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

We’re on our second retriever. Both have had v sensitive tummies. Vet recommended Burns dry food with our first and it was wonderful. Doesn’t cost the earth but kept him looking wonderful (and his poos) until cancer got the better of him 😢

Junior dog I did all the research again and tried to find something as good as raw (we don’t have freezer space) and he got worse so we tried him on Burns and instantly sorted.

Both mine have had the weight control one as they porked up the minute they had the snip.

Have a look at Nature Diet , we swopped our dog to it a while back as they changed the recipe on his other food and he has never been better , it’s also much cheaper than his previous food . I’ve just looked and it seems to work out cheaper than Natures Menu .

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

At 6 months ish our pup was eating around that. I would expect a male flat coated retriever to have higher requirements than a female lab.

Even at 18 months she has 1000kcal in kibble per day (this is recommended amount) plus some wet food and treats on top.

We feed essentials working dog food (there are cheaper options) plus forthglade 90%, fish, suitable leftovers, eggs as toppers. Kibble works out about £1.20 a day, probably averages another 50p a day for toppers.

Have a look at this website and search a few different brands. It tells you how good/not so good there brand is and its value for money.

www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk

We went around the houses with our dog as everything seemed to give him loose poo but he's fine now on Dr Johns dry (16 quid a 15kg sack) and some raw from the butchers to jazz it up a bit for him (89p a pack that splits over 4 meals).

Our lab is on Royal Canine Labrador food, plus a whole host of scraps. She eats anything apart from tomatoes 🙈

A good raw brand wouldn’t cost anything like £60 a week and you can feed raw chicken wing (split and freeze a kilo from tesco or Aldi, much cheaper than “pet shop” raw wings) or duck necks, egg, tinned sardines, all massively better than any kibble.

When we got him we signed an agreement that we would not snip him until 2 years old (sooner if medically required and with breeder’s permission) so hopefully he will be eating a lot less than he is currently I hope! I will look at Burns as well

I can highly recommend this product to help with runny poops! Our puppy was struggling so we tried some of these and they worked really well. Our older dog had always had quite loose poos as well so we tried her on them and the change has been brilliant. At first they were both on two a day but now they are on 1 a day each and it maintains things really well.

Sloppy poos are a sign of over feeding so I suspect you're giving him too much anyway.

I spend around £40 a month for my 18kg beagle - he gets a mixture of wet and dry food, plus half a weetabix a day as he's had problems with his anal glands in the past.

The vets say he's in perfect health and that they're incredibly happy with him. There's honestly no need to be spending £40 a week on food!

Oh blimey I have had to agree to not breeding either of mine but never been told not to snip etc. It was noticeable instantly with both of them how easily they gained once it had been done. I used to take my older one to the vet monthly for his spot on treatment just so I could use their scales!

Another vote for this. I had forgotten my younger one has these daily too.

I use forthglade wet food for our staffy who has a horribly sensitive tummy, it's the only wet food I've found that doesn't upset him. He has one packet a day in the morning which works out about £30 a month.

Alongside that he has dry food to pick at all the time, Iams senior which is about £17 for 5kg and lasts about 2 weeks. So altogether about £65 a month which is what you're paying each week - madness!

We feed raw. We buy a complete raw from the internet. It’s £10 per week and the poo is solid, small and doesn’t smell. You could try this?

That’s interesting. Our 17 week old Labrador has soft poos. I don’t think we overfeed him - does what the pack guideline says (plus treats). He’s had the same brand (Autarky) since birth. They do vary throughout the day in softness.

My lab had soft poos on Skinner's. Moved to Millie's. It's £50 a minimum month and lovely poos!

Try grain free, one of mine is very sensitive and can't tolerate anything with grain in it. I buy free flow human grade mince and chicken pieces and they have that with grain free kibble. Believe it or not Aldi brand Langhams. I've tried all the high end food and they are best on this.

Burns is a good food but has brown rice so can't give it to mine but have used it with success with other dogs I've had. They do a pork and potato which is good

I've a fusspot who won't touch kibble & has the added problem of IBD and allergies, so we struggled to get him food he would eat which we could afford. We eventually settled on Butternut box which as long as he isn't have an IBD flare up his poops are really good on. It costs us just under £72 a month for our 30Kg Lab. If you use my code Lisa1390 you can get a good discount to enable you to try it if you like 😁

Grain free has been connected to heart issues in some dogs so I wouldn't opt for that unless I knew that was the source of any digestive issues.

As a PP said, pro-biotics can be really helpful - they made a big difference to one of my dogs.

I spend about £110 a month on my two (both about 25kg), on Skinner's kibble and wet food. The wet food is a big part of the cost and a luxury tbh.

I'd test a mix - a small bit of kibble to offset the price, mixed mostly with wet - see how he does with that?

18.5kilos already! He's going to be big!
My dogs are 14kg each snd I feed them Iams, and not nearly as much as 'manufacture recommends'. I feed them once a day since they were one year olds, and they get a chew treat daily. A bag last ages.

our working cocker costs £30 per month in food.

Skinners field and tria,l 15 kg lasts a month
Once or twice a week he has any meat that has missed its sell by date by a couple of days (cooked)
He has any suitable scraps left over from meals for a little variety, so maybe a small piece of left over beef that has gone dry and a few carrots etc.

Over the years l have had a Weimaraner and Hungarian Vizla and they have been fed similarly, (although bigger amounts) so l am shocked by your feed bills!
All my dogs have been energetic and healthy on this .

I feed essentials, they have a working dog version as well which is VAT free, so a bit cheeper.

Look to dry or raw. Just because you had sloppy poos on one kibble doesn’t mean that every kibble won’t suit & often sloppy poo can be down to over feeding.

Have a look at Csj or Dr Johns…
My 2 working labs do great on either with a small amount of raw mixed in just to up the meat quality Nice regular firm output and dogs look very well on it
Sold as working dog food it doesn’t have Vat added but both do a lower protein variety that would more than suit pet dogs

Oh I have a soft spot for flat coat retrievers x