Advice on Cheap but good quality cat and dog food

RachRubyD

An hour and half wow haha but then she bound to be energetic with having Labrador in her background. I can't let my dog off the lead which is a shame due to other dogs. Am defo going to try and push 2miles with her each day after her operation and recovery.

I only feed her once a day but think twice may be best because she is always hankering after food. Ruby loves tinned sardines as well try but prefers john west ones in natural oils. I don't give tomato as it to high in salt plus tomatoes in high doses are bad for dogs. Also has egg but scrambled generally with her fish.

When you say dry meat do you mean like meat been preserved so doesn't need to be stored in fridge and lasts longer than normal meat. I bought something that sounds similar from local Home Bargains called Applaws treats and was dried 100% chicken and liver.

She had a cheap kong but was to big for her. I put carrots and peanuts and she did like it so think going to buy her a small one.

Thanks so much for the advice again and she started to eat a couple dry biscuits last night left over from her dinner. Tried just giving dry and uses the wet to make a gravy for them but she just walked away from it. Hopefully she may eat them later when hunger takes over. It was the same with the bakers meaty biscuits she wouldn't go near them to begin with. She so stubborn its unreal she will starve for days if she thinking chance of proper chicken or meat lol.

katholicos

The Arden Grange arrived today and my collie devoured it. As i was decanting the 12kg bags into smaller containers and bags, she purposely knocked the large bag of AG on to the kitchen floor from the chair it was standing on....and promptly began gobbling it down like there was no tomorrow!

Worked out that 2 level cups give her the daily food allowance of 250 grams or so. I will lessen it/raise that amount as may be necessary.

Hopefully i won't have to increase it much as i want it to last as long as possible, but of course, my main aim is to keep her healthy.

I currently have about 3kg of cheap mixer to use up and am wondering what to do with it. Not sure whether to mix it with the Arden G or wonder if i can bag it up and take it to pets at home and out it in their collection box to feed the city dogs home dogs.

Does anyone know if it has to be in a branded package to be donated? I decanted it so don't have the original packaging.

RachRubyD

Great to hear your collie is enjoying the Arden Grange. Am still waiting on samples from them to try first.

I would phone pets at home first and ask. Do u drive and have a local animal shelter? I'd drop it off directly if it wasn't far and ask if any friends had food or blankets etcs to donate. Though the pets at home dontation box is very good. Can't help but feel guilty and donate something everytime.

Having problems with Ruby still, won't eat her dry biscuits at all. Gave her dry biscuits yesterday and nothing else and starved the whole day.
Since she going for her op tomorrow she allowed to have what she wants today though.

Just slow cooked for over 20 hours chicken,veg and pasta. She in heaven ate it all. Cat is eating everything and anything, bite my toes this morning so I would feed her more food.

kb_soma

Hi!
I have just ordered purely online from pets at home, you can get free delivery if your order is over £29, so mine came to £31 and had the convenience of being delevered at home.
I want to feed my cat on better quality, cheaper food, purely seems to be aroud the same price as supermarket brands with higher meat content.

Also, try feline fayre from asda, that is over 50% meat/fish, but my cat turns her nose up at anything remotely like fish (apart from tuna)

pawsies

I find Harringtons and Chappie are an ok cheap food.

The only ones I would feed tbh

RachRubyD

Weird to see this post has reformed haha am the OP.

Its been a while 6months actually since posted and a lot has happened. Thanks from the advice of you guys I joined the petforum which is a little more indepth than this one (as its obvs dedicated to pets lol) and I have been posting there more and reading up. I decided I wanted a total hypoallergenic grain free food for Ruby (Dog) as the vet who is very opened minded and brilliant suggested that Ruby epilesy could stem from Allergies. She thought more enviromental but a good grain free/hypoallergenic food would be best. (Plus no mention of "you should buy our dog food Hills etc its brilliant and we get commision wink wink but actually its not that great for price" unlike other vets).

Anyway as suggested by a poster (thanks alot niandsa) to introducing me into Eden and its highly rated over at Petforums) I got a free sample as sent email explaining rubys problems. I also had read into Canine Epilepsy and found out that certain essential oils like Rosemary and sage can trigger seizures. However alot of dry food contain these as they natural preservatives. Eden didn't contain either which is great. She loved the sample (400g sample as well) and I was going to swap her to that but had to save £50 which is a weeks JSA for me and I have keep and phone bills etc to pay. In the mean time I kept my options open and searched for Rosemary and sage free food which where hypoallergenic grain free. I also got free samples from Taste of the Wild (great customer service) as its also good for epiletic dogs and ticks all the boxes plus low in fat. Ruby liked it but prefered Eden but still a good food and same price as Eden.

However in the end I decided to buy applaws Lite (It does contain rosemary but they told me it was such a small amount and an extract so wouldn't trigger a seizure) they had 2kg on offer for £10 for 2x2kg on Zooplus and she likes it. As you know its hypoallergenic and grain free.

But she was still suffering from anal glands and struggling to go toilet. I decided to order Nature Instinct and Natures Menu Raw prepared food (minces) as a website sold them with free delievery over £10. She didn't like Natures menu and it didnt look appeal or smell appealing. However she loved Nature Instincts so much and her coat was glossy and she was going the toilet easily and small perfect poos (haha sorry). However the company who was selling it for free delievery went bust and the delievery charge for NI is pretty steep. I am moving over to nutriments instead (use to be co-owners of NI) but at the moment just been feeding raw myself from butchers and supermarket. Been going great and she loves it and in perfect health. She has also been off meds for about 3 months now and seizure free (touch wood) haven't even had to give her Skullcap and Valeria tablets.

She has salmon oil, garlic and apple cider vingear added to her food for general health and fleas. She also has a small drop of natural yogurt in morning. So thats been Rubys journey and so glad switched to raw (its took a lot to persuade me though).

Onto the cat she is easy when I joined Petforum I posted on the cat part about trying to find her a wet/dry food. She won't eat butchers, hi-life of feline fayre (sometimes eats the chicken fillet breast one) and a nice member said that they lived just down the road and they had loads of food they had ordered that there cat didn't like. It was brilliant food from zooplus such as Botiza (all flavours) and Smilla. She gave me about 30+tins/packets of food i'd say including a bag of dry purely from p@h. All for free she wouldn't take a penny so I bought her a gift
There is a part of the cat forum on Pet forum that offer free or very cheap cat food from members who either ask for a swap or postage. Its a great way to see if your cats going to like the food or not.

She liked the Botiza Chicken in Jelly Tetra pack (disliked the tins). We feed this now and also ordered Porta 21 which is a bit like Applaws wet but cheaper. For dry we feed Applaws dry as she loves it and alot of people say dry food isn't great for cats due to urinary issues and kidney problems. You only need a tiny amount of applaws as its so high in protein with no fillers. We wanted to still feed dry as its easier to put down and leave for the day (she out and about all day and her wet food goes dry and off if left out in the open to long). At the moment we just bought Vets Kitchen from Asda as its pretty good for a dry food.

I don't really rate Harringtons or Chappie due to cereals and one of the main ingridents being maize.


My suggests for anyone trying to find a cheap wet food/ dry food for dogs is Butchers wet and Skinners Duck and Rice. I've just converted my partners parents to this as there dog has allergy issues as she doing great. They normally feed Asdas own or Aldi's.
For Cats I suggest Botiza Wet and Burns Dry.

Oh and my cat liked Purely dry food as well and probs get some when am up by Pets at Home. Ive not tried to the wet but will do just as my cat likes a change.

Also if I was to switch back to dry for the dog it will be Eden


Sorry for the longest post in history but alot has happened kinda.