Best dog food... help?

[lovebug]

I am looking into a better dog food for my 3 dogs so far i have found pinnical (sp) a good brand that does not cost an arm and a leg. does anyone have other brands that are at a good price i could look into?

Thanks and my pups say thank you too

[SubliminalDarkness]

It would be helpful to have a starting point.... What have they been eating up until now?

[Carlin]

I have to recommend Orijen. It's expensive, but you feed very little of it (less than the bag says) so it comes out to less than cheaper foods that you have to feed lots of.

[lovebug]

Originally Posted by SubliminalDarkness

It would be helpful to have a starting point.... What have they been eating up until now?

They have been on Iams... i have 3 dogs one is 140lbs, 120lbs and 60lbs so i am not feeding small dogs

[ColoradoHELLP]

Wow! Huge dogs! What kind?

[lovebug]

Originally Posted by ColoradoHELLP

Wow! Huge dogs! What kind?

Black lab/germen shepherd /Mastive 140lbs, American bull bog/pit 120lbs, and border collie/blue healer 50-60lbs (cant remember from out last vet check)…

[Oubliette8]

Foods I like that are at a reasonable price point include-

Chicken Soup (dumb name, good ingredients)
Canidae
Nutrisource
Diamond Naturals
All of these run about $1/pound

Another nice food is EarthBorne Holistics, which is very comparable to Wellness, but priced lower.

All that said, I also feed Orijen. It is pricey per bag, but I feed so little of it that it ends up being pretty cheap.

You might try figuring out the price per day to feed. I figured this out once for a wide range of foods, I was sure I would never feed the priciest foods I checked- as it turned out, the most expensive food on my list cost 50cents LESS per day to feed for my one dog than the next most expensive food, and over $1 less than most of the foods, because you had to feed so much less. Needless to say, we went with the expensive bag, because it saved us $15-$30+/month over the other foods.

You can use the equation- (price per bag * weight of 1 cup (in pounds) * number of recommended cups per day)/weight of the bag (in pounds)

That will give you the price/day
For the weight of one cup, I weighed a cup of the kibble I was feeding, I figured weight can't vary too drastically across kibbles
For the # of reccomended cups, I used the lowest reccomended # of cups/day for my weight dog. Normally with food, I find you have to feed even less than that in actual practice (Unless your dog is exceptionally active, or prone to being thing)

You might try it to compare the brands you like and see what results you get.

[SubliminalDarkness]

Originally Posted by Oubliette8

You can use the equation- (price per bag * weight of 1 cup (in pounds) * number of recommended cups per day)/weight of the bag (in pounds)

That will give you the price/day
For the weight of one cup, I weighed a cup of the kibble I was feeding, I figured weight can't vary too drastically across kibbles
For the # of reccomended cups, I used the lowest reccomended # of cups/day for my weight dog. Normally with food, I find you have to feed even less than that in actual practice (Unless your dog is exceptionally active, or prone to being thing)

You might try it to compare the brands you like and see what results you get.

Now you've got me wanting to crunch numbers for my dogs

[greenmagick]

Taste of the Wild is a food that people are really liking lately over on a dane forum i frequent. It is grain free, and while orijen and evo are probably a bit better, they are also way more expensive.

Raw is usually really cost effective too

[Ola_]

I definitely second that you will feed less of a better food. When we fed kibble we went from Science Diet (ugh, don't ask) to Canidae and literally fed half as much!

[lovebug]

Originally Posted by greenmagick

Taste of the Wild is a food that people are really liking lately over on a dane forum i frequent. It is grain free, and while orijen and evo are probably a bit better, they are also way more expensive.

Raw is usually really cost effective too

Taste of the wild is what i got! it was a great price using Oubliette8 formula (THANK YOU SO MUCH for that! it helped a ton!) i can wait to see how it works!

another food question...sorry
ok since i am moving from such a 'bad' food to a 'good' food should i do anything special to switch them over??? how really important is this?

[Oubliette8]

mix the old food and the new food slowly. Most dogs can acclimate over a week or two, but sensitive dogs may take as long as a month. Start with mostly old food and a tiny bit of new food, and gradually increase the new food and decrease the old food until they are eating only new food. Starting something like 25% new, 75% old would be reasonable for most dogs. If they are sensitive though, you may need to start even smaller and go slower.

Some dogs have no issues going straight to a new food, but due to the difference in quality especially, I'd mix.

Sometimes when you switch to a high quality food, they dogs pick out all the new food and leave the old- if they just stop eating the old for several meals, go ahead and do a straight switch, its not like you can them eat it, but be aware there may be some stomach upset or diarrhea. Generally its short lived, if it lasts for a long time (more than a few days) you might try mixing in white rice or canned pumpkin to firm up their stools, and then gradually reduce the additive if you can.

[LeslieB]

I also feed my dogs Orijen. After trying so many different foods over the years, this has definitely been the best food for them. They poo so much less and just seem so much healthier overall. It can be pricey, and some pet stores have trouble keeping it on stock, but Petfooddirect.com is a good place to get it.

[staceyshoe]

Originally Posted by Oubliette8

Foods I like that are at a reasonable price point include-

Chicken Soup (dumb name, good ingredients)
Canidae
Nutrisource
Diamond Naturals
All of these run about $1/pound

Another nice food is EarthBorne Holistics, which is very comparable to Wellness, but priced lower.

All that said, I also feed Orijen. It is pricey per bag, but I feed so little of it that it ends up being pretty cheap.

OK, I'm searching for a decent and reasonably priced dog food also. Can I find these at a local pet store or would I need to order online? TIA!

[greenmagick]

Originally Posted by staceyshoe

OK, I'm searching for a decent and reasonably priced dog food also. Can I find these at a local pet store or would I need to order online? TIA!

Big Box pet stores often dont carry them, however, specialty ones may. However, most are carried at feed stores, and usually at a lower markup. Feed stores are also often willing to special order food for you.

[november]

Chicken Soup is going to be one of the most affordable foods with really good ingredients. It's half the price of some of the premium foods and is still a really good choice as far as quality of ingredients. It's also one of the only foods than can be found in most all places -- I literally live in the middle of nowhere and it was the ONLY premium dog food I could buy in person. I found it at a local feed store (Orschelen).

[Ola_]

Originally Posted by greenmagick

Big Box pet stores often dont carry them, however, specialty ones may. However, most are carried at feed stores, and usually at a lower markup. Feed stores are also often willing to special order food for you.

I was able to find a variety of quality pet foods at little "mom and pop" pet stores, whether I was in a large city of small-ish town. In rural areas the feed store is the way to go though. I liked being able to support a small business too instead of a large corporation (as long as they don't sell puppies/kittens, of course).

The food manufacturers often have a "store locator" function on their website which can be quite helpful.

[greenmagick]

Originally Posted by Ola_

I was able to find a variety of quality pet foods at little "mom and pop" pet stores, whether I was in a large city of small-ish town. In rural areas the feed store is the way to go though. I liked being able to support a small business too instead of a large corporation (as long as they don't sell puppies/kittens, of course).

The food manufacturers often have a "store locator" function on their website which can be quite helpful.

very true

(I was kind of including mom and pop stores in specialty stores as all the ones around me are both)

Also, I am in a big city...feed stores still have a great variety and cheap....and they too are mom and pop stores

[Epiphany]

We feed our pup Innova. I tried a couple different kinds, Blue Buffalo was one, and settled on Innova because of the quality ingrediants and the price.

[SquishyKitty]

For the life of me I haven't been able to find Orijen anywhere around here.

However, I have started feeding Nutro and mixed in the Newman's Own Organic adult dog food, and it's been great for our 2 dogs. Our frenchie especially seems to have benefitted from this, he's much less smelly and even has lost a couple of pounds so his breathing is easier (very smooshed nose).

I know not everybody can do the raw food thing, we definitely can't but our dogs are thriving on the Nutro brand.

One of the main things I looked for was no corn in the food, that is the main ingredient that makes my frenchie super smelly and really doesn't offer any nutritional benefits.