Natures Menu Raw Feed

We have stocked Natures Menu Raw Feed for a number of years. In our opinion “Raw is Best”, closely followed by grain free kibble for those without the time and sadly in my case, memory to defrost food daily. The domestic dog’s closest relative is the wolf, not the chicken, so food containing wheat and maize should be avoided (most supermarket brands). It is put in for the manufacturers’ benefit, not the dogs (a filler that keeps costs down) and if the packaging mentions “meat and animal derivitives”, well, best put it in the bin, it is not meat as you know it.

This week we took delivery of a further two raw food freezers and moved our old freezers out the back, effectively doubling our stock holding of frozen dog, reptile and fish food. The new freezers are also display types so it is easier to see what we have in stock (and for us to find it!).

Our reasons for investing in new new equipment are mainly because, as more and more people see the benefits of feeding their dog a more natural diet, our sales of our ranges of raw and grain free foods continues to grow at pace and we just need the extra storage to keep up with demand. It also allows us to expand the raw feed ranges even further in the future.

If your dog has issues around food senitivity, either skin or digestive and it is more common than you may think, do pop in for some advice from our trained staff. It is amazing how many itchy skin, recuring ear infections, paw licking and loose stool problems are down to feeding food filled with wheat and maize. Just hink how much you can save in vets bill for repeated visits and how much more comfortable you dog will be.

We also have some FREE Natures Menu Raw Feed freezer bags for the next few customers that purchase from our new Natures Menu Raw Feed freeezers.

The Angell Pets Team

New APL Superfood for Dogs

Our APL ranges of pet foods are very popular. From the entry level, hypoallergenic Super Premium range, to the higher meat content natural diet, Grain Free range. Many customers have moved onto these foods from poorer quality supermarket brands and noticed a marked difference in their pets appetite, digestion and coat. More have moved from over priced, supposedly premium brands and found the same thing, as well as more money in their pockets. No food will suit every single animal but the feedback from the vast majority of customers making the move has been very positive. APL Superfood is a fine addition to these existing ranges.

We are now launching a new range of foods under our APL brand. Our new APL Superfood range. This food is even higher meat content again than our existing Grain Free range and will suit customers feeding the highest end brands such as Canagan and Orijen but at a much better price point.

APL superfood

Orijen Original, an 85% meat, high quality ingredient food retails in our store for £71.99 for the largest 11.4kg bag. Canagan, a British sourced and manufactured 60% meat food (Orijen is Canadian), retails in our store for £67.99 for the largest 12kg bag.

APL Superfood, a British manufactured, high quaility ingredient food will retail in our store for £59.99 for a 12kg bags. The 2kg bags are only £1.00 and £2.50 more than the existing APL Grain Free range.

The APL Superfood Adult Dog 65 Duck is already in stock and the APL Superfood 65 Salmon should be in tomorrow for those keen to give it a try and save some money against the more expensive (although equally as good) Canagan or Orijen. All varietties of the APL Superfood are already available online in our webstore.

Of course you may be using some other brand of grain free kibble but want to try a different brand to see how it compares, both in quality, condition, digestibility and price. If you have any questions please do contact us and we will be glad to help.

Remember local delivery on all our products including the new APL superfood is FREE during the current crisis (subject to minimum order of £5. Delivery further afield for the APL Superfood large bags will be £7 per order.

Fat dog? Your Responsibilty!

It seems a bit harsh but I am afraid it is true in all but a very few cases. Wild animals have the ability to respond to changes in their environment. If they feel cold, they will move to a more sheltered or warmer spot, if they are afraid, they will run away, if they are thirsty they will find water and if they are hungry, find food. Each species evolves and adapts to eat a particular type of food and retains this ability to respond to changes in and around it. It has response-ability. Put an animal in a captive environment and you have removed this ability to respond. Now if it is thirsty it can only drink if you provide the water. It can only eat if you provide the food. You have taken on its response-ability. If you are not a responsible pet owner then it’s the animal that suffers the consequences.

So a dog can only eat the food you provide. It will however retain its natural instinct to eat whatever it can, whenever it can, as in the wild it does not know when it will find another meal. The expression to “wolf it down” comes from the ability of a wolf to eat huge amounts of food in one sitting (then to spend days resting with a distended stomach whilst it digests its massive intake of food or regurgitates some for its pups and other pack members). If the owner presents the dog with too much food or inappropriate food, the dog cannot be blamed for eating it. It will not stop when it has had sufficient, it will keep going until it cannot fit more in and will usually still eat treats if you, the leader of its pack offers it some. Offer a dog poisonous food such as chocolate or grapes/sultanas etc. and it will eat it, to its own detriment because you gave it to him.

healthy dogs

So you are in control of your dogs food intake. Yes they will scavenge things you would rather they did not but in the house and garden you control that. If the dog eats the Sunday joint off the side then I’m afraid it’s your fault for leaving it exposed. If the dog eats some Christmas cake and ends up at the vets. (at best) then, well you guessed it. What a lot of people don’t realise is that some foods that are suitable for humans are not suitable for dogs. Chocolate, grapes, avocados are all poisonous to dogs.I was explaining this to a customer once and a lady interrupted and told us that her granny had fed her dog a bit of her chocolate every day for years and the dog was fine. I explained that my mother in law is in her 80s and has smoked 20 cigarettes a day her whole adult life and is still going strong, I wouldn’t however, recommend it as a lifestyle choice. Some foods are just poisonous to dogs, it’s a question of the dose and the individual dog but they are poisonous.

So you have a dog and you don’t feed it human foods, You go to the supermarket and get dog food and dog treats so you have done your bit and if the dog gets fat now it’s not your fault is it. Wrong. Firstly, do you follow the feeding guidelines on the food? Are you reducing this amount if you give the dog a treat? Do you even know what is in the food you pick off the supermarket shelf? If you did you would probably realise you are giving your dog chicken feed.

There are rules for the terms used on dog (and cat) food packaging. If it says “fresh” chicken, then that is what was used to make the food, fresh chicken meat. If it says chicken then its still chicken but it may have been previously frozen of dried for storage. If it says chicken (or poultry) meal then that is the rest of the carcass, after the meat has been removed, ground up into a bone and cartilage meal (a necessary part of the food, it’s where the glucosamine, condroitin and calicum are found). If it says meat and animal derivitives then you might want to reconsider using this food. This term is for what is left when you have taken away the meat and the bones, ie not a lot! You will find that for foods that list this, the first ingredient on the ingredients list is nearly always cereal, or wheat, or maize. The protein content of the food will not come from meat as there is too little in the food but from wheat and maize gluten. In other words it is a bag of cereal with a bit of nondescript meat product mixed in – chicken feed, not dog food.

The other thing about these foods is that whilst they don’t have a lot, if any, meat they do have a lot of carbohydrate. The one thing that is guaranteed to make a dog put on weight and get fat is carbohydrate. A dog needs very little of this, if any. It gets its energy from fat and protein. High levels of carbohydrate get converted straight to fat deposits. Some of the worst foods even have added sugar, totally wrong. It is not added to improve pallatability, dogs have far fewer taste buds than us and don’t taste much, it’s all smell. It is there because a lot of these foods are made from waste products from the human food processing industry, which already have sugar added and we know what a problem we have with high sugar content childrens’ cereals. Where do you think the waste from this industry goes? Who owns the leading supermarket brands of dog food? Do they also own the largest supermarket brands of childrens’ cereals? Hmmm. Would you feed your child meat paste sandwiches and cake every meal for the rest of its life? No of course not but people are feeding this to dogs all the time and this is usually where the problem is.

If you feed your dog the correct, appropriate food and treats, follow the feeding guidelines and obviously give it plenty of exercise, you can be confident that you will have a healthy and fit dog that will live longer than a dog fed on supermarket food. However you will also probably have to deal with people telling you your dog is skinny. It isn’t but we are all so used to seeing overweight dogs that when we see one that is as it should be we think it looks thin. It is just perception. Most (around 90%) of dogs are overweight. A lot are obese, we just don’t notice any more. Unfortunately as with humans, being overweight greatly reduces the dog’s life expectancy and introduces a host of other conditions that make its later life uncomfortable and expensive..

To avoid all the problems associated with a poor diet, feed your dog on proper food. We sell frozen meat, bones and vegetable mixes. A raw food diet is probably the best, it is certainly the most natural. However we all live busy lives and I know for sure that I would forget to defrost the food in time, be in a rush during preparation etc. For this reason I do not use this option (although they do get it occasionally). Instead I feed a good quality, grain free, high meat content kibble. Obviously meat is expensive these days and the higher the meat content of a food, the higher the price of a bag. However the amount fed is lower, so cost balances out somewhat. Also as a side benefit the dog will poop less and the poops will be of a better consistency and easier to deal with. This alone is often reason enough to change food.

grain free dog food
Alfie

Alfie, the Jack Russel in the photo would cost 32 pence per day on APL grain free turkey. 32p a day! That is it. He doesn’t need anything extra. If he has a treat then he has less food that day. My dog, Venus (below) would cost £1.20 a day. She is a staffie/lurcher cross, weighing 31kg. If you can’t afford 32p a day to feed a Jack Russel it would be better not to have one, rather than buy supermarket food and own a little barrel. In any case it would still probably work out the same or more for supermarket food anyway. As for wet food, unless you have been advised by a vet. for very specific reasons then forget it. You are just buying a tin of water (check the packaging, most wet foods are 70-80% water, sometimes disguised by terms such as “aqua” or “moisture”) with poor quality ingredients That’s why people used to add mixer, which is just wheat biscuit. I worked it out for my cousin once, for his dalmations which he fed on the cheapest tinned dog food I was able to source for him. It still worked out cheaper per day to switch to the most expensive, highest quality grain free, high meat content (85%) dry dog food we stock,. Unfortunately, even though I worked it all out for him, listed all the benefits and showed him how much he would save, he could not see past the price of the bag of Orijen, versus the price of one tin of Breederpack wet food. Ho Hum.

Venus at 13-14 years old

So how do you know if your dog is overweight? Sadly if you don’t already know then it probably is. But as a rule of thumb it goes like this. Looking from the side you should see a definite difference between the chest and abdomen areas on the underside of the dog. The line should swoop down from the neck, around the chest, rise up significantly to the abdomen and back down where it meets the back legs. you should be just able to see the outline of the vertebrae above the hips. Just, they should not be protruding. Looking from above the sides should curve in behind the chest and flare out again at the hip and you should be able to see the outline of the ribs under the flesh (obviously this is more difficult on long and wire haired dogs). Observe the outline, not see ribs poking out, the difference is obvious. Now these rules are general, a greyhound has a much more pronounced line on the underside than a labrador but it still holds true. If you look at your dog and its chest line to abdomen look straight or from above has no “waist”, your dog is fat and could do with losing a few pounds. This is not anything to do with looks. It is just that a healthy, fit dog is going to live longer and have fewer issues as it ages than a poorly fed, over weight one. It is not a judgement. Yes you are responsible for it but that in a way is a good thing. It just means you are able to do something about it. Don’t feel bad or “judged” because it is the case, there are that many over weight dogs around it has become the norm and we have become inured to it.

grain free dog food
Alfies waist line from above

Where I come form the phrase “fit as a butchers dog” is much used. There is a reason for the phrase existing. The butchers dog was getting the right diet whilst the rest were eating the scraps we throw away. Now we just allow others to put the scraps in bags and sell it back to us in supermarkets.

The Angell Pets Team

Angell Pets New Year Offers

2019 is upon us and we have some great offers to start the year. Our regular prices usually beat our competitors anyway but with our monthly offers you can save even more. We’ve included a price comparison where possible to show you how much.

nature diet

Nature Diet Feel Good Chicken, Chicken and Lamb, Chicken and Turkey 390g only 85p each saving 55p on RRP. Pets At Home price £1.39 (our normal, non offer price is only £1.35).

felix

Felix Multi Variety Pouches in Jelly 96 x 100g pouches for only £19.99 saving £8 on RRP Couldn’t find these packs locally but the cheapest I could see was two packs of 40 pouches for £20 in ASDA. You get an extra 16 pouches with our offer.

burns

Burns “Free From” Range Duck and Potato 12kg only £39.99 saving an incredible £17.50 on RRP. Couldn’t find this anywhere to compare the price. However you could save even more by switching to APL Duck and Potato which is only £36.99 normal price.

iams dog

Iams Vitality Adult Large Breed 12kg only £22.99 saving £9 on RRP. Pets At Home price £30.99

Bonio original

Bonio Original 12.5kg only £25.99 saving over £10 on RRP. Can’t find this locally.

whimzee

Whimzees Variety Box only £9.99 saving over £9.50 on RRP, nearly 50%. Pets At Home price £15.99.

sanicat

Sanicat Classic cat litter 30L only £8.99 saving £3 on RRP.  One of our most popular brands but I can’t find this locally.

tropical flake

King British Tropical Fish Food 55g only £3.75 saving 30%. Jolleys price £5.39.

flea clear

Bob Martin Clear For Cats 3 pack only £9.99 saving over £3 on RRP. Jolleys price £11.50.

bags on board

Bags On Board Poo Bag Rolls 120s patterned £3.49 or rainbow 60s only £2.79 saving 30%.  Again I couldn’t find this popular product locally

burgess excel

Burgess Excel 2kg with mint £3.79, new Indoor £1.5kg £3.99, saving 20%, Pets at Home price £5.99.

harringtons grain free

Harringtons Grain Free Chicken and veg and Salmon and veg 40g only £1.00. Pets At Home price £1.59.

whiskas

Whiskas 2-12mths Kitten Pouches 12 x 100g pack only £2.99 saving 25%. ASDA price £3.75.

arden grange mini

Arden Grange Mini Adult 2kg in Chicken or Lamb only £6.99 saving 20%, Pets At Home price £9.49.

pedigree pouch

Pedigree Dog Pouches 40 for the price of 36 only £8.49 saving over £1 on RRP, Pets At Home price £11.29.

So some great savings and your don’t have to drive out to a retail park to get the deals. We have plenty of FREE parking at our Hucclecote shop

The Angell Pets Team

We are getting rid of plastic bags!

Plastic carrier bags are going from Angell Pets very soon so we can do our bit to reduce the amount of plastic finding its way into the environment.


paper bags

We have been trying to figure out how to reduce the use of plastic bags in our shop for a while now. There are only two effective ways to do this:-

1) To charge for the bags to encourage customers to bring their own re-usable bags or

2) Get rid of them completely and try an alternative.

We have chosen to go with option number 2, although this will actually cost us more! Once our current stock of plastic bags has run out we will not be getting any more in.

paper bag and plastic bag comparison

We didn’t want to start charging for bags as this would cause disagreements at the till, with some customers not wanting to pay as it is not yet law for small shops and in any event we would still be giving out the plastic bags.

Instead will be providing small paper bags (one per transaction). Paper bags actually cost us quite a lot more. For example a decent paper bag (shown) costs us around 8-9p each, where as the same size plastic bag costs us 1-2p. However the paper bags we can provide are not very large so we are asking customers to help us reduce non recycleable waste by bringing your own “bag for life” just like you would do at the super market.

We still have a small stock of plastic bags to use up (may as well get a use out of them; if we hand them out or throw them in the bin they are still going to end up in land fill).

For the time being our 1kg bagged up food will still be in polythene bags until we can find a suitable alternative. We are trialing something but it may take a few goes to get the right product.The product we got in to try this week won’t really work so we will use them for frozen rats and mice instead.

The Angell Pets Team

 

Trialled at Angell Pets

Here at Angell Pets we are always looking at ways of helping the environment and helping fellow local businesses wtih new ideas. We were pleased to trial out a new product that was presented to us by a local recycling company, although when it was presented we were still closed for the recent relocation and refurbishment. Since then we have trialled the product with our own animals in store and are happy to report excellent results.

The product is going to be branded as “Nest” bedding. Actually it is so new that the brand name is not finalised but I am asssured this is the front runner. For the time being we are selling it under our own Angell Pets ® brand.

angell pets rat bedding

As part of the teabag manufacturing process, a lot of offcut teabag paper is produced, prior to the final teabag pressing and cutting. This paper is very soft and absorbant and has not been treated with any chemicals (or used in teabag testing, so it is not stained with tannins). A local recycling company has the contract for disposing of this waste and was looking for a novel solution. This is when they approached us for our advice on its suitability as an animal bedding. We thought it a good idea and after investigating the contents agreed to give it a try. We have since used all the material we were given for the trial and it has been a resounding success.

Not only is the product a safe animal bedding, suitable for all small mammals, including rats as it is dust free and absorbant but as it is untreated it is readilly compostable. Not only will you be giving your pet an excellent product but you will be helping to prevent this material ending up in landfil and supporting local businesses. Also it is available in larger bags than contemporary products making it much more cost effective. We are selling 1kg bags for £3.59, compared to the nearest product available, Safebed which is £1.09 for approx 90g or £12.11 per kg! It even compares well with other substrate products used for rats, with their sensitive respiratory tracts.

Angell Pets ® and APL™ are registered trade marks  of Angell Pets Ltd

The Angell Pets Team

APL Super Premium Dog Food Packaging Change

Our APL (Angell Pets Ltd) dog food is undergoing a change of packaging. The new look is to match general changes in customer preferences already showing in the industry. The new packaging will also give a clearer range definition and image.

Angell Pets Dog Food

There will also be a change in the weight of the smaller sizes (Super Premium ONLY). The 2.5kg bags will be changing to 2kg and the 7.5kg bags will be moving to 6kg. The large 12kg bags will not be changing. Again, this change reflects the general direction over the last couple of years in the industry and gives our customers a clearer price benefit over other brands of hypoallergenic foods. For example comparing a 2kg bag of James Wellbeloved lamb and rice at £9.42 to a 2.5kg bag of APL lamb and rice at only £6.99. Obviously with a small reduction in size to match the size of the Wellbeloved bag, the price difference will be even greater.

The changes in pack size will result in a corresponding reduction in pack price and will not result in any increase in cost per kilogram. In other words it is not a hidden price increase, just a resizing to match the sizes already used in our popular grain free range to give a standard APL range size.

APL working dog food is not changing. This will still be in 15kg bags.

This change will take place over the next couple of months as old packaging is used up and new packaging comes on line. During the change over period some products may appear in the generic red bags we use when we have run out of certain bag colours. Rest assured the products are not changing at all. It is only the packaging and in some cases, pack size that is affected.

If any customers need further information, please contact the Angell Pets Team

 

Grain Free Dog and Cat Food – New varieties added

Grain free dog and cat foods are fast becoming the most popular way to feed cats and dogs in the UK amongst owners who want the best for their petsAngell Pets excellent range of APL pet foods has now been extended to include more grain free varieties of premium dog and cat food at great value prices.

grain free

 

Dogs are carnivores but most dog food on the market still contains at least some grain. The cheaper the food, generally the more grain it contains, to the point that some foods contain much more grain than meat. Whilst this would be good news for a human it is bad news for a dog. The grain is only there in most cases to provide a cheap filler to keep the price of the food down, not to benefit the dog. With some of the really bad foods, there is so little meat protein present that the grain (in this case wheat, the least desirable grain to use) is actually providing the bulk of the quoted protein content of the food (wheat gluten is a vegetable protein). Grain free dog and cat food on the other hand naturally contains more meat as virtually all the quoted protein content has to come from this source.

Grain Free

Angell Pets have sold high quality, high meat content, grain free foods for years. These provide the optimum diet for your dog. Angell Pets has been able to provide a grain free product of our own (APL grain free range) for some time and we are pleased to add new varieties to our own APL Grain Free, high meat content dog and cat foods. The range so far includes APL Grain Free Turkey, Sweet Potato and Cranberry, APL Grain Free Salmon, Trout, Sweet Potato and Asparagus,  APL  Pork, Sweet Potato and Apple, APL  Lamb, Mint and Sweet Potato,  APL  Duck, Orange and Sweet Potato and APL Puppy Chicken, Sweet Potato, Carrots and Peas. Whilst we make no claim the ingredients are as fresh as say Orijen, we are satisfied that the meat content is now sufficiently high to offer this as a cheaper alternative to premium ranges such as Acana, Orijen and Canagan. In our view Orijen remains the best bagged dog food on the market but at this price ours is now a viable alternative and works out cheaper per day to feed.

We also now do a grain free range of dog and high meat content cat treats to compliment the grain free food.

APL GRAIN FREE FOOD IS NOW AVAIALBLE IN STORE OR ON LINE IN 2KG AND 12 KG BAGS and 2kg bags of grain free cat food. FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL THE SHOP, DROP US A LINE OR POP IN A VISIT US AT ANGELL PETS.

Christmas Stocking filled with 10% off

Christmas Stockings for dogs and cats usually come pre filled with treats and toys that someone at a head office, somewhere, has decided should be in them. 

This year we are offering plush Christmas stockings for £3 that you can then fill with any treat, toy or accessory or any combination and we will give you 10% off the total cost of the whole package. We will even throw in a FREE sample of APL dog food. Use it as food or use it as treats for dogs or cats.

Christmas Stocking

The only stipulation is that the treats and toys or any accessory you like really, must all be able to fit in the stocking (sticking out the top is fine – we are not like the council bin men!)

If you can’t get in to the store then have a look on the web site and decide what you want then give us a ring and we will fill the stocking for you and arrange delivery. As usual, local delivery is FREE, UK wide delivery will be £5.

So why not visit us over the coming Victorian Market weekend at Gloucester Quays and pick up a bargain DOG OR CAT Christmas Stocking.

The Angel Pets Team.

Angell Pets Grain Free Food and Natural Treats for cats

Angell Pets has a tradition of supplying quality natural pet foods, based on the natural diet of the particular animal. We have just increased the range further with the introduction of our own brand APL grain free complete food for cats and natural cat treats.

angell pets grain free

Cats are obligate carnivores and must eat meat to live a healthy life. The amino acid Taurin is only found in meat and cats must have this in their diet. Therefore healthy cats should be fed a high protein, meat based diet. Have you looked at the ingredients and analysis of your cats food? How much actual meat is in the bag. With some very well known supermarket brands (and virtually all supermarket own brands) the answer is very little. Meat and animal derivatives is not meat. It is whatever is left after you have used the actual meat and the bones and cartilage of the carcass (usually termed “meal”). Often the protein content of the food is made up of wheat or maize gluten (the protein element of grain), a cheap and inferior source of protein, as there is not enough meat protein present.. For more details and a comparison CLICK HERE.

Angell Pets APL range now includes Turkey grain free, high meat content cat food and high meat content poultry treats. This is alongside our existing, highly popular APL grain free dog foods.

For more information on the range of dog and cat foods stocked go to our Angell Pets web store.

 

The Angell Pets Team