Feeding Well On A Budget

[CazReiAndKuma]

Hi all

I'd love some ideas on feeding my dogs a super healthy diet on a tight budget.

Money never used to be an issue, and my dogs were fed very well. They would eat barf patties, or Mince mixed with VAN, lots of meaty bones, or on my lazy days Eagle Pack Holistic Dry food.

These days, they are not fed as well, and I can see the difference in their skin, coats and teeth, and I need to fix this ASAP.

Currently we have nowhere to store bulk meat, frozen or otherwise, but we are looking into getting the dogs their own fridge/freezer in the very near future, so that will no longer be an issue.

Any ideas you can give me would be greatly appreciated!!

[poodlefan]

No canned food. Its a total waste of money.

Lots of raw meaty bones.. chicken wings (frames are good for big dogs) lamb and beef offcuts

Decent quality kibble - something like Advance. Black Hawk gets very good reviews here. The really cheap ones are full of fillers which just end up in smelly piles in the back yard so its false economy to feed the very cheap stuff.

You can add family meal left overs (no onion) to some degree to make the kibble a bit more interesting.

[CazReiAndKuma]

I've never fed canned food, but I am feeding Supercoat and Table scraps... I know it's not good enough. I can tell simply by looking at them.

[Staranais]

Yup, canned is crap.

I'm on a budget too.

My 28kg malinois girl gets part Canidae (works out about $10 NZ per kilo for us) and part raw (works out approximately the same price as the Canidae per 1000kJ), hence she costs about $4 or $5 NZ per day to run.

For the raw, I buy

* Veal neck bones, beef brisket bones, recreational cannon bones, and fish heads, all at approx $4/kg

* Heart and green tripe, at $5/kg from a pet food supply store

* Liver and kidney, at about $7/kg from the supermarket

* Fish oil, vit E, green lipped mussels and glucosamine, also from the supermarket

* Healthy table scraps are free!

If you have your own freezer you're lucky - you can buy things in bulk when they're cheap, and freeze them for later.

Edited January 27, 2011 by Staranais

[poodlefan]

I've never fed canned food, but I am feeding Supercoat and Table scraps... I know it's not good enough. I can tell simply by looking at them.

I'm no fan of Supercoat but a lot of folk don't seem to mind it. I think you can do better (and feed less) with a slightly better product though.

The best thing you could do to that diet is feed two out of three meals as raw meaty bones. As soon as you get a freezer, investigate buying bulk chicken frames (often sold for soup stock). They are very cheap and great for dogs. If you go to the supermarket fairly frequently you could buy those or chicken wings.

Nothing wrong with table scraps. Dogs lived of those and bones for many years without too much trouble.

[CazReiAndKuma]

Yup, canned is crap.

I'm on a budget too.

My 28kg malinois girl gets part Canidae (works out about $10 NZ per kilo for us) and part raw (works out approximately the same price as the Canidae per 1000kJ), hence she costs about $4 or $5 NZ per day to run.

For the raw, I buy

* Veal neck bones, beef brisket bones, recreational cannon bones, and fish heads, all at approx $4/kg

* Heart and green tripe, at $5/kg from a pet food supply store

* Liver and kidney, at about $7/kg from the supermarket

* Fish oil, vit E, green lipped mussels and glucosamine, also from the supermarket

* Healthy table scraps are free!

If you have your own freezer you're lucky - you can buy things in bulk when they're cheap, and freeze them for later.

Thank you that is VERY helpful!!!

What is Canidae??

[CazReiAndKuma]

I've never fed canned food, but I am feeding Supercoat and Table scraps... I know it's not good enough. I can tell simply by looking at them.

I'm no fan of Supercoat but a lot of folk don't seem to mind it. I think you can do better (and feed less) with a slightly better product though.

The best thing you could do to that diet is feed two out of three meals as raw meaty bones. As soon as you get a freezer, investigate buying bulk chicken frames (often sold for soup stock). They are very cheap and great for dogs. If you go to the supermarket fairly frequently you could buy those or chicken wings.

Nothing wrong with table scraps. Dogs lived of those and bones for many years without too much trouble.

Thank you, that's what I was thinking. Stick with the supercoat, or possibly change to Bonnie (not sure which is better) but only feed it 2 or 3 times a week, and on the other days feed meat and bones.

I was thinking on the days I do the kibble, that I should add things such as tinned salmon, or fish oil or something to help improve their coats.

I'm also thinking of having their teeth professionally scaled. I know the bones keep teeth clean, but I think I've let it go too far. They've hardly eaten any bones in the past 18 months

[Staranais]

You're welcome.

Canidae is a medium to high quality dog food that I like, and that my dog does well on: http://www.canidae.com/

I'm not sure about who stocks it in Aussie, or how much it is.

ETA - if they have visible tartar on their teeth, I'd get them scaled properly. It's much easier to keep teeth clean than to clean dirty teeth.

Edited January 27, 2011 by Staranais

[poodlefan]

I'm also thinking of having their teeth professionally scaled. I know the bones keep teeth clean, but I think I've let it go too far. They've hardly eaten any bones in the past 18 months

I would give them a couple of months with bones before making the decision. A lot of the tartar should come off with bones in the diet.

[persephone]

Supermarkets may sell bones(flaps/necks etc ) I buy stuff from our IGA only about $4 a kg!

Chicken carcasses are cheap ..and a meal!

Supercoat or Bonnie is ok... but for the cost of teeth scaling..you could have bought a uteload of bones!!

[Dog_Horse_Girl]

Canidae is a super-premium food, available in kibble and canned varieties.

I haven't tried it due to cost...and allergy dogs...

Mine are fed on what I can afford and what they tolerate.

Lilly gets a mixture of good quality kibble (Royal Canin is her super premium), raw and a good quality dog roll - she has times where she won't eat anything other than dog roll so I give her the best I can find, that's usually Scotty's chicken loaf. I also find some of the Aldi brand dog rolls are quite okay for her and they're very affordable but she doesn't get much of that. While she loves raw, she takes ages to eat it and I think that's just because she's older now and has trouble with a lot of bones. I do try to smash them up for her...and it wouldn't be a problem if I didn't have two other dogs who think that anything Lilly drops on the floor is fair game.

Molly gets Royal Canin Mini Indoor dog and raw bones with the occasional bit of offal snuck in (she doesn't eat offal but pushes it around her bowl )...either wing portions or lamb riblets or neck chops. She has allergies so I give her the raw only sparingly or she flares up.

Ruby gets Pro Plan Sensitive when she's not on raw - turkey, roo and pork bones and minces. I'd give her rabbit if I could afford it. She can't have any chicken or chicken by-products, nor beef, and she has become sensitive to lamb again. She's got sensitive skin and a very sensitive stomach...so she's hard to feed on a processed diet.

I fed supercoat when I didn't know any better and I have to say that some dogs do okay on it...but in my experience there are better foods which aren't all that much more expensive.

The only time I give canned is the Fish for Dogs because Ruby loves it and hasn't reacted as yet. Oh, and canned sardines or mackerel too - all the dogs love their canned fish.

I say be guided by how your dogs look and behave.

[stormie]

I wonder if Black Hawk food could be an option for you? A fair few people seem to like it and from memory it's not that expensive?

[tlc]

Black Hawk is awesome! I changed my guys from Nutro ($110 for 15 kilos) to Black hawk ($75 for 20 kilos) so you are getting an excellent quality food and more of it for less money.

I noticed in your first post you said on your lazy days yours get Eagle pack Holistic. Just becasue you feed your dogs a dry food doesn't mean its a lazy way to feed. Not sure if thats what you meant. Sure dry food is way easier than raw but there are loads of people whos dogs main diet is dry. Mine get the BH and bones, (chicken, lamb)

regarding the supercoat, there is some supercoat feeders here too. I used to feed mine supercoat but they also got a variety of other stuff as well and the supercoat only made up about 10% of thier diet.

If you are interested in the black hawk, do a search in the nutrition thread ( I think thats where it is) it is not sold in shops but the lady who organises the food will send you a sample to try to make sure your dogs like it then you can decide if it is worth it. It is good food so they don't need a lot.

Edited January 27, 2011 by tlc

[CazReiAndKuma]

Black Hawk is awesome! I changed my guys from Nutro ($110 for 15 kilos) to Black hawk ($75 for 20 kilos) so you are getting an excellent quality food and more of it for less money.

I noticed in your first post you said on your lazy days yours get Eagle pack Holistic. Just becasue you feed your dogs a dry food doesn't mean its a lazy way to feed. Not sure if thats what you meant. Sure dry food is way easier than raw but there are loads of people whos dogs main diet is dry. Mine get the BH and bones, (chicken, lamb)

regarding the supercoat, there is some supercoat feeders here too. I used to feed mine supercoat but they also got a variety of other stuff as well and the supercoat only made up about 10% of thier diet.

If you are interested in the black hawk, do a search in the nutrition thread ( I think thats where it is) it is not sold in shops but the lady who organises the food will send you a sample to try to make sure your dogs like it then you can decide if it is worth it. It is good food so they don't need a lot.

Ohh no no, I didn't mean feeding dry was lazy, just that that's what I would do when I couldn't be bothered mixing feeds. I'm sure if I could afford to feed something like Eagle Pack 100% I probably would!!

I will definitely look into this Black Hawk stuff, $75 for 20kg sounds great. I pay about $55 for 18kg of Supercoat.

[G.G]

Black Hawk is awesome! I changed my guys from Nutro ($110 for 15 kilos) to Black hawk ($75 for 20 kilos) so you are getting an excellent quality food and more of it for less money.

I noticed in your first post you said on your lazy days yours get Eagle pack Holistic. Just becasue you feed your dogs a dry food doesn't mean its a lazy way to feed. Not sure if thats what you meant. Sure dry food is way easier than raw but there are loads of people whos dogs main diet is dry. Mine get the BH and bones, (chicken, lamb)

regarding the supercoat, there is some supercoat feeders here too. I used to feed mine supercoat but they also got a variety of other stuff as well and the supercoat only made up about 10% of thier diet.

If you are interested in the black hawk, do a search in the nutrition thread ( I think thats where it is) it is not sold in shops but the lady who organises the food will send you a sample to try to make sure your dogs like it then you can decide if it is worth it. It is good food so they don't need a lot.

l feed canidae Grain free ALS

l was using another premium dog food but wanted to reduce my cost and came across Canidae

l feed nearly 150 grams less per day because the amount of meat in the product

Has no fillers and is all natural

l am very happy with canidae it is pricey but l have reduced my cost by feeding less per day

[Guest english.ivy]

Another voter for Black Hawk, I find it to be an extremely good dry food for a pretty low cost.

I pay $90 for 20kg [i guess us in Perth pay more because of freight?] and it lasts my two quite awhile, plus chicken mince and what everyone else has said. Off cuts are very popular at my place!

A tin of sardines with dry food is a decent meal once a week also. Sardines are a couple of dollars a tin.

[SnoPaws]

When I went from one house to two, I went from feeding Proplan to Supercoat, it only took me a month to go back.

I found I was feeding twice as much as what I was with Proplan and they started to look like crap definately wasn't worth any money saved

We also feed chicken wings, I pay $30 for a ten kilo box and chicken carcasses or lamb flaps which hubby picks up from the supermarket as we need them.

We have six dogs ranging from 20-25 kilos each who get a cup of dry food and either a carcass or 3ish wings everyday.

The two bubbas also get a carcass in the morning for breaky. When I ever a get a chance to duck into Aldi or NQR I pick up tinned Sardines and the get these once or twice a week if I have them on hand. I think I pay about 2 dollars for four. Any left over fruit or vegies are divided among them and they help themselves to the fruit from the lower branches on the fruit trees. If we are home on the weekend, which doesn't happen often they get half a big juicy marrow bone each as a treat.

I think we worked it out a couple of years ago and it cost about $2-3 per dog per day, nothing compared to my horses

However the black hawk sounds interesting.

[Erny]

There's a good deal of good advice here, CRandK. Raw, natural diet is generally speaking the best way to go. I fed my previous (avatar) girl (bhcs) raw food + the VAN Complete mix. I didn't find this expensive at all because I found that I needed to feed her far less than what was suggested on the VAN packet and I know that I am not alone in that experience. It might have felt expensive to purchase (I bought the honey tubs of it at a time as this worked out the cheapest over all) but it lasted me so long that it worked out cheap. Not every dog does well on it (but that's the same for any food) but when they do, I tend to find the VAN provides excellent results.

Sadly, I'm unable to feed my dog RMB and raw diet - at least for now ..... I'm working on it, but if I could I would.

One thing I'm making a note of and I hope that you will forgive me as it is not what you've asked about. And perhaps things have changed or perhaps the pictures are misleading. But I'm looking at the photos in your signature and I'm thinking that perhaps your dogs are overweight? Difficult to tell properly because of the positions they are in. But my point in this is to suggest you look at that because it might be that you are feeding more than you need to. If you could adjust that by getting some better quality food and feed less, you may find there is no difference in the price, if it doesn't prove to be cheaper .

Edited January 27, 2011 by Erny

[Rebanne]

I feed supercoat to my 4 dogs and they do really well on it. They get the occassional egg with it and the odd marrow bone.

[Golden Rules]

I've never fed canned food, but I am feeding Supercoat and Table scraps... I know it's not good enough. I can tell simply by looking at them.

I think some of the cheaper alternatives are actually better than Supercoat, eg Coprice and Bonnie. I have used all at certain times and Supercoat was the least popular.

I am currently using Bonnie Light for an older dog who has to watch his weight.

Sardines in oil a few times a week are good. You can get Woolies brand or Coles own brand - 3 tins for $1.50 so not expensive at all.