Searching for the cheapest dog food but the best for them.?

Question

I am currently feeding my four pit bulls from the ages of 2-5yrs Purina Dog Chow and I buy a 44lb from WalMart for almost $20. I am looking for a brand that it is better for my dogs but the same price or cheaper. Thanks

Answer 1

I happen to feed all three of my dogs, who range from 7 months to thirteen years the same food.  It is considered an all life stage food.  I use Diamond Naturals Large Breed Puppy.  No corn,no by-products, no wheat.  I buy it at a store called Tractor Supply in my area and I pay $27 for a 40 # bag.  

By the way, I also have a Pitbull, A Pit mix and a Shepard/St.Bernard mix.  They do well on this food.

Answer 2

Purinia is horrible dog food, pure and utter trash.

The two cheapest brands of 5 star dog food I can think of are Canidae, and Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul brand foods.

I suggest you look into any of the following brands, and simply price around a bit:

* Artemis (Fresh Mix line)

* Blue Buffalo

* California Natural

* Canidae (Usually this is the cheapest)

* Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul

* Eagle Pack Holistic Selects

* EVO

* Fromm

* Innova

* Merrick

* Nature's Variety

* Orijen

* Solid Gold

* Taste of the Wild

* Timberwolf Organics

* Wellness

* ZiwiPeak

Answer 3

Look at the back of the dog foods and compare fat and protein levels.

I think generally 23% protein and 10% fat is around good for dogs.

Try not to get them a food that has multicoloured biscuits and all this is is colouring.

If you take a look at some of the protein levels on the very expensive food some of them are the same as cheaper food and others have protein levels that are too high.

Answer 4

There are much better foods for a little more money or around the same. Keep in mind that the higher quality the food the less of it the dog needs to eat in a day. A dog the size of mine would have to eat up to 5 cups of Purina a day (as recommended on the bag) to meet minimum the nutritional requierments where as he only needs around 2 on the food I feed him.

The best bang for buck foods out there are Kirklands (sold at Costco, very cheap and very good, used by many breeders)

Blue Buffalo- Sold at Petsmart

Canidae-Sold at pet food stores, price varies in different areas

Other good foods include, Fromm, Chicken Soup for the Dog Lovers Soul(terrible name I know), Taste of The WIld, Wolf Pack, and Solid Gold. I would advise going to a good pet food store as prices of each can vary widely depending on where you live and checking out the prices and reading the feeding guides on the back of the bag, you will see the difference.

Feeding your dog better food also saves you money in the long. Nutrition and health go hand in hand. If you look at the back of the bag of Purina you will see all kinds of bad thing like corn (zero nutritional value, cheap filler) Salt, and questionable meat sources. You want 3 out the first five ingrediants to be named meat sources(eg. chicken or chicken meal, never the word byproduct that litteraly means any part of the chicken or cow feathers inerds, undeveloped eggs etc.), esspecially when maintaining a muscular pit bull.  

Answer 5

The important thing to look at when comparing dog food is how MUCH you have to feed.  A higher quality food may be twice as expensive, but you will literally feed half as much, so in the long run the "expensive" food turns out to cost about the same to feed as a cheap food....plus you will probably spend less money at the vet.  And feeding less food means you will be picking up less f***s (and that's got to be worth at least a few cents extra, right?).

On petfooddirect.com, a 44.1lb bag of Dog Chow costs $26.79 (on sale).  That comes out to about $0.60/pound.  A 44lb bag of Canidae costs $43.99/lb (also on sale).  That comes out to about $0.99/lb...$0.40 more per pound.  However, my 75lb german shepherd would have to eat about 4-6 cups of Dog Chow compared to about 2-3 cups of Canidae.  So that 44lb bag of Canidae is going to last me twice as long.  I know my dogs go through one bag of Canidae per month.  Based on the prices on petfooddirect.com I would be spending $43.99 every month on dog food feeding Canidae and $53.58 every month feeding Dog Chow...that actually makes it MORE expensive for me to feed Dog Chow by almost $10!  And I know I can get the 44lb bag of Canidae at my local feed store for about $32 and even less if I take advantage of their pet food storage program and buy a whole year's worth when it goes on sale during their annual open house.  Even if you take a more expensive quality food such as Innova ($52.99 for a 33lb bag, $1.60/lb).  Again, you will have to feed about half as much of the Innova as the Dog Chow, so about 1 bag/month vs two bags/month of the Dog Chow.  That would make it $52.99 a month for the Innova and $53.58 a month for the Dog Chow.  That's still CHEAPER (only by $0.60, but that's still less) for the Innova than the Dog Chow and the Innova is a MUCH higher quality food.

Most foods are better than Dog Chow.  Even the "premium" purina brands or other "premium" brands (like Iams, science diet, Eukanuba) would be better than what you are feeding now, although they are still full of corn, fillers, and other low-quality ingredients.

Answer 6

good luck are they thriving on this dog food  

Answer 7

While I agree that Purina is not the best food available, many, many, many pets live long healthy lives eating it.  

Please take less advice from the internet and just ask your vet next time you are in for a checkup.  Each dog has it's own needs and perhaps Purina or another "cheap" brand can provide those needs.  Your vet knows your dog better than any annonymous source online.  

Also, take note of the reccomended serving size.  Many of your lower quality brands may sell a 40lbs bag for $20 but you have to feed your pet twice as much because it is so loaded with "empty fillers".  So in the end if you are spending $20 on a 20lbs bag of more premium food but need to feed 1/2 as much, you are spending about the same and giving your pet a better quality meal.    

Answer 8

Hi, Obviously things are different all over the world. But, many vets in my area would recommend a dog food called "Chappie",it is made from mainly fish and cereal, and smells absolutely awful. But they say its the best thing for dogs, not exactly the cheapest and not the dearest either. It is a meat, so teeth brushing would be advisable.