best quality cheap dogfood

lisawood78

Skinners was great for mine, good prices too, but we stopped feeding it when we went raw.
Hope you find something that suits.

Bubby

Have you looked at the price of Wainwrights or Wafcol?

janeys

Our dog is fed chappie, and he loves it. We started with the tins, but it works out cheaper to buy the dry food in large sacks. It always has a good shelf life and we personally moisten the dry food with boiling water and let it cool. Pets at home occassionally offer it at buy 2 get 1 half price.

Rev

I'd stay clear of wagg if I were you. It's a pretty awful food. First ingredient in maize, and it's only 4% meat, it doesn't specify what meat either, just says animal derivatives. So you really could be feeding anything.

If you're near a CSJ stockist I've heard good things about that, I feed skinners myself so obviously can recommend that, I've also heard good things about Autarky, which I believe is about £16 a bag. May be cheaper if you are a costco member as I believe they stock it.

foreign_correspondent

Rev wrote: »

I'd stay clear of wagg if I were you. It's a pretty awful food. First ingredient in maize, and it's only 4% meat, it doesn't specify what meat either, just says animal derivatives. So you really could be feeding anything.

If you're near a CSJ stockist I've heard good things about that, I feed skinners myself so obviously can recommend that, I've also heard good things about Autarky, which I believe is about £16 a bag. May be cheaper if you are a costco member as I believe they stock it.

The first ingredient is in Wagg is wheat, as I believe it is in many CSJ foods, some Skinners foods and dry Chappie. However, it looks like the main ingredient in Autarky is maize...

As for the meat content, many more expensive dog foods also only state meat, or meat meal, without being specific. Wagg states that they only use meat which is fit for human consumption - from their website: "We don’t use any artificial colours or flavours in our pet food, the meat in our complete dry dog food is human food grade and, where possible, we source our raw materials locally or nationally, within the UK."

In any budget food there is likely to be less meat (or meat meal) and more cereal - however, I am not convinced that a diet lower in meat is necessarily a bad thing for dogs.

Rev

I appreciate your opinion, and I know it's all about personal choice.

My dogs are on skinners (salmon and rice) because it suits them. They didn't do well on orijen and I don't have the freezer space (or stomach lol) for raw.

As I said, I'd heard good things about aurturky, but I've never used it so just going on what I've heard.

I agree with budget food there will obviously be less meat content, but personally, for me 4% meat in any food is not suitable for a dog. In my opinion, it's worth shelling out the extra £5-£10 on skinners/CSJ/Arden grange because of the higher meat content.

Here's an independant review of wagg. It also lists the ingredients in full and gives a break down on what those are.

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=1629&cat=all

I'd not feed that to my dogs if wagg paid me to. I'd prefer they were on raw or orijen, but it didn't suit them, and at the end of the day, it's about finding a food to suit your dog. If you're dogs do well on wagg, then that's all that matters.

foreign_correspondent

You can always top up a food like wagg or chappie with left over meat scraps, the odd tin of sardines etc - this cheaply boosts the amount of meat they are being fed - but at the end of the day, most dogs (apart from those with sensitivities to any of the ingredients - as with any food) can do very well on a budget food, and I believe all commercial foods meet the nutritional requirements necessary for dogs. Personally, I am not convinced that meat content is the be all and end all in dog foods - many dogs thrive on an all meat diet, or raw food, but likewise, many dogs thrive on a vegetarian diet - I dont think there is enough unbiased research around to know that a high meat content is definitely important.

I worry a little that when people are in financial crisis, that reluctance to switch to a budget brand may mean they end up being unable to afford to keep their dogs - when in fact the dogs may well be perfectly happy and healthy on a very cheap food. With three dogs, an extra £5-£10 a sack may make a big difference, especially if they are large dogs. Personally, if I had to choose between an expensive food, and cutting back on insurance, I would choose to feed a budget food, and keep myself covered for expensive vets bills. My terrier was fed Wagg as she enjoyed it, and was happy and healthy on it - I could have afforded to change her food, but many other foods gave her an upset tum, and she thrived on it.

carefullycautious

Dr Johns (silver or Gold) is a perfectly good cheap food and has never done my dogs any harm. At 8.45 for 15kg not a bad price. The only thing I would say is that the biscuits are a little too large for small breeds to digest so may need breaking

Fire_Fox

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

You can always top up a food like wagg or chappie with left over meat scraps, the odd tin of sardines etc - this cheaply boosts the amount of meat they are being fed - but at the end of the day, most dogs (apart from those with sensitivities to any of the ingredients - as with any food) can do very well on a budget food, and I believe all commercial foods meet the nutritional requirements necessary for dogs. Personally, I am not convinced that meat content is the be all and end all in dog foods - many dogs thrive on an all meat diet, or raw food, but likewise, many dogs thrive on a vegetarian diet - I dont think there is enough unbiased research around to know that a high meat content is definitely important.

I worry a little that when people are in financial crisis, that reluctance to switch to a budget brand may mean they end up being unable to afford to keep their dogs - when in fact the dogs may well be perfectly happy and healthy on a very cheap food. With three dogs, an extra £5-£10 a sack may make a big difference, especially if they are large dogs. Personally, if I had to choose between an expensive food, and cutting back on insurance, I would choose to feed a budget food, and keep myself covered for expensive vets bills. My terrier was fed Wagg as she enjoyed it, and was happy and healthy on it - I could have afforded to change her food, but many other foods gave her an upset tum, and she thrived on it.

"Historically, subsistence diets have been offered to society that are WAY below the variety, interest and flavour of this suggested meal planner. Jeffery Steingarten cites one where in 1970's America it was calculated that 8 slices of bread with peanut butter, 4x 150ml glasses of reconstituted no-fat milk and a vitamin pill daily was the cheapest way to maintain health." MSE's own Weezl74

There are ways to meet the nutritional requirement for a human without needing any fruit and veg (see above), doesn't make it healthy! Whole swathes of people in the third world eat little more than rice and lentils, their counterparts people in the west eat little more than MacD's - these people are not always obese or underweight.

There is a massive difference between thriving and surviving, which often doesn't become apparent for many years. Not all canines/ felines/ humans will be symptomatic as a result of a their lifestyle; everyone knows someone who smoked like a chimney well into retirement.

I can understand why people would want to prioritise veterinary care over good nutrition but perhaps that is a mistake - look at the human epidemics of depression, type 2 diabetes, cancer, asthma/ COPD, obesity. It's taken several decades for our government to realise prevention is better (and far cheaper! ) than cure.

IMO *some* budget pet foods are a false economy. How much money does our government plough into encouraging humans to eat a diet composed of unprocessed foods? How much money does the pet food industry plough into encouraging us to feed our pets foodstuffs that are completely alien?

People in financial crisis don't have meat scraps to supplement a cheaper dry food, either they cannot afford meat or they cannot afford to waste any. Looking at the price per kilo of most meat intended for human consumption, I don't see how it can be cheaper to supplement a basic kibble. I can't see how you wouldn't be better off either getting hold of pet meat (offal and offcuts) from a butcher or buying the cheapest tinned dog food. :huh:

catlou

Hi Firefox!

I was just wondering as you seem to have a good knowledge of these things what your opinion is on CSJ dog food say the one below as an example compared to a similar Burns product which is what I'm feeding now?

http://www.csjk9.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=5&idcategory=4

http://www.burnspet.co.uk/dog/chicken_brown_rice.asp

I'm considering changing to CSJ in the future as it seems to me like a cheap dog food that unlike most other cheap ones is not rubbish and is excellent value for money?