Millies wolfheart or raw?

Hi I could really do with some advice/opinions please.

I'm torn-do I stick with Millies or move over to raw? Millies is great quality, they all love it and,of course, it's convenient. But it's still a dry food and that plays on my mind sometimes.
Does anyone have any negatives or positives about either of the diets?
Cheers

I personally would never feed anything but raw. It is a natural diet for dogs ... wolves in the wild do not eat dry food or food out of a can! Dry food is of course very convenient ... that is the only positive thing in my opinion. I can't think of anything negative to say about raw feeding ... it is all win win. Better for their teeth, no carbohydrate to cause plaque, smaller and much firmer poos so much easier to pick up. Cheaper than a good quality kibble. Less fattening as no carbohydrate. Less anal gland problems and my experience has been with multiple dogs far less trips to the vet. I hope this helps!

My girl won't touch raw so it would be the kibble for me. However, if you have the time to work out a raw diet and the patience to sort it out, it's good.

Rosie is fed both kibble and canned. Her teeth are gloriously white with no plaque. Her poos are firm, but she does have the occasional glitch with her anal glands, but not so much now she's getting more mature.

In other words, it's horses for courses. Whatever suits you and your dogs best

I agree 100% with Gnasher. I have fed raw for more than 30 years, the dogs have always had good teeth, no bad breath, never had anal gland problems, no itches or allergies, weight is easy to control and their coats have a very deep shine. It is so natural, just lovely.
When feeding raw, you do not have to feed balanced meals every day, the process of raw balances itself over a period of a few weeks, providing you offer a good variety of different meats, fat, gristle and skin with raw bones and offal, this is important.

I do however, always keep a bag of Millies Wolfheart on stand by for emergences and bed time sweeties to go to bed with and if we are going out for a while a small handful scattered on the ground to say goodbye. I believe that Millies is one of the best kibbles and British made too.

Good luck with your choice but I would suggest RAW!

Thanks for the replies
Forgotton I think that is my main worry-not getting the balance right and causing problems for my lot. I fed barf back in the day and they all did brilliantly on it but it was quite time consuming and I remember being worried about getting the balance right.

Don't let it worry you, as mentioned, plenty of variety between meats with raw bones and assorted offal and the diet balances itself over a period of weeks.
I certainly don't measure specific amounts, but our lot do get a good variety of everything possible, including sensible household scraps (not chips and pizza) every day though!
Wolves and wild dogs don't get "balanced" meals every day... How many hundreds of thousand or even millions of years have they existed, they must be doing something right!!
If your lot did well on it before I'm sure you must have been getting something right too.

It's interesting Chris that so many dogs do so much better on raw, but then you get those that do exactly the same thing on kibble!! They have perfect teeth, firm poos like your Rosie. It's fascinating and just goes to show how adaptable these pets of ours' are ... they never cease to amaze me!!

I only believe in the prey model based raw feeding. In the wild, dogs do not really eat fruits, most veggies, nuts and seeds, grains etc. Raw food diets that add these foods aren't really natural. I've seen BARF feeders set down plates that look almost half and half veggie/meat. And they COOK the veggies usually. Nothing natural about that of course. That is NOT how dogs in the wild eat. I also have seen them feeding yogurt and other dairy products. And of course the factory generated "multivitamins" and "supplements" they give the dogs and act like it's a "natural" diet.

http://www.frenchbulldogbreed.net/wp...02-768x509.jpg

The wild diet would contain roughly 5% plant based foods, almost none of which would be fruits... Yet this BARF feeder has WAY more than 5% here and its all fruit. And then a fish head and some ground up mystery meat.

I would not feed my dog like this in a million years. I feel like a good quality kibble is better for him. I would love to feed my dog a raw diet, but I only believe in the prey model raw, and I cannot afford that for a 100 lb dog.

Yes Myra, I agree with you about many BARF feeders ... raw meat and bones are the mainstay of the diet, RAW fruit and veg should only be mixed in in very small quantity ... as you say around 5%. Whole raw fruit and veg is excellent to feed separately as a snack. Raw chicken wings are an excellent tooth cleaning snack. And raw meaty bones are just the best thing you can give a dog IMO. Prey model may be even better than BARF, if you can stomach it, where you feed for example a whole rabbit so that they will eat the guts, fur, meat and bones. Because our pampered pets are well fed, one may need to chop a whole carcase up into chunks to get them used to the idea, but you may well be right that prey is best. We did not go down that route simply because our dogs would have wanted to eat their carcase inside, and for obvious reasons this was unacceptable. So BARF it is for us, and always will be - much cheaper than a good quality kibble as well.

Our lot get whole plucked pheasants in the shooting season, but we do roughly pluck them before putting them through my very old Hobart mincer. (Working Cockers) I do not wish for the dogs to learn what is inside the feathers, the girls are taught to hunt and flush only!!