Financial struggles mean I am soon going to have to switch my lot back onto kibble.  I'm not happy about it, but I'm kind of schtuck - not only am I more or less constantly skint but looking for another job means it's hit and miss when i'm at home for deliveries of meat!

Anyhoo, I was looking at Gusto in Tesco today - has anyone fed this?  I've heard good things, and the price is of course appealing.  But I can't find a list of ingredients on the net anywhere - are there additives in it?  Much cereal?

I know the switchover is going to take a while, going to raw from kibble I did cold turkey - kibble one meal and raw the next - as I'm aware there are different digestive processes going on.  Any advice on the switchover would be great too - I've done kibble to kibble and kibble to raw, but I was hoping to not have to go back again.

I would feed the Autarky which has beneficial herbs, the gusto is a cheapy version with less of the good ingredients and not a patch on the already good value Autarky.

What did you feed your dogs before you changed to BARF?  Did this suit your dogs?  If so I would be inclined to go back to that because at least your dogs did well on it. :)  Unless of course they didn't hense why you started feedinig BARF :)

That's the problem - Remy was on a salmon and rice diet that cost something like £2.50.  That's one of the "not an option" diets, it's more expensive than Burns and I can't afford that!  Soli also went on it to see if it would help her aggression (no difference).  She was on pero before that, but although that says it's additive free I'm a little wary - the bits look a little too colourful to me!  The other problem with the S&R diet was that I had to order it, I need something I can get quickly.  That's what made me look at the gusto - it's always in stock, whereas autarky - which I have used before and liked, apart from being very maize-strong - is order-only too.

I don't know.  Why can't it be blummin simple?  Or, why can't prize choice do raw meat at a sensible price?  Then I could just keep going to PAH for it and not have this dilemma!

I'll second Barbara's comments on Autarky. I feed mine something different and it suits them so I'm not motivated to swap but, I know people whose dogs do very well on it and you can get a 15kg (18?) bag at Costco for £9-11.  First ingredient is chicken, no sugars or loads of chemicals.

We won 2 15kg bags of gusto at an obedience show once and as we don't use complete we thought we'll just use it as a mixer with the raw meat until its used up.  Big mistake - all I'll say is that it is well named We got half way down the first bag and all our dogs were to put it politely passing rather a lot of wind :D We binned the rest of the bag and gave the other to our friend for her show's raffle but we did ask her to tell us who won it so that we would know not to park ourselves next to them at future shows!!  I have no idea whether nutitionally wise it is good, bad or indifferent but it certainly had an unwanted side effect. :)

I've used Gusto occasionally, and the dogs have enjoyed it and there have been no ill-effects, even with a straight switchover (when I'd run out of their usual food). Small, firm poos and plenty of energy. :)

My oldest girl is very fussy but she loves Gusto.
Sometimes when she hits that fussy time after her season  I,ve given her Gusto for a change to givr her an appetite and had no problems whatever with it.
Small firm poos  clean feeding bowls and she looks really well on it if I really had to go on to a cheaper food I would use this one on my girls with no hesitation.

I would go with Autarky,apart from Burns it was the only dry food which kept my dogs allergies at bay,you can get it at Tesco now

I used to feed Nutro, a very good food, but expensive! Now I have 4 dogs instead of 2 I feed Autarky to the big beasts, it's an excellent balanced nutritious food and well worth the money. I joined Costco to buy it there, cheaper than anywhere else...as I have an Affix I managed to join as a Business, which is cheaper than general public rates...but even then paying the £23 odd it is to join still saves me loads over the year...even if I paid the public rate it would still be well worth it, good luck, Dawn xx PS hope things improve soon hun...I am also getting to the 'no money' moment unless hubby gets a job soon!

Just to say have you had a search around all of your local butchers as we get all pet mince ( all offal , meat and bones minced) and bones for free . We put money in the charity box they have on the counter. There are a couple that do this and also go and se them and see when they prepare all thre chicken breast etc as all the carcasses etc they normally chick out so arrange a time when you can go and pick them up ! feeding raw can be very cheap if you know who to talk to and what to ask ;)

We also get pig trotters in some butchers for free

Oh yes value frozen mince and also offal is very cheap as well in most supermarkets ;)

I don't have any suggestions i'm afraid as i'm still learning about dog food etc but i thought i would post to say that i think its really lovely that despite having money troubles (been there) you are still concerned with ensuring your dogs get the best diet you can afford!

Your dogs sound lucky to have such a caring mummy!

We have used Gusto i really didnt see no difference to using JWB, after 2years of age in our breed (as they mature later) as long as it agrees with them i really do get ticked off with people being particular over food... What suits one may not suit the other and if your dogs are doing good on gusto so be it go for it....

We now source our raw food from a large supplier and it is so much cheaper than buying locally. Have a look at the Landywoods site as prices extremely good. I share a deliviery with someone in my area as don't need enough to meet the minimum delivery amount ( money wise ). I have had three deliveries so far over the last 3 months and have spent around £50 to feed two dogs - a GR and a terrier cross - and have so much still in the freezer that I won't need anymore for a good 2 months or so, and that is feeding around 1050g a day. £50 for 5 months food is a very economical way to feed raw. If you want any more info please feel free to pm me :)

You would need to get an additional freezer but we got ours on Freecycle which is a website where you give away unwanted items you may have and in turn can take other people's unwanted items. You can post on there to say what you would like to receive and I am sure you will find a freezer in no time.

My five dogs cost me around £50 a month to feed, and thats on Prizechoice so definately not the cheapest option for meat.

Invest in a bigger freezer, buy in bulk from wherever you can - i can get a huge tray of chicken wings for not a lot from my local meat market, ditto veg, the rest i get from Prizechoice oh and tinned fish from asda.

If you go for a cheaper bulk supplier, source bones/bits from a butcher, and ask markets for the veg they dont want at the end of the day, you can do it quite a lot cheaper than i do, and most market traders will do you a decent discount on a tray of chicken wings or carcasses if you ask nicely/pre-order.

Its a little more work, and awkward when time is short but definately worth it id say.

landywoods is expensive though, if its off when you get it, or part defrosted, as myself and some on here have found. :(

So far have never had a problem with that

Mine don't cost alot to feed through Prize Choice...and they can go through quite alot of tripe!!!

But like someone else suggested it is worth trying local butchers. Someone said that our local butcher has started selling fresh minced meat very cheap to feed to animals.:-)

>But I can't find a list of ingredients on the net anywhere - are there additives in it?  Much cereal?

Gusto Adult:
Cereals/Bakery products; Meat and animal derivatives (min 25%); Derivatives of vegetable origin (beet pulp min 2.5%); Oils and fat; Minerals and vitamins; BHT as antioxidant.

Protein 21%; Oil 8%; Fibre 3%; Ash 9%; Vitamin A 15,000 iu/kg; Vitamin D3 1,500 iu/kg; Vitamin E (as alpha tocopherol) 90 mg/kg; Copper (as copper sulphate) 12 mg/kg.

There is sooo much i want to say about this food,but i think the ingredients speak for themselves.... I would definitely go down the autarky route :)

BHT is really bad, it is banned in food in Japan, sweden, Australia and romania. google BHT and read what wikipedia says about it. it might not be too bad now and again, but most people feed their dogs the same thing every day so it could be building up in their bodys.