What do you feed your dog

hawk eye

Well-Known Member
Hi all,

Looking at getting a new dog for deer and general game (GSP), always been around dogs. Just trying to get a general idea of how much one will dent my wallet (costs such as food etc) per month. What brand of dog food is favored on here for a large working dog, as some brands like petplan although im sure is very good, is very expensive also (£50 per 15kg bag)

Also, do many on here take out pet insurance?

Regards

Ian
 
I have tried them all, I have five dogs (3labs a springer and a Hanoverian) and I found skinners to be the best... I use the duck and rice hypoallergenic 25 quid a bag, a bag lasts a week, dogs maintain a healthy wait and coat and the turds are easy to pick up.. But all dogs are different....

​regards, Jez
 
It's horses for courses, I fed my last spaniel skinners for years, but ultimately it messed with his guts, not a criticism of the food, just my personally experience with that dog, he did far better on pedigree which is about the same cost for a sack.
Thats what my cocker and lab feed on now and they look spot on. Cost wise, for our two dogs a bag lasts about a month, and as for insurance, that depends entirely on how good you are with money, but if you are questioning the cost of food, I would suggest you don't have thousands of pounds spare to burn on an unexpected vet bill?
when my last dog came to the end, he was in the vets for 10 days and racked up a bill of £2k and I wasn't insured. Needless to say, the new dog is insured, but if you are good with money and able to stick some in a pot each month then so be it, I ain't that good though!
 
I have 2 springers and an English Bull Terrier pup, they are on Skinners (Springers) and the Bully pup on Hills Science Plan, springers also have raw meat/carcass - Rabbit, Chicken & pigeon + veg, they are doing great, as Straightbetweentheeyes says "turds easy to pick up" which is a sign that the food agrees with them.
 
Our black lab has been on Chudleigh's Original since puppyhood (now 18 months old) and is a picture of health and fitness. - Under £15 a bag, and it lasts getting on for a month !
 
I have 2 cockers and a lab.

Fed Skinners working 23 and they did fine on it but then the price went up to nearly £20 a bag from about £16 so I changed to Chudleys working crunch at about £16 a bag and they are just as good on it.

My girlfriend feeds a cocker and a lab on Alpha Sensitive and they do well on that as well for a similar cost although 2 bitches seem to get through a lot less relatively than 2 dogs and a bitch.

We had a bloke from Skinners shooting here last season and he said that the 2 brands he would feed were Skinners (obviously) and Chudleys so i took that as a pretty fair indication that Chudleys is alright!

I have to say that i have no idea how much they eat, when the bin gets low i go and buy another couple of sacks, has to be bought so i dont put that much thought into it im afraid. An old boy said to me once that if the cost of feeding his dogs is the biggest worry he has then he is doing ok!

Insurance wise Pet Plan is the way I go and you can either get life cover so that if something happens to the dog and it needs meds for the rest of its life or if that causes problems later in life they are covered or a standard cover policy where i think the cut off is a year then you are on you own so the initial operation etc are covered but then you foot future bills. i think that the standard cover is about £17 per dog and the life cover is a good bit more.

Ive never really understood the putting money aside thing. You are still paying that money out effectively but ultimately will only get that exact amount back again whereas with insurance you might pay the first months bill and get 3k vets bills sorted and also potentially the value of a pup back. I suppose that if you finished with dogs and hadnt had too big a hit to the account then you get the money back but it seems risky to me unless you are very hard and get rid of the dog if it has a serious problem
 
I've had mine on Chudleys and Dr Johns, mixed with half a tin of wet food she seems to thrive on it, gold during the working season and silver out of it keeps weight about right. Cost is something like £15 a bag that lasts a good month, Insurance wise is a no brainer really with one dog its when you have 3 or 4 that really it doesn't make financial sense.
 
my GSP gets raw trim and bone, as above rock solid muck and working out at 15p a day so economical too
regards
jimmy
 
Some dogs are different to others and also you have to look at the amount of work rate for the protein content. Too much protein for dogs can be harmful and give your dog runs, I have had working dogs for lots of years and tried lots but I find my dogs are in great condition on Snydes.
 
CSJ for me, little champ for the pups, complete tripe for the adults and when I had running dogs it was CP30 which at the time no one really used but I had great results with dogs that would go all day/night. Buy it online and the price is reasonable to.


What sold me on CSJ is the fact that the owners dogs actually work for a living and then are run at trials etc and they feed them on CSJ foods.
 
My two are on Skinners field trial maintance its dry clean their coats shine and no bad breath in winter if they do start to loose ground I supplement it with minced offel from butcher raw.
 
Seven to feed, cockers and springers Dr John Gold during the season Silver out of season , Spot on good condition , produced by Gilberts & Page
 
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