I was wondering what people fed their Deerhound on. Many say that only premium dog biscuits that are a balanced diet should be given. Ben has always been fussy and refused a diet of just biscuits so I always put some fresh lamb or beef mince or brisket or chicken on them and let the gravy mix with them. He used to eat Nutro (Large breed) but I'm having difficulty obtaining them now so have changed him to Burns instead. He also seems to like the occasional tin of Butchers Supreme dog food but he's not keen on other tinned foods.

We feed Bonnie kibble for breakfast which is an Australian made kibble. It is not a super premium and not a cheap and nasty. It's also good as it doesn't swell when wet. For dinner they get raw mince, either beef/roo, chicken and occasionally rabbit which they love, yoghurt, vegies and chicken necks. And once or twice a week they get a tin of sardines.

Ours have a diet of Complete food for working dogs and raw chicken and tripe or lamb and tripe. Sally

Ours are fed Gusto Summer Years, (we soak it in the juices off cooked meat) first and then what ever Howson has bought from work, it could be hearts, liver, kidney, beef, chicken venison. Howson is a slaughter man so depends on what he has had in. He also shoots for a hobby so have game, rabbit etc. Oh and they are quite partial to cheese:ohmy: pancakes, my home made sponge cake:unsure: and omlettes.

Cheap meat in your house...lucky hounds

You all seem very lucky. Our deerhound, Isla, was a total nightmare to feed. Dog food was viewed with a look of uncomprehending disgust. Meat had to be roasted, or better still, fried and cheap chicken was a no no, unless they were wings with a Chinese bbq sauce. Her real interest here were the bones; boner she always liked, from the day we had her. At best meals were consumed very slowly, with each piece of food taken away from her bowl and very slowly and gently. If she decided that it eas not too her liking or that she had had enough pork that week that was it. Nothing would persuade her to eat that meal on another occaision; rather starve than do that. Here I was, with a puppy shooting up like a beanstalk, but far too thin.
Then I met a local vet who had had a very large bitch, that was equally difficult and he used to feed 5 mars bars a day, to keep her weight up.
By now I was so worried that I began to do the same, giving 2or 3 a day.
She remains a very thin dog, but without the mars bars, I am sure she would have been a very poor specimen, instead of a good working dog on the lean side of average, as our vet described her.
Fortunately we have found a better answer than mars bars; a rescue racing greyhound, whose major motivation in life is food. He has done Isla's will to eat a power of good. When he came he was terribly thin and muscle bound and Isla could out pace him. 3 months later he looks in the peak of condition and today was out pacing Isla. I feel it is a terrible indictement ot the cruelty and stupidity involved in greyhound racing.
The two thing he lacks are Isla's huge intelligence and her superb agility. I think og them as Dwain Chambers and Colin Jackson!

Funny how a bit of competition can encourage them to eat. We have found the same in the past, also just taking the food away after a certain time can work.
Glad you took on a rescue greyhound, good for you, they are lovely dogs.
I really fancy a mars bar now.

All our dogs are fed on raw meat with a bit of occasional veg. No processed food at all.
The other 3 dogs eat anything that is put in front of them where as the Deerhound will wait to see what is on offer, pick his favourite things 1st and then work through the different bits leaving the least favourite until last and if he is full before he gets to it he will leave it completely, much to the delight of the other dogs as they are all complete gannets.

he is so lazy , I'm sure he would much prefer if we cut up his meat into little bitesize pieces, so he didn't have to chew.

My dog eats cooked Tesco mince, even better if found on the sell by counter, it freezes after all. I put a few carrotts, green veg (whatever is there) and a few spuds in the food processor and chop for a minute, cook the veg in stock, add the mince, cook for another 10 mins or so, voila, a healthy meal. It takes 15 minutes at most and a large pot will last three days in the fridge.
I mix a couple of cups of Bakers complete or Omega complete in He used to be fussy, but if he has had a good walk, he eats a good meal. However, he is partial to: Curry, spag bol, chilli chicken stir fry. Infact, he eats all scraps mixed with his tea, nothing goes to waste, unless of course it was chips or something really unhealthy, he never seems to carry enough weight for my liking so I give him extra. The terrier just eats dry food as he blows up like a little barrel! No left overs for him.
I find it amazing a vet feeds his dog mars bars, and 5 a day at that, I though that chocolate was poisonous to dogs???
Murphys favorite snack has got to be scrambled eggs or cheese, I can't even say the word cheese wihout his ears pricking up!

LOL Deerhounds must have a taste for spicy foods as ours always go for curries, spag and chilli

My hounds eat very LITTLE premium kibble but lots of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables, Raw Chicken and Raw Marrow Bones, Cottage Cheese and Yoghurt, Salmon, Mackerel and lots of fish oil. They are all in the peak of health with glorious, thick shiny coats. I think this diet is what has contributed to the long life of my Pug who is now 18 years of age!!.
Joan.

I try and feed mine a mostly raw diet, raw green tripe for breakfast, and chicken wings, freeflow beef mince, or minced chicked and veg/oats for tea, we have tins of sardines in tomato sauce on standby, and to provide variation, and the only complete food they get and like is Skinners Muesli, which I soak with a little warm water

if we have a roast dinner, the dogs will get the veg (I always cook enough for them too) and left over meat/skin etc (no bones obviously)

they love cheese and drool all over us when we have cheese-on-toast (we like simple food in our house-hold) and especially love a morning cuppa, so if you ever visit us you must never leave a mug of tea or cofee unattended as they will snaffle it up - lol

the younger ones (Beatrice and Fergus) love raw broccolli stems, and will beg for it when I'm prepping veg, also carrot sticks and fresh fruit

sometimes I reckon they eat better than we do lol

My deerhound loved spicy food as well (especially chicken tikka) and was also very partial to freshly picked blackberries when we were out on a walk, provided I picked them for her. Our Wolfhound, on the other hand, was more into pick-your-own and would happily bite a mouth full of bush in order to get a few berries.

Before I was born, my parents had a deerhound called Maddie, just after they ariied. For a present, they were given a set of cut glass whiskey glasses. Maddie picked them up, one by one, very delicately in her front teeth, tipped them up to see if there was anything in there, then tossed them to the side if they were empty. She did that to all of them and shattered the whole lot! She was also notorious for eating 200 cigarettes in one go.

When I was a child, we had 4, including Rambo and Al, a pair of brothers. We were fortunate enough to have a nice big house, and big garden, with apple trees, elderberries, gooseberries, blackberries, etc. Which we never got to eat because those pair of buggers got there first. Rambo also had a thing for sprouts. Our garden was tiered, and the kitchen window was at ground level. rambo would stand outside the window on Sundays, and mum would throw sprouts at him. He also ate a whole box of Thorntons chocolates, and all mine and my sisters easter eggs one year. Including the foil. Sadly Al died when he got hold of some slug pellets from our neighbours garden, and poisoned himself.

As for now, Our dogs have Gelert as their base food. They also eat eggs, chicken, beef, pasta, porridge, rice and whatever my 4 year old nephew sneaks them. Luckily, I work on the fresh section of the local supermarket, so I snaffle all the bargains for them. They were really quite fond of the barbecue flavour rotisserie chickens. They each get large bones every so often, and that keeps them quiet for ages.

You say bones, we used to get great big beef bones years ago from an abbatoir, my husband used to bring loads home, for ours and our neighbours horrible dalmation!
But you try and find a big beef bone now and you can't. Our local butchers can't give us them, they say that they are thrown away before they arrive at the shop?

Where would someone go now to get bones?

Love the story of the dogs your parents had gwynapnudd!

Our local garden centre sells big cow knees. They also sell pigs ears and other treats. The knees only cost about £1.50 each. I've seen them in the small petshops in town. Never seen them in the bigger chains though. One of the big knees keeps ours going for about 2 days. Our vet told us not to give them more than say one a wek, because too many can make them constipated.

All my hounds get chicken wings in the morning and a bit of complete food (they like the Pedigree 'better by nature" - supper they have raw green tripe or breast of lamb or lambs hearts/mince beef with mixer the odd tin of sardines in oil and any mushed up veg/pots.

We have a 'Macs meat market' down here and 3 times a week when they have de-boned the carcasse's they put bags of bones out for customers to take for free. Thet are lovely big raw meaty bones which keeps my lot happy for hours sometimes days