Berrywoods

We've switched over from Landywoods to Berrywoods, initially with some reluctance because it is more expensive, but we find it actually cheaper in the long run because there is not nearly so much blood in it when it has thawed out. I am assuming that Landywoods don't drain the blood from the slaughtered carcases, or if they do, they don't drain it all, so a lot of what you are paying for is blood, not muscle meat etc. No harm in that, blood is good for them, but I just think Berrywoods is better value. Also, their minced meats come in rectangular packs, not the sausage-shaped rolls of Landywoods, so they pack much better in the freezer. We have a separate small chest freezer for the dogs, but it is not huge, so space is an issue. I still think Landywoods are great for turkey necks, lamb breast on the bone, but we are actually using Berrywoods now for the foregoing reasons. I am not sure whether they do rmb's as well, but I buy pork ribs from Costco very cheaply, and also my wonderful butcher in Milton Keynes who sells me a variety of meaty bones cheaply.

i only get berrywoods tripe if i run out as a emergency i find it naff only get a bit of blood but then give tripe in winter. mostly get natural instincts way way better.
and dont get turkey neck anymore from landywoods as they chop it into small bits and they just swallow it whole,

I was looking at that natural instincts do you think it is ok Carol because I hope to do the best for my pup when I eventually get one but am far too squeemish to do the raw thing

ive been using it for quite a while now, so has joce and lyn even longer,
i really like it comes in a flat packet all done for you ready to feed nothing to add to it. and then just give meaty bone as well.
its a complete food. nice and easy for you and if not sure about raw feeding for the beginner

i want to start th aw feeding but i dont know wat to do ive herd horror storys, i have her on james wellbeloved should i change over ?

What sort of horror stories have you heard? I am sure we can run through your concerns with you and help you with starting raw feeding. If you look through the posts in this section you will see links to the Britbarf site and also to the books that are useful reading.
As for Landywoods, I have more or less stopped using them, I got a delivery today, just their tripe, pigs ears and tripe sticks. I asked her if they were cutting the turkey necks up still and she said yes, so I didn't bother, the last turkey wings I got were also cut up so I have stopped using them as well, Hoping they get the message soon as their customer base drops off. Am making enquiries about getting turkey necks from the bone butcher at the moment. I can understand some people maybe wanting stuff cut up smaller maybe, but surely they can supply stuff either chopped or whole?? Very bad business practice I feel.
Haven't used Natural Instincts as yet, they have excellent feed back from those that do, so maybe worth starting on their stuff Becky as it is ready packed.

Thanks Carol, it sounds just right for me haha x

Well, I don't like paying for loads of blood, so I shall stick with Berrywoods! It is a shame though that Landywoods chop up their turkey necks now and breast of lamb. Tai used to love his whole turkey neck, bless him. Natural Instincts is lush, definitely the best, but we can only afford it when we go away and don't want to faff about with pureed veg etc. It is terribly expensive, definitely worth it if you can afford it, but I can't!

Awfal wrote:Well, I don't like paying for loads of blood, so I shall stick with Berrywoods! It is a shame though that Landywoods chop up their turkey necks now and breast of lamb. Tai used to love his whole turkey neck, bless him. Natural Instincts is lush, definitely the best, but we can only afford it when we go away and don't want to faff about with pureed veg etc. It is terribly expensive, definitely worth it if you can afford it, but I can't!

In comparison to free butchers meat I agree it is expensive I have used Landy's for absolute years and as you know I have introduced so many owners to it, there standard has however dropped some what and because of this I have looked else where and tried several other companies and Natural Instincts has come out the very best. Their complete raw food mix I cannot rate high enough and I now use it for ALL my dogs and pups. For my dogs it works out at £1.66 a day inclusive of bones but I still get my bones from Landy's as theirs are a tad small and expensive. It is absolutely fab for the raw food beginner as everything is added and worked out for them. It has certainly made my life much easier having a pack to feed. Great product/s well done Natural Instincts

Probably works out at £1.50 per day for Maska. But I guess if you add in all the things you seem to have to add to a raw diet to get the balance right for the dogs....kelp, eggs, veg or whatever.....that must all add to the cost of feeding the dogs the other way.
Maska loves the Natural Instincts. He was at the vets this week for his booster jabs and she said his weight was perfect, so that was good to hear.

As mine are on a maintenance diet I don't think it costs even that. I get eggs from Iceland Joce, they are £1 for 12 which is about the cheapest I have seen recently, packs of white fish are £4 and packs of chicken fillets are £5 or £8 when you buy 2, my pet mince is 40p lb and they get half of one between them per day, so that is 20p each, a small piece of ox heart (the heart itself is £4 and lasts me ages) tinned tuna, tripe from Landywoods and that at the moment is about it on the food front, not a lot of variety for them at all as I am keeping it all low fat, I get free chicken carcass and bones from the bone butcher that I get from Zillar's mummy, she has also been getting me lights recently as well.
They are still managing to keep chubby despite the diet and long walks so just goes to show how well they keep on a raw diet and how little they need to maintain it once they are fully grown

Sounds pretty varied to me!

They are not having any lamb or sardines in tomato sauce,both of which they love, nor are they getting chicken wings, thighs etc. I am giving them the occasional carcass because there is no skin on them.

Think I would like to be a dog at your house

No comfy beds or central heating for you though, rubber matting and deep shavings, with heat lamps when it's REALLY cold. All the horse and cow poo you want to roll in/eat, lots of mud and water to leap around in just to round off the experience, before going home to a bone

I had so many issues with the Raw Food that Landywoods provided, half defrosted (though I was told this means half frozen), not enough choice, meat not in stock, the quality seemed different from order to order (it was fine for the first few years). I started using DAF, they were fine except they changed the beef chunks , my non raw fed boy loved those beef chunks but they changed them and he refused to eat it. Other than that, I could not fault their products, service or prices.

ive herd abut pierced stomachs dogs choking, diseases, i had a look at the berrywood websight is it expensive to start the raw feeding im on james welbeloved just now and its about £45 every month and a half plus trying to get her to put on weight just now so shes on the sahses aswell, do dogs benifit from the raw feeding more than pet food ?? this subject intregs me x

toshy11 wrote:ive herd abut pierced stomachs dogs choking, diseases, i had a look at the berrywood websight is it expensive to start the raw feeding im on james welbeloved just now and its about £45 every month and a half plus trying to get her to put on weight just now so shes on the sahses aswell, do dogs benifit from the raw feeding more than pet food ?? this subject intregs me x

When fed correctly it is the best and most natural food that a dog can have. That said, if raw is fed up hazardly and without much thought or research it can have ill effects. To understand any animal you must observe, learn and almost become that animal as it would be in the wild. A wolf would hunt down its prey and go for the stomach ( usually ) now to get to the contents of that stomach it will swallow some fur ( the start of a lining for whats to come later ), eventually it will reach the contents which will be partly digested vegetation, fruit and wild grains or seeds ( more lining for his tummy)he then goes on to eat the flesh ( the final lining in his stomach) and lastly he will eat the bones/ribs etc. I believe mother nature designed it this way to minimise pierced guts and also to slow down the need for him to gulp down bones because he is already well on his way to being satisfied ( I am assuming this wolf to be in good health, wild and not in too much competition for food lol! ). Now with raw feeding we have to mimic this as best we can, the problem is that wild food caught is in harmony and balance as far as nutrients, vitamins, calcium, phosphorus and protein etc and in the order that it is eaten. Misunderstandings of all this can and do cause problems such as the ones you have mentioned and read about.
It can sound all too complicated to the beginner and until I found Natural instincts food which takes nearly all of these considerations into account I was very careful as to who I could entrust my puppies to feed raw. Please do not get me wrong I am not entirely anti commercial dog food, I would rather my owners feed that than cause the many problems that raw can if not fed correctly. I just help them find a good alternative and it is not necessarily the most expensive either.
Hope that helps lol!

keeper wrote:

Awfal wrote:Well, I don't like paying for loads of blood, so I shall stick with Berrywoods! It is a shame though that Landywoods chop up their turkey necks now and breast of lamb. Tai used to love his whole turkey neck, bless him. Natural Instincts is lush, definitely the best, but we can only afford it when we go away and don't want to faff about with pureed veg etc. It is terribly expensive, definitely worth it if you can afford it, but I can't!

In comparison to free butchers meat I agree it is expensive I have used Landy's for absolute years and as you know I have introduced so many owners to it, there standard has however dropped some what and because of this I have looked else where and tried several other companies and Natural Instincts has come out the very best. Their complete raw food mix I cannot rate high enough and I now use it for ALL my dogs and pups. For my dogs it works out at £1.66 a day inclusive of bones but I still get my bones from Landy's as theirs are a tad small and expensive. It is absolutely fab for the raw food beginner as everything is added and worked out for them. It has certainly made my life much easier having a pack to feed. Great product/s well done Natural Instincts

Natural Instincts is absolutely fab isn't it. We buy it when we are staying away in a cottage somewhere because it is so much easier than having to cart meat, bones, veg etc. I think Landywoods are excellent for bones and turkey necks, although I am not happy that they chop everything up now. The old adage you get what you pay for is quite true with Natural Instincts!