cheap dog food

billieboy_2

Waitrose has the 1.26Kg tins at £1.19 at the mo. HTH.

lynzpower

I dont know about Chappie or pretty much any tinned dog food as our JR wont really eat them. She will however, eat butchers which isnt too bad an option imo.
I succumbed to the packaging issue and was buying her cesar/ pate trays eg waitrose organic, but over the last few months have changed it to nature diet, and she is fantastic on it. ( also buy wainwrights for her)

She always eats it all - no waste- and it definatley works out cheaper than cesar trays as you get a lot more in the tray. Trays are about 79p each in Petsathome where I get mine from. You may be able to find it cheaper online but I havent found it yet! Also (TMI?) I find her poos are a lot morelike they should be ( harder) than it used to be.

thedoghouse

Hi there,

I think some of these posts seem to have got off the topic a bit, namely finding a CHEAP dog food.

I agree that, to some extent at least, you get what you pay for. However, just as we can't always afford what's best for ourselves (e.g. a well-earned holiday!) sometimes we can't afford the BEST dog food.

I think the number one thing most important thing you can do for your dog is provide it with exercise & happily we can do that for free!

As for food, I too am in the position where there is a gap between the food I would ideally like to feed my dogs & the food I can afford to feed them.

I agree with everyone who has suggested feeding dry rather than wet food as I believe this works out quite a bit cheaper. I also think it's better for your dog's teeth. Given the choice (i.e. a bowl of each put down in front of them) a dog would likely choose the wet food. But that doesn't mean it's better - if you gave a child the choice between a chocolate bar & a piece of fruit...

One of my rescue dogs was used to wet food when we first got her & point blank refused to touch the dried stuff my other dog was on. I weaned her onto the dry stuff by soaking it & gradually encorporating a little more of it (& a little less wet food) into her meals everyday until she was on all dry.

I tend to vary what I feed my dogs, not to give them variety (I honestly don't think they care!), but to take advantage of good deals. I usually order dried food in large quantities online. If you search the websites, you'll find that depending when you look various different brands are reduced/on special offer. Many people don't like buying online because of the delivery fees but usually if you buy in bulk (e.g. x2 15kg bags at a time) delivery is free.

I find this is a good compromise between feeding my dogs 'cheap & nasty' but affordable food & premium food that is better for them. For example, over the past couple of months, my two have been on Butchers, James Wellbeloved (at a highly discounted rate), Eukanuba (on special offer), Chappie (a good old staple that I find myself returning to again & again) & Natures Wellness.

In terms of differentiating between the cheaper brands in terms of quality, I tend to go for ones which are at least all one (natural looking) colour (e.g. brown) rather than the ones that are all colours of the rainbow as they clearly have additives in them. I also do what several others in this thread have mentioned - occasionally add 'value' tuna, mackerel or sardines to their meals as a treat.

Also, I'm not sure how this works out cost-wise, but it's another option - whenever my dogs are sick (e.g. upset tummy) I switch them to a diet of (value) rice boiled up with small amount of turkey mince. (Not sure how nutritionally balanced this would be if fed longterm.)

Hope this helps