Dog Food

[CoP Luv]

We do Taste if the Wild for our 20 lb dog. Its about $30 but lasts us 3 months.

 

[pigletto]

We have been feeding Acana Large Breed Puppy. I have to agree with the other poster who feeds Acana, our chocolate labs coat is gorgeous. But we do mix it up with PC Nutrition first every once in awhile now that he is transitioning to Adult food.. and his poops are much better with the PC and well he isn't so gassy. The Acana is an excellent food but my vet suggested the protein may be actually a little too high and upsets his stomach.
The PC is 40 a bag to the 70 for the Acana. So I think we'll be going completely over to the PC since he tolerates it so well. I've done extensive research on both, and the PC food is a good product that I feel safe with. It's only available in Canada though.

 

[hsmamato2]

no flames here I have had dogs my whole life, and every single dog has lived a great,healthy life of between 14-19 years. I have tried a variety of foods for different reasons. (allergies for one mutt lol)
Anyway my point is, no matter what I end up feeding them, they all live a great,healthy life of about 14-19. So pick what makes you happy- I know my own dogs would be thrilled with a nonstop diet of leftovers,toilet water,and smelly mouse carcasses they find in the woods....but too bad. They get whatever dry food is a good price that month,and all the leftovers they can scam from my DH (a lot) Current batch of dogs are 10 and 7 years old, in good health,and going strong. no flames please

 

[elaine amj]

We do a mix of raw meaty bones and Nutram grain free kibble for my 12 pound mini poodle. Nutram has all the holistic ingredients of other brands but isn't as well known so my local small pet store sells it to me on a super deal (2 for 1).

He gets about half and half. I'm not committed enough to go full raw (worry about balanced diet) so he gets kibble for breakfast and raw for dinner about 3-4 times a week. The other days it is kibble as it is more convenient.

I have noticed that raw chicken like wings and drumsticks cleans his teeth well. Lately we've been mostly doing pork riblets and his teeth are dreadful. They're sparkly when he's on chicken bones.

 

[anniebean]

Fed my weimaraner Purina One up until about 3-4 years ago when the Purina treats (chicken jerkey treats that were made in China) were making dogs sick and they wouldn't do a recall. A friend of mine ended up losing her lab after feeding her the treats. Vet had no explanation other than it could have been the treats.

Anyways, it scared me so I switched to Blue Buffalo, and the change has been amazing! Brighter eyes, better coat, and she doesn't eat/poop as much.

I know it's more expensive, but the bag lasts longer since she doesn't eat as much. I guess it equals about $10/week, and she's a big dog.

 

[pryncess527]

We feed our Canidae. I compared the cost per serving of a bunch of the 4 and 5 star dog foods on dogfoodadvisor and, of the brands readily available in my area that came out to be the most cost effective. Some of them can be really deceiving because the serving size can vary pretty greatly from one food to the next, distorting the actual cost of feeding.

 

[Dakota731]

Walmart has a new brand Pure Balance that's made in USA and is rated higher on dogfoodadvisor.com than IAMS and just as good as Blue Buffalo and all the more expensive brands, and it's $30 for 30 lbs. I switched my dog last month and he loves it! Plus his stools aren't soft any more and his coat is sleek and shiny.

 

[Luvchefmic]

Walmart has a new brand Pure Balance that's made in USA and is rated higher on dogfoodadvisor.com than IAMS and just as good as Blue Buffalo and all the more expensive brands, and it's $30 for 30 lbs. I switched my dog last month and he loves it! Plus his stools aren't soft any more and his coat is sleek and shiny.

I'll have to look into that never noticed it before ( up thread I said due to $$ and 7 dogs we had to go with Pedigree @ 40 lbs for $ 20 ) If it's a better food I think I can swing that OP see you are helping others here too Thanks

 

[shannon104]

We feed our 2 Weims Taste of the Wild. A local pet store does a twice a year sale of 25% off the entire store so we stock up then. Ends up being about $30 for a 30lb bag.

 

[puffkin]

For both my 2 cats and Beagle, I honestly feed whatever is on sale at my small independent pet store. I religiously read the labels though, because the same brand can all of a sudden switch ingredients. I only feed them USA food sources. I stick to grain free, no corn, no meat by products and no glutens. I am especially picky with the protein levels for the cats. But honestly, there are probably about 10 brands that I can choose from so I just pick the cheapest that time. My animals have no trouble switching between foods. I don't mix or ease them on/off. I think because the ingredients are so similar they don't notice the difference.

I get comments a lot on their coats and bright eyes due to the higher quality diet. The 30lb bag for the dog lasts me at least 2 months.

 

[Dakota731]

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/best-dog-foods/best-dry-dog-foods/

Here's the list of Dog Food Advisor's top dry dog foods. A lot of the foods posters mentioned are on here, and I have tried several for my dog. I only switched to Walmart's Pure Balance (4 stars) because of price. I have a very large dog who eat A LOT so now I'm paying half what I was before, and he is healthy and thin and trim.
I too used to feed my previous dogs cheaper grocery store brands and they lived long lives, however with all these reports from dog products made in China and the deaths and illnesses they caused, I decided I wanted something made in the US

 

[southlakejr]

I'm relatively picky about why I feed my pets, and I have been very happy with Costco dog and cat food.

Our dog is a ten year old Pit/Border Collie mix that has been on either Kirkland or the other natural brand they sell at Costco for the last 5 years. The vet says she is in the condition of a 7 year old dog, and she maintains her weight very well, even though she is free fed. When she stops rolling in dirt, grass, and foliage, she has a gorgeous coat. (so, for about ten minutes after each bath )

We had her on Canidae when we first got her, but she was quite itchy so we switched her. Our cats had been on Kirkland for a while, so we tried with Lucy and it went quite well. One of our cats is allergic to fish (seriously) and Kirkland was one of the few brands that didn't contain fish and didn't make our other cat... well, squirty.

Overall, I am happy with the ingredients of Kirkland's pet food, especially compared to the price difference between Kirkland and a lot of the high end foods.

 

[KTSMOM]

We feed our dog Halo pet food. They almost always have coupons on their website and we buy it at Pet Co who gives us a $5.00 off coupon after you purchase a certain amount of food from them. We have a cat too, so we're able to get the $5.00 coupon off fairly quickly.

I can say nothing but good things about Halo. Both my cat and dog were rescue animals. They were both in bad shape when we adopted them, the dog worse than the cat. Halo really made a difference in their overall health, not to mention how healthy their coats became. We put them on Halo to get them healthy and now I wouldn't dream of taking them off. We often joke that the animals eat better than the rest of us do.

 

[jsmith]

I feed Fromm Gold ( large breed but they make other formulas). We fed puppy til about 16 months then transitioned to adult-occassionally i add some grain free salmon-also fromm and about 4 times a week he gets some Honest Kitchen which is a dehydrated Biologically Appropriate Raw Food product. Fromm is a small family company located in Wisconsin. They use high quality US ingredients and have never had a recall. Its more expensive than your requirement -about 45 dollars for 33 Lbs but im feeding a Bernese Mountain dog and i only use about 33 lbs per month so per serving its not more expensive.

 

[pk1959]

We have a 90 pound black lab that currently eats Diamond Naturals food. We are sort of getting a Costco this fall (it will still be about 30 miles away) but I was excited because of all the good things I have heard about the Kirkland dog and cat foods. Right now we go through a 40# bag of dog food every 3 weeks and it is $30. How does the Costco dog food compare in price?

 

[Soupermom]

I just wanted to suggest the website Chewy.com to everyone. I heard about it on another thread and just received my first order. We've always used Purina without any issues but the vet recently suggested no-grain for my older dog. I found what I needed at the pet store, but it was too expensive. I checked our local feed store and wasn't impressed with the choices or prices. This site has all of the brand names listed previously at good prices. I got a 30 pound bag of Taste of the Wild for $40. They have free shipping on orders over $49, so I added two toys, a Kong and a Nylabone to hit the mark. Both were half off the prices I see anywhere, WalMart, Target, Meijer, etc. Box arrived in 3 days, but I've heard it's often faster. We live in a rural area so Costco isn't an option. It sounds like the $40 was a little higher than what some have paid, but the bargain on the toys,the free delivery and no tax made up the difference for me! (I can't imagine lifting that size bag several times to get it home!)

 

[Sleepy425]

We love Costco' Nature Domain in our house. Good luck with your new dog, mutts are the best!!!

 

[MichelleVW]

My three big dogs (50-60 pounds) eat either Diamond Naturals, or 4Health (Tractor Supply brand). My youngest 35 pound Kelpie/heeler mix eats Nutro for Sensitive stomachs. I hate buying two different foods, but the Nutro is $60 for a 35 pound bag and I can't afford that for the 4 of them! I hate buying it for the little one....but after a year of throwing up and vet visits it's the only food that keeps her sensitive tummy under control.

 

[Colleen27]

I use 4Health, which is Tractor Supply's house brand. We pay $32 for a 35lbs bag of corn, soy, and wheat free food. One of our dogs has coat/skin issues that seem to be related to corn or wheat (we eliminated them both at the same time so I don't know which) so we have to be careful with what we feed her, and we've been very happy with the 4Health for years now.

 

[pigletto]

I feed Fromm Gold ( large breed but they make other formulas). We fed puppy til about 16 months then transitioned to adult-occassionally i add some grain free salmon-also fromm and about 4 times a week he gets some Honest Kitchen which is a dehydrated Biologically Appropriate Raw Food product. Fromm is a small family company located in Wisconsin. They use high quality US ingredients and have never had a recall. Its more expensive than your requirement -about 45 dollars for 33 Lbs but im feeding a Bernese Mountain dog and i only use about 33 lbs per month so per serving its not more expensive.

I've heard so many good things about Fromm and would feed it in a heartbeat but we pay just under twice that price for the same size bag.