Cost of dog food!!

[Supernova23]

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?

When people add sardines are they in oil or sauce? So very stupid question!

Ive been told the ones in tomato sauce are best.

Only 44p in Tesco

Waitrose (yes I know!) Do them in spring water, which is probably the healthiest option.

I buy loads of tins when I do make the mistake of going in there!

This is not anything you should feel guilty about.

One of my dogs had to have Purina HA it was the only food that he could eat - he would have died without it, but it is a shit food nutritionally for anything else.

We had no choice you had no choice.

You made the correct decision based on veterinary advice for your dog at the time - that is all we can do.

The whole blame lies with the pet food manufacturers who are happy to create food that is not always in the best interests of the dogs. They have the scientists and medics to advise them and they still are happy to pull the wool over caring dog owners eyes.

I am really really sorry for the loss of your dog but please this is not your fault in anyway or form

I’ve just forked out £103 for two 12kg bags of Riverside Mix from MW.

The breeder had him on Royal Canin when we got him as a puppy and we stuck with it for a year or so but his explosive bouts of sickness and diarrhoea over that time were rather hard to cope with. To at the least. I read about Millie’s Wolfheart on here and tried it - he’s not had a single tummy upset since.

I’d love to try something similar but cheaper but I’m scared of the consequences frankly.

I feed my Tibetan Cross Terrier on James Wellbeloved wet food mixed with James Wellbeloved Turkey & rice kibble. For treats he gets chicken feet, James Wellbeloved Turkey Crackerjacks and the occasional “naughty but nice” human food.
James Wellbeloved is made in Somerset by “MARS” and distributed from the Mars distribution warehouse in Slough Berks.
Keep your eyes open for special deals in all the outlets, and sign up at the website for 20% off and FREE next day Delivery by DHL. Then use your partners or spouses email for another 20% off, then your family members and friends email addresses to keep getting 20% off, by the time you’ve gone round your family you should have a good stock, meanwhile keep watching for the special offers. 😊

We feed our almost 40kg greyhound on Forthglade complete wet food, to that we add veggies plus rolled oats and salmon oil for his coat. We found his stomach did much better when we removed kibble from his diet completely. He gets tinned sardines and scrambled eggs as treats and regular healthy chews (ostrich bone, trachea, pigs ears, chicken feet). The Forthglade costs us a little more than £150 per month (because of how big he is), but fortunately we can afford it and he seems to be doing very well.

This thread has been fascinating, if not conflicting and confusing.

I'm currently feeding my puppy James Wellbeloved, because it was the first one that sorted her poos out.

I now also have over £100 worth of Carnilove in my ocado basket 😬

I've also gone down the allaboutdogfood website rabbit hole.
I really want to find the one and stick to it. Carnilove scores very highly on that website. Has it caused any dogs on here to have an upset tummy?

As for price, yes tbh I am shocked by it. I guess the main rise had already happened by the time we got her, but I've seen prices going up since. I am wondering if I could feed well and more cheaply making all my own food, but I don't think I'm organised enough. At the moment it's probably 70% kibble and 30% meat, veg and rice, but why am I buying grain free food if I'm then feeding her rice... Is grain really that awful for them? I can't imagine a dog never having the occasional toast crust, aren't they scavengers by nature?

I am not trying to be confrontational but how on earth did dogs survive when we grew up? this thread is like the worst of the competing how well I feed my kids and a banana has got SUGAR in it!

My ridiculously fussy and sensitive dog is great on Carnilove.

He was even better on Butternut Box but it's even more expensive.

Thanks all, I'll put some on my shopping list!

I feed raw (1 dog) weekly cost £15 which I think is cheap but obviously volume makes a difference. My dog eats 1kg of meat/bones per day

Due to this thread I have by email several dog food manufacturers last week.

I asked the ones that produced cheaper food and did not list the preservatives on the ingredients list if they used antioxidants and preservatives and what they were.

The common response has been that

"We don’t use any antioxidants or preservatives ourselves, however, some of our meat ingredients are preserved with an artificial form of vitamin E – BHT"

If you are in doubt at all about the food you are using do email the company for more info

Food is food. My 60kg Akita gets Harrington or wagg. Both cheap if you buy the big sacks and we get through just over one a month so £15 ish. We buy the little bags when we can't be bothered to go to Tesco so it can double. He obviously gets meat or scraps given to him too so he is a little on the barrel side.

He gets an awful tummy on anything else but I also don't like to waste money. No chance am I spending £80 a bag of brown meat flavoured biscuit over the other.

Similarly, I don't live on caviar.

We lost our 12 year old mutt last year to a cancerous tumour in her stomach.
We fed her on harringtons and pedigree chum, because we thought alone the lines of dog food is dog food.
12 is a young age for mutt.
There's no concrete evidence to suggest that the food we gave her, plus all the scraps from our plate, caused the tumour, but there's also nothing to tell me that it didn't.
I have looked in to food a lot more this time around, and he doesn't get any scraps - only fresh fruit, veg, meat etc.
When you know better, to not do better is just silly.
We know better now.

Food isnt just food.
Just apply the same thinking to what you feed to your dog with what you would feed yourself. We know eating processed food is bad for us but we choose that for ourselves and live with the consequences ( and yes some people can live on McDonald's and live to 102...). My dog loves the most processed food there is, just like me, but I won't feed him it for every meal!

No, I totally agree with you. I don't think these threads are very helpful, nor are they really representative of what most people feed their dogs IRL.

There is so much to factor in when it comes to what we feed our pets and it's nowhere near as straightforward as some people on here are trying to make it out to be.

All dogs are different. Your dog may thrive on a high quality cold-pressed kibble but another dog could hate it. Some dogs have sensitive stomachs and can only tolerate Chappie. And yes, some people simply can't afford to spend £80 on a bag of dog food - no matter how much they're told that feeding ASDA Hero will give their dog cancer.

For me, I feed a diet that we can afford and that agrees with my dog. His poos are healthy, his fur and teeth are healthy and he gets excellent reports from the vets at his check-ups. That's good enough for me.

At c the end of the day, you can pick fault with virtually any diet out there - but it's important to recognise that not everyone has a choice, and it's not really very helpful to berate people who are just doing their best.

Food is not food - that is exactly why the pet dog manufactures can get away with what they do.

Feeding a dog is not complicated - like us good quality food and not food with loads of cheap fillers and preservatives are all a dog needs

Dogs have different tastes and some food works better for some dogs whether it be raw, freeze dried, dehydrated etc

However and a big however many people are innocently buying food that has been promoted as heathy food. It is not.

Food containing bone meal will have antioixdants and preservatives that will negatively affect dogs health. Lots of food has cheap fillers which will negatively affect the dogs health but sold at a high price under misleading labels.

Butternut box for example a very high priced food cooks all of their food in plastic bags at temperatures not recommended in Europe and USA - not really what you would want from a high end food. People are paying for the best but not always getting that

@coffeecupsandwaxmelts I know you have expressed that we should not be talking about ingredients but it is important to our dogs we do. If you are happy with your dogs food great no need to worry about comments that do not affect you.

I disgree that you can find fault with any diet. If you stick to the "good" dog food your dog will be on a healthy diet unfortunately it is very hard for people to find out without being informed. Price does not equal good eg Royal Canin

I think it is patronising to assume people with a lower budget for their dog food do not want to know what food is better for their dog. They can use the information to make the money go further.

It is not a choice between feeding a £80 dog food or Aldi Hero . With some research and knowledge they can feed their dog with a good diet but without the bad ingredients for the cheaper amount. It is possible to feed a 25kg dog between £1.00 and £2.50 a day on a good diet.

That is the whole point of people knowing what makes a good and bad dog food.

Feeding dogs healthily should be easy but people have to do ridiculous amount of research or make choices through ill informed info when they are thinking they are doing the best for their dogs.

Any thread on here recommending a dog food and people will give their anecdotal evidence on the food they feed their dogs - usually recommending Chappie which has an extremely poor list of ingredients and antioxidants and preservatives banned in many countries. However they are not listed on the label so the food is recommended in good faith. As it uses meat derivatives the recipe will change regularly.

People do not know due to rubbish labelling what is in their dogs food and the mega impact it will have on their long term health.

Stick to food with

a named meat protein as fist list of ingredients
name
d ingredients eg rice potato
Avoid beet pulp if high up on ingredient list or pea fibre if high up on ingredient list
Grain is a personal choice

Avoid food with bone meal and a very high carb percentage.

Make sure it lists minerals individually and not just put in minerals
It is not additive free if it says no added preservative or additives.

Simple and possible to do cheaply

Aldi's food costs 42p a day to feed a 25 kg dog it contains antioxidants and preservatives potato starch and you need to feed 400g a day

For 33p a day you can feed CSJ Tripe has no nasty ingredients all good food and would only need to feed 360g a day

However the labelling is misleading on the Aldi food and would not be clear that it has the dodgy ingredient in it

I'm not here to debate what a good diet is - you could ask ten different people and get different answers. A lot of is subjective although I'm sure you'll argue otherwise

I just don't like the fact that some posters are being made to feel as though their dogs' health issues are their fault and something they could have been avoided if only they'd fed a better diet.

And if your dog won't touch the CSJ food, or it gives him diarrhoea?

Again, it's not as straightforward as saying you can feed a better food for less - the dog might not eat the better food!

I just don't like the fact that some posters are being made to feel as though their dogs' health issues are their fault and something they could have been avoided if only they'd fed a better diet

But sometimes these things are true, however unpalatable it might be. And better doesn't even have to mean more expensive so that knowledge is useful on a thread about rising costs.

This was just one example that I found in doing a 10 sec search.

The one thing about the dog food market is that there is a lot of choice. If CSJ doesnt work there are very similar foods with good ingredients cheaper than rubbish food.