we changed away from kibble some time ago,we are happy with the results and cannot imagine ever feeding that way again. The problem I now have is when I'm not here. Most of the time I am, I know what I'm doing and I'm happy doing a slice of liver here and a squirt of salmon oil there but there is no way on this earth my husband can/will be doing it and with the all breed champ shows on now it was always a great help to me that he fed on such occasions as I'm out of the house for the whole day. If there were just a couple of dogs I could bag up and leave it for him to tip out but we have quite a few so it's not an option. My thoughts turned to the grain free foods like Eden, Millies wolfheart etc. Is any one of these better than the other and does anyone who feeds raw or feeds a home cooked diet ever do the odd day of this.

Would he be willing to dish out something like Natures menu raw frozen nuggets ? Having said that my dog prefers his Mums own prepared food more and will sometimes turn his nose up if I give him it.
Natures menu do a freeze dried raw but its quite pricey but my dog loves this if no raw. My hubby is the same has to be as simple as possible. I do occasionally feed Lilys kitchen, grain free Barking heads with no ill effects. He has tried Eden, Canagan, Acana, before we went down the raw route, he wasn't overjoyed at those and never seemed to have good poos.
Of course there's some people that feed raw and do a starve day once a week with no food. Dont know if that would suit your breed.
Have a browse through this website to see ratings for commercial food
http://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/

thanks for taking the trouble to reply. Yes that was the site I looked at. wrote off for samples of everything and to be honest some seemed a little rich for them. That's the trouble the dogs are used to what I make too! Some of the ideas you have are good but way to pricey for my lot. It's costing enough nowadays going to shows what with the price of fuel and everything. Extra feeding costs like this would cripple me! You are totally correct however that missing a meal without would not hurt either. It's more like once a month after all.

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">If there were just a couple of dogs I could bag up and leave it for him to tip out but we have quite a few so it's not an option.

Why not? you are already preparing the dogs food anyway so why can you not bag up the meals in advance? Or put the meals in the dogs dishes and label each dish?

I feed mostly raw (Nutriment and MVM meats) but do use kibble for one meal every few days. I've found Canagan good, and Millies Wolfheart (the Countryside mix is what I use, the salmon was too rich for my lot) and have used Eden in the past. I used to feed Orijen and Acana but prefer to support UK producers. Ziwipeak (air-dried) is something I've also used.

I thought I'd join the breeders club for M/W too as the discount is very good. Having changed food I'm at a bit of a loss regarding puppies and puppy packs.Nutriment and Nature's menu is fine and i will always wean on that but I know full well a lot of buyers will not follow on with raw/home cooked. I sort of 50/50'd them last time to give new owners the option which way to go using Arden Grange but one of these grain free foods might be better for that too. The Countryside mix was the one I was going for or the turkey with veg.Have you ever tried that? If you're telling me it's working for you then that's not a bad idea throughout the summer either as I must admit being a veggie myself the warm weather makes this even less appealing to me! The previous person asked why i couldn't just bag up....well because this is for my husband to do. Need I say more! With me I know exactly who has half a pound, who has more and who has less. I use D.E so that gets added and either the green stuff from dorwest herbs or salmon oil. Oldies get stuff for their joints and so on and on. Mostly it gets added at the last minute in the dishes  and it's just routine to me and done in minutes it's only when you stop to think about someone else doing it you realise it's not that straightforward at all. All he wants is a pile of clean dishes a bag of food and a measuring scoop....believe me!

I've not tried the Turkey variety yet, it's fairly new to the market, and as I've got a litter due don't want to muck about with food at this stage. My last litter I used Natural Instinct and Orijen, this litter will be Nutriment and Millies Wolfheart. Like you I know full well some new owners won't continue to feed raw so want the pups to go off to their new homes with both options.

I let my hubby give them kibble RC when I'm not home in time.... not often, once a month...bit like us having a naughty take away once in a while.
No harm I'm sure.
As an American friend said..."lighten up..kids like cookies once in a while."

I feed raw but also give the odd feed of kibble now and again - very useful if camping at a show and can't take enough raw food with me to last the whole stay. I use a tent so very limited as to how long frozen meat will keep. It also means that in an emergency situation someone else could feed my dogs without having to worry if they were doing it correctly.

I've begun feeding grain-free kibble in the mornings - my senior dog can't take as much bone as she used to (I raw feed) and the excellent chicken mince i get from a local farm supplier is minced chicken carcass. Previously it would be chicken necks/wings for breakfast, being easy and quick.

It's an unforeseen compromise, but better grain-free than not. My sister (who raw fed her GSD for 12 years) also found her girl less able to cope with raw as she got into her final years. I'm not sure how it affected hers, but mine gets more constipated and needs the bone content kept lower. Recreational bones have to be watched as well.

I visited as many stands as I could at Crufts and bought various bags of all the grain free I could find - to date, the one that has suited my two the best (and my pocket, thankfully) has been Applaws.

There are a few new ones out, BRIT is one of them.

>the one that has suited my two the best (and my pocket, thankfully) has been Applaws.

MsT are you finding a change in the kibble of late?  I order online and have always gone for the one with lamb as well as chicken.  Because my toys always stole the Collies food in the past (when I was feeding RC to the little ones) I use the small/medium kibble.  It got a bit smaller on my last but one order.  This time it is like RC mini junior in size!  Far too small for a Collie.  Have you noticed this difference, or do you use large breed?  If so, how big is the kibble?

> MsT are you finding a change in the kibble of late?

Not really as I am new to it. But I have seen the small breed Applaws and it is like small pyramids. Mine are larger dogs, so theirs is like slightly irregular coins in shape. Everytime I dish them out I think I'm paying my dogs for their love & work :)

On the other hand you could try Markus Muehle kibble, which looks like pony nuts/cow cake/sow pellets (take your pick). It's just alien to me, but a vegan acquaintance loves it because it looks the least like meat as can be imagined.

>On the other hand you could try Markus Muehle kibble

I tried this once, and you need to feed far less in volume as it's very heavy and dense.

>But I have seen the small breed Applaws

I've never seen a small breed exclusive on their site.  The bags that I buy say for small/medium breeds.  I didn't even know they do a small breed only.  Is yours exclusively large breed kibble?

Is Markus Muehle kibble a grain free one?

>I tried this once, and you need to feed far less in volume as it's very heavy and dense.

Could have done with that when I was trying to find something to feed my picky princess! But finally she has learned to enjoy her food, thank goodness.

> Is Markus Muehle kibble a grain free one?

No it isn't. Ingredients can be found here: http://www.markus-muehle.de/en/naturnahfutter.htm

Thanks a lot.  I don't want to go down that route then.  It is just so much more convenient to feed all the same when you have a lot of dogs.  I have a couple that get the runs with grain.

It got a bit smaller on my last but one order.  This time it is like RC mini junior in size!  Far too small for a Collie.

I always use the Small/Med Chicken for training treats for Zuma (GSD).
His 'normal' feed is Burns pork + potato with some Natures menu mixed in but if we are out for the day he's not so keen on Burns on its own. I take the Applaws and he shovels it down, I did get a bag of the Large dog when it came out but for some reason he wasn't as keen on that as the small pyramids :-)
I only ever buy the 2kg bags and have just checked various jacket pockets - for old stock and one lot is a bit smaller than the rest, I know I had a bag of Lamb + Chicken at some stage so it may have been the remains of that.

>have just checked various jacket pockets - for old stock

Oh how normal you sound.  :-)  :-)

Thank You :-D :-D
At least one pocket of virtually every jacket has poo bags and another has dog treats!!

My friend was P***ing herself laughing at Crufts last year, we were talking to a guy on the W Midlands police stand and the springer drug dog was doing a perfect 'alert' ............on the pocket with applaws treats in !!!

I showed the guy what was in the pocket then bent down to talk to the dog...........never mind the face - talk to the pocket and nose straight in :-)

I just love dog people.  :-)

my computer has been out of order so only able to read replies today. Thanks for the comments. As I said I wrote off for free samples from everyone and was a bit disappointed that the brands I was particularly keen on (such as Eden) the dogs didn't like. It could "read" the best on paper but no good if the dog won't eat it! The Millies seems a good size kibble which i prefer to tiny pieces, more for me than the dogs. I have to consciously measure tiny kibble as I naturally put too much in the bowl, the larger pieces I judge better by eye (am I just weird?)
The M/W suited my pocket (with the breeders discount) but they like Applaws the best.
I just feel a whole lot better knowing many other people mix food in this way and see it as a happy compromise.
The vast majority of the time they will eat my own prepared food but on the odd occasion I go out this will suit my hubby down to the ground, and thinking about it when the kids were young and he was in charge for the day he never cooked meat and 3 veg for them either! The children loved the fact they had eggy bread, sausages or whatever he was capable of....the dogs will be the same!

I'm a bit late to this mine get Nutriment most of the time but if someone else needs to feed them, I don't panic what it is. My backup for forgotten to defrost food is Barking heads Fusspot - very good price on amazon subscribe and save!