Need a good budget dog food for lab?

[PlinkPlonkFizz]

Our lab is a year old, spayed, loves her grub. Currently on a mix of Hills and home cooked meat/sweet potato, with bones/Kong / dental chews on work days (4) for keeping her busy.

We need to save a bit more so are there any fairly good quality but cheap dog foods out there? I'm concerned saving will result in stinky or sick pooch but maybe someone has found a winner that is cheap?

Now she is older [12] she has salmon and potato but there s all different kinds . Her poos are easier to pick up than if she has ever had any other food.

Have a look online at CSJ, the food is good quality and relatively cheap - cheapest around £15 for 15kg. They will send samples to try if you speak to them too. We find champ excellent.

Ddog gets burns, you feed quite a bit less than the cheaper brands do a 12kg bag lasts us 2 months

The cans are ok, the dried stuff isn’t the same.

Our lab cross has Harringtons kibble with a Winalot wet pouch on top. Everyone comments on how shiny her coat is, and she’s neither stinky nor ill.

I’ve no idea how so many dogs lived happy & healthy lives before premium dog food at great expense came along, but some people seem to think supermarket level brands are like poison!

We use Harringtons (18kg for about £25 from Costco, is £26.50 last I looked for 15kg in Sainsbury’s, or Autarky if Harrington’s isn’t available).

I have 2 large doods, the younger one is prone to colitis (explosive blood & mucus on his first attack at 6 months) and our vet recommended Harringtons/Autarky. And Ted (the younger dood) is very stable on it.

Our old Vet also recommended Lidl Dog tins too, something about EU manufactured dog food having more stringent guidelines even if produced in the UK. Our new vet (old one left to do a PhD, not that she was crap & we changed lol) is very happy with their diet (he uses a similar combo with his lab).

We also used to have a lab, he would have terrible diarrhoea with Hills or anything vaguely expensive.

Dog adjacent, but we have 3 elderly 14+ year old cats, anything more expensive than the Lidl cat tins & Whiskas 7+ dry bags means copious vomiting & protest pooping.

Mine have a local working dog food that I can bulk order (if it’s good enough for royal working dogs it’s good enough for mine) my 9 year old looks like a 3 year old and has a beautiful glossy coat and bright eyes and the 5 year old looks 18 months . Joints are brilliant. £16 for 25 kg as a bulk order. They do online free delivery over £50 so I order 6 bags at a time - let me know if you want the details.

I fed my border collie Skinners for over 2 years, but he now prefers Wainrights as the pieces were larger. Skinners is VAT free as it’s for working dogs. The bigger bags work out so much more cheaper too.

My Vet actually said Chappies is OK, along with Harringtons on the cheaper foods.

They told me to avoid Wagg, Pedigree Chum and Pal.

Mine is still classed as a pup (nearly 11 months), and is on Eukanuba and I mix with Wainwrights (wet). But I'm moving him to raw when he's classed an adult

Basically all the cheaper dog food will have more carb than meat content.

All about dog food will rate meat/protein rich food as good and carb heavy food as bad so limited use if you do want to find a good carb food.

Some dogs do need a carb heavy food to put on weight - think of some of the busy working dogs.

However for other dogs too many carbs may increase weight and you may need to feed more of it so do work out costs on the amount of food you are feeding for your dog. Higher meat based food you will feed less of.

We use Arden Grange large breed - a 12kg bag lasts ages. We top it with anything including mackerel, or grate apple, carrot or blueberries with yoghurt, or bits of leftover cooked chicken, or scrambled egg.

We use Chudleys. We buy from a wholesale pet food place and get her dried ears/snouts/pizzles too. Much better than Dentastix.

She is 33kg and I'd say a sack lasts 6 weeks. She has sardines on top once a week and porridge maybe twice. She also has any leftover steamed veggies from our meals.

SkiingIsHeaven
Ignore me. Just looked on the website someone mentioned and it is all carbs. Sorry. I have always been told that it is good stuff.

The cans are ok, the dried stuff isn’t the same.

DDog gets the cans and it was advised by the vet when she came to us with itchy skin and a dodgy tummy.

Tummy and skin are both great abs we often get comments about what food condition she's in.

Wainswright is good, you can subscribe to save a bit of money and have it delivered for free.

Dr John's.

Our dog gets through a 15kg bag in one month. It's working out okay cost wise. Around £17 a bag.

Ci (pronounced Kai) was recommended to us by a dog nutritionist. It's a white label brand and meant to be very reasonably priced with high quality ingredients.

Ci is really expensive about £50. for 13 kg unless @TotteringyGenteely you have a cheap place to get it from?

I know, it's absolutely mad. People have been completely taken in. Ours have Wagg with Butchers tripe cans. They are early teens with shiny coats and happy, healthy temperaments.

Of course dogs can live long lives on all types of rubbish , my sisters border x lived on Caesar to about 21 . That’s actually irrelevant , my dog is part of my family and I wouldn’t feed my family an unhealthy , carb loaded diet so unless I was completely strapped for cash , I wouldn’t feed my dog it either .

It's not at all irrelevant. It proves that for the most part, the expensive food is a waste of money.

Another vote for tails.

indeed @Greatly I’m sure @Floralnomad doesn't feed her family crap, but most people I know who feed their dogs expensive food do not extend the same practice to their own or their kids’ diets (their choice, but not a choice I would make).

Kids could thrive on McDonald's for every meal too, but it doesn't make it the right thing to do. Feeding a dog dried food is very boring for them as much as anything else, so why not make sure they have good food?

Our Rommie will soon tell you she's eaten something she's allergic to - she'll be chewing her paws, scratching at her ears, shaking her head and generally trying to pull bits of her leg off with the itching. We tried all sorts of options until we hit on removing unnecessary grain from her diet.

Also a recommendation to look at all about dog food, you can find something you’re happy with nutrition wise for the price.
don’t forget witha a good food without the carbs you don’t need to feed as much so comparing price per kilo doesn’t always equate.