Autarky food - anyone feed this?

[JulietBravoJuliet]

Big dog is a sensitive little soul and gets the shits very easily, plus her coat gets itchy and flaky on a lot of commercial foods, especially ones containing chicken. Been feeding her on Fish4Dogs, Purizon or occasionally Burgess Sensitive, as they all seem to agree with her, but are very expensive.

However, when puppy food shopping (he seems to be able to eat ANYTHING thank goodness!), I came across Autarky, which is a brand I've never seen before, but seems pretty ok ingredients wise (salmon one is 35% salmon I think, plus rice which she's fine with, as oppose to maize which she isn't). I've bought a bag of the puppy for my 15wo JRT, as it was £17 for a 10kg bag, but just wondering about the adult version for big dog.

Has anyone got any experience of this? Seems stupidly cheap, but better than a lot of the more expensive foods.

[SnakeyMcBadass]

I switched to autarky from burns six months ago for my two. No noticeable difference, in that they eat the same amount, have firm poo and remain healthy and glossy coated. The burns was getting increasingly difficult to source and the price was creeping up. Only thing I will say is that the fish breath can knock you out at 20 paces

[WeAllHaveWings]

allaboutdogfood recipe list says its got praire meal in it which is another name for maize.

[JulietBravoJuliet]

Ah that's interesting; didn't realise that! I might try her with a little bit of the puppy version mixed in with her usual food and see how she reacts before committing to it for her. Would just make life a hell of a lot cheaper, especially as they both have a wet food topper on their dinner, which is costing a fortune!

[WeAllHaveWings]

we are on Millies Wolfheart which is grain, chicken, egg etc free and UK sourced. Its still expensive £40 for 12kg of Riverside or £50 for 14.5kg of Countryside or Salmon (delivery only but that includes postage and you can save if you bulk buy), I would go for something like that and forget the wet topper.

They might take a bit to adjust to without the wet topper (you can add warm water to Millies country side and it makes a nice gravy) but if you keep offering just the dry food they should take eventually.

We feed our 30kg lab only 290g a day and he's perfect weight, so a 14.5kg bag lasts around 50 days = £1 day for a great quality good.

[CastilianHhhhidalgo]

What wet food are you currently using a topper? Zooplus sell some European brands of tinned food that are excellent quality but also very cheap. Rocco, Rinti, Animonda GranCarno and Bozita all go down very well with my lot and most of them are less than £1 for a 400g tin, especially if you buy large amounts. They also come in a massive variety of flavours.

I share a single 400g between my four per day as a topper for their Millies Wolfheart.

[JulietBravoJuliet]

WeAllHaveWings without a bit of wet food mixed in, big dog doesn't eat enough to maintain a healthy weight. Though I'd cracked it and was just feeding her on Fish4Dogs, but she slowly dropped a couple of kilos, then needed antibiotics which were easier to give mixed into wet food, but whilst feeding her like that, she's gained weight and condition and is no longer classed as underweight, so I'd rather carry on and know she's eating. Pup will eat dry food happily until he sees big dog getting meat, then he flatly refuses it!

I'm currently using Naturediet but I've looked at the Rocco stuff on Zooplus. Think I'm going to order some :)

[WeAllHaveWings]

Some one just asked about chicken intolerance and weight loss/gain on the Millie's Wolfheart FB group. Below are the answers, thought they might be of interest to you........

chicken is used in all dog foods and its cheaper than potato the quality ranges from 1 day old minced chicks to feathers and even when a food says salmon and potato its usually got chicken fat in. Its an over used meat and many dogs are intollerant to it and eggs are used to bump up protein levels if a recipe says dried eggs 2% for example that anything up to 100 eggs in a bag of food.. we dont like either ingredient and if a dog has a chicken intolerance its quite likely to have an egg one, some salmon and potato foodsprofessing to be chicken free usually have have eggs in ... food for throught! and dried eggs there is many issues with quality and is definately not dried fresh eggs.. swift google will reveal a lot... and activity is nothing to do with proteins we are are looking at carbs and fats for activity = stamina.

food needs to have a good source of meat/fish for body building, maintenance and repair and enough carbs and fats to fuel activity levels. hope this helps your research. if carbs and fats are not used as energy they will go on as body fat so some of our foods are great for weight gain, some for weight loss and all can be tweaked to meet a dogs individual needs...... :)

[Tipsykisses]

We also feed Millie's wolfheart to out boys & I couldn't be happier !
Been through burgess , burns & fish4dogs but now they are on Millie's they are doing so much better !
It's so nice to finally have a solid poo !!
Sorry if tmi

[Duunowaddathink]

I have fed Autarky to my 10 yr old Bouvier for over 7 yrs .. we swapped from Arden grange mainly due to the fact that the breed has notoriously bad gas and Autarky was recommended to help with the problem but also because of price. He is now on the senior light version but was on the adult chicken recipie from Costco at only £13 a sack until 2 years ago (only went onto light when the poor old fella needed to be castrated due to prostate problems and suddenly gained weight) It certainly agrees with his digestive system (except when he is given too many tidbits) and has helped keep him in good condition. I hope it suits you dog too.

[Beaverfeaver2]

Just moved from James wellexpensive to Arden Grange, but was considering Autarky at the same time.

DM feeds her dogs on Autarky and has done for many years. The local vet approved of it apparently