can anyone give me their comments on autarky.
                        many thanks
                           joe(rumrat)

I feed it to my two -Dobe and JRT and they are both thriving on it -they eat it -they have consistently firm poo and the biggest bonus is they don't f*rt as much as they used to :D

many thanks for all your replies.i was feeding my retriever on bakers and he has gone off it and the place where i get his food suggested AUTARKY.
                        many thanks for your replies
                           joe(rumrat)
                                                        

Fed it before I went onto BARF...dogs did really well on it.Good value,good food....would definately feed again if I went back to complete
Archer

Does autarky have a website? I cant seem to find it on google!

type in AUTARKY and you will get the website

If you ring the number on their web site it's the help line for DOBSON & HORRELL who I think are owned by spillers who in turn are owned by nestle, small world again

Is that a positive or negative comment Jo? :)

Nether just some information. In my own opinion the fact that like JWB WHO were bought up by Pedigree large major companies are intent on ensuring they have global
Control on prices and choice .Some may think it's a good idea. But without going into the whole free market economy debate I don't think it's good for the consumer. Want to buy
From an independent UK firm ? do it now before they are all swallowed up and jobs and profits go overseas.

The free market economy debate is always most strident from the antiglobalist though,  rarely is it mentioned the advantages that large companies offer in terms of quality control etc.  The big companies have been arround for decades and they have not swollowed up the competition yet :)  even if they did I would imagine the food would continue to be produced in the UK providing jobs and taxes rather than abroad for reasons of economy.

There's also the possibility that by owning all the successful companies and allowing them to carry on being successful in exactly the same way, not interfering with any aspects of the company, that they increase their profits without doing anything. Wouldn't we all like to do that?

But as you say, that's another debate and not for this thread.
:)

Whats the problem with that ?

i use it mainley for the girls,good food good vaule, & they like it. mine are very fussy

I think you'll find Dodson & Horrell is not owned by Spillers.  Having known a couple of reps up in Scotland, their sole promotions were Dodson & Horrell/Chudley's animal feeds mainly horse feeds, nothing to do with Spillers at all.  They always bemoaned the fact they didn't have the 'freebies' to hand out like Purina, Peidgree etc. did as these were much larger companies.

However D&H do own Autarky now.

Mine were on Autarky with some meat supplement but it gradually dawned on me that my bitch was constaintly moulting and itchy so changed to a holistic diet and she is loads better but the food is a lot dearer! 

Autarky is a maize based dog food, that is its largest single ingredient:

Maize, Chicken Meat Meal, Rice, Chicken Fat, Carrot and green leaf vegetables, whole linseed, beet pulp, mixed herbs and spices, yucca, yeast.

Maize is not, in my opinion, a suitable food for dogs so it would not be in my top ten.............

Yes - it might not be in your top ten - but then you're not a dog who's eating it, looking well on it & thriving!

The OP asked for comments on this food, I did as requested.......................

Have you ever fed your dogs on it?  I think this was the gist of the OP's thread.   To glean what information they could from people who were using it or had used it.  Not those who 'rubbish' 95% of complete foods.

We all "intepret" and "infer" from posts different things don't we ;)

Just wondering why every thread on Commercially produced food always ends up with someone trying to make the people that feed it feel as if they are not doing the best for their dogs?????
I feed autarky. I am not well off, I would not be able to afford £40 a sack dog food and have not got time to feed Barf as I work to keep my dogs, my house and my kids. I have not got a rich partner/husband that can provide for me and my kiuds and dogs BUT My dogs are happy, well fed, look good on it and my 8 year old has hardly ever been to the vets, even tho I know through inexperience I did alot when she was a pup that I shouldnt have done and in hindsight wouldnt do again, ie excersise(rotty cross). So why shouldnt I feed a comeercially produced dried food???
Yes Barf is good, but so is commercially produced food. There are ALOT of dogs around that have reached 19/20 that have been fed dried 'cr&p' food in some peoples opinion. so it is obviously no good for them!!!!!!!!! (I used to look after a working border collie that was put down at the age 19 that was fed on some of the cheapest food going, along with the 30 other show dogs that quite a few had their stud book number and 5 other working collies that would go out ALL day WORKING the sheep and still come back from the fields and want to play!!!!)
So obviously commercially made food is so bad for your dogs that all dogs fed on the cheaper food die before they reach 8 years old because it is so bad. I DONT think so.
Lea

Well said, Lea. Hear hear!

I don't see anyone on this thread suggesting that you should not feed commercial food Lea?

I recommend several commercial foods which I feel offer optimum nutrition and minimal problems for dogs.  I also point out what I personally believe to be deficiencies in some.

Not seen anyone on this thread say that dogs fed on commercial food die before they are 8 either?

I wonder why posters get so adversarial and defensive about differing foods?

Everyone is entitled to an opinion and to express it; there is no need for hostility........

So what food would you suggest tohme that is good for dogs that isnt £30+ a sack or Barf??? I would like to know.
And where did you suggest an alternative???? Bearing in mind if they are thinking of feeding food that is between £13 - £16/ 15kg sack than that may be all they can afford to spend so needs to be an alternative with the same value, not one that is more expensive???
Lea

I wonder why posters get so adversarial and defensive about differing foods?

I certainly don't get defensive as I believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinions on what to feed their dogs, after all they are the owners of their dogs and look after them in the way they seem fit.

I just get a little annoyed that when someone asks an opinion about a commercial food, the thread gets 'jumped' on by those who feed BARF and have never fed the mentioned diet ever!     How can they have a 'neutral' opinion when they have no desire to feed it to their dogs?

I have tried BARF once, it left me with a vet's bill after Curtis took colitis being fed on chicken wings.    It didn't work for my dogs, I tried it, that's it.   I have tried a lot of commercial diets, some have suited my dogs, some haven't, I think I now know what they can eat and look good on and what they can't.

So what I'm trying to say, if you see a thread asking about the opinion of a 'commercial' food and you have never fed it to your dogs, is there much you have to offer in the way of advice except pick out all the bad points?

Sometimes the way comments are written may also get a defensive reply too, there's no one person who 'knows-it-all'.  ;)

"How can they have a 'neutral' opinion when they have no desire to feed it to their dogs?"

So does that mean then that everyone who posts must be neutral?

Surely that would defeat the whole purpose of asking opinions?  Or am I missing something? To have an opinion one cannot be neutral, surely?

One is either pro, anti or just plain disinterested...........

AS for picking on bad points of course one is going to highlight problems with certain foods, just as one highlights the benefits of others (see my posts on Naturediet, Burns and EVO to name but three..................

You are absolutely right, there is no ONE person that knows it all........... ;)

Well I do not post on every BARF thread highlighting the problems I found (And I'm sure I'm not alone) on it because I feel if that is the way people want to feed their dogs, then just let them get on with it.     But BARF feeders do have a tendency to come onto commercial diet threads and give their opinions on something they wouldn't touch EVER!  

Ok, you don't like commercial diets except 3...well Burns gave my dog's diarrhoea even though I perservered through 3 bags of the stuff with them.  Likewise a friend who put her dog onto it to ease it's itchy skin found her dog got the rund  and scrathced even more on it!    So I don't have a positive comment on one of the commercial's you recommend, tohme.

I'm happy with the way I feed my dogs, so are millions of other people worldwide.   I have got good results with some foods I have fed and some pretty poor results with others I have tried but I do not comment on every Feeding thread regardless of what I do/don't know.   

PS) I don't like coffee, never have done, can't see me changing my tastes.   But I know there's millions of people who drink coffee by the gallon each day...if they like it, then good on them even though it's supposed to be full of nasties but it's a free world after all...........

Bloomin eck -op asked for opinions on Autarky -nothin else :rolleyes:

Have used it for 3 years on our German Pointers. Everyone says how well they look, good coats etc. More than happy with it.
HTH
Sue :)

thanks for your comments.all i asked was a opinion on AUTARKY.Not a full blown discussion on other matters.who wound who up
                    many thanks
                    joe

"So what food would you suggest tohme that is good for dogs that isnt £30+ a sack or Barf???"
At about £13-£16 per bag????
This is a genuine question as if you dont like autarky and reply to a thread like this you should really to give an alternative thats about the same value along with other alternatives and not just say it isnt the best food.
OP, as I said my dogs are doing good on it :) :) :)
Lea :)

Also it is worth pointing out that some foods that are pretty expensive have poorer ingredients than some of the cheaper foods.

So to work out value for money you select a class of food with similar formulas and ingredient proportions (mainly amount of actual meat, which with dry completes can vary from as little as 10% to around 50% in some puppy foods).

For example if I compare Arden Grange, Royal Canin and Proplan I find accross the range that the AG has the highest meat values, and on the breeders scheme works out quite a lot less than the two comparable brands.

There are some hugely overpriced supposedly premium foods with poorer ingredients.

ive found autarky fine!!! :)
has anyone used it & found their dogs did not do well?

My freind who has GSD's and Collies found that it made the motions a bit soft and she didn't like the smell of the food.  I found the same but only for a week (not talking loose motions just not the firm ones I am used too). 

Their motions went back to being roll on a shovel firm after a wekk or so.

My freind judges her food very much on what comes out the other end, as having sevearl poo eaters shhe needs to be able to quyickly pick up poo with minimum of messing about with ahving to scrape up and wash down after every time.

yes it says on the bag that one of the herbs used can have a mild laxative effect. my poohs were soft but not runny

Did you also find this was just a temporary effect?

it got better.mine are always abit sensitive even on barf

Hope your talking about the dogs there michelled :D

My Dobe has a very sensitive tum -bless ! and over the years I have tried lots of different foods -Autarky is the only one which I have stuck with -he is a good weight -his coat is lovely and shiney -Poo's are pickupable ;) and he is generally a healthy dog
The JRT would eat boiled sh*te ..so her opinion doesn't count lol 

lol! actually nellies (now i think about it) are quite solid now (shes the least sensitive)

the thing is when youve got highly strung dogs sometimes its a nrevy thing,plus mine never stop long enough .....yknow theyll do the urgent bit ,but be so despartate to get going im sure they dont finnish!!!!

Autarky is a food that I discovered only 6 months ago, I had a very overweight 10 year old lady and have tried many times to reduce her to a more normal size without success, she has been on the light/senior version of the food and this comment was made only a week ago "Wow Emma looks fabulous, what have you done with her?"  We have a 4 kilo weight loss and a very happy and healthy 10 old "pup"!!!!!

Well I've just told my three that maize isn't a suitable food to have as a constituent of their evening meal!  They didn't take any notice. Mine look better on Autarky than they have ever done on any food, including Burns and I am more than happy.  The price, contents and results from Autarky suit us just fine and like other posters, I have happy, healthy dogs who are full of energy.  I couldn't ask for more than that.

i feed two of mine on it, ones 11 and the other's 5 months and they both look good :)

Dee

I did buy a bag to try but mine wouldn't eat it, then again I tried Burns and he wouldn't eat that either! But I think Autarky looked like a good food. I now feed naturediet which he only eats if I mix it with tripe, fussy b***er !!

My dog has been fed on Autarky for about 7 months, and she absolutely loves it! It's the only food she likes this much.
She eats the mature/light "autumn years" version and she has never looked in better condition all her life, and she is 8 years old! I know not all foods work for all dogs, but it definately works for her :)

I have seen Gusto dog food for sale in Batleys I never considered it because of the price it is on the cheap side but after reading what has been said about Autarky I realise they are the makers of this food. Is anyone using this or know anything about it?

'Gusto' is like the 'Safeway saver ' type of food -it isn't as good quality as Autarky although I do know some people who feed it and it's fine ( horses for courses in my book ) I did try it once and it did exactly what it said on the tin       :D  

Someone I know uses Gusto and one of the dogs took a RCC recently - they only bought it as they couldn't get Autarky and haven't looked back.  The dogs look fantastic and have bags of energy :D  Meat content is about the same as Burns etc. ;)  Poos are 'bullets' and no windyness :D

No colours or flavourings, no added sugars - only thing against it is preservative, but then loads of dog foods have preservative

It doesn't have the herbs in it whicxh was one reason for feeding it to mine, and the amount of meat is less,a dn think non specific and more fillers.

I think the Autarky is already sufficiently good value and better quality.

I totally agree Brainless, but in this area people have stopped stocking it because of new conditions of purchase :(  they now have to buy far more bags and haven't got the room to store them, the price has gone up quite a bit too :rolleyes: the larger shops only seem to sell the big names and aren't interested in stocking it.

I think Tesco's sell it