I've got to make budget cuts, is there a decent inexpensive dog food I can switch to?

[Mitfordhons]

My dogs are on Pets at home brand Wainwrights which costs just under £50 for a big bag which lasts about a month. I was told it's basically the same as James Welbeloved but cheaper.

I know some dog foods are very much cheaper but also very poor quality, if you were me what would you move the dogs onto? Any saving would be great.

We moved our dog onto pedigree dry food and tins when we were skint, her fur has never looked so shiny and her poops have never been so firm.

She was at the vets 3 times last month because of her own stupidity and got a clean bill of heath each time!

Not bad for an old rescue!

Some years ago we moved abroad and couldn't buy the higher quality all in one dried food that we'd used in the UK. Our dog therefore moved on to Pedigree Chum all in one dried food for over 5 years, I noticed no change what so ever (and she lived to be 13.5). Interesting as now we are back in the UK with a new rescue dog for whom I religiously buy Wainwrights (out of habit)....hmmm I may well return to Pedigree Chum having read your post :)

Have a look on the All About Dog Food site, you can search by budget.

It's worth working out how much the current food is to feed per day. It can sometimes work out that a food that is more expensive per bag actually works out cheaper in the long run as you need to feed less so the bag lasts longer. I feed Millie's Wolfheart and a 14.5kg bag lasts my four medium sized dogs about six weeks.

Try www.tails.com you can tailor the food to your dog (age, breed, exercise, weight etc) we have a Border Collie and it costs us about £15 a month.

We feed our dog pedigree or bakers dry food topped with aldi gravy pouches or aldi tripe. Sometimes pick some bargains up in b&m. Also got some chicken pouches from yorkshire trading, 3 for £1 which seem to hit the spot with him.

The aldi tripe is probably one our better buys. They do lots of dry food too but we have a sausage dog and unfortunately its not 'small dog' size bites which he is better with.

I had to do this a few months ago. Instead of changing from Wainwrights I now mix in some dry food from Aldi, probably one bag of Aldi with one small bag of Wainwrights.

I have seen no difference in the health or wellbeing of my girl.

My two are on Harringtons; available at Sainsburys, although I get mine delivered from Amazon on their subscribe and save thing. The lurcher can't stomach rich foods so the grain-free option is perfect for him.

Nothing you can buy in a supermarket is all that good.

As has been said, take a look at allaboutdogfood.co.uk to work out what suits your budget.

Go for nothing less than a 3 out of 5. Look for one with a named meat source as one of the first three ingredients and avoid anything with maize or wheat as many dogs are intolerant.

Price is not an indication of quality - there are plenty of poor foods with a top price tag.

In my view one of the best price to quality ratios is Skinners Field and Trial as its about the same price as Bakers/Pedigree/Wagg but far superior quality.

Wainwrights is hypoallergenic and free of colourings, additives etc. The likes of Pedigree and Bakers is NOT! I have worked profesionally with dogs for the past 6 years and seen all sorts of health and behaviour problems caused by foods such as those. I personally use Gelert, which is around £20 for a 12kg bag.

Another shout out for allaboutdogfood.com here, it's a brilliant website. We feed our dog on Lukullus beef and trout - it's good quality and is very cheap from Zooplus. I wouldn't feed anything you can buy in a supermarket tbh.

Skinners is good. Some good prices on the Fetch website and you get a discount on your first order, also free delivery from Ocado when you spend over £20.

Another vote for Skinners Field and Trial. I believe it's vat free as it's a working dog food, so you get more for your money.

I feed autarky, think it scores 3.5/5 on allaboutdogfood. It's £13.79 for 12kg at Costco and suits my dog better than any of the others I've tried.

I was just coming on to say autarky!
I've recently put my puppy on it and so far so good! He was on Applaws before which was great but getting a little costly.

He does have the runs occasionally, but that's because he's an idiot and does gross things, like carrying a live frog around (gently!) in his mouth, or eating poo

Skinners Field and Trial here too. A 15kg bag lasts us about 6 weeks (greyhound, she has it with a bit of tinned Chappie mixed in). Fetch prices are good - especially if you buy enough at a time to get the free delivery.

I just checked Fetch, 15kg of Skinners salmon and rice is about £26, duck and rice is about £22. Both are fine for my sensitive-stomached greyhound.

Another fan of Skinners here. I get it on a regular order through Amazon and pay about £25 for a 15kg bag, which lasts ArseDog (unusually big Springer Spaniel) about 6 weeks.

Autarky. It's one of the few commercial foods I would feed.

Wouldn't touch Pedigree or Bakers with a barge pole. Really poor quality and your dog will smell horrendous.

Mine are currently finishing off their (free) pedigree and then I think I'll move them on to skinners. There's a few others on the dog food web site that look like really good quality for a fairly cheap price.

My boy is on harringtons get it from Amazon it's just as good as wainwrights and wellbeloved as we were feeding him on these before we switched!

My vet recommended dry Chappie. It's about £15- 20 a large bag from Pets at Home and my dog loves it. Before that we bought Wainwrights but DDog (as opposed to DD lol!) was recommended a low protein diet and this is lower than some.

Aldi sells "human" food at good prices without compromising on good quality, so I would have a look at their dog food , too: I've noticed they seem to have a good range.

Charley Harringtons is not as good as JWB or Wainwrights - the first ingredient is maize.

What breed is he/she?
We have 2 greyhounds and were feeding them Royal Canin sensitive (one of them can't tolerate anything except for dry food, the other has the constitution of a tank). It became ridiculously expensive so we switched to a specialist feed available from the Retired Greyhound Trust. It's suitable for large breeds and sight hounds and I've been really impressed. £40 for 30kg instead of £100 for 30kg, and the odd bit of leftover fish mixed in as a treat :)

I use Dr Johns silver, it's around £11 for 15 kg. We leave it down for our five dogs (very large spaniel, two lurchers, two terriers) to eat as and when, and lasts about two weeks. We tried the Lidls and Aldis dry food but the amount of sloppy poos was a nightmare!
But I do feed the Lidls or Aldis tinned food to my lurchers who need more to maintain their weight, it's £1.99 for six cans.