JD and Lola are very good at telling us it’s time for their meal. They have a campaign that usually starts an hour or more before they can realistically expect to be fed. We are very “old fashioned” about their food. I’ve never been able to bring myself to convert to dried food, opting instead for tins of meat and mixer. It’s now considered so old fashioned that it’s getting more difficult to source. Although tins are still available, the number of brands is declining and getting mixer isn’t straightforward any more. Although most supermarkets do stock one brand, if it’s out of stock then there is usually no alternative. But my problem is that feeding them dried food is high calorie compared to what we have always used and so you have to feed relatively small quantities. This may seem good from the point of view of convenience for owner but look at it from the point of view of the dog – a diet of a small bowl of “muesli” instead of a big bowl of meat and crunchy biscuit – well, what would you vote for?
However, I did a cost analysis the other day and worked out that to feed them the same amount of nutrition as their traditional diet, we could half our costs by switching. So we bought a small pack of dried and have fed them this for the last two nights. They don’t seem in the least bit perturbed and treat mealtime with the same degree of seriousness as before, watching DMs hands with their bowls with rapt attention. JD can be seen licking his lips at the prospect.
Perhaps it’s just me being a bit old fashioned but I still look at the bowl and feel guilty. They will still get “Grandma treats” though and these will ease my conscience to a degree. My Mum has, ever since I had my first dog, Toby, frozen all of her scraps of meat left over from Sunday lunches, along with any spare gravy and she brings them to me in a cold bag because she feels sorry for the dogs whose owners are veggies and therefore they don’t get any scraps from us. She pretends to be immune to the charms of the dogs but her actions show that her heart is melted by them too!
