Best Affordable Dog Food?

[Joe]

If you had to name a good brand of affordable dog food, which one would that be? Or, would you find the necessary ingredients and spend time preparing the meals yourself?

[jamiedolan]

If you had to name a good brand of affordable dog food, which one would that be? Or, would you find the necessary ingredients and spend time preparing the meals yourself?

Everyones definition of affordable seems to vary quite a bit when it comes to dog food. Dry food seem to run the gambit from Ol' Roy at less than a dollar a pound to brands like Ziwi Peak at around $13 a pound.

I've fed my dogs several different foods over the years. At the breeders house they started eating a dog food that is made right here in Wisconsin called Fromm Family Foods - Gourmet Pet Food, Naturally Holistic. Fromm was not involved in the Menu food recalls several years ago: Fromm Family Foods - Menu Foods Recall, Fromm NOT Affected or Involved. They ate this for the better part of 3 to 4 years. They ate some Natures Variety dry food for a while also: Nature's Variety.

They did eat some pre-made raw food, such as the Natures Variety Raw Nature's Variety: Raw Diets for Dogs | Nature's Variety. Those these gets very expensive in a hurry.

About 4 years ago, we learned about feeding regular raw food to the dog (real meat / bones) and they have eaten this ever since. Overall raw is quite inexpensive (compared to the expensive dry foods or the pre-made raw) for quality foods, and isn't much work once you get used to it.

I don't know the current pricing on the better dog food brands, and it is hard to get accurate prices online due to the high shipping costs for large bags of dog food (prices are often skewed to compensate and make shipping look more affordable). However, I believe that you can get brands like Natures Variety and Fromm for around $2-$3 per pound.

As of 3/26/2011, you can get a coupon for Natures Variety here: Get a coupon to Try Nature's Variety! | Nature's Variety.

Generally the better pet foods (ones that are strictly made domestically and are extremely rarely involved in any meaningful recall*) are available from smaller local pet pet stores. Often these brands are not at the big chain stores or Walmart. There are a number of companies that will ship you the dog food, but you pay a much higher price due to shipping.

If your not interested in raw, then I would say that one of the domestically made brands mentioned above would be your best choice for a reasonably priced dog food with a fairly high quality and low risk of problems.



*by meaningful what I mean is: Occasionally even with quality domestically made dog foods we will see recalls for salmonella or similar bacteria. It is extremely rare that these kind of recalls would ever cause an issue for dogs.

[Joe]

Thank you for the reply and the link to the coupon! There is a local pet store near campus, so I will be looking into the Nature's Variety and Fromm brands. Moreover, what is your opinion on Science Diet?

[jamiedolan]

Thank you for the reply and the link to the coupon! There is a local pet store near campus, so I will be looking into the Nature's Variety and Fromm brands. Moreover, what is your opinion on Science Diet?

I searched and pulled up a bag of Science Diet, the one I pulled up was the Adult Light dog food. The following are the ingredients listed for this product:

"Ground Whole Grain Corn, Soybean Mill Run 16% (source of fiber), Chicken By-Product Meal, Powdered Cellulose, Corn Gluten Meal, Soybean Meal, Chicken Liver Flavor, Soybean Oil, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Iodized Salt, Potassium Chloride, Flaxseed, Choline Chloride"

You will notice how the main ingredients in the product are from corn and Soy. The better quality dog foods will have meat as the first 1 or more ingredients. Though it was limited and didn't effect the whole product line, there was some science diet products included in the recalls that kill so many pets a few years ago.

If you have a special health condition your trying to address, then science diet may be a reasonable approach (though many of those conditions that Science Diet is for can easily be addressed / managed with a raw diet).

This is from a bag of Fromm dog food:

"Duck, Duck Meal, Pearled Barley, Sweet Potato, Brown Rice, Oatmeal, White Rice, Whole Dried Egg, Millet, Dried Tomato Pomace, Canola Oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), Oat Hulls, Cheese, Flaxseed, Carrots, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Apples, Green Beans, Lecithin, Potassium Chloride, Cranberries, Blueberries, Salt, Chicory Root Extract, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Alfalfa Sprouts, Yucca Schidigera, Folic Acid, Whole Clove Garlic, Parsley, Chondroitin Sulfate, Lactobacillus Acidophilus, Bifidobact"

The first 2 ingredients are meat. There is no by-product meal, it is also soy free, which is a benefit to make dogs who are sensitive or allergic to soy products.

They have used products from china in their dog food in the past, as far as I know, they are still doing so. With any dog food products from china, there is always the risk of contamination due to law / no quality control (as in what happened with the recall several years ago).