A conundrum I often ask myself is the following.
Is it better to give a home to just 1 dog and feed it the best possible food you can, or keep say 5 or maybe 10 dogs and feed them the cheapest quality of dog food you can get your hands on.
It’s one that could keep you awake all night tossing and turning in your bed.
Luckily for me then that nearly a year and a half ago we switched our 4 Standard Smooth Dachshunds over from what we considered, and were led to believe, was a very high quality processed food, to the BARF diet. (For those that don’t know, BARF stands for Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, or an easier way of explaining it is Bones And Raw Food.)
Back then it was like a light switch had suddenly been turned on in what I like to call my brain.
I thought rather than feed a food that is supposed to contain all those lovely looking ingredients printed on the lovely packaging on the commercial dog food bag, why not just give it to them straight anyway. At the very least, the minimum benefit is that when feeding a raw ingredient like chicken it has to be 100 % fresher than something that has been sprayed with poultry fat or heaven forbid animal fat, used as a preservative so the bag you finally purchase can sit on a warehouse rack or pet food stores shelf for over a year before you bring it home to inflict it on your dogs.
Getting back to my original conundrum, apart from doing what is best for your dog or dogs, financial circumstances may have a large part to play in deciding how many dogs you can home and also the type of food you can afford to feed them.
Well, this awful summer we are experiencing in Ireland, may have an impact on that.
Now before you bounce of our site, after deciding that he has well and truly lost the plot this time, hear me out….
With all this rain, the price per tonne of wheat etc has risen by 30% since the start of this year, and will continue to rise. This will have a knock on affect on our breakfast cereals, slice of toast in the morning, lunchtime sandwiches, and oh yeah the price of a bag of dog food, as most brands use cereals as a major ingredient to bulk up their product.
Now me on the other hand gets to buy a box of over 300 fresh chicken necks for € 5.00 which lasts our pack 7 days, and together with their fresh vegetable intake, some lamb hearts and a bit of scrap Salmon from the fish mongers, our monthly check out bill for our 4 healthy, glossy coated, shiny teethed, fresh breath smelling, less waste producing, Standard Smooth Dachshunds tops out at no more than € 30.00
So it looks like the forecast for me and our pack is plenty of restful nights ahead…What’s it going to be for you ?
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