We are currently considering changing our dogs diet to naturediet as we have heard only good things about it and the food he is on doesn't seem to be agreeing with him.He is on nutro but still gets quite loose  and doesnt really show much interest in it now..does anyone here feed naturediet exclusively as most the time I see it mentioned people seem to be using it to mix in with dry foods.I know my bordeax likes the taste as he spends 10 minutes licking my staffys food bowl who is fed on it..lol.Would you also use a mixer with it?.Thanks in advance. :)

Hi StU31, nature diet is excellent and I feed it to my English bull terrier and my Boxer. I was feeding James well beloved and used a little nature diet to to mix with it but they ended up leaving the kibble ! In the end I just fed them the nature diet and haven't looked back since!It is the closest thing IMO to a natural diet and it has a good range to suit all sorts of needs. We feed our two on the lamb and rice (purple pkt) and the fish and rice(blue pkt). These seem to go down well with sensitive tums but all their varities are excellent. There is no need to add a mixer as Nature Diet is a complete food. The only thing I would say is shop around for a good price. I am feeding two large breed dogs so it can work out expensive but I have worked out a deal with my local petshop who gives me a good price because I buy in bulk. Kind regards, Clare

Clare

Have you tried to order from them direct?  I think you need to buy at least 3 boxes at a time.  They deliver it to your door too.  Or at least always did when I used it.

Thanks Clare..if I remember rightly he would need almost 3 packs a day..I maybe wrong..this would work out dearer than the nutro but not much and hopefully what comes out the other end will be a bit firmer!!..I will shop around as I have seen people quote vastly different prices on it from over 70p to as little as 49p..Thanks again for the swift reply.

At 3 packs a day I would think you will use enough to get a good price buying direct from NatureDiet

Anne

I feed ND exclusively to my 2 Goldies, 2 Dobes and Sussex Spaniel. I buy direct from ND, free delivery (usually within a couple of days) and it works out at about 49p a pack - I always order a minimum of 10 boxes, having so many dogs. I also find that invariably the amount they recommend feeding is excessive. My largest Goldie weighs 36.5 kilos and maintains his weight on 2.25 packs a day, he is pretty active and competes at agility, ND recommends 3.3 packs for a dog of his weight.

Hope this helps.

Cheers..think I will order direct..hope he likes it!..lol

Cheers guys. I live in Northern Ireland so I don't know if they will deliver but I will contact them . Thanks for that guys!! Clare

Hi Clare

I'll save you the phone call...Naturediet don't deliver here :( I spoke to them about this before and they gave me the name of a distributor in Belfast but the distributor (who is only about a mile from me) will only supply to pet shops :( We are currently looking at alternative ways of having it delivered, I'll let you know if we come up with anything!

I've worked out a deal with my local petshop too but it's still working out very pricey to feed my two big hounds.

Cheers Shaynlola!! My petshop is giving it to me at 55p a pkt which I think is great value!! Have you checked out the new Petwarehouse near Saintfield??? Got a flyer for it when I was at Belfast champ show and decided to have a look yesterday. It isn't any cheaper than Jollyes or Pets at Home but does have a bigger variety of foods including Burns and Autarky. It also had a great range of fancy dog collars so I might splurge out for the dogs christmas stockings!!!!! Kind regards, Clare

Depending on where you are in the country, Berriewood also supply Nature Diet in bulk (at a slightly cheaper price than Nature Diet themselves if I remember rightly). I had my two on it for a while and was paying 42p per packet with Berriewood (if I ordered over £100 worth). As my two were getting through two cases a week it was certainly worth my time buying in bulk. Berriewood are on 01787 238 003 :) .

The estimates on the front of the packet were, I found, to be rather generous. Being large breeds the recommendation was approx three packs per day, now my male used to get 2 2/3rds per day where as my bitch only got 1 1/3rd (any more and she would have rapidly put on weight) so you have to be guided by your own dog :) .

When on Nature Diet I used to give them Fragaria to reduce the plaque on their teeth and also recreational marrowbones.

We feed Spice BC on naturediet, the only one she doesn't like is the fish one, but she will eat a tin of tuna as an occasional treat :D Because it is a 'soft' diet we do mix in a little JWB for the crunch and also give her raw veggie treats for her teeth and occasionally a large bone free of charge from our local butcher :)
Spice weighs around 24kg, we don't want her to get any bigger and she only eats one pack a day, plus a small handful of JWB. We have found she will only eat one meal in the evening when we sit down to our main meal? we did try to split her meals into 2, but she would ignore the 'breakfast' meal and so we eventually decided that she seems suited to having one meal.
I think most manufacturers will be over generous in their estimates of what a dog will eat regarding how many packs/weight etc but each dog is individual so only time seems to tell what suits each one :D
We order in bulk from Naturediet and they deliver free in our area, so it is working out to 50p pk.

Jacqueline :)

Thanks all for the replies..much appreciated..

I can't seem to find how to purchase it directly from them on their website, can someone please sent me a link or contact no.

Thank you in advance.

Sharon

Hi, you have to phone them to order, its 08700 132960, the more you order the cheaper it is. :)

That's fantastic, thank you you've been a great help.

Sharon

Its a pity it is so expensive, 67p in my area. I would have nowhere to store huge amounts of it and would probably not use it up before the sell by date. A pity this company has to charge so much for a product.

By the way can someone clear up why mixers are used? I thought that the biscuit was good for cleaning their teeth, so if a soft complete food is used wouldnt this deprive the teeth of cleaning?

Have to agree that feeding soft food does take its toll on their teeth, I know because one of my girls' have suffered but she can't eat anything else. Anyway, if you feed a soft food like naturediet there's nothing stopping you from giving them recreational bones/toys, you can even get denture sticks which are supposed to help. Then theres always the toothbrush ;)
Depending on how many times you feed your dog, the ND expiry date is quite long. I originally ordered 6 boxes and I still have four boxes of 18 to use up by next feb, so occasionally give them to the other two as a variety away from autarky. They are 68p from our pet shop but I think I had them for 48p? buying direct in bulk. And theres no delivery charge.
Don't know about adding mixers, only use complete.

>>And theres no delivery charge

unless you live in parts of scotland of course :(

>>>And theres no delivery charge

Or Nothern Ireland, where they don't deliver to at all! :( :(

Naturediet is gritty because they use ground bone, so it's not completely soft like canned foods. And there are no sugars (like the caramel that is sometimes used to colour canned food) to stick on the teeth.

Dry food really does next to nothing to help remove plaque and tartar from teeth.   When I fed dry, I don't recall my dogs chewing on it - extensive chewing on hard foods is the only way to manually remove the placque and tartar.  One minute to down a bowl of dry food is not going to help the teeth much at all, unfortunately.  

Stacey

If you are worried about build up on the teeth, you can give Fragaria or recreational marrowbones :).

I add Laughing Dog Mixer Meal to Naturediet as it encourages the dogs to slow down a bit rather than just hoover up the ND ;)

Also, the boxes of ND I bought (from a pet shop) at the weekend are dated for use before September 2006.

Just checked, I've actually got till april 06, and as I got them last august thats pretty good :) gives me more time to save up to buy more ;) I usually add autarky to mollys' because of her size/weight she would need two packs,  but missie being only a small dog just has it on its own

June, if you order it direct from them it's not 67p, it's 50p. 

You only have to order 4 boxes to get that price, which isn't a huge amount and is not difficult to store.

There are different theories about dry food and whether or not it cleans teeth.  Some people say it does, other people think it does but you can give chews and bones which will do the same thing, so don't worry about the dry food.  Other people say it doesn't clean teeth at all.  If you feed Nature Diet and add some dry food to it (mixer or complete), then you'll have the best of both worlds and it also helps to keep the cost down if you add some dry in.

what are the right chews and bones to give a 6 month old westie then? I have given him tripe bone which he loves but am not sure what else would be OK .

Try some Nylabones, have you heard of those?  You should be able to get them from your petshop.

They make several different kinds - 'Puppy bones' are for puppies with their baby teeth, so I wouldn't advise those.

Nylabone Edibles are their edible range and they're obviously fine to be eaten and are usually good quality ingredients and last a while.

Nylabone Durables are their tough plastic bones, which are impregnated with flavours so that dog likes to chew them.  They last a long time. 

Different dogs have different preferences about what kind of things they like to chew - some dogs like hard things, some will only chew slightly softer things.  And it changes during the dog's life, so experiment with the Nylabones and find a kind that suits.

thanks will look for those

Marrowbones from the butchers are good for teeth, you could get them to cut it down in size for your westie so the bone isnt bigger than her :D :D.  I wouldnt waste my money on nylabones.

Not everyone wants raw bones on their living room carpets, Clairey.

And Nylabones are good value for money if you choose one which is soft enough that your dog likes to chew it, yet is hard enough that it won't be destroyed.

<<Not everyone wants raw bones on their living room carpets, Clairey.>>

No, but one can give raw bones to the dog elsewhere in the house.........

Margot

Not if you've got a house as small as mine, Margot...!

>that your dog likes to chew it

I havent yet found a dog that likes to chew them ;) and I definitely wouldnt say they are good value for money, in fact I think they are a total rip off.

ClaireyS
My dogs are obsessed with their Nylabones, they last a long time and are chewed regularly by all 5 (Dobes, Goldies and a Spaniel). I have to say I totally disagree with your comments and would prefer Nylabones to "natural" bones any day.

would just like to say be careful with nylabones and do supervise the chewing of them.
Kai has had the edibles and after a while couldnt be bothered with the chewing and gulped a 2" piece straight down, thankfully he brought it back up the next day, and he also managed to bite the ends clean off a durable one aswell but i managed to retrieve the bits before he swallowed them that time. and all before he was 6 mths old. now I wont have them in my house, too dangerous for him :)

My dogs have no interest in their Nylabones at all. In fact they are not much interested in chewing anything inedible. Good job my butcher provides an endless supply of bones for free :)

Pedlee, each to their own, I would rather feed my dogs "natural" bones than "plastic" bones :)

They don't actually "eat" the plastic ones, Claire, so you're not actually 'feeding" the dog them...

And the edible ones are mostly made out of healthy stuff - natural flavours & no colours.

I'm not sure though, why we have to have a debate about Nylabones now??  Some people prefer Nylabones, others prefer raw bones.

It depends on many things, such as the person's circumstances, how big their house is, their feelings towards feeding BARF (even just bones), how prepared they are to deal with the guarding issues that might arise over a high-value resource and many other things besides.

Nylabones aren't bad for a dog, in fact they are much better than giving nothing to chew on at all.  And many pet owners are more prepared to give something like a Nylabone than a raw bone.

I have nothing against those who want to give raw bones and I'm sure their dogs love them.  But please don't diss the Nylabones either!  There's room for both in the world!

>>They don't actually "eat" the plastic ones

Try telling our kai that as thats exactly what he was trying to do with his :)

Im not debating about nylabones, just giving the OP another option on teeth cleaning.  You have your say and I will have mine, thats the way it is on a forum :)

Blimey the first time I have seen ND cause a heated debate :D :D

I had Min my oldie on ND for 4/5 years and we gave her carrots and also hyde chews (I know not the choice of many people ) but she thrived and never had any teeth problems :) She lived until a month before she was 15 :)

Lucy
xx