Anyone else switched to a cheaper dog food?

nuttywoman

I have ! because the cost of James Wellbeloved is just too expensive now, between £ 39 & 45 for 15 kg.:eek:
At the moment my dog is on Chappie dry dog food and is doing ok .

chucknorris

nuttywoman wrote: »

I have ! because the cost of James Wellbeloved is just too expensive now, between £ 39 & 45 for 15 kg.:eek:
At the moment my dog is on Chappie dry dog food and is doing ok .

Mine is still on James Wellbeloved, yes it is more expensive than some other brands but I would hate to give him inferior food (perhaps that's just naive of me but I wouldn't want to take a chance on something that may effect his health). In fact I have just switched to 'senior' which is slightly more expensive than the regular.

mozzyc

nuttywoman wrote: »

I have ! because the cost of James Wellbeloved is just too expensive now, between £ 39 & 45 for 15 kg.:eek:
At the moment my dog is on Chappie dry dog food and is doing ok .

At the end of the day, we can only do what we can budget for. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that!

bluenitsuj

mozzyc wrote: »

At the end of the day, we can only do what we can budget for. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that!

We use only chappie for our two year old Golden Retriever. Everything else upsets her stomach ( especially anything pedigree ). it is not true that the more you pay, the better the quality. My dog is very healthy and loves her food.

chucknorris

mozzyc wrote: »

At the end of the day, we can only do what we can budget for. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that!

Totally agree no offence was meant my me (perhaps I wasn't very diplomatic) the most important thing is that adog is in a home where they are loved.

mozzyc

chucknorris wrote: »

Totally agree no offence was meant my me (perhaps I wasn't very diplomatic) the most important thing is that adog is in a home where they are loved.

Of course! none taken at all! That is the most important thing

foreign_correspondent

I always feed cheap food! (waits for the firing squad to arrive!!) some (not all) of the expensive stuff is overpriced cheap food anyway, so don't think price is necessarily an indicator of quality. I do supplement cheap and cheerful wagg with the odd tin of sardines, raw meaty bone, and healthy scraps though.

All commercially produced dog food has to meet a dogs nutritional needs, and if your dog looks well on it, is healthy and poos are ok, then why worry - in this financial climate, people are giving up animals because they cannot afford to feed them - and I think we can worry too much about what we feed dogs - they have evolved to survive on whatever we dont use!

candygirl

I also use Wagg, and my two are healthy bouncy dogs:j:j:j

Rev

Have a look at Skinners

http://www.vetuk.co.uk/pet-food-skinners-dog-food-c-62_420/skinners-field-trial-salmon-rice-dog-food-15kg-p-2433

They usually do a duck and rice which is a few £ cheaper.

For me, this finds the balance between cheap and decent. It's not expensive, but it is good quality food.

Sorry, but I have to disagree with the above, not all commercial dog food meets the dogs nutritional needs, quite the opposite. The majority of commercial dog foods are full of crap that is of absolutely zero use to the dog nutritionally, the majority of them are also full of fillers that are known to cause food allergies in dogs.

Here's an independent review of wagg

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

I get that cash is a premium right now, for everyone and you have to do the best you can for your pets. Which is what we do, the very fact that we're discussing it in this thread means we care about our pets. But don't be mistaken that the pet food industry feel the same, they couldn't give a crap what goes into their foods as long as it makes them cash.


I switched from kibble to raw, costs me about £30-£40 a month to feed two dogs (unfortunately the cats wont entertain it), I was feeding them Skinners before, so yes it costs more, but I'm happier with their diet, should I for any reason change them back to kibble, I'll be back on Skinners.

Rev

chucknorris wrote: »

Mine is still on James Wellbeloved, yes it is more expensive than some other brands but I would hate to give him inferior food (perhaps that's just naive of me but I wouldn't want to take a chance on something that may effect his health). In fact I have just switched to 'senior' which is slightly more expensive than the regular.

IMO JWB is vastly over priced for what it is, you can get much better for less or the same. I personally think it's gone downhill since it's been taken over by the same company who make pedigree etc.

Fish4dogs is about £30 at vetuk and is leagues better than JWB.

chucknorris

Rev wrote: »

IMO JWB is vastly over priced for what it is, you can get much better for less or the same. I personally think it's gone downhill since it's been taken over by the same company who make pedigree etc.

Fish4dogs is about £30 at vetuk and is leagues better than JWB.

I'll look into it further because naturally I want the best for my dog, but this is my early findings:

Firstly the fish4dogs is only a 12kg bag at £30.50 (if you buy 2 bags) so thats £36.60 + delivery (£4.99/2 bags) so thats £39.09 (rounded down) making it cost a little MORE than Jameswellbeloved! which comes delivery free and in 15kg bags at GJW Titmuss Ltd.

Secondly I tried to find out more about JWB and found this, I will look into it further though.

as I am rushing out atm.

The James Wellbeloved brand has been around for several years and built up a reputation for a quality natural food. In case you are wondering, there was no James Wellbeloved who started up the company, that was just a cute marketing ploy!
These these days James Wellbeloved is no longer in private ownership, having been taken over a couple of times, to end up as part of a multi-national. During this period there is no doubt that the recipes did changed slightly, and some owners reported that their pets have suffered as a consequence, but nowadays things seem to have settled down, and once again the word on the street is that JW is still a trusted brand with many thousands of pet owners.
For ourselves, we have tried the JW products and find them consistent, well presented and very palatable. Ingredients are what we would consider to be good quality for a natural diet, with rice as the favoured cereal source (being very digestible) moderate protein and oil content, natural preservatives, no added colours or artificial flavourings and there is a good range for dogs, cats and indeed ferrets!
Price-wise you can often pick up a 15kg bag of James Wellbeloved Adult dog food for around £35 at online stores like Pet Supermarket

James Wellbeloved Dog Food