AUTARKY

[persha]

Hi Everyone have just found your website and forum which will be a BIG help and is brilliant with all the different facts about dog food.  Well here goes with my query.
I have 6 rescued chihuahuas from various situations and their eating habits vary from one (an ex-breeders dog) who hoovers her food up to one that is quite fussy  (Peaches) and does not like eating from her bowl and goes round smelly all the other bowls and waits for them to finish and either eats the left overs or licks the bowls. 
I found a bit about Autarky and found your website when looking for reviews and it looks really good and is also a very good price.  I used to feed them James wellbeloved when I only had 2 or 3 but now having 6 use a lot more so changed to IAMS, which I managed to get at about £11 for 7.5kg at Makro when they had them on special, one bag would last me a month. 
With them having such small mouths the small dog products were really easy for them to eat, anything bigger (like the IAMS weight control) they struggled a bit especially Peaches as she has a tiny mouth and we usually have to make her treats very small otherwise she won't even take it, even denture sticks have to be cut in half!!!
Do you think the Autary would be ok for them being similar to james wellbeloved as well as the pellet size being small enough for them as it would deifinitely save me a lot of money.
Looking forward to hearing from you and thanks for the brilliant website.
Sharon

[Dottie]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I am not familiar with Autarky so have just had a look at the reviews on the Dog Food Directory. There are a couple of red ingredients but otherwise the scores are ok. I am wondering if you would be better off buying the puppy/junior version as it is said to be small bite. It has a higher score than the adult version.

Usually the only difference between puppy and adult food is that the former has a higher protein content.  You might need to feed slightly less which would save money. However, it is always worth telephoning the company if you want to be sure. They would probably send you a free sample.

Peaches might like her food softened with warm water - it is perhaps worth trying. Heat brings out the aroma which is important to dogs. A topper might help too.

[PipsMom]

A tip for small mouth dogs if the kibble is too large or hard for little ones. Put some kibble in a tea towel and rap it with a hammer. It's cracks it into smaller pieces for their mouth to handle

[COASTER]

Autarky Salmon used to review relatively ok.....I once considered introducing it as a trial feed. An acceptable mid range kibble that represents relative value when compared to similar quality foods. At this price point skinners & also csj have some products you might wish to consider/compare.