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do NOT do premade raw if budget is a concern....
HOWEVER if your realy interested in going organic/none gmo...home made Prey model raw is the way to go...
use local meat sources free range/grass fed and tada problem sovled, dogs shouldn't be eating grain anyway (primary source of GMO's currently)
prey model raw IF Your smart, buy sales, shop around, hunt/know hunters ect...
works out cost wise about the same as premium foods like TOTW and Canidae.
I have one girl SERIOUSLY corn sensitive...so corn sensitive that even corn free foods wernt working for her because most of the protein sources are corn fed...
o after switching raw and going with novel protein to start I found our food is just as much what it eat as we are...
I now raise my own quail, and rabbit for the dogs primary meat source...plus my dad hunts, and we keep our eyes out for frezerburnt meats from local hunters...
for the rest we shop the local farms...
this year were also raising meat chickens and turkeys, but that's not an option for most...
cortinux quail and rabbits however are easy for ANYONE to grow even in an urban backyard and YOU control what the meat eats...and thus can comepltly remove gmo's from your foods food
...........As for reducing your feed bill, try getting in the habit of feeding all food waste scraps to your animals. Only healthy whole foods that are good for them of course. Think about each piece of food that gets tossed off of your plate, or out of your fridge before trashing it. If it can provide great nutrition for your animals, it can also reduce your waste and feeds costs dramatically while providing fresh whole foods packed full of live enzymes............
I can't see any savings in this. Every scrap of food that you throw away has been paid for at full price. If I had to feed my dogs on my leftover dinner. I would have to cook for 4 people every night instead of for one person and all that food doesn't suddenly become free just because the people don't eat it.
If the budget is tight, people do not throw away food from their plate or out of the refrigerator. They plan, buy, and cook exactly what they can eat all by themselves. If there is food leftover at dinner, it gets saved for lunch the next day, not used as dog food.
The only "scraps" my dogs get are the things like the leaves from a cauliflower that get diced and cooked into their food. I'm not cooking enough cauliflower to make a meal for the dogs. No, I cut off enough of the cauliflower to cook for myself and that I will eat and the rest goes back into the fridge to be cooked for another meal.
The dogs get some cooked fat scraps as a treat, but that is a tiny fraction of what they need for food, and it doesn't happen very often.
The flip side happens though. I quite often eat food that I have bought for my dogs. I home cook for them and if I get several pork loins that are exceptionally nice, one of them gets confiscated and cooked for the people. Or I will take a burger patty off of the ground beef I bought for them. Last month I bought a 40 pound bag of carrots for the dogs and they were the tastiest carrots I had eaten in years, so a couple of pounds of those went into the crisper for me.
But the reverse, no. I do not waste any food that could be diverted to dog use. The dogs would quickly starve to death if they ate the scapings off of my plate because there are no scrapings off of my plate, and nothing in the fridge gets thrown away. I don't buy it if I am not going to eat it.
I home cook for my dogs so that I know what is in their food, But if OP has a dog big enough to eat 25 pounds of premium kibble in a month, OP is not going to be able to home cook for the dog for less than $65 a month and OP can't afford that. OP certainly can't feed certified GMO free food that is home cooked for $65 a month. That would cost perhaps twice as much as using food from a regular grocery store.
I know a few (very few) people who can feed a raw diet economically, but they all live near poultry processing plants where they can buy bulk amounts of backs and wings for cheap. Most of us can't. I haven't seen chicken backs in the store for 20 years and wings are over $2 a pound. I can buy boneless pork shoulder for less that the cost of chicken wings.
The local chickens that are raised GMO free and organic cost over $25 for one chicken. That's not cheap dog food. The bulk boxes of cheap chicken backs are not certified GMO free.
I might be able to buy boneless pork for under $2 a pound, but that is not guaranteed GMO-free, and I am going to assume that those pigs were fed GMO corn as a big part of their diet-- which bothers me not in the least. I'm happy to get good clean protein for the dogs and the dogs are happy, because they love getting real meat in their dinner. But it is not cheaper than feeding premium kibble.
From the OP in 2015-
Quote:
Originally Posted by PeaceOut001
Folks:
I'm an animal (person ). My rats have a rat mansion and are fed as correctly as I can afford. We've had three corgis and the two girls were fine but our last dog (male) has problems with throwing up (it's not as bad these days) and loose stool (this is nasty and corgis don't have tails so when this happens, it's obvious). Throughout the years, we watched the dog food industry prices climb to the sky. The quality sucks. The last major brand we used was Nutro Max and the kibble for small dogs crumbled. Crumbled kibble gets tossed and the company makes more money. I went to a larger kibble and that stopped the crumbling. One problem resolved.
We tried Innova (Innovo?) and he (Marcus) was better on it but they recalled their dry food. The new vet suggested a better brand but didn't give us any pointers as to what to use (and we've been through many).
I finally bought a 24 lb. bag of Canidae for $65. It lasted a month. Marcus has been fine with it but
I'm not paying $65/month.
Our preference would be grain free and non-GMO but I'm not sure I can buy it. A fellow I like at a small pet store suggested Merrick or Whole Earth that will be in competition with Nutro. I found out that Merrick uses MSG (so ditch that brand) and there was something quirky about Whole Earth Farms food.
We've been through Wellness, Solid Gold, a brand that's likely not made anymore - Triumph, and probably others.
Any suggestions? Marcus will be 7 years old later this year. I obviously take this stuff seriously.
Thanks, folks.
Every time I see a vet they ask what we feed our dog - why?
Because they want to make sure we AREN'T feeding them grain free food.
My dogs get a decent brand of kibble, and I pressure cook a chicken, add veggies, flax and what not to supplement their kibble. They get marrow bones, a high quality treats. My biggest eats frozen chicken feet as a high end treat, our medium sized dog won't get those.
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Every time I see a vet they ask what we feed our dog - why?
Because they want to make sure we AREN'T feeding them grain free food.
IIRC the realization that "grain free" dog food wasn't all it was cracked up to be, even a bad idea came to light after the majority of posts in this thread were written in 2015. Time and science march onward. One of the reasons reviving zombie threads without context can create more problems than it resolves.
IIRC the realization that "grain free" dog food wasn't all it was cracked up to be, even a bad idea came to light after this thread began. Time marches onward.
I had to go look it up to be sure. Apparently, unless the dog has allergies to a certain grain, grain free seems to increase heart problems. Definitely didn't notice the thread was from 2015.
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I had to go look it up to be sure. Apparently, unless the dog has allergies to a certain grain, grain free seems to increase heart problems. Definitely didn't notice the thread was from 2015.
Yet you can still buy a hundred different brands of grain free kibble, and a bunch of those are 'premium' (read expensive) brands.
Animal feed is a huge business, and, in my opinion, is more about making the human feel better about what they're feeding Fido than what's actually good/better for Fido. Fido generally doesn't care.
For health reasons I took my two dogs off kibble & onto a homemade diet. Yes, it's NOT a raw diet as I have concerns about sanitizing. I do mostly cooked chicken, turkey and venison for their protein mixed with green beans, spinach & kale for their vitamins. Once its cooked, I blend it together. I do add an omega fatty acid supplement as well. I make up a 10 day supply at a time and freeze them into individual meal size portions. The dogs love it and they are thriving on it. I have a garden every summer some the vegetables are already in the freezer. I wait until a local store has chickens or turkeys on sale and stock up. Not counting my labor, it costs less to feed homemade over kibble. Oh..one last thing..ditch any plastic food bowls in favor of ceramic or stainless steel. They are easier to keep clean.
I had to go look it up to be sure. Apparently, unless the dog has allergies to a certain grain, grain free seems to increase heart problems. Definitely didn't notice the thread was from 2015.
In our vets office. Also back in 2020 when my dog Pearl had pups and one of them had a suspected heart problem the internist asked if we fed grain free, which at the time we did. He said stop. We switched to Purina Pro Plan.
One of my dogs has a serious heart problem but I knew never to feed grain free. Interesting when the report from the test results came back from the cardiologist he could tell that her condition wasn’t caused by food and noted it in the report. Many dogs are dead by the age of five if they eat grain free their entire lives. I don’t know why they don’t take it off the market.
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IIRC the realization that "grain free" dog food wasn't all it was cracked up to be, even a bad idea came to light after the majority of posts in this thread were written in 2015. Time and science march onward. One of the reasons reviving zombie threads without context can create more problems than it resolves.
