Cheap meat instead of wet food?

[Catslovepies]

My dog eats Arden Grange dry food supplemented with one tray of lily's kitchen per day. However the price per tray has got quite high (over £1.50 each) and she doesn't really like it that much. She prefers to have some chicken or fish mixed in with her dry food which got me thinking. Would it be good nutrition to stop the wet food entirely and just cook a bit of meat for her to have as part of her meals?

If this is ok, what's the cheapest, easiest and healthiest meat to give her? Skinless boneless chicken breast is low fat and easy but expensive. Roasting a whole chicken and taking the meat off for her is cheaper but a hassle and can be quite fatty. Any other good options here please and thank you.

Lily's kitchen do a great dog food cookbook, think I got it for about a pound on Amazon for the kindle edition. Alot of the recipes are mince & veg based and are easy to make

If your dog's dry food is "complete" (ie fully balanced with all necessary vitamins and minerals) and her main source of nutrition, the wet food/meat is just a topper to make her dry food more interesting and I would think any meat she likes would be ok for this.

If the meat part of her diet is a major part of what she eats, then I think that by giving her cheap meat, you run the risk of her diet becoming unbalanced. Wild dogs/wolves would naturally eat the organs (offal) and bones of what they kill. By eating almost all of the animal, they get a wide range of nutrients. If you just give your dog muscle meal, eg chicken breat, mince, she'll be missing out some important nutrients and may become malnourished (even if shes getting enough energy and so isn't too thin).

Mine gets home cooked for supper. Meat or chicken with veg and pasta/rice.

‘Raw’ feeding is an option, but is a lot more than just feeding cheap meat. You need to balance with bone and offal. Suggest you search for BARF for advice on the web. When done to guidelines is unlikely to be a cheaper option.

Thanks all, I think one of the recipes combining some type of mince, rice and vegetables would be good and I could make it in the instant pot so nice and easy.

Oh, and meant to say the intention is that most of her nutrition will come from the dry food with this just added for a bit of flavour. She's a picky little thing and much prefers human food to dog! I would too, to be fair.

Sardines in oil or tomato (not brine) is another option to add to dry food. Mines loves it, gives her a shiny coat and the own brand tins are relatively inexpensive at around 40p.

That is exactly the kind of idea I was looking for - thank you so much @AnotherFuckingUsername

You can crack a raw egg over dry dog food...can't get much easier that that!

Yes yes to raw egg as @FruitPastilleNut suggests. Also a couple of the huge Turkey thighs done in the slow cooker with some rice then spread over a few meals (even frozen into individual portions) suit my princess doggy. They're relatively inexpensive and I tend to pick them up when on offer / yellow sticker. Or natural yogurt with some frozen peas.

We use various different toppers on top of dry food for our lab. Tinned fish, chicken and egg as mentioned here. We also boil chicken for training treats and use the water over her dry food. Then some days we use forthglade 90% trays. We use half a tray per day for our lab and the trays are about 1.50 each.

You can use any meat as a topper, or fish - or as PP says, raw or scrambled eggs are good options too. Veg is also a good option as a filler - green beans, peas, carrots etc.

We use a complete dry food then top with: raw egg, sardines/mackerel/tuna, chicken, beef, mince. Tinned sardines and mackerel I buy specially for the dog, everything else is a bit of our food taken out before sauces/garlic etc are added.

Oh yes, and I give her little bits of raw carrots/broccoli/peas etc I save when prepping our veg

For some reason she doesn't like raw egg or any egg really. She does like yoghurt or a bit of grated cheese as easy options for toppers but I don't give her much of those due to the fat.

I feed mine Canagan dry and top it with whatever cheap(ish) sliced meats I have in the fridge.. ie normal sliced ham/chicken/turket/beef. (She doesn't like fish sadly)
DH generally asks if he's allowed some for his sandwiches or whether it's all for the dog
She also likes a bit of lamb mince quickly fried! Or cheese... I just grate a smattering and she is VERY happy!