Alternative dog food

glic83

Hi all, had my staffie on skinners the last few months but she seems to be gone off it, was buying it through amazon so the free delivery and 10% off was great.
Has anyone any other suggestions around the same price as skinners or close to that? Budget is the best these days but would still like to get a good dog food.

madchild

I don,t know what skinners are but any dog i,ve had was happy enough wiith scrapss from the butchers.
Any butcher in your local area will keep the offcuts for ya.
Now coming into the winter months i,d add some porridge or bread and a few nuts with a little hot water cod liver oil added to the mix will keep their coat good and shiny too.

glic83

madchild wrote: »

I don,t know what skinners are but any dog i,ve had was happy enough wiith scrapss from the butchers.
Any butcher in your local area will keep the offcuts for ya.
Now coming into the winter months i,d add some porridge or bread and a few nuts with a little hot water cod liver oil added to the mix will keep their coat good and shiny too.

skinners is a brand of dog food an alternative to burns

Rommie

Have you tried switching the flavour of the skinners?

glic83

Yes have tried the different flavours, but she really doesnt seem too keen on it anymore, she will eat it but it could be sitting in the bowl hours before she will eat it, before with other brands ie JWB she would eat it straight away

muddypaws

glic83 wrote: »

Yes have tried the different flavours, but she really doesnt seem too keen on it anymore, she will eat it but it could be sitting in the bowl hours before she will eat it, before with other brands ie JWB she would eat it straight away

Could you go back onto one of the other brands, or is it too dear? Have you tried soaking it, or just adding a bit of water to make a kind of gravy?

madchild

Sounds like ya have her/it spoiled how many times a day is it fed?

glic83

Tbh , its just me working these days, so 1 wage only coming into the house and have a 2 year old, if I had the money I would have no problem buying the best quality, but as budget is tight I trying to buy the best I can afford, price wise skinners is great value imo so idealy I was looking for something around the same price if possible.

Rommie

I think CSJs on Amazon is around the same price/quality, maybe email the company for a sample?

madchild

glic83 wrote: »

Tbh , its just me working these days, so 1 wage only coming into the house and have a 2 year old, if I had the money I would have no problem buying the best quality, but as budget is tight I trying to buy the best I can afford, price wise skinners is great value imo so idealy I was looking for something around the same price if possible.

I,m tellin ya boy especially on a budget give it scraps from the butchers mixed with porridge, coz porridge is cheap and scraps are free if ya eat tuna yourself buy the tins soaked in sunflower oil which will save ya from buyin cod liver oil tis hard to beat that mix. If she,s missing anything you,ll notice when takin it on walks it will eat grass from the side of the hedges if it,s not doin that then evetythings o.k. My uncles a gundog breeder i know what i,m talkin about here.

Rommie

Markus Muhle on Zooplus is supposed to be fairly good too, and it's cold-pressed rather than cooked so easier to digest. It's 34.90 on the german zooplus

Ingredients:
Poultry meat meal (28%), wholegrain corn flour, brown rice meal, game tripe meal (8%), rice germ, game bone meal, corn germ, Jerusalem artichoke meal, sea fish meal (5%), linseed oil, rapeseed oil (both cold pressed), powdered eggs (2%), dry peat, powdered fruit (2% incl. carob, pineapple, papaya, banana, acerola cherry, apple, pear, blueberry, mango, raspberry), mixed dried herbs, salmon oil, algae meal, dried and ground Yucca Schidigera.
The high quality, natural ingredients in Markus Mühle NaturNah dog food are finely ground for improved blending and cold pressing.

cgarrad

Get Graw, your dog will love you for it ;-)

Millem

To be honest I don't think you can match skinners on the price £18.36 for duck and rice (£1.22//kg).

CSJ is meant to be a great food but I don't know anywhere that offer free delivery to Ireland.

From amazon I found this food, it is free delivery but not subscribe and save. It contains barley though. £1.63/kg.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Super-Premium-Food-Chicken-Rice/dp/B004M1SO4M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382263852&sr=8-1&keywords=super+premium+dog+food"

also on amazon is this but it is pricer at £1.99/kg
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Super-PremiumDry-Food-Cereal-Potato/dp/B004JMOS12/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1382264209&sr=1-1&keywords=Super+Premium+Pet+Food

If ordering on zooplus I think you need to buy in bulk to get the value.

You could try Bosch sensitive (but it has barley!) £2.00/kg
http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/dogs/dry_dog_food/bosch/bosch_sensitive_light/14695

Or Markus Muhle as other poster suggested again £2.00/kg
http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/dogs/dry_dog_food/markus_muehle/14524

There is also pet connection in northern Ireland, they charge £4.99 delivery so really you would be better off ordering two bags at a time. They have there own range of own brand products. The price for the chicken and rice one, buying two bags and adding on delivery is coinng in at roughly £1.94/kg.
http://www.petconnection.ie/acatalog/Pet_Connection_Chicken___Rice_Dog_Food.html

There is also dog food direct's own brand champion food
http://www.dogfooddirect.ie/modules/shop/cats/champion-/

I don't know how much of each food they require as some manufacturers might suggest more than others, I have feed my girls on Hill's, Royal Canin, Burns and Skinners and have feed 2 cups a day each for all the foods. I did find skinners bag lasted less days than burns and dogs definitely filled out so I reckon I should feed them a little less! It's try and error I suppose.

muddypaws

OP, I don't know where you are in the country, but if you are near the North, and could get to a Jollyes or Pets At Home, both do their own brand which is probably comparable in quality, but I'm not sure of the prices.

I use Massbrook trial and working dog, I get 10 bags delivered at a time, and my dogs are doing very well on it, they're based in Foxford, Co. Mayo, they do chicken and rice, beefy crunch etc as well, might be worth having a look, I've always found them a pleasure to deal with.

I have also seen recently that Burns do a 'working' food, which is VAT free in the UK, if you can get to NI, you could try that, all working dog food in the UK is VAT free, which obviously brings the price down.

Millem

muddypaws wrote: »

OP, I don't know where you are in the country, but if you are near the North, and could get to a Jollyes or Pets At Home, both do their own brand which is probably comparable in quality, but I'm not sure of the prices.

I use Massbrook trial and working dog, I get 10 bags delivered at a time, and my dogs are doing very well on it, they're based in Foxford, Co. Mayo, they do chicken and rice, beefy crunch etc as well, might be worth having a look, I've always found them a pleasure to deal with.

I have also seen recently that Burns do a 'working' food, which is VAT free in the UK, if you can get to NI, you could try that, all working dog food in the UK is VAT free, which obviously brings the price down.

I don't think Burns is a runner as not in the same price range!
It is called Burns Alert, biggest bag is 12kg. It doesn't work out that much cheaper than normal Burns, Medic animal are giving £10 off first order of over £79, free delivery to Ireland over €59. It is £2.75/kg.
http://www.medicanimal.com/setSessionLocale/product?product_id=106527&locale=en_GB
I find I have to phone in the order with them to pay in sterling as on conversion on the website was a rip off! Just to note normal burns is cheaper on amazon subscribe and save £2.72/KG!

Vet uk also do it but you will need to pay £10 for delivery http://www.vetuk.co.uk/dog-food-burns-dog-food-c-1024_312/burns-dog-food-alert-lamb-and-rice-dry-p-3826

glic83

Yeah have looked around I'd say amazon is the best way to save a few quid with the subscribe and save option, no point in buying anything in bulk as Id have to see how the dog gets on with the new food, In relation to buying from other zooplus's outside of the Irish one you have a 7 quid delivery charge so that brings the price up again and cancels out any savings. Im still looking around. I'm based in north cork so wouldnt really be up near the north so thats that ruled out. I must say thank you all for the replies though it is appreciated.

tk123

Parcel motel might be an option to get cheaper postage - I use it for anything I buy from vetuk or medicanimal because they do free uk postage so just have to pay the €3.50 to have it brought down from the north

Millem

tk123 wrote: »

Parcel motel might be an option to get cheaper postage - I use it for anything I buy from vetuk or medicanimal because they do free uk postage so just have to pay the €3.50 to have it brought down from the north

I never realised you could order over 10kgs with parcel motel. So basically you just pay €3.50 for 30kgs dog food and collect at depot? Just saw depot in d11 so not worth my while driving! Is that only depot in dublin? Or I would pay an additional €10.50 to get it delivered to my door plus €3.50 so €14 in total?

tk123

Millem wrote: »

I never realised you could order over 10kgs with parcel motel. So basically you just pay an additional €3.50 for say 30kgs dog food?

Oh wait apologies - If you go over 10kg you'll have to collect from them in Finglas or arrange to have it sent on...but depending on the site and how much you order you could probably still save money!

angeldaisy

Just a note on the parcel motel, if your parcel is too big or heavy then you can arrange to collect it from your nearest depot. The last time I did it I wasnt charged any extra. Might be worth checking out.

glic83

An update, contacted Arden Grange in Galway about samples of their food, and to be fair the laddy couldnt have been better, asked questions about the dog, any special diet requirements etc, she sent out 6 samples a booklet and 2 feeding measure cups, the food itself, so far the second the food is put into the bowl shes over straight away and eats it straight away, have tried her on the various flavours he last few days and she loves them all, only concern is its a bit pricey but she seems to be loving it. So whats the verdict on Arden grange? is there better food for the same money?

boomerang

I like Arden Grange, good honest food. My dogs did well on it and so did the dogs at our local sanctuary.

Millem

glic83 wrote: »

An update, contacted Arden Grange in Galway about samples of their food, and to be fair the laddy couldnt have been better, asked questions about the dog, any special diet requirements etc, she sent out 6 samples a booklet and 2 feeding measure cups, the food itself, so far the second the food is put into the bowl shes over straight away and eats it straight away, have tried her on the various flavours he last few days and she loves them all, only concern is its a bit pricey but she seems to be loving it. So whats the verdict on Arden grange? is there better food for the same money?

I thought Arden grange was around burns price? The bages used to be 15kg but now 12kg (which is annoying when you have 3big dogs!) so it looks much cheaper. I was in contact with them
At expo and they were actually going to let me buy the breeder bags as I buy in bulk as they are cheaper.