So you run out of dog food...what dya feed them instead?

adser53

Just thought I'd ask this out of curiousity...

We've all been there, especially those of us that buy our mutt's food online. You come home, go to feed the dogs and realise that you ran out the night before and forgot to buy more. The shops nearby are closed (or some other reason why you can't nip out and get some food) so you end up raiding the presses to feed the furry kids.

In my case, I left it a bit late to order more bags of food from zooplus so ran out on Tuesday. Got home last night and went to feed the dogs and remembered I never picked up a substitute food for them. (our other car is off the road so my GF couldn't nip out and get some during the day)

So into the pot went some rice, pasta, some bread, gravy and the fat we cut off some porkchops we had for dinner (it's pay day today so as you can imagine the shelves were a bit empty last night. We'd no meat to give them )

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had to find an emergency substitute dog food for a day or two when supplies are low, so what do other people recommend / use themselves when this inevitable calamity occurs? Normally I'd give them rice and chicken but like I said, we hadn't done the shopping yet.

Reading back on this I sound like a hobo :D:D

seamus

If you are stuck, aim for more protein and less carbs than a person would typically eat. Rice, pasta and bread will fill them up alright but it's not a typical canine diet.

We're vegetarians, so the dog has gotten Quorn stuff in the past! Expensive way to feed a dog...!

sellerbarry

Sometimes chicken. She loves cornflakes too.;)

The Sweeper

Raw egg, tin of tuna in water (or tin of sardines in water or oil), slice of MG bread, ladel of stock if I have any (the home made stuff, not the packet).

tribalwings

Well if it was just til the next day we give ours chicken breast and rice

TooManyDogs

mine have ended up with cereal, cheese, tinned fish, gravy and eggs if we have them. I figure for one emergancy meal they can have a load of carbs!

Cherry Blossom

A 3 kilo bag lasts my dog a month and so far I always have 2 bags one in use and a new one, when the one in use comes to the end I buy another one so I always have 2 bags. If I did run out though I suppose I'd give her some sort of tinned fish, a little bit of boiled potato and a few peas.

ISDW

It actually does a dog no harm whatsoever to be starved for 24 hours every now and then.

If I ran out of food, I wouldn't have enough human food in the house to feed all the dogs we have here I don't think:eek:

mymo

I usually have a spare bag like another poster, but I have had trouble getting the food before and ran out once. For 3 days the dogs had a mix of sardines, mackeral fillets and a piece of donegal catch (with garlic and herb sauce), mixed with boiled brown rice and some veg. They were quite happy with it and no ill effects.
I did starve them the 3rd day, they'd gone almost 24 hrs, and I came home with the food to find they'd got fed up waiting and had opened the cupboard and ripped open the cat food! Some dry nuts (very expensive struvite management food) and the little foil tubs of wet food(some high quality, expensive, treat food) I'd got off zoopus.
They were stuffed and turned their noses up at the dog food for 2 days after that.

In those 3 days they also stripped by pea plants of peas, but don't think that was because I ran out of food, they tried it again this year!

Cherry Blossom

ISDW wrote: »

It actually does a dog no harm whatsoever to be starved for 24 hours every now and then.

If I ran out of food, I wouldn't have enough human food in the house to feed all the dogs we have here I don't think:eek:

Now that you've said it, my dog will refuse to eat for a day every so often :P I think if was just one meal she was going to miss I probably wouldn't give her anything either.

adser53

adrenalinjunkie wrote: »

A 3 kilo bag lasts my dog a month and so far I always have 2 bags one in use and a new one, when the one in use comes to the end I buy another one so I always have 2 bags. If I did run out though I suppose I'd give her some sort of tinned fish, a little bit of boiled potato and a few peas.

A 15kg bag lasts me around 2 weeks :rolleyes: the joys of 2 akitas. ISDW I can only imagine your food bills

I buy 2 at a time from zooplus so you save a tenner over buying them seperatly. Just this month we had so much on that I thought I still had half a bag in the press but when I went to refill the food bin, I realised I was wrong. I'll be getting a small bag of food today for them to tide me over. I was just curious what subs people used. I know a 24 starving period would do them no harm but my lot would probably eat eachother rather than wait. Little hunga's :rolleyes:

I reckon Lola (my little cav) would be the first one to try a nibble of one of her canine companions! She's unreal for eating. Just the other day she ate (literally- I mean she ate and swallowed) half a pair of boxers she'd pulled out of the drier :eek:

lrushe

ISDW wrote: »

It actually does a dog no harm whatsoever to be starved for 24 hours every now and then

This would be standard practice in my house, I think it's one of the reasons I've never had a dog who was a fussy eater!

Whispered

We often forget to get food, especially lately. Although it does no harm for them to miss a meal or have a bit of variety so it's nothing to panic about. (although with one of my cats, if he's even a bit hungry he wails the house down!)

For the dog and cats I'd make a big bowl of scrambled eggs with peas, chickpeas or butter beans mixed in, would often get rid of almost out of date eggs by doing this too.

If we have meat in the house, they usually end up with that, with brown rice and peas again, the dog often eats quorn, but the cats wont touch it!

When really stuck - I have made porridge with gravy (ewwww). This was when I was too unwell to get to the shop and had forgotten to order food the evening before.

Harleys favourite "emergency meal" however is leftovers, his little delighted head when you start scraping leftovers into his bowl , he even has a special "people food" dance.

mymo

I know that dance (waggy bum and bouncing in my house, they even sit and wiggle waiting for the food), I do give left over veg a couple of times a week as mine love veg.
Scrambled egg is aways a hit, my daughter has recently started making scrambled egg beans and toast for lunch on Saturdays and last weeked snuck it in on the sofa, she lost the lot when she wen't back for her juice:D, they were running out of the room with a slice of toast each as she wen't back in to a clean plate:D

tazwaz

it used happen often in my house when we had our springer...i used give him porridge made with water and a bit of milk, he used love it, think he liked it better than his nuts

lorebringer

Generally, I buy food when I open another bag so tend not to run out. IF it does happen, they will get whatever we are having for dinner (meat, veg and a little rice or spuds). My lot get human food mixed in with their kibble sometimes anyway (if we have leftovers from our dinner that can't be rolled over to the next day - the only things we won't give them are anything spicey or if we indulge on a fast food dinner) and generally get very excited with the prospect of something extra yummy coming along!

Zapperzy

Whatever is in the presses, I usually make up something from rice, spuds, liver, chicken, veg, stock, tinned sardines/mackeral/tuna, raw/scrambled egg, or just whatever is left over from dinner provided it isin't spicy or fast food. Doesn't happen very often though.

dollydishmop

At the moment a 15kg bag lasts me a week. The lurcher eats more than the other 5 dogs combined

Obviously I try not run out of food, but on a rare occasion it does happen if I've been slacking on the organisational front (e.g food runs out early in the week, wages don't go into account until Fri etc)...and when it does run out I do what most others have stated...dish out whatever is in the cupboard that's doggy friendly (chicken, vegetables, sardines, tuna, rice, pasta, bread, gravy, eggs)...they don't care so much what they get, as long as those food bowls go down twice a day with something in them...:D

But as ISDW has already said, 24hrs without won't kill them. And some big working kennels would routinely fast their dogs once a week, with no ill effects.

I know domestic dog is far removed from its wilder ancestors...but the dogs' gut would have been originally designed/evolved for a 'feast & famine' regime.

kylith

I've luckily not yet been in a situation where I've run out and not been able to get to a petshop for a decent substitute for their regular food, but if I did I'd probably either rob a few hundred grammes from a friend who lives locally, or they'd get some leftovers of human food from the freezer.

theghost

Tins of tuna or sardines mixed with rice or pasta.

I know it wouldn't do them any harm to go without food for 24 hours but I'm not so sure I could stand 3 pairs of eyes fixed on me accusingly clearly saying "where's our dinner?"