I have recently started one of my dogs on Autarky and would like to know if others have fed the quantities suggested on the bag? It is quite a small amount and as I had problems with Burns - feeding the small amounts they advised all dogs were far to thin, but if I fed more they got the runs. I would like to hear others thoughts before changing the rest of my dogs on to Autarky.

Personally, I free-feed autarky but having a pup in the family I thought I ought to see just how much I fed them, and guess what? I seem to feed approximately the recommended quantity anyhow, or should I say, that is what they seem to eat!

What breed of dog do you have?

I have Chocolate labs, have been meaning to register for the forum for ages and finally getting round to it. Have read it lots and find it quite helpful for finding out others experience of different foods etc.
I prefer to feed a natural dog food without artificial preservatives colours etc. As I said I have tried Burns, but it did not suit 5 out of 7 dogs. Autarky is about half the price of Burns, so if you dont need to feed as much as other foods then that would be a big saving.
I just dont want to try it and find they get the runs or loose weight on the recommended amountas they did on the Burns food.
Thanks for your info.

I have a 6 yr old Lab with a bit of a sensitive stomach and she copes fine on Autarky, I feed the recommended amounts and her weight has remained stable, the vet says she is in excellent shape. There was no diarrhoea when I switched her over but I did do it very. very slowly about 2 weeks in all.

The cost saving is an added bonus and I can honestly say that my lab is doing as well on Autarky as she did on another food which cost twice the price!

I've switched my young pointer to Autarky as she wasn't doing so well on Dr John (the others are great on it and she's always been the difficult one :-D)  I've not even looked at the amount you are supposed to feed, I just judge for myself what she needs.   I have to say, she is doing exceptionally well on it.

Helen

I fed Autarky for about 2 years.I only stopped because I decided to try BARF.I started off by using approximately the amount recommended on the bag and then altering it depending on how each individual dog was doing.
Archer

Thanks for all your replies, very helpful. I wonder if anyone who has an itchy ( grass allergy) dog has found Autarky has helped?
I got a cheap bag of dog food lately as pennies were getting a bit scarce, but the amount they recommend is a lot more than Autarky, and also when I weighed it it was less than half the weight! So perhaps feeding cheaper foods is not really cheaper if you need to feed more than twice as much! I was dissappointed not to be able to continue with the Burns and have been trying to find a suitable replacement, so it looks like the Autarky might be the one. As I breed occasionally I would be interested to hear from anyone who has tried the Spring/Puppy Autarky.

I reared a litter of lab puppies very successfully on Autarky puppy, and they all did very well. However, when I took the puppy we kept to the vet for his jabs, he strongly recommended Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy because of the lower calcium content, said to minimise the risk of joint problems. At 7 months I changed him to Burns, because he's not a working dog, and his mum is now on Burns. However, really I had no problems whatsoever with Autarky, and as you say it's very good value.

I finds that msot breands advise way over what mine should get, but the Autarky seems to be a lot more accurate in what they advise.  Maybe because it is made by people with working sogs who don't want them to be great fat couch potatoes?? :D

I've just raised a happy and healthy litter of working cocker spaniels on Autarky puppy with out too many problems.  It is the only food that has ever agreed with my 6yr old springer who has sensitive digestion and I am very happy with my puppies growth.

My dogs are very happy on Autarky and I am happy with the price I pay for it £11.59 per 15kg sack (10kg for puppy).

Glad to hear your pups have done well on it. The only place where I can find it are charging £16.99 for 15 kilos. Do yo uknow anywhere you can buy it online at a reasonable price?
I have one dog with a dodgy tummy. He was OK on supadog sensitive, then I changed him to Burns and he got the runs. He's back on supadog and it has taken ages to get his poos normal so I am reluctant to change him again.Then again it's definitely easier if I can feed all the dogs on the same food. If your dog was OK on it I may have to be brave and try it!
Do you know if they do puppy packs for breeders, as its nice to give new owners some feeding info as well as the food itself.

They don'ty do puppy packs per se, but were more than happy to send me leaflets for the new owners, and I passed on the new owners addresses and they sent on stockist information.

If you phone them they will be more than helpful and obliging.  They will also tell you where you can get Autarky locally and who does the best price.  They were quite forthcoming when it came to telling me who sold it cheapest.  I also asked them to persuade my local animal feed stockest to stock it which they did.  I can buy a 2.5kg bag for £2.70 but at the game fair they let me have some bags to send home with my pups for £1.50 which I was quite happy with.

I can also buy small bags in Tesco and Sainsburys but at a slightly higher price.

I would try adding a couple of pellets to his food every day say 4 on mon 5 on tues 6 on thursday etc... removing a little of his and see how you go. If it upsets him on this amount (hopefully it will only be a little upset ) you will know quite early on. Our bengi had problems like this due to incorrect feeding from his previous owner so we changed him to quamtum what our other dog had and he was fine. They went off this as they do so tried james well beloved and a small hand full of pellets (about 8 or 9 ) gave him the runs again for 2 or 3 days so back to old food adding a little hot water till i tried Autarky a few months later and hes been fine. I started really slowly like ive advised above and not one problem. I was hesitent before i tried but so many of my friends at class were using it and danny who has the world record for everything goes through him was looking more healthier than ever. He had an operation 1 year ago and since then he cant have most things including some gluten free and diary free products and he thrives on autarky so imo i would give it a try you never know he might be ok on it. Since i changed bengi who would only eat every other day or so now glups his food down. They do get treats every now and then to add variarty.

Thankyou for your info and advice. It sounds as though Autarky might just be what I have been looking for and after your experiences I'm not so worried about changing my boy onto it.
He has always been hard to keep weight on, unusual for a Lab I know. Recently had him castrated as he will not be used for breeding and he would not eat when any of the girls were in season. When he is lean anyway you can imagine how he looked after a week of not eating!
I will change him much more slowly as you suggested and keep my fingers crossed he is OK.
I am going to phone the Autarky helpline tomorrow and see if I can get it a bit cheaper than £16.99.
Thanks to all for help on this matter.