Page 5 | Cost of dog food!!

Supernova23 · 2023-04-06T15:50:42+00:00

Clearly it's gone up with everything else, but Jesus Christ!! I always used to feed my dogs decent food, but I really can't afford to be spending £40+ for a 12kg sack given they get through that in two weeks. I used to feed Millies Wolfheart which was £29.99 for 12kgs. Now it's £44.99!! I've had to bite the bullet and put them on a cheap food. How are you managing pet food costs?

Mindymomo · 08/04/2023 16:43

I feed Butternut Boxes. It cost me £2.80 per day for my 25 kg border collie. If you can order deliveries once a month, it is cheaper. I recently got smaller sized pouches and top up with dry food. If anyone wants a 50% referral code, here’s mine to try.
https://butternutbox.com/Mandy460?share_source=copylink

Get 50% off your first Butternut Box, and 25% off your second thanks to Harry!

Butternut Box is the UK's home for fresh dog food delivery. All of our healthy, freshly prepared meals are delivered direct to your door. Made with human grade ingredients, and perfect for fussy eaters or sensitive tummies.

https://butternutbox.com/Mandy460?share_source=copylink

coffeecupsandwaxmelts · 08/04/2023 16:43

IngGenius · 08/04/2023 16:29

Unfortunately there is a lot of evidence that poor quality dog food does cause major illness in a very large number of dogs.

Its not so much the actual food ingredients although cheap food has a load of crap in it especially the fillers that are only there to bulk out the food, no nutritional value at all.

Dogs are quite happy on meat meal IF the additives are not added to stop the food going rancid or bits of meat that we would not eat eg the tendons and ligaments but it is the poor processing and added ingredients that make cheap food bad for the dogs.

The cheaper food has poor quality additives and fillers and it is mainly these that cause cancer, pancreatitis, also obesity as it is calorie dense but nutrient deficient, heart disease and increase in allergies. BHA and BHT has been banned in Europe and USA but in UK it it still being added to cheap food (but not being listed on the label)

I totally blame the labelling as for example additive free food is most likely NOT additive free. Because the dodgy additives were added at the time the meat was extracted from the factory and not added in the factory that processed the kibble it does not have to be declared. The only way to make sure your dog food has healthy additives of which there are many (but of course more expensive) is if the label reads guaranteed additive free- if y ou look this only appears on the expensive dog food.

Owners have no real way of knowing what they are buying and how it is damaging their dogs

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The thing is, while I don't disagree with anything you've said, it's not really helpful to tell people (who can't afford to spend more) that they're damaging their dogs' health.

IngGenius · 08/04/2023 17:01

@coffeecupsandwaxmelts I think it is helpful to give owners as much information as possible as the pet food industry is very clever at hiding things.

An education decision based on personal circumstances is always better than an uneducated decision

coffeecupsandwaxmelts · 08/04/2023 17:02

IngGenius · 08/04/2023 17:01

@coffeecupsandwaxmelts I think it is helpful to give owners as much information as possible as the pet food industry is very clever at hiding things.

An education decision based on personal circumstances is always better than an uneducated decision

But people can look this stuff up for themselves, or ask if they're worried.

They don't need to come on a thread about the rising costs of pet food to be told they they're slowly killing their dogs.

IngGenius · 08/04/2023 17:09

coffeecupsandwaxmelts · 08/04/2023 17:02

But people can look this stuff up for themselves, or ask if they're worried.

They don't need to come on a thread about the rising costs of pet food to be told they they're slowly killing their dogs.

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Spanielsarepainless · 08/04/2023 18:26

Both mine are on salmon and rice good made by Pero, but sold under a different name. It's £27 for £12 kg at the moment.

Soxford1 · 08/04/2023 19:01

I feed Bulmers (raw).
It costs me £60 per month for 2 dogs (16kg and 13kg).
I add vegetables to it, and occasionally a raw egg or fish in oil. They have raw bones once or twice a week.
The extras come to about £15 - £20 per month.
Both of my dogs compete in agility. The older one will be 12 next month and won a champ agility competition this morning.

NoWordForFluffy · 08/04/2023 19:53

I've just discovered that the Nourish dry food we've just swapped onto has had a £5 price increase since I bought it, which is just over 10%. It took me hours of searching to find something I was happy with, so think I'll just have to run with it! 😩

SkisThePianist · 08/04/2023 21:00

Puppy came to us on Royal Canin brred variety. Kept with it for consistency but quickly discovered she had a chicken allergy so we started on Orijen - the fish version - moved away from it for cost (now towards £100 for 12kg) and availability reasons.

Went to Autarky as it fitted all allergy requirements and was very cost effective, but they changed the recipe for the version we bought and my dog wouldn't touch it.

She now on Millie's Wolfheart - not the cheapest but nowhere near the cost of Orijen these days - and importantly Millie's is UK produced so doesn't have the logistic constraints of Orijen and unlike the new Autarky, she really likes it and will eat it. Plus they were incredibly helpful when I messaged for advice about their varieties.

Hadn't heard of Ci - they come in cheaper than Millie's but I have a stash to get through here and we can afford current Millie's pricing plus see no reason to move, but Ci seems a good option to know about.

Disneygirl37 · 09/04/2023 12:58

IngGenius · 07/04/2023 21:46

Trouble with cheaper food is the additives and fillers. Unfortunately adding "real" food will not counteract the effect of these.

Yes i agree that in the long run poor food will cause issues in the future. I found out the hard way with our previous dog and wish I had educated myself more about what I fed him. He got kidney failure and it was heartbreaking and very expensive.
Ive done loads of research with our latest dog and chose a raw diet.
But if you haven't got the money you can do the best you can. Choose the best you can afford and with a bit of research you could make it a lot more nutritious quite cheaply lots of the expensive stuff is crap anyway.
Home cooked can work out pretty cheap if you buy and cook in bulk but you need to know what you are doing. But there's some simple recipes you can follow.

tiredhadenough · 09/04/2023 13:07

Interestingly the police use Roya Canin and the dogs there seem to go on forever! We know a few people with retired drugs dogs who are really quite elderly!

Flowerly · 09/04/2023 16:13

45Degrees · 08/04/2023 12:42

I see the allaboutdogfood comparison site recommended a lot in here.
I agree it's a good general tool, but my concern with it that it is biased towards grain free foods. Any food that contains any form of grain is marked down.

Dogs are omnivores not obligate pure carnivores. In my opinion, some rice or oats in the mix isn't bad. Allergies aside of course.

Completely agree. Grain free MAY be causing heart issues too (or rather the peas and sweet potatoes that are used as fillers instead of rice/oats) so I try to avoid it until the debate has been settled.

Agree with another poster that it is all a complete minefield due to poor labelling.

WoofWoofBeachLife · 09/04/2023 19:49

Anyone used CSJ? I wanted to switch to this previously but the local person wouldn't order the one I needed, I found delivery expensive unless we bulk bought and we couldn't afford it. Our problem with a lot of foods is added yeast, brewers yeast and purine levels for our breed.

GuyFawkesDay · 09/04/2023 20:22

I feed CSJ

DanceMonster · 09/04/2023 20:50

Disneygirl37 · 09/04/2023 12:58

Yes i agree that in the long run poor food will cause issues in the future. I found out the hard way with our previous dog and wish I had educated myself more about what I fed him. He got kidney failure and it was heartbreaking and very expensive.
Ive done loads of research with our latest dog and chose a raw diet.
But if you haven't got the money you can do the best you can. Choose the best you can afford and with a bit of research you could make it a lot more nutritious quite cheaply lots of the expensive stuff is crap anyway.
Home cooked can work out pretty cheap if you buy and cook in bulk but you need to know what you are doing. But there's some simple recipes you can follow.

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How do you know the kidney failure was due to the food you gave him?

Disneygirl37 · 10/04/2023 08:09

@DanceMonster
Obviously I can't be exactly sure! No one can be.
If you read back to my first post I was just suggesting a few cheap additions people can make to their dogs diet to make it a better. I completely understand if people need to make cut backs and was trying to offer a few tips of cheap things like eggs and sardines which people can add which will increase the nutrition benefits of the food.

DanceMonster · 10/04/2023 08:15

Disneygirl37 · 10/04/2023 08:09

@DanceMonster
Obviously I can't be exactly sure! No one can be.
If you read back to my first post I was just suggesting a few cheap additions people can make to their dogs diet to make it a better. I completely understand if people need to make cut backs and was trying to offer a few tips of cheap things like eggs and sardines which people can add which will increase the nutrition benefits of the food.

Sorry it wasn’t a dig, it was a genuine question. My dog has just (this week) been PTS sleep due to kidney failure and I was just wondering whether it might have been down to what he was fed.
He was fed Purina Beta sensitive stomach food for his entire 12 years as it was literally the only food we ever found (with a lot of trial and error) that didn’t give him an upset stomach. We supplemented with grilled chicken breast or tuna.
Just beating myself up a bit that we might have unwittingly caused the issue.

IngGenius · 10/04/2023 08:18

@Disneygirl37 It is known that high cereal diets lead to higher struvite crystal formation in dogs (and cats) which then leads to kidney disease. Higher protein diets increase the solubility of the crystal formation so there are less of them if at all.

High carb diets increase sugar level which again is proven to cause kidney disease

Cheap dog food has a lot of hard to digest and remove antioxidants and preservatives which make the kidneys work harder so an increase of kidney disease in seen in dogs feed on cheap dry food.

It is hard to say in individual cases that feeding is the cause of an illness but studies have shown a much higher percentage of kidney disease in dogs fed on cheaper dog food than on other diets.

It is a reasonable assumption for an owner to make the evidence is pretty strong unfortunately

DanceMonster · 10/04/2023 08:19

I’ve just looked it up and apparently it’s full of carbs and fillers. It was the only food that didn’t cause an upset stomach though so not sure what else we could have done. Another thing to feel guilty about 😔

DanceMonster · 10/04/2023 08:20

Thanks for that @IngGenius. Appears I’m right to feel guilty then.

Disneygirl37 · 10/04/2023 08:55

@DanceMonster I'm so sorry to hear that 😢
Don't beat yourself up, we all only do what we think is best at the time. Age is a big contributing factor too and your dog was 12.

I didn't have a clue about dog food I just did what I thought right at the time. Our dog that got kidney failure was very very fussy and I was given what I now know as quite bad advice by my vet about diet over the years. The vet I saw said dry food was best so I just stuck with various ones which were pretty awful nutritional.

I've done a lot of research now and have gone with a raw diet for our new dog. He's a rescue so I don't think he had a great diet to start with so want to give him the best I can.
What I use at the moment is quite expensive (bella and duke) but I think there is good cheaper alternatives. For example Durham raw is very reasonable but I found I needed to add some bone free mince and veg to reduce the bone content so prefer the more expensive one as it's less faff.
I also keep some good quality tinned food in the cupboard in case I forget to take the food out the freezer. The tinned food can vary massively! in the supermarket butchers and pedigree are around the same price but butchers is rated about 85% and pedigree 37% for nutritional value.

coffeecupsandwaxmelts · 10/04/2023 09:00

DanceMonster · 10/04/2023 08:20

Thanks for that @IngGenius. Appears I’m right to feel guilty then.

Please don't feel guilty. I'm so sorry that poster made you feel that way

Lots of old dogs have health issues and there's no proof that your dogs' kidney failure was caused by diet - it could have been anything from genetics, to age, to bad luck.

Please don't blame yourself

ladygindiva · 10/04/2023 09:04

Yes I've noticed a huge increase, thankfully our dog is a tiny chihuahua jrt x and a bag lasts approx 30 days ( costs £26 now, was £21 last month) , if he was a lab he'd be getting through one bag a week at least 😱

crossstitchingnana · 10/04/2023 09:38

I changed from Barking Heads as that had gone up from £40 for 12kg to £70 in 5 years. Switched a year ago to Millie's Wolfheart and that's gone from £45 to £55 in one month!! I cannot transfer her to another brand, just to watch that increase.

I now have an elderly cat on prescribed food, it's scary. Making me think about what pets, if any, I will have in the future.

ChangedmynameagainforChristmas · 10/04/2023 11:58

I have read the thread and noted what people have said. However I am happy with the Royal Canin because my dogs like it and thrive on it. I will be adding supplements such as sardines and chicken to their diet, which to be fair I already do but not so much as I will now