Lukullus dog food

tk123

Does anyone feed wet Lukullus food from zooplus? I tried my guy on some canned Natures menu and he loved it. The Lukullus works out a bit cheaper but I'm not sure if its the same quality? Natures menu is made from whole cuts of meat and Lukullus say its meat and meat by products? Normally I soak and mush up his Luath ahead of time and give it to him in a kong for his dinner - mixing some dry with a can of wet is a lot handier/faster and I get 2 Kongs to 1 400g can

Lukullus :
Lamb & Poultry with Potato, Fresh Dandelion, and Grape Seed Oil:
66% meat & meat by-products (heart, liver, meat, lung, tripe, stomach) exclusively from poultry and lamb, meat stock, potatoes, dandelion, minerals, grape seed oil

Natures menu:

Lamb min 30%, Chicken min 29%, Carrots min 6%, Peas min 4%, Rice min 4%, Sunflower oil<1%

mymo

I tried the dry and my dogs loved it, unfortunately one got very soft poops on it so had to give it up after 8 weeks. (yes I changed gradually)
I'd love to know if the wet is any good, I sometimes give some wet in the kongs instead of the usual mashed veggies and fish.

tk123

The by-products bit is what's making me hesitate - does that mean it's crappy or does it make it better as there's some offal so more varied?!

ppink

My vet told me that anything that says "meat or meat derivatives" in it means that all the company have to adhere to is that there is some form of meat in there. So it could be chicken and beef for ages and then change without notification to say lamb and chicken. i was also told by a rep from one of the companies that they will basically put in the cheapest they can get.
the cheapness is not what overly concerns me but the fact that the ingredients can be changed without you knowing.
I figure this is what happened to us and we are left with 2 big dogs and a major pain in the butt trying to sort both of them out now food wise.


I just picked up a few pouches of that natures way today but I am nearlly afraid to try them for 2 reasons...............in case they get diareahh or in case they like them too much:pac::pac: It would be like a small car loan to feed them with those little pouches:eek:

Shanao

I would avoid anything with derivatives listed on it. For example, one of my dogs is allergic to pork (discovered this after an episode with pigs ears and one of the royal canin foods that has pork in it) and I have to put him on a food that I know what's going into it.

Ppink is dead right when it comes to the ingredients. Say you have a food that is listed as chicken and rice. In lower quality food the ingredient listed as chicken is usually listed as (14%meat. minimum 4% chicken). So as long as there is 4% chicken, they can put any other meat in it. The people buying the meat for the food basically go out and buy whichever ingredient is cheapest that week and put it in. So your dog could be eating chicken and beef one bag, the same bag next time could be chicken and pork, then chicken and lamb, then it might be back to just chicken on its own. There's no telling just what is going into these foods.

In the lukullus what I'd be watching for is the word poultry. Which can cover more than one domestic bird. Also, I would be wondering if its human grade meat. The dry food seems to be good quality though, so I imagine it should be an alright food.

In high quality foods, they list exactly what is in the bag so you can avoid foods that could cause allergies.

tk123

ppink wrote: »

My vet told me that anything that says "meat or meat derivatives" in it means that all the company have to adhere to is that there is some form of meat in there. So it could be chicken and beef for ages and then change without notification to say lamb and chicken. i was also told by a rep from one of the companies that they will basically put in the cheapest they can get.
the cheapness is not what overly concerns me but the fact that the ingredients can be changed without you knowing.
I figure this is what happened to us and we are left with 2 big dogs and a major pain in the butt trying to sort both of them out now food wise.


I just picked up a few pouches of that natures way today but I am nearlly afraid to try them for 2 reasons...............in case they get diareahh or in case they like them too much:pac::pac: It would be like a small car loan to feed them with those little pouches:eek:

I did some googling on by products and decided to stick with natures menu since its actual meat! It's just for his kong at dinner time during the week so 4 cans a week won't break the bank - his 7.5 kg bag of luath normally lasts a month so we'll probably get a few weeks more out of it. No probs with poops or gas from it thou I found the food itself a bit smelly (lamb and chick) so i got 2 of the other flavors today. The pouches ar expensive - i'm glad its not just me who thought they were!!

slashygoodness

Would be interested in how you get on with this.

One of our girls loves the natures menu nuggets - mixed with some orijen, but the other one does not like the natures menu . Was thinking of trying the Terra Canis as we already use the cat version and find it really good.

Hope you find one that works for you!

Blueprint

Heven't tried the Lukullus, but the Naturediet trays are good value and only named ingridients, I get them when I'm trying to keep my dog's weight down - I feed a quarter of a tray for his dinner, so it works out really cheap!

boomerang

Offal is a by-product of meat processing, so when Lukullus say "meat and meat by-products" they are referring to the named lamb and poultry offal on the ingredient list. Offal is very nutritious for dogs, it's just us humans don't like it that much as it is more difficult to cook and not as tasty as muscle meat.

I would say there is a big distinction in terms of quality between meat "by-products" and "animal derivatives" but I could be wrong.

Edited to add: I don't like that nature's menu packaging leads you to believe that the product has a sole meat source, when there's more than one, if you read the ingredients. For example their senior food with "lamb, vegetables and rice" actually contains lamb and chicken. (Chicken is cheaper than lamb.) And all nature's menu foods contain "various sugars." Not sure if it's added sugar or naturally-occuring sugars in the vegetables (unlikely) but it was enough to put me off.

I looked into all these foods for one of my dogs who has kidney trouble, before opting for a home-cooked diet instead. Same ingredients, but they are fresh, have no added sugar and work out cheaper. It requires a little planning but doesn't take much effort to prepare as the meat can be fed raw, just have to add some carbs, veggies for fibre, and calcium.

ppink

Boomerang what sort of mix are you giving yours?

I am on chicken/lamb/beef with brown rice and egg. One dog is fine but the other I cannot get his poop solid.........I could go into details but it is not pretty:p

boomerang

I give a wide variety of foods, but I work out the recipes using nutritiondata.com - before you start preparing home-cooked foods for your dog, you need to know their calorie, protein and calcium requirements, at a minimum. Once you have that info it's very straightforward. I get most of my meat in the "reduced to clear" section in Tesco and I buy veggies depending on what's on offer. At every meal I feed a raw meat, a cooked carb and cooked veggies. Here's what I typically feed:

Meat is typically mince or a chop/steak cut into bite-size pieces. Beef, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey, tripe, liver. I only feed offal once a week because it is so high in vits A and D. The pork I freeze for a minimum of three weeks because of the risk of trich. Everything else I can simply defrost when I need it. I get the free-flow tripe from Nature's Menu in the petshop.

Carbs: I rotate between potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, turnip, different kinds of rice, pasta, couscous, pearl barley.

Veggies: Green beans (I use the frozen ones) cabbage, curly kale, broccoli, cauliflower, amongst others.

Other bits and bobs: I give salmon oil capsules every day and include eggs in the recipes once or twice a week. I can't feed tinned sardines/salmon/mackerel because they are too high in phosphorous for a dog with kidney impairment, otherwise they'd be great! They also get a dollop of natural yoghurt quite often. I can't give cottage cheese for the same reason as given above, but otherwise I would feed that too.

ppink

Thanks Boomerang.:)

boomerang

No worries! Just be sure you are adding a calcium supplement if you are not feeding raw meaty bones, otherwise your dog will be deficient. That's especially dangerous for a young, growing dog. I get calcium tablets in Holland and Barrett, crush them and sprinkle through the food.

For the dog with loose stools, try using white rice instead of brown? It will bind better in his tummy and has less fibre.

tk123

Blueprint wrote: »

Heven't tried the Lukullus, but the Naturediet trays are good value and only named ingridients, I get them when I'm trying to keep my dog's weight down - I feed a quarter of a tray for his dinner, so it works out really cheap!

If you're getting it on zooplus check out vetuk.co.uk - 12 for E12 on zooplus - for another E2 you get 6 more packs on vetuk!
He tucked into the natures menu today but i think I might try the Lukullus after all. :P I find Natures Menu's a little vague and I like that Lukullus lists everything. The say on the site they use whole cuts of meat yet the back of then can it just says chicken or beef -why not "whole cuts"!? Also it works out 50cent cheaper a can! Slashy I'll leave you a can in the girls drawer at day care when it comes if you want to try it - i owe them a favour since they played with Bailey and helped him get over his fear of a St.B in our park!

Blueprint

tk123 wrote: »

If you're getting it on zooplus check out vetuk.co.uk - 12 for E12 on zooplus - for another E2 you get 6 more packs on vetuk!

Thanks for that, but since their lowest delivery cost is £7.50 and I always qualify for free shipping with Zooplus, I don't think I'd be making any saving. I always qualify for the 5% bulk buy discount when I buy from Zooplus as well (two hungry cats rather than the dog mostly!).

I hardly ever buy wet food, usually he's on just Orijen and he does really well on it, but he's been housebound for months now due to a cruciate tear and the Orijen is so concentrated that his portions had shrunk to so little he was still hungry afterwards, so I give him wet for dinner to make him feel fuller and keep him occupied by stuffing it in kongs etc.

He finally had surgery on his knee this week after the vet finally gave up on trying to heal it with just rest, so the wet food has been really handy to sneak all his medication into as well.

tk123

So an update - the Lukullus arrived yesterday and he chowed down Late last night he was stretched out half asleep when all of a sudden he weed himself!! Of course I went and googled it :rolleyes: and was up half the night worried he had epilepsy or back was gone, cancer - you name it. Off to the vets this morning with our container of wee :pac: - he has crystals in his wee and it's a really high alkaline level so we're hoping it's what he's eating. He's been getting some cans of Nature's menu the last couple of weeks so I'm hoping thats all it is. So if anyone wants a can of Turkey and Beef Lukullus to try let me know as we're sticking to our Luath and Robbies from now on!! I've 5 of them

mymo

Ah, sent you a PM few mins ago and just saw this.
The new food wouldn't have caused that so quickly I'd think, crystals take a while to form, have experience with cats.
Was hoping to try the Lukullas myself, mine are getting a little Bozita Reindeer flavour in their Kongs as a treat at the mo, they love it but my daughter keeps saying, how can you feed the dogs and cats(the cats love Bozita cat food) Rudolf:D