I do hope you will all excuse all my questions but Floyd is my first deerhound and I adore him so want to do the right things, I have been reading about feeding and have found myself in a minefield of information. I am not happy about commercial foods as I am sure they are full of poor quality foodstuff and additives, but I am unsure how to get the balance right if I prepare my own. I therefore thought the most sensible thing to do would be to ask people who have experience what they feed their dogs-bought or home-made, raw or cooked?
I will greatly appreciate any help as I am worried I may be doing it all wrong (although he seems very healthy and happy) and I want to make sure he gets the right vitamins and minerals as he is growing. He is 14 weeks now and I am amazed at his intelligence which is usually directed into getting his own waay without us noticing!
Thanks again for your patience and help.

Hi Amber
There are a few threads on this site about feeding and what people feed their hounds.
We started off feeding ours a very good dried food but after a problem with our boy he was not gaining any weight so we switched over to raw feeding. So both our dogs are now fed raw meat (Tripe, lamb, beef some chicked) uncooked and given UNCOOKED bones.
The dogs love it and are doing really well.
Have a look in the Health Issues forum.
It all comes down to personal choice.
Regards
Spring

Where do you get tripe from? Might give it a go with Murphy.

Amber, when I first got Murphy, 4 years ago, we didn't have this forum, so I bombarded his breeder with emails and phone calls asking lots of questions, I must have driven her mad! so this forum is fantastic, you ask away, there are so many DH people in one place to give you lots of advice and answers to your questions!

I feed Murphy human mince from Tesco, cook it up in a large pot, adding potatoes (peelings too) carrotts, greens, broccolli etc (all chopped up in the food processor first) and cook for 10/15 minutes, I then add 3 cups of Omega complete food (for working dogs) to his bowl and spoon his mince stew in. The big pot last me 3 days and does him and my terrier, so economical and he is also getting good food. He also eats leftovers, anything that is ok for a dog ie roasts/bolognaise/stew etc, as I have 3 kids there is always something to go in his bowl!

Tonight I have cooked a chicken, we've eaten our bits, then I have stripped the rest off for his tea tomorrow, he eats well and being a lean boy I don't worry about over feeding him, he eats what he wants, the terrier on the other hand has his tea and nothing else in case he gets fat!

Lurch8252 wrote:
[quote]Where do you get tripe from? Might give it a go with Murphy.

Lurch8252,you should be able to get tripe at any good pet food supplier.Have a look in their chest freezer.You can get it either minced or in chunks.I get both at my local pet shop,and they aso stock delicacies such as turkey necks,chicken wings,minced beef/lamb/chicken etc.

How much is tripe? roughly!

We get our raw food delivered about once a month from The Dog Food Company. www.thedogfoodcompany.co.uk (Helen, he delivers to us and I know he goes on to Enfield and that way, you're not far from us so he'd probably deliver to you if you wanted it)
Their tripe is 20p a pound. If we run out and have to get a top up of the frozen minced, bagged stuff from the local Partners pet shop, it's about £2.80 for 2kg.
A big deerhound kiss or face rub on your lap, after a bowl of raw green tripe is particularly endearing!
Sue

Just to confuse the issue Amber, I don't feed raw food to my dogs for fear of salmonella or ecoli. The vets in these parts have become quite alarmed at the raw food trend and I've had numerous pamphlets and studies thrust at me for even suggesting such a thing! Up to you of course but I don't do it.

How many times a day do you feed your pup? That's important too. Deerhounds do better with a couple of feedings per day, in the morning and in the late afternoon/early evening. And don't exercise them before or after they've eaten to lessen the likelihood of torsion or bloat. Actually deerhound puppies could do with three smaller meals a day but you may or may not have time for that.

Also consider the height of the dog bowls. Where is the thinking on that? Used to be on the floor, then elevated, now on the floor again, or am I current? For me, it depends on the dog. My young one scarfs his food so on the floor it goes, the old boy takes his time and gets the floor as well, but my sweet girl prefers her bowl to be elevated and so I serve her always on the open door of the dishwasher! Perfect height. I try not to allow dinner guests to witness this if at all possible

Finally, as Spring says, they like to come round after a meal and wipe their faces on your clothing. The seasoned deerhound owner always has a cloth for face wiping at the ready!!

Amber,as you can see from this and other threads on the subject,it's all about personal preference.I know those who won't feed tripe,for example,purely because they can't stand the look or smell of it.Don't be put off complete foods because of additives etc.If you stick to one of the better brands they are well formulated.Autarky,Arden Grange,Burns and James Wellbeloved are all excellent in my opinion.I feed Autarky(pre-soaked)with tripe also pasta twice a week.Good luck,just go for what your happiest with.

Spring wrote:


Thanks Sue, I have sent him an email enquiring, that would work out a hell of alot cheaper (recession times!) Though I may go for the mince first of all as he's never had Tripe and he might not like it, then I am stuck with tonnes of it! I may ask him if he would put a small bit in the delivery for me as a tester. The smell thing is worrying me though.

I cannot lie, the tripe does pong. It was fine in the summer when it was easy to feed them in the garden, but now the nights are drawing in, eau d'tripe does tend to linger in the kitchen!

I'm sure Scott at the dog food company would bung in a bit of tripe for you to try - we've found him really helpful.

Callie wasn't keen on it to start with - she'd give us a very withering look which said "for God's sake, if I must eat this muck, you could at least lightly pan fry it and serve with a nice rich red wine jus!". However it didn't take long for her to give in and I think she secretly enjoys it now. Fergal has always been a huge pig and will eat whatever's in front of him.

Sue

You will find your ways into the right food - I have had dogs for 38 years now and always fed mostly homemade/raw food ( about 80 % of their diets at least I'd guess ) - never had any trouble with it , ok , pups at times need a bit of time to really be able to digest raw chicken necks and backs , but that is all . You will find plenty of advice here on the forum and googling -
A few tips though :when you feed a lot of meat you need to feed some form of calcium , too ,( raw bones , ground eggshells; yoghurt; cottage cheese a.s.o. ) ; not too many bones as not to give them indigestion ( some of the raw diets out there rely basically on meaty bones ) ; sighthounds can take( and usually need ) a lot of fat and skinny dogs do need extra fat added to gain some weight ( cream , cheese and oils will do - our butcher kindly adds some fat to the various meats we buy from him ) ; carbohydrates are not necessary for dogs , though most of them can tolerate them quite well ; stay away from soy and best also corn , they can cause bloat , also many dogs these days seem to be allergic to wheat/wheat products ; fish is great ; you should feed some organ meats , too , every so often ; I feed about 1/3 rd of fibre ( veggies/fruits/sauerkraut , grated and raw usually )/ sometimes also some carbs ( love oats for that or dried bread ) and 2/3rds usually raw meat for their main meal in the evening - 3 feed somewhat elevated one prefers it lying down - ; you can give commercial dry food and home made food , you do not have to choose - though prefarably not in the same meal as commercial/dry food takes a lot longer to digest - currently mine get usually about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of kibble in the morning early on and somewhat later ( 2-3 hours , after our walk ) some chicken chunks or so for breakfast ;
and , the most important thing , contrary to the scare tactics put out there by the petfood industry and the vets who have been trained by them :

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GET IT RIGHT EVERY DAY/TIME !!!

Just think how unbalanced the diet of wild living dogs/carnivores is at times , wolves/coyotes/dingos/foxes aso , they do not get everything necessary every day - I aim to get it balanced over the course of lets say 1 week or so.
Your sweet deerhound baby boy will be just fine - puppies get here usually 3-4 meals /day until they are somewhat around 7-8 mths , then they usually wean themselves out of the extra meal and , they do get more for a while than the adults - the adults get about 1.5 to 2 lbs of food ( mostly meat ) per day .
And , if they do not have a big appettite at times I find , serving smaller portions is quite helpful then - also , some melted butter over the food or some tablescraps added .......

Spring wrote:


Spoken like a true Lyart and Dileas is a bit the same. Her mother, on the other hand, will hoover up just about anything, and her brother refuses to go to bed unless bribed with dried tripe sticks, which smell just as bad as the fresh stuff. However, there's nothing like tripe sticks for keeping teeth clean.

Like some one said its all down to personal prefrence.

I did used to feed raw at one stage, but due to my lurcher reacting badly to the raw food
and having another who suffers from pancritus(sp) i stopped,
with layla i tried different foods and a lot gave her a dicky tummy,
so i decided to try her on what the others eat and with in a day she was fine,
its a cheap food thats not got a brand name, no fancy packaging or anything like that,
they still do get bones and chicken carcasses from the chicken factory occasionaly,
and i do still occasionaly buy raw food, but it gets boiled up in the pressure cooker with other things added to it and it gets added to there dry food.
At the end of the day we can all say this and that is the best,
but it all comes down to what suit's you and your dog.

Ironstone - recent research is now saying raised feeders do contibute to bloat.

bloat

Yes - I have also read that raised feeders contribute to bloat - it is getting hard to know what to do for the best! I will continue to feed them from raised feeders as they do look more comfortable eating that way.

Feeding - personal preference and what your dog likes best. It's no good feeding something that they dont like or wont eat (I have opened bags of food to testify to that!). I feed mine mainly raw and they are doing fine so to me, that is the test.

Hi there, I think I said last time that we had taken advice from our vet friend and another vet who works for a dried food company as well as our breeder and looking at books and forum. It really is very confusing!! In the end we went with James Wellbeloved/IAMs with some cooked meat/cheese/ fish added (told not to feed pups with raw chicken). We even spoke to IAMS by phone regarding the amount for giant breed puppies and they were very helpfulin explaining the science behind the recommendations. As others have said, it really is down to personnal preference and watching how your dog thrives or tolerates the food. Freya had diarrhoea after having a really enjoyable munch into too many knuckle bones.(we think) Just gets an occasional one now! Otherwise she eats everything put before her - on a raised level as I wasn't aware that that may now not be the correct thing to do. Another little thing to worry about! Who said deerhounds were easy? Still I guess we just love them anyway or we wouldn't be having all the concerns. Enjoy Floyd and I'm sure he'll be fine whatever food route you choose for him.

Lurch8252 wrote:


Update...thanks Sue, have placed an order with Scott at the dog food company, worked out this has saved me £22 off my current dog food bill, which is a lot, especially in these times of recession! Are you due a delivery? hopefully he will email me back a delivery date. I must go and plug my spare freezer in, got tonnes of meat arriving and can just picture daughter making a spag bol with dog meat

Amber - as your baby is still so young why are you not taking advice from th breeder. Did they not give you a diet sheet? Don't be in a hurry to chop and change the food. It's better for a dog to be skinny you know! Deerhounds can be picky but no dog ever starved itself to death - really.

If you think you may ever board your dog for hols then a complete food or canned and biscuit may be the way to go. I feed mine Autarky. I've had hounds since the early '70's and this is the first complete my dogs have not 'gone off'. They eat it well, look good, the poos are good (important), and it's a good price.

Hi Amber

We've collated information from earlier posts concerning feeding which you may find helpful please see here www.scottish-deerhound.co...ws/120-raw-food

Was at Midland Counties and found a web based supplier of bone and raw food diet. Certainly Banrigh and Hettie loved the bones I bought. The web site is

naturalinstinct.com/

They are south of england based but deliver for free nationally. Elise

Elise wrote:


I get all my frozen meat from this company its very good but not cheap, they build the postage price into the cost per kilo

From Memory I think I pay just under £2 a kilo

but the quality is very good