Just had a look at Different Dog and picked myself up off the floor. I live on OAP and there is no way I could keep a dog that would cost me £75 a month to feed.
Just got three free recipes from Vet Chef and they may be worth a try.
Pure Vegi Plus says 1.5 scoops to 3 scoops water to 60-80g of protein. Not sure how to work that out, is it say 80g meat or fish or do I have to try to work out how much protein is contained in said 80g meat/fish???
DD can be expensive if you are feeding it entirely. It also depends on how much the dog needs. It is high quality and dogs often need lower amounts of such foods. In my case I find that the dogs don’t need much and as one of them has been poorly the cost is offset by much reduced veterinary visits.
The VetChef recipes might be a good way forward. You could batch cook and freeze. There are some useful Facebook groups on home cooking for dogs - I have listed the ones that I know about in the home cooking section. They tend to be American and I get the feeling that they are way ahead of us in providing help and support for owners who wish to cook for their pets. The people in the groups seem very knowledgeable. One of the groups (101) has a useful chart which you can print off and fill in to make sure you are getting the percentages right. I can’t home cook for my dogs but if I could I would follow the correct recipes and not take them from the Internet/YouTube because some are unbalanced. It takes experience to realise this of course.
The Dog Nutritionist website might be worth looking at but I believe there is a consultation charge. One of the FB groups recommends the book Yin and Yang. I understand that it contains recipes.
I just went onto DD website and put my dogs details in, if feeding her just DD she would need 240g per day at £1.80 a day. Still too much. I would be happy to feed her with cold pressed with a bit of home cooked meat and veg added as a part of the daily allowance. I just feel that the high carbs she has been getting has made her itch more and if I can control that with diet rather than medication I would be happy.
It is depressing that looking at Vet Chef and DD etc. the dogs seem to get better quality food than I do! But then that is for the photos and may not be reality.
Have you looked at Forthglade wet food. I shouldn’t feed my dog kibble as he’s allergic to storage mites as well as other things. I’ve found feeding guidelines/ price very reasonable and he’s doing really well on it. He can’t have many flavours due to his allergies but the ones he can have don’t upset his stomach or give him eye melting wind!! I order it from either Fetch or Zooplus as this makes it very reasonably priced in comparison to other wet foods & shops
Vivann - that sounds a lot for a Miniature Poodle. My 6.5kg dog gets 200g. The 8.6kg one gets 250g but I have recently had to reduce it to 200g as she has put a bit of weight on. I know what you mean about the dog eating better than us. I sometimes think that myself - it’s probably true.
For some time I fed cold pressed food at the bottom end of the RDA (or a little less) and enhanced it with low fat protein (chicken, fish etc) and maybe a few blueberries and cooked mashed veg (non starchy is best). Unsurprisingly the dogs did well on it!
We Cook for Dogs might be useful. They sell appropriate supplements and provide recipes/know-how.
Vivann - re. gelling/thickening agents in wet food, this is one of the many questions I asked about my dog’s food, which is carrageenan free. This is their reply “None required they’re just pure meat. We use meat broth which is made from the connective tissue this creates a kind of gelatine. So nothing other than the animal advised, no chemicals no additives”.
The thing I like about it is there are no synthetic vitamins or minerals added - it’s not cheap though and my dog needs more than the RDA to maintain weight! https://www.naturavetal.co.uk/shop/en/canis-plus-dogs/complete-meals
My dog loves the pure chicken, and licks the bowl for quite a while after it has gone.
Just to say that if you do go for the vegetable mixer then it does have potato in it. So must be higher in carbs.
I try and give my dog lower carbs, as I think that they make him more hyper when he has too much. 