Is there a good quality dog food that doesn't cost the earth?

Russet

Active Member
Nov 14, 2009
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We recently got a new dog (greyhound - wonderful, sweet, loving, undemanding dogs), and his :poop: leaves a lot to be desired! He's the fourth one we've had, and they all seem to be prone to it to differing degrees. He's currently on Autarky adult (summer) food which our other dogs did pretty well on. It's considered to be a good quality food for what it costs (about £20 for 15kg). He is also underweight, which apparently he has been for a long time, while in kennels. He has recently been wormed, and was also wormed at the kennels. There is certainly nothing wrong with his appetite; in fact quite the opposite! His energy levels are good, and he seems to be in good health generally. I will ask the vet if he thinks a bacterial infection in his gut may be a contributing factor, and perhaps give him some antibiotics to see if they help.

The first contents of the Autarky food are, in order: maize, chicken meal, rice, chicken fat, full fat linseed, prairie meal (whatever that is?) plus other stuff! I've been doing quite a bit of online research to try to come up with something that doesn't have all the cereal/grain that nearly all the foods contain (apart from the very expensive ones), as this may well be the problem, as it is not suitable for dogs. It sounds as if he may have a food intolerance, from what I have researched. Orjen sounds excellent, without all the grains etc, but the price is :eek:. I can't afford to feed a 30kg dog on this, unfortunately.

I came across Csj dog food (only available online or through their private stockists, not in any shops) which gets very good reviews and people say it has improved their dogs poo. I've looked at lots of the different foods they do (and there are lots - over 20!), and even the more expensive ones at about £20-30 per 15 kg have maize/corn, soya, barley and beet pulp. Has anyone used this brand, and if so which variety, as it seems to be about the best quality in the price range - from £11-£35.

I've read that white rice is good for "binding", so I will feed this permanently alongside his dried food if it helps. I started the dogs on this yesterday, so am keen to see the results - well sort of! :giggle:

If anyone has any suggestions on brands of food that have suited their dogs which have this problem, or anything else that might help, I'd be very grateful. Cookies if you got to the end!
 
I have put my puppy onto James Welbeloved, which I think is an "average to good" food, with the benefit that it is very easily available locally. The others I considered, but didn't know where to source were Fish4Dogs and Orijen as I've seen lots of positive comments about both of those. I've also heard that tripe is good for weight gain in dogs. It seems to be a minefield actually. While i was looking there was a website I found that analysed loads of dogfood brands using a traffic light system. So while I can't offer any actual help, this might be of use:
http://www.petforums.co.uk/dog-health-nutrition/189896-dry-dog-food-index.html
 
We use the Autarky stuff for our diet sensitive collie too. She is gluten/wheat intolerant and she lives well on it. Nice glossy coat and healthy all round. James Wellbeloved is recommended for sensitive pets but is horrendously expensive compared to the Autarky (which is wheat free.) For anyone who has a Costco membership Autarky really good value there just over £11 a 15kg bag, with no VAT as it's for working dogs.

When we were trying to get to the bottom of collie pups diet and her problems (she picked up guardia [so?] )the vets asked us to just feed her plain home made food such as cooked rice and chicken. We had a tub of vit & min powder of some kind to sprinkle on to make sure she was getting all the required nutrients. Once settled on that you could start introducing other foodstuffs slowly to see when problems occurred. If you are worried about allergies or intolerance you could try that?

Hope you find something suitable
 
I have used CSJ champ and that'll do for my Irish setter and both were fine and poos not too bad.

They do a good deal on postage as well,30kg for £6.95.

Recently I have been getting one bag of the champ or that'll do and one bag of the Autarkey summer that you are using (csj are suppliers of this and deliver with their own stuff) and mixing them,simply as the autarkey has a few more of the herbal type ingredients and thought might add taste.

Dog likes it ok,but doesn't scoff it down,but then he isn't massivley food orientated anyway TBH.

I am thinking of changing though as some of their ingredients have changed recently and due to my food allergies (contact as well as ingestion BTW before you think I eat it lol) are no longer suitable.I did email them to ask about this and they had a most unhelpful attitude,which is another reason I am thinking of not giving them my custom any longer.

However that is just my experience with a particular issue and maybe I just got unlucky with who replied to my enquiry.
The food itself for the price,and the delivery service is very good.
 
I also vote for the James Well Beloved.

My dog had always had a sensitive stomach since a pup (possibly due to not being well looked after from birth - 8wks) anyway it was the best one we found.

He was on Autarkay (sp?) for a while but found after a while he still had issue's with it.

Chappie was good as well (fish derived) but we used the tins not the dry of Chappie and i got fed up with the smell of the wet food.
 
I have heard good things about the JWB,and there are several others in the same sort of price range that are good (arden grange,burns,wainwrights etc),only trouble is the price though.

With a big dog it can work out very expensive,and I *think* OP has looked at many of those types of food and would rather avoid due to the cost??

I had exactly the same issue when trying to decide on brand (although actually in the end it came down to what ones don't contain fish or fish products due to allergy),with a small or medium dog there's a lot more choice as price isn't so prohibitive,but with a big dog cost comes into it a lot more.
 
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I have heard good things about the JWB,and there are several others in the same sort of price range that are good (arden grange,burns,wainwrights etc),only trouble is the price though.

With a big dog it can work out very expensive,and I *think* OP has looked at many of those types of food and would rather avoid due to the cost??

I had exactly the same issue when trying to decide on brand (although actually in the end it came down to what ones don't contain fish or fish products due to allergy),with a small or medium dog there's a lot more choice as costs as price ot so prohibitive,but with a big dog cost comes into it a lot more.

It sounds strange but i actually found the JWB cheaper in the long run anyway. Because it was digested better less was needed and my dog seemed happier/more full on less as a result. It was also one of only a few that kept mine at a sensible weight (he was always hard to keep weight on)

plus quite a few pet places including petsmart normally have it as a 3 for 2 quite often

my dog was (he died a year ago from old age) a working cocker spaniel but welsh bred so was the size of a springer spaniel. He cost me around £7 a week to feed him with it. I also had a saluki x which we were looking after for 6 months and that cost around the same even though was a bigger dog.
 
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You may well be right LF but when I look at and compare prices with something like the CSJ and it's like 4 times the price,I will confess with a 30+kg dog it does scare me a little!!

Many of them were ruled out for me in the end anyway as use fish meal (not sure if JWB is one of them but if I recall rightly it might be),or salmon oil etc in their ingredients.Very annoying as sure they could either find an alternative or just omit it form at least some variety's.
 
Do you have a jollyes pet shop near by? Their own brand food is pretty good for the price. Meat is first and main ingredient and has no colours or additives (or cereals i think?). It's called life stage and they do a few different ones. It's usually £26 for 15kg but then often have deals to knock it to about £20 so we stock up then!
 
I use Super Bowl by feed mark.

Next day delivery for free, often discounts available. I usually buy two bags Of 15kg each, with discounts usually cost around £19-22 each
 
Having just split up with OH I've moved from Orijen to Wainwrights, at the moment he's on the Puppy Salmon one as it's grain free. He eats it but he doesn't scoff it down so I might try a different flavour next time, he's a lot less 'windy' than he was on Orijen though and it's about half the price!
 
Our old retriever had a tendency towards:poop:

When he was a pup he was really bad. I fed him 'Science plan' very expensive. I decided it looked just like Chappie so changed to that and it worked well. Either the meat or the biscuits. As a treat I used to give him chicken and rice or fish and rice.
 
I feed my lot Raw, works out about £2 a day to feed all 4 of them (2 Dalmatians, Border Collie and Springer Spaniel). They all have brilliant hard poos which is so much easier to pick up and doesn't smell and the quality in my youngest Dalmatians coat is amazing compared to when she came to me (she was on dry food).
 
I feed my lot Raw, works out about £2 a day to feed all 4 of them (2 Dalmatians, Border Collie and Springer Spaniel). They all have brilliant hard poos which is so much easier to pick up and doesn't smell and the quality in my youngest Dalmatians coat is amazing compared to when she came to me (she was on dry food).

I feed my two raw now as had the same problems and I am glad I did totally agree with No Angel. I have a GSD and a Chihuahua :biggrin:
 
We have all of ours on Royal Cannin (sp) - my JRT had awful skin problems including constant lick syndrome with hot spots on both front legs down to the bone - spent a fortune with the vets and he spent a lot of his life in an Elizabethan collar.

Decided as a last resort to try their sensitivity diet 3 years ago and he was cured almost overnight. Put the little stray terrier on it too as she seemed a bit of a self maiming itcher and chewer too. Molly, who tends to be porky is on their weight control one. Costs me about E154 every 2 months for a collie and 2 terriers, that is including delivery from the UK.
 
Ive thought about RAW for patch - I gave him a leg of lamb last night... he's spent today being sick :redcarded: find it quite odd for a stray he isn't that good at eating meat - he likes chicken and liver but wouldn't lick blood from a steak, and loves to eat grass
 
Do you think it's worth giving him probiotics powders to help his stomach? They should help make his stools more solid and balance the good bacteria levels in his stomach...
 
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