Anyone interested in home-cooked feeding for dogs

stephrousseau

Hi there,

Just thinking, following another food thread on here about food, would any of your guys be interested in feeding a home-cooked, delivered to your door diet to your dogs?

When I was in the UK I used a company called Butternut Box, who did just that. It was really good stuff, human grade ingredients, vet approved, taste tested by humans. They'd deliver to you every fortnight with daily portions measured out according to your dogs weight.

I'd been raw feeding before that, and while I loved the idea of raw feeding and all of the benefits, I wasn't mad on having the raw food in my fridge, which had a tendency to leak when it defrosted! Especially given I lived in a house share!

So this was a really good alternative. Now I'm back in Ireland and I've been back to raw, but I'd love to persuade Butternut Box to deliver here. They say they will, some time this year.

But I was thinking if I could convince them there's a market they might start sooner!

I won't lie, it's not cheap, but it's cheaper than making your own meals using supermarket ingredients, and you don't have to worry about getting the right balance.

So would any of you guys be potential customers?? Let me know what you think!!!

tk123

Honestly I don't believe for a second it could be cheaper than preparing your own meals. I raw feed but if I had to cook meals I'd just throw everything into the slow cooker and let it look after itself lol!

stephrousseau

You're probably better at sourcing ingredients than I am in that case! I've been raw feeding using things from the supermarket since I got back (transport issues mainly!), but it's definitely costing me more than Butternut Box in the UK did!

I know it was marginally more expensive in the UK than buying Nature's Menu, Natural Instinct etc, but definitely not as much as I'm spending here now.

aonb

Ive always fed my dogs home-cooked. One of my cats eats home cooked, the other only eats posh catfood :mad:

Today for example, I made up a pan for the dogs dinner for 1 week and it consists consists of: a tray of 10 chicken thighs (Tesco €2.79) a cup of brown rice (1/5 of a bag that cost €1.29) chopped up sweet potato (a bag was 79c, I used 2 potatos) I had carrots and some cooked brussels and peas left over from dinner last night. This is a total of approx €3.50. I'll add some oils and supplements, but that pan of food would be enough for one medium sized dog for 5 days minimum. I give bones from the butcher I get for free. I also give him dog biscuit at night and other treats. But they;re treats - surplus to requirements (hes chubby!) My average pan of food I cook would cost a similar amount.

Had a look at your Butternut Box site. Given my dogs breed/age/etc they estimate food pouches from them would be £2.37/day for 100% of his daily recommended requirements, or £1.60/day for 55% of his daily rquirements (allows for feeding other stuff).

While I would be interested in having homecooked delivered/sent for emergencies or to have it 'pouched' for travelling/holidays etc, or for just a break from same tastes and from cooking it, I'd be interested in trying Buttunut Box. But I can homecook for a fraction of that price. But having said that, 2.37 is pretty good if the quality of the food is as good as you/they say it is, for those of us who dont want to homecook. It would be interesting to see how much it will cost if it becomes available in Ireland though.

stephrousseau

I've always had rather large dogs (with a combined weight of about 60kg), so I never managed to get on top of bulk cooking for them! When I used to cook for them I used to end up doing it every second day!

So for me, the extra money was worth it for the time saved, and the knowledge that I wasn't leaving any huge nutritional gaps in their diet.

But I can imagine if you had smaller animals it might be easier to get a week's worth done in one go!

I'll post again whenever they start delivering to Ireland in case you want to try!

aonb

stephrousseau wrote: »

I've always had rather large dogs (with a combined weight of about 60kg), so I never managed to get on top of bulk cooking for them! When I used to cook for them I used to end up doing it every second day!

So for me, the extra money was worth it for the time saved, and the knowledge that I wasn't leaving any huge nutritional gaps in their diet.

But I can imagine if you had smaller animals it might be easier to get a week's worth done in one go!

I'll post again whenever they start delivering to Ireland in case you want to try!

My dogs are approx 10kg, so I can understand where you're coming from