, they'll be weaned onto raw like yours.

no i never tryed frying them.....would be two scared to cos of the bone.

i acxtually used to give pilchards in tom sauce as a meal now & again & he wasnt struck on that!!!

i guess not all foods are right for every dog, my girls did well on barf just didnt suit flynn at all

Mine are all fed on raw food. I use the Natures Menu complete raw. sometimes tripe version, sometimes lamb version, its the 1kg freeflow mince. They also get Chicken wings, turkey necks, lamb bones (not v often as soooo messy), green tripe, Eggs, Veggie mix, Sardines (their fave) etc etc. They also have NM wholemeal mixer for brekkie and to bulk meals up. Boo had awful colitis as a pup, he was allergic to rice and grain, these would set off his colitis. I tried everything from Genesis to Naturediet to CSJ. He couldn't have any of it bar Hills PRESCIPTION diet!!! I changed him to BARF at about six months old and since that time he can now eat anything, no allergies no nothing, perfect!!!

All ours are now on BARF and thrive on it!

pepsi used to get bored but she likes burns active. as does maya

Our 7 are on Burns and all seem fine runningdog

Regards Lorna

The Gruesome Twosome are on Arden Grange Premium...They were weaned on Arden Grange Puppy, progressed to the now defunct Arden Grange Graduate and apart from a little hiccough when they were teething, they both love it and have thrived on it.,,

...Gotta admit I sometimes give a little Nature's Menu or Nature Diet, tin tuna or leftover meat with it to make it less 'samey' and bland but this is probably more for my sake than Tara's and Veda's

Mine are fed on James Wellbeloved Turkey & Rice as well as a weekly marrow bone, tuna, raw tripe and mince and the leftovers from my meals. I am considering changing food though, as Moss seems to have very itchy skin, yet has no fleas, so I am wondering if it is diet related.

Kirsty, you'd be well-advised to ditch the dried food. My old boy Jake (RIP 2004) had very itchy skin when he was fed kibble. The switch to raw cleared it up wonderfully.

I do like the idea of feeding a raw diet, but not sure I would feel confident that my dogs were getting everything they need. I also don't have a lot of freezer space, which could be a problem?

As well as their dry food, they do get raw tripe or raw mince for one meal, leftovers from my meals (when suitable) and meaty marrow bones once or twice a week.

That's why I suggested ditching the dry food - saw your post in the CSJ thread, and the dried stuff is most likely the culprit.

How easy is it to feed raw? How much freezer room do you need?

I haven't got much room in my freezer, I buy the packs of meat weekly and use 3 packs a day between the 4 dogs, then I sometimes give them chicken wings, hearts or sardinnes.

Sorry if I sound a bit clueless about raw feeding, but are you supposed to feed different pulped veggies as well as meat, so that the dog gets all the nutrients it needs? I am sure I read that somewhere.

Thanks for the info about your regime. Where do you get your meat from?

This site will give you some info:

http://www.rawlearning.com/

and this Yahoo list is great to join to discuss day to day realities of raw feeding in the UK. Folks on the list range from the interested to the fanatical:

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/britbarf/

Thanks - I will have a look.

Thanks guys for the replies, I am surprised how many of you feed raw. Can I ask if raw works out any dearer than conventional dog foods? Sure feeding raw would give your dogs a more varied diet instead of the same old every meal time, def worth thinking about but weather my sis could stomach raw meat, well thats a different matter :D

I've heard it's often cheaper- Butchers do usually give freebies they can't sell. hooves, etc..

After reading he website posted page 2, i'd like to swap over one day.

Thanks :)

I think you could safely say it works out more expensive than bargain basement dried food, and cheaper than the likes of Iams and Hills. In the end, how much you pay depends on the care and time taken over sourcing stuff. I reckon on paying about £10 a week to feed all three of my dogs (2 collies, one collie-sized cross). But with more careful sourcing you could probably halve that total (though you'd ideally need plenty of freezer space, and have to be pretty organised).

Some things are available for free or very little. When Bliss was a pup, I got an occasional 15kg tray of chicken wings from a local processor to mince for her - the wings cost a fiver, and they threw in a box of chicken backs for free. Turkey necks are also often free or very cheap. There are companies like Albion and Landywoods (both Midlands-based) that sell frozen raw mixes - they're a cheaper version of AMP that you get in the freezers at Pets at Home.

Butchers with abattoirs are a great place to get tripe and all sorts of odds and ends like lights (chopped lungs which is, I believe, what they use in haggis), and also lamb breast (my usual butcher charges me just £1 per breast, same stuff that he sells to his human customers for stews etc). They also give away (or sell cheaply) large marrowbones.

Supermarkets are fine for the rest of the stuff - cottage cheese, yogurt, eggs, tinned or fresh fish, offal, muscle meat, and any supplements you want to use like fish oil capsules. Oh, and of course any veg you want to feed.

Fiona - do you feed lights to your dogs?? If so in what proportion to other food? At the moment mine are getting complete food 4 days a week.The rest they get raw green tripe (in chunks not minced) that I get straight from the abbatoir.The sheeps tripes cost me 30p each and the cow tripes cost me £4 each.I also get pigs trotters from there for 20p each.These vary in size and can be quite large sometimes.
I did have a source for whole herring for £5 for a big bucket, but someone else has taken over in the store now and won't let me have them.
The breasts of lamb that you get for £1 - how much roughly would they weigh??
I feed about 3/4lb for a 15/17 kg collie is that about right??
Just trying to compare the prices over here to where you are.

Anne