Hi Everyone,

I have just started feeding K9 Natural Freeze dried this week. Currently i am only feeding it to our dobe who suffers with poor coat condition and runny poops on foods with grain. She weighs approx 30kg so i am following the guide lines and feeding her 1 and a half cups a day but it seems like such a measly amount. The box instructs me that as its a freeze dried raw food i need to feed far less than i would of normal kibble.

At £100 for 4kg (makes up 16kg rehydrated) i am hoping that this box will last me 2 months so i dont want to up the volume im feeding unnecessarily.

I just wondered whether anyone has experience with this food and what they thought to the feeding guidelines.

Thanks

Hilly x

I've never heard of this food, but do you feed it dry or rehydrate it first? Once it's reabsorbed the water it lost during freeze-drying it might look a more satisfactory volume.

You rehydrate it to an extent. As in you add 3/4 of a cup of luke warm water to it but i wouldnt say it particularly bulks up the food.

Its weird stuff. I was expecting it to be powdered for some reason and that when you added water it would become like a paste?! But its not its like squishy kibble that are still a bit moist and greasy and they dont swell or even absorb a particularly large amount of the water. Apparently the water that you add back is just the water content lost from the blood during freeze drying.

£100 ?...ouch !

Have you looked at Ziwipeak ?, air dried meat, but price is a bit cheaper, £70 for 5 kl of lamb, and £80 for fish or venison, I don't think any water is added to it though.

Oop's forgot to add the link
http://www.ziwipeakshop.co.uk/acatalog/ZiwiPeak_Daily_Dog_Cuisine.html

£100 ?...ouch !

Well this is my worry Celli! In theory it should work out much cheaper that ziwipeak. 5kg of Ziwi would only give me 19 days of food for a 30kg dog where as this 4kg of k9 natural should give me 56 days worth according to this feeding guide! As supposedly once reconstituted with water 4kg makes up 16kg. But i just cant see how this little 4kg box is going to feed daisy the dustbin for 2 months!

I am hoping someone will come along and say 'dont worry i feed my dog these piddly portions too and you really do get 56 days worth' and put my mind at ease!!!

It'll be interesting to see how you get on, fingers crossed it does last that long :-)

Hello - I have joined this forum in order to answer your queries about k9natural Freeze Dried Raw Dog Food, I hope this is ok?  Someone who also uses k9 alerted me to the question posed by Hilly. 

Hilly - you are correct in that a 4k box will last your 30k Doberman for 53 days based on feeding 1% of bodyweight.  (300g of WET k9natural per day / 75g of DRY plus warm tap water ).  However, this allows for the addition of a raw meaty bone.  If you are not able to feed a raw meaty bone then I would advise feeding 2% of bodyweight.

k9natural is simply 85% raw lamb which includes blood, bone and offal and 15% seasonal fruit and vegetables, all freeze dried, still raw, but convenient and complete.  So - to explain the portion size, raw meat is 75% water so imagine the original piece of lamb before it had the water taken out, it would have looked a lot larger in it's raw state. When serving k9natural simply add back in the original 75% water by running under the warm tap.  k9natural will NOT soak up the water as the cell walls are still intact, there are no ingredients that will act like a sponge, the water will sit in the bowl and the dog will love it.

k9natural is ideal for several different types of pet owners.........firstly the owner that already feeds raw...they will find k9natural an ideal addition to their cupboard as k9natural has a shelf life of up to 2 years once opened, with no special storage requirements, simply reseal and put in the cupboard.  Great for holidays (no more carrying cool boxes etc ) and indeed any occasion where feeding raw meat and bone is difficult.  Second......k9natural is a great introduction to raw feeding for those owners that are aware that raw is the only diet that their dog should be eating, but may be afraid to start, perhaps because they think it's complicated and messy.  k9natural does not look dissimilar to kibble ( although it's absolutely NOTHING like ) and is therefore not such a huge 'leap' into the whole 'raw' thing!  Because k9natural is a complete raw diet it takes the guesswork out of what to feed.  Third.....k9natural is a brilliant product for those dogs who have problems, that may well be caused by an ingredient in the food....eg...itchy skin, chewing paws, orange muzzle, soft and/or smelly stools, tear staining, bad breath, wind, hyperactivity, overweight, blocked anal glands..I could go on...all these common problems are usually caused by cooked, highly processed food, kibbles etc, which contain very little-if any-meat.  Our dogs are carnivores, built to eat nothing but raw meat and bone. 

Going back to the original question raised by Hilly - yes, it is not cheap to feed k9natural to a 30k dog, especially if you are not able to feed raw meaty bones as a supplement.  But, hopefully, k9natural will introduce you to the huge health benefits of feeding raw and will lead you into sourcing raw meat and bones.

As a quick guide to anyone reading this:- a 5k dog will cost 31p per day to feed at 1% of bodyweight from a 4k box.  A 10k dog = 62p, a 15k dog = 93p and a 20k dog = £1.25 per day.  Double these figures if you are going to feed k9natural alone, 7 days a week, and are not able to feed a raw meaty bone.

3 sites that I would recommend for anyone interested in learning more about raw feeding.

And if anyone would like any more information about k9natural or indeed a sample then please do not hesitate to contact me or go to www.k9natural.co.uk

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/04/25/pet-food-nutrition-tips.aspx

http://rawfed.com/myths/

http://www.k9natural.com/

I have PM'd you.

Hilly, if you find that this food doesn't suit your girl (or your pocket!) you could try Fish4dogs. Have a look at their website, they do different fish types. I've fed my crew on this for the last couple of years and have been impressed

Thanks, this reply is just what i wanted to hear.

K9 natural FD seemed like the perfect choice for me at the moment and ideally i would like to feed it to all 3 of my dogs but with it costing a fair bit I am just trialing it on Daisy first.

I would raw feed but i have a young baby (10 months) and time, space and hygine issues are holding me back at the minute so K9 seemed like a good compromise.

The dogs get a large raw bone at the weekend (usually a shin bone) and strip it clean and then spend the rest of the week getting the marrow out. Obviously these are too big to feed every day so what type of raw meaty bone should i serve as a meal?

Thanks again

A good everyday bone would be lamb rib, spine or shoulder, or chicken wings.

P@H do a pre-packed raw food which  comes in handy bags, perhaps using that alongside the K9 would be more cost effective.

Just what Celli says -- Rib bones are great for crunching on and demolishing !  I'm lucky as I get them from my butcher free, and even better, he saves me ones with a little bit of meat on them! If I'm cooking a chicken I'll cut off the wings and give to the dog - although a larger dog will probably eat that without it touching the sides !

Also - yes PAH or even your high St pet shop ( support your local pet shop x), will usually have freezers in store and have bags of free flow chicken, tripe etc.  This is very easy to feed or to add to k9natural as it is FREE FLOW and defrosts really quickly.

ps --- you ARE feeding raw.  K9natural IS completely raw --- something like Fish for Dogs, although a VERY good quality kibble is still cooked, therefore a dead product.

Our Butcher is very generous too so i'll get onto him about rib bones at the weekend.

If i freeze them can i give them straight to the dog out of the freezer? That shouldnt make a difference should it?

Thanks again for all the help.

I freeze my bones too, but I do have them out the freezer for an hour or two before feeding, they aren't completely defrosted but they're not frozen solid either.