Does anyone on MN not just feed ordinary bog standard complete dog food?

[ChewingGum]

I have fed my dogs on your run of the mill fairly cheapish dry complete dog for for YEARS with no issue.

I am wondering if we are getting into a trap of having to spend a fortune on all this special food sometimes costing 40 to 50 pounds per sack.

Are we being taken for a ride? I have pedigree springers and when I read threads on here about what others feed, sometimes i feel guilty, but when thinking more about it I am not sure If we are getting dragged into spending more than we need.

So, I am looking for other cheap feeders, because I cannot be the only mner!

Chappie is allegedly one of the best foods you can feed a sensitive tum!

My girl hates it

I have so much left over dog food in my cupboard, I need to get it down to my local dog's home.

Ours is on Bakers too and she is just fine with it.

Tesco's own brand trays - used to use pedigree ones till I realised Tesco was a third cheaper only has poo problems with chicken...has a ...erm...cleansing effect. he also gets a dentastick (which I am convinced has crack in it) and also does the dishwasher prewash

I always think the dry food looks so unappealing - whenever I have given it to him...he sort of sighs and eats it grudgingly

Burns Alert in our house - its normal Burns but without any VAT. Excellent stuff and its not tested on animals unlike some others mentioned here (tested as in invasive/captive testing).

Saltire - the meat our dogs get is tinned dog food. It sounded like they were getting fillet steak every day.
Asda do bulk packs of 24 so we stock up.

Chappie is one of the best tummy settlers and I have fed my dogs on that when i have been unable to get my usual stuff. Never had a runny one with it.

I feed Skinners working dog food at about £24/15kg with occasional pilchards, chicken wings, salmon oil, steamed fish and rice, and Fish4Dogs salmon mousse for Kongs and treats. Both dogs seem to love it. If I had the freezer space and a stronger stomach, I'd feed raw.

We always have a tin or two of Chappie in the pantry for poorly tum days, though. It's about the only food my vet and the breeder agree on.

I feed CSJ. 10 year old dog gets senior and 4 year old gets CP21

Suits us just fine, and I pick it up at dog shows or from a supplier, so no delivery charge.

Bakers is 4% unnamed meat source, 96% unspecified cereals and contains additives known to cause cancer in mammals and which are banned from human food for that reason. Added sugar, too, just to add poor dental hygiene to the mix. Awful, awful stuff.

The expensive stuff - Hills, Royal Canin etc. - often contains just as much shite, you're paying for the shiny packaging and ridiculous marketing claims.

I feed raw, costs around £12 a week for two 24kg dogs and that's without scrimping - I don't have space for a chest freezer so can't save by bulk buying and spend extra on fish, fish oil supps and so on, it could be done much cheaper. The bulk of their diet in the summer is chicken wings, legs, carcasses and in the winter pheasant and rabbit, plus tripe, whole fish, minced fish and meat/bone/offal mixes, lamb and pork ribs, hearts, liver. It's a lot less faff than it sounds.

I maintain that Skinners X with rice feeds are the best budget option, half decent meat source and just rice, no added crap. Fish4Dogs a good 'premium' option. Add raw meaty bones a few times a week to sort the teeth, free from a good butcher.

BARF = biologically appropriate raw food but also often referred to as bones and raw food.

I feed BARF. For 2 large breed dogs it works out much cheaper than the premium complete foods. And aside from the health benefits I have seen in my dogs from feeding BARF, I seriously begrudge paying top whack for a sack of dry stuff that is over 50% rice/cereals/fillers and maybe only 20-30% meat (and often pretty shitty quality meat at that).

I have more than one dog and feed Royal Canin.
They are boxers and have the Royal Canin Vet Breed Boxer feed.
Boxers have sensitive stomachs and this is the only food they can eat without filling the house with stinking barf inducing farts !!
I truly dont care how much it costs.

I'm feeding my pup pedigree chum as it was what the breeder was feeding all her dogs. I was relieved that she didn't recommend some super expensive brand! I can't remember if it was on here or another dog forum, but I have read quite a few threads recommending Chappie.

Dogs are scavengers who survive on rubbish in most places. You can spend as much or as little as you choose on dog food. Vets recommend Chappie which is cheap (but stinks)
I use a good dried food and add a bit of Butchers tinned or scraps to make meals less monotonous.

We feed dry Chappie - everything else seems to cause the squits....

Sainsburys own brand chicken and rice dry food. Both dogs (springer spaniels) are absolutely fine on it. They get bits of left overs too and chews and the odd bone.

Those of you who feed your dogs the RAW/BARf diet, where do you buy it from?

Supermarket, local butcher and Prize Choice blocks from Pets at Home. Rabbits and phessies are free/the price of a pint from the local gamekeeper, in season.

If I had a big enough freezer to take the minimum delivery amounts I'd get stuff delivered - Landywoods, Raw to Go, Natural Instinct, The Dog Food Company etc.

So would I need to mix the dogs current dry food and the natural diet for a while, gradually increasing the natural diet? Thinking of giving it a go, as his current dry food (which is the only one so far bot give him funny poos) is beigns topped by the company,a nd looking into alternatives

We have a farm butcher that we got most of our meat and bones from. He will also source offal (hearts, liver, kidney) from the abbatoir for us. We also have a fish supplier (my hometown in a fishing town so I have contacts). Supermarket 'reduced' sections are also a treasure trove for the raw feeder but it's very hit and miss.

We bought a freezer (free ads - £40) especially to store the dog food.

Sorry, missed your second post.

Raw and processed foods are digested at different rates so I can't see any advantage to changing them over gradually and if I recall correctly, we switched straight from dry to raw with (but we were switching for health reasons). However, you may want to experiment with feeding the odd chicken wing or rib in advance (as a treat between meals (just be sure to reduce their regular meal quantity accordingly) to guage their reaction...some dogs that are unaccustomed to having to chew their food can take a bit of time to get used to the idea.

I was feeding my dog something like Bakers - then a combination of MN and dog seasonal allergies made me think she needed better food.
I tried lots of different kinds - cue very sad looking dog, BARF food and fresh meat in anything more than tiny quantities make her sick, so now she is on Morrisons own complete food and is much happier. I don't know if it's any good, but at least she eats it, is not sick and has normal poo.

Used to feed big dog bakers but about a year ago he suddenly got squity. Switched to wainwrights and all tummy probs completely gone. Little dog eats cesar.

Mostly cooked chicken and rice with carrots or beans thrown in. She loves sardines and eggs mixed with pasta and olive oil. I usually mince some garlic in her food, and she has a lovely, shiny coat.

DP gave our dog some chicken yesterday - upset stomach today. Good job she doesn't have to eat real food - I think it would finish her off.

My 2 labs have pretty much whatever is cheapest - they're currently on WAGG from Tesco, otherwise it's something from the farm supplies shop. They have never had coat, tummy or any other issues and I'm complimented on how well and trim they look. My dog's sister, who I bred was started on James Wellbeloved when she left me and now has an endlessly complicated diet - she has all sorts of rashes and itches and vomiting episodes. I have no idea whether this is connected to the fact that she has more fancy food, or if she was prone to it but I have my suspicions. Her brother is on a similarly fancy food and has trouble keeping the weight on (unheard of for a lab I know). I draw my own conclusions!