Help puppy food cost through the roof 😭

[Crispycremedelight]

We have a 5 month old puppy and he is costs us £40 a week on wet food (nature menu) currently and we have been told it’s about to go to £60 a week. We transitioned from dry kibble (skinners) as he had ‘sloppy’ poos constantly. His poos are mixed still but becoming more solid. What am I missing with brands etc. we were looking a raw feeding but we’ve decided against that. Does the cost ever go down at all?? We can afford all the costs associated with pup but £60 a week seems a little eye watering… I want to do best by my pup

🤯

My dog is on Eden working dog dry food. Very high quality, 80% meat fish and egg, 20% fruit and veg. No grains. She has perfect poo 🤣 and it costs £60 for a sack that lasts 8-10 weeks which I feel is pricey tbh. But she is so healthy on it and atm I can afford it.

£60 a week is just ridiculous!!

Mine is on Guru at a bit under £1 a day (and no poo problems).

I wouldn’t spend more on the dog than the humans!

My pup is on butternut box which costs about £50 per month- obviously dependent on size of pup. If you want to give it a go let me know and I can give you a discount code.

Thanks ladies, I will take a look. He is 18.5kg and guidelines recommend about 1100g of wet food so 3 cans a day, they cost just under £2 a can. He will become a working dog so has already started gundog puppy classes. We’re so new to this world although my grandad breed gun dogs but he stopped this 10/15 years ago so I can’t ask for his advice

I've got 2 spaniels, and spend around £150 a month.

3 bags of 6kg dried Forthglade is £89.99 on subscription and their wet food toppers is around £60 (Country Hunter). I figure that whilst the monthly outlay seems a lot, I also save a small fortune on vet bills as one of them was horribly prone to colitis and we haven't had that since they've been on this food combination.

I know you've decided against raw feeding, but just as a comparison, for my 20kg 3 yr old dog I spend probably about £10/week, he has 500g raw a day, eggs, carrots, yoghurt etc.

Wtf? My 2 30/40kg dogs are on autark, plus some raw, costs me a total of £45 a month. I’d be paying a LOT less if my own wasn’t a working collie x ridgeback mainly working as a ratter, and one was a performance cane corso performing in iron dog competitions. Wtf ate you feeding your dog??

Cut out the 3 cans of wet food for a start if you want to sort out the sloppy shits. Who on earth recommended 3 cans of dog food for one pup on top of everything else I don’t know..

Swapping from dry to wet has sorted out most of the sloppy shits, he was having 4 sloppy ones a day now they are solid in the morning and get sloppier if he goes later in the day

That's mad. No need to be pay £2 per can. Forthglade is eg £1.60 for 500g very high quality food. Just mix something like that with a high quality filler kibble. I feed a family of 3 humans and a 30kg adult dog on £65 per week, all on good quality, varied, healthy food.

We use millies wolfheart dry although they do wet as well...usually the gundog flavour but do mix up too £40_£50 12kg so lasts...

thanks, so glad to hear I don’t think I am going mad with the price. I know puppy food is only for a short time but still 😂

Sloppier poos later in the day can be a sign of overfeeding.

Even when my high energy, medium-large breed dog was a pup, she was getting nowhere near 1200kcal per day.

Going to get slated for saying this but we were buying dog food that was costing us near enough £50 as we wanted to do what was best for our dog. We scrimped and cut back on numerous things to afford this. However, as things are costing even more now, our lab is now on ASDA's own food and absolutely loves the stuff! It's a fraction of the cost too.

I don't know anyone with a large breed that would feed tins exclusively. Most of the gun dogs I know are fed on kibble.

Have you tried Butchers puppy food? It is good quality and a lot cheaper. Does not have any fancy advertising though.

Some working breeds are very fine tuned, too little food and my pointer struggles to maintain weight, too much and she has loose stools.

A tube of doggy pro-biotics can work wonders on improving their gut flora. www.viovet.co.uk/Protexin-Pro-Kolin/c664

Most working dogs I know eat mainly kibble with a topper of wet, one can a day for a dog that size. Fish4Dogs or Millies Wofheart are both good, Autarky is great value for money and many dogs do well on it.

Raw diet is so good for dogs don't discount it. I buy chicken wings and any other reduced price raw meats in the supermarkets and chuck it in the freezer. Our dog loves it when it's still frozen. He has bakers complete as a side to the raw. He's been on this diet since he was 6 months. He's 3 now and in fantastic health.

Also puppy food is a swizz. For most breeds they will fare fine on a standard dog foo from late teens onward. It's like baby formula for humans. They convince you you need to buy xyz but in reality all formulas are fairly similar. I believe some have higher protein content so investigate the right protein/carb/fat ratio for your dogs health, age and breed but then go freestyle. Dogs are scavengers and generally benefit from a mixed diet much like humans.

This is a good comparison site

www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/

We feed wet/dry and use Carnilove kibble for the dry, and mix and match between AATU (£££) Chappie (cheap - under £1 a tin, high carb but v digestible, good for some delicate tummies) and suitable left-overs

Today she's had kibble, left-over roast chicken and peas.

Change to dry food, natures menu if that's what you want to use it's cheaper.
I buy canagan my dog is great on that. X

What breed is he?

we tried many different kibbles to settle our pup’s tummy.

settled on Dr John kibble with bits of scrambled egg and rice, or bit of boiled chicken with veg. Worked well

Now it’s kibble With a bit if butchers tripe mix or leftovers from us or scrambled eggs

2 big healthy deerhounds (1 and 10)

Sounds like you are really buying into this designer dog food. Am not sure dogs need that, tbh

I don't know how this correlates to working/gun dogs, but this site might help/provide alternatives. www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/

Check that your dog isn't sensitive to grains. My greyhound is . We used to use AVA sensitive tummy and coat but recently switched to Harrington Grain Free as it's cheaper. We also mix in a grain free tin of butchers wet food. I'd say we spend £80 per month to feed him

He is a flat coat retriever. This was my fear of the ‘designer’ dog food and falling down that rabbit hole! I just want to make sure he is happy healthy and fed right

I really appreciate everyone’s advice and I think I’m reintroduce dry/kibble

Was just about to say, sloppy poo's can be over feeding.