Raw dog food on the Broads

[Mandybstorm]

Hi folks, We are coming down 4th April for a week on Moonlight Shadow. We are not bringing the dogs this time but the in laws instead. Neither of them have been to the Broads before so busy planning stops to show them all the best bits of the broads!

On a totally different topic we have recently changed the dogs diet to include a raw food meal per day. This of course will present a problem of storage when on the boat when we bring them in August. I have bought pre frozen raw meat blocks at home which will fit into a boat freezer compartment, I estimate enough for maybe 4 days. Does anyone know if any of the pet shops in the South broads sell raw meat packs so that we could restock? They currently have Nature diet blocks but not to fussy about the brand. Failing that it will be a few quick trips to a butcher but of course that will be way more expensive!

Hope everyone is in good health and looking forward to the coming years cruising!

xx

[smellyloo]

Hi folks, We are coming down 4th April for a week on Moonlight Shadow. We are not bringing the dogs this time but the in laws instead. Neither of them have been to the Broads before so busy planning stops to show them all the best bits of the broads!

 

Glad I read on otherwise I was going to report you for cruelty to in laws!!

[JennyMorgan]

Mandy, lots of raw food available, so long as you dog can run or swim fast enough! 

[vanessan]

Mandybstorm

Until last autumn, we had our terrier on a raw food diet and managed to source the raw blocks from only 2 places. The pet shop in Stalham and the pet shop in Beccles, both walkable from public moorings. I did try the pet shop in Wroxham and was referred to the angling shop (!). The guy there produced a few blocks but they were all 6 months out of date so be careful if you do go there and ask. Happily we now have our dog on a mixture of complete food and home-cooked - much easier as we spend around a third of the year afloat.

vanessan

[BroadScot]

Hi Vanesann, 

 

Welcome to the NBN Forum from me 

 

 

Iain

[Mandybstorm]

Thank you! They have a mixture of meals at the moment as our  border collie gets bored very easily and doesn't eat well. I make home cooked meat, veg and rice, bozita tinned meat (Swedish brand of human grade meat), small amounts of gluten free csj kibble and raw meat cubes or blocks mixed with veg and rice.

She eats very slowly and struggles to keep any weight on so if I mix it up a bit at mealtimes it keeps her interested. As for the lab, well she of course eats anything put in front of her! I fear that if I died she would eat me!

[Timbo]

Fortunately with beagles there's no such thing as finicky. Dylan will eat anything put in front of him. When Toby, Dylan's littermate, first came to stay with us he proved to be a little wary of his new diet. I did find a trick though...Tesco own brand instant gravy. Its the canine equivalent of catnip!  Make up a batch, let it go cold & set and then stir the dog food into it! As the runt of the litter, poor old Toby has problems with an over large tongue so eats better with moist food. To be honest he is like a big kid with tomato sauce round his face, in that he always has food around his mouth and the edges of his ears.

 

I can recommend the pet shop in Stalham, very knowledgeable, even down to a very effective preventative for travel sickness in both of the beagles.

 

I'm very very wary of specialist canine diets after running foul of a scam at a vets of all places. My previous dog Sam, Lakeland Border cross that looked like Spit The Dog, was placed on a specialist diet by the vet after a bowel operation. At £8 for four tins of food it was a dear do! That was until one of the tins started to loose its label to reveal a 'Chappie' label underneath it. The vet discovered there is some truth to those signs that read 'Sod the dog, Beware of the owner!' and Sam went back onto a diet of canned food and biscuits, with no lasting effects...he was 24 when he passed away.