# Good moderadly priced food?



## jersey_gray (Dec 8, 2011)

Our financial situation is improved so I would like to upgrade the dogs food. They are on Purina Dog Chow so pretty much anything will be better than that (it was what we could afford). Has to be in the moderate price range. Still not rich and the husband and I have different ideas on dog care, he would not be okay with extremely pricey kibble. There are plenty of small feed stores around here and a Rainbow Ag store.


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## bowie (Apr 26, 2010)

What would your husband consider extremely pricey?

Try Victor if it is available. My local feed store sells the Hi-Pro Plus for $45 for 40lbs, some of the formulas cost less. 
Eagle Pack
Fromm Classic or Fromm Gold (Gold is more expensive)
Diamond Naturals is an ok food that is generally not too pricey.
Taste of the Wild if you need grain free.

If I had to feed a Purina product, I'd probably go with Pro-Plan, or One Beyond.


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## jersey_gray (Dec 8, 2011)

bowie said:


> What would your husband consider extremely pricey?
> 
> Try Victor if it is available. My local feed store sells the Hi-Pro Plus for $45 for 40lbs, some of the formulas cost less.
> Eagle Pack
> ...



Probably anything where the weight of the bag was less than the cost would be to much of a price jump. I will look at those, thank you. Never heard of Victor. None of the dogs have any sensitivities so grain-free isn't necessary. Two of the dogs are around ten and one is two, if that matters. The old guys I want to put on glucosamine. Any recommendations for a glucosamine supplement anyone? For my previous old dog I got a chewable from the vet, made a huge difference for him. My old Lab has gotten stiff now so she could definitely use it. I add eggs, cottage cheese, yoghurt, meat scraps if we actually have any left, and water or milk to their food sometimes (not all of that at once, just one maybe two things, eggs are scrambled or raw). I rarely do milk, need to check into whether it is really ok for dogs. They LOVE to eat carrots for a snack. They also get string cheese for a treat and of course dog treats. Again this isn't constantly fed or all at once, I'm just sharing their full diet. With having little kids they also of course enjoy whatever the kids although obviously that I minimize as much as possible while maintaining my sanity (dogs are NEVER given the opportunity to grab something dangerous like cooked bones however). Oh and canned green beans, the vet I worked for said canned green beans were a good way to fill the dog up while cutting down the calories for overweight dogs. They'll eat banana if their really mashed and mixed into their kibble. They love peanut butter, what dog doesn't right.


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## BubbaMoose (May 14, 2013)

You should look into the Fromm classic adult formula. It's priced anywhere from about $30-$35/30lb bag. I feed it in my rotation and I'm really happy with it. I think it's a great food that is big bang for your buck. My dogs love the taste, I love the ingredients and the manufacturer - it's a win/win. My dogs are about your dog's ages, one that is about to turn 10 and one that is about to turn 2. They both do really well on the kibble. 

You should be able to find chicken gizzards (great source of natural glucosamine) in any grocery store for about $1/lb. That's what I pay for them anyway.


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## Dog Person (Sep 14, 2012)

I have used Victor and the only issue with them is they have a high ash content which could be an issue. I purchased a 20 lb bag for $29 at a feed store. I purchase Annamaet Extra (26% protein) online for $30 for a 20 lb bag. If you have a Tractor Supply they sell 4Health grain inclusive which is a Diamond product for about $1 a pound and a lot of people use it.

Two things to remember are thing the larger size bags tend to be cheaper per pound and better quality food goes further with less. I used to feed my last dog who was 40 lbs 2 cups of Nutro and my current dog who is 35 lbs is getting 1cup.


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## BennySimpson (Mar 18, 2014)

jersey_gray said:


> Our financial situation is improved so I would like to upgrade the dogs food. They are on Purina Dog Chow so pretty much anything will be better than that (it was what we could afford). Has to be in the moderate price range. Still not rich and the husband and I have different ideas on dog care, he would not be okay with extremely pricey kibble. There are plenty of small feed stores around here and a Rainbow Ag store.


Tuffy Gold made by Nutrisource is the best cheap food around. $.50-.75lb you call also try Southern States if you have a feed store close by.

Exclusive and Red Flannel are good too, they are made by Land O Lakes and in feed stores everywhere. Exclusive is the original Pro Plan formula and its still branded Purina Mills.

Exclusive is the best of what I listed. Good product


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## Skipper'D (Aug 18, 2014)

I changed my German Shepherd to Victor performance joint health-it has the Glucosamine and Chondroitin already in it-I pay about $33.00/40lb.

If you just want to get the Glucosamine and Chondroitin-I get mine from Puritian Pride vitamin online shop. Human grade for 3-60cap bottles for under $12.00-I can post a link if its allowed to show you what I buy for my dog.


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## fourdogs (Feb 3, 2014)

Precise Naturals and Fromm Gold are lower priced but still high quality. 

They are what I will be going to in a year when dh retires from the military since we will have to live on less. 
Precise Naturals has a grain free line if needed.


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

Fromm Classic
Sportmix Wholesomes (a Midwestern Petfoods product), about $30 for 40 lbs.
Eagle Pack (made by WellPet LLC, the makers of Wellness and Holistic Select), about $36-38 for 30 lbs
Pro Pac (also a Midwestern product), about $28-30 for 33 lbs


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## InkedMarie (Mar 11, 2009)

Fromm, dr Tim's, Farmina low grain, NutriSource, hi Tek naturals...


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## NicoleIsStoked (Aug 31, 2012)

Fromm Classics
Authority


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## 5 s corral (Dec 31, 2007)

exclusive and authority also 4 health from tracter supply


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## Damon'sMom (Aug 2, 2011)

4Health (Gain inclusive is 30lbs for around $30 and Grain free is 30lbs for $36)
Professional dog food (35lbs for $35 around here)
Pro Pac (28-33lbs for $28-34)
Authority (34lbs for $36)
Fromm classics (33lbs for $38)
Eagle Pack
Victor


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## BernerMax (Mar 15, 2013)

Just to jump in here- Anyone know of an online source for Fromm for under $40(would prefer any recipe thats non poultry)? its much more here locally(95949 zipcode), and I cant believe the prices you guys are quoting, I would get it in a heartbeat!!!!


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## InkedMarie (Mar 11, 2009)

BernerMax said:


> Just to jump in here- Anyone know of an online source for Fromm for under $40(would prefer any recipe thats non poultry)? its much more here locally(95949 zipcode), and I cant believe the prices you guys are quoting, I would get it in a heartbeat!!!!


I didn't check for your specifics but I buy from Chewy.com, Wag.com, PetFlow.com,and SportDog.com


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

BernerMax said:


> Just to jump in here- Anyone know of an online source for Fromm for under $40(would prefer any recipe thats non poultry)? its much more here locally(95949 zipcode), and I cant believe the prices you guys are quoting, I would get it in a heartbeat!!!!


Fromm Classic has only Adult and Senior formulas and both are chicken based. Those are the ones that run about $33-35 for 33 lbs. 
the Gold line more like $50 and the Four-Star line (which are the grain-frees and with other proteins than poultry) are $55-65.


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## BernerMax (Mar 15, 2013)

InkedMarie said:


> I didn't check for your specifics but I buy from Chewy.com, Wag.com, PetFlow.com,and SportDog.com


Thanks I will check out the Sport dog site (no luck so far on the others, I prefer the chicken free if at all possible) but did find a feedstore on my route home from work that carries it and will suss that out as well (later in the week when I am headign home)...


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

Fromm Classic is that cheap but it's chicken based :/. I don't think the other Fromm formulas are that inexpensive.


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## Damon'sMom (Aug 2, 2011)

Unfortunately all of the classic's have chicken. 

Fromm Four-Star Nutritionals Pork & Applesauce Formula is on the cheaper end and has no chicken. It is $52 for 30lbs I believe though.


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## BernerMax (Mar 15, 2013)

ok I see thanks guys (on the Fromm's inexpensive brands havign chicken)... sorry dont wanna hijack the thread ...


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## jersey_gray (Dec 8, 2011)

Thanks so much!!!


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## whisper (Sep 19, 2011)

The Kirkland food from Costco is reasonably priced for an above-average quality food. They've got a grain-free formula, and all of the formulas are corn, soy, wheat, and animal byproducts free. The price is about $20-$25 for a 40-lb bag. I know multiple people including breeders who feed this food and their dogs are in good condition.


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## d_ray (Nov 5, 2013)

I think we pay a lot more for dog food in Canada. I just ordered a bag of Fromm Gold. It was $63 for a 33 pound bag.


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## BernerMax (Mar 15, 2013)

whisper said:


> The Kirkland food from Costco is reasonably priced for an above-average quality food. They've got a grain-free formula, and all of the formulas are corn, soy, wheat, and animal byproducts free. The price is about $20-$25 for a 40-lb bag. I know multiple people including breeders who feed this food and their dogs are in good condition.


Yeah I personaly am starting to look at the rice inclusive formulas, the Natures Domain has alittle too low protein precentages for my crew, unless I feed them raw meat on the side which defeats the purpose, although we are flooded with fresh eggs over here...

and for some reason, the Fromms is just as expensive as TOTW... not a cheap brand at all, but reasonable....


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

BernerMax said:


> Yeah I personaly am starting to look at the rice inclusive formulas, the Natures Domain has alittle too low protein precentages for my crew


I know! Moose hasn't been eating well (he never does in the heat) and has been losing weight/muscle mass, so I looked at all the Nature's Domain formulas to see if any were higher in calories/protein. And the regular adult grain-inclusive chicken Kirkland food has the highest calories and protein. Weird.


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## BernerMax (Mar 15, 2013)

Willowy said:


> I know! Moose hasn't been eating well (he never does in the heat) and has been losing weight/muscle mass, so I looked at all the Nature's Domain formulas to see if any were higher in calories/protein. And the regular adult grain-inclusive chicken Kirkland food has the highest calories and protein. Weird.


I think because rice is cheap- dont have to use so many fancy fillers as in the grainfree (easy to digest too, whats not to like?) so they can have alittle more meat ingredients...


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## Little Wise Owl (Nov 12, 2011)

d_ray said:


> I think we pay a lot more for dog food in Canada. I just ordered a bag of Fromm Gold. It was $63 for a 33 pound bag.


Sounds about right. Most dog foods that are cheap in the US are insanely expensive in Canada. TOTW for example is upwards of $70 per 30lb bag.


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## Miss Bugs (Jul 4, 2011)

Little Wise Owl said:


> Sounds about right. Most dog foods that are cheap in the US are insanely expensive in Canada. TOTW for example is upwards of $70 per 30lb bag.


Lol yup, I was so confused when I first joined here and everyone was always on about how cheap TOTW is for a GF good and when I saw it in stores it was no cheaper then Orijen lol I pay $72 for a 29lbs bag of Gem's Orijen, so I was looking at the prices and scratching my head lol

Tuffys Gold is not that cheap here either, i can buy it at cost through my work and even cost is quite a bit higher then the prices bennysimpson quotes all the time as retail.


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## pandification (Apr 15, 2014)

Right now I'm using 4Health Puppy Formula. Made with real lamb, good for sensitive tummies.

Has 27% crude protein, 15% crude fat and 4.5% crude fiber. 

Cost about $30-35 for a 35lb bag from tractor supply.


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## DGerry (Sep 12, 2014)

d_ray said:


> I think we pay a lot more for dog food in Canada. I just ordered a bag of Fromm Gold. It was $63 for a 33 pound bag.


I think we must. Any time I see people talking about looking for a cheaper alternative to something like Orijen or Acana it makes me scratch my head and wonder "Are we paying too much for every other dog food, or are Americans paying too much for Orijen?" A couple weeks ago I compared prices(on a per-calorie basis) between Acana, Fromm, Nutro, Go!/Now!, and Wellness. Acana came out in front, beating Nutro and Fromm by about 8 cents per day(so basically the same price). Wellness and Go!/Now! were actually about 25% more expensive than Acana.

I'm feeding President's Choice Nutrition First Puppy food to Chester right now and he does well on it, and as far as I can tell it's a pretty good food considering the price. I'd like to switch to Acana at some point primarily because part of their brand is built around the fact that they source their ingredients from Canada.

I'm assuming the thread-starter is from the US, in which case I don't really have a lot to add to the discussion as far as cheap-but-good dog foods go. On the other hand if anyone from Canada is looking for a good, inexpensive food, check out the President's Choice Nutrition First line.


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## CrimsonAccent (Feb 17, 2012)

I don't know if it would be an upgrade, but we are feeding the Kroger brand dog food (employee discount~) but I was surprised by the quality. No corn, first ingredient was chicken/lamb/salmon. It did have rice, but there was a version with sweet potato instead. Not the highest end but pretty decent for those on a budget. We've also gotten Kirkland from Costco and that's decent enough as well.


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## Calah (Apr 27, 2013)

4Health is good. Tractor Supply brand...about $1 per pound. 
Taste of the Wild is excellent but pricey. 

I would recommend looking on dogfoodadvisor.com or dogfoodanalysis.com or dogfoodguru.com...There are others too. They all rate the foods based on ingredients and fiber/protein/etc. They all tend to give roughly the same advice/ratings as each other, so I tend to trust them more since it is consistent.


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## gingerkid (Jul 11, 2012)

Kirkland brand from Costco gets my vote. We only switched because we could not go through a bag fast enough.


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## zhaor (Jul 2, 2009)

Kirkland is probably still the cheapest foods right now though I haven't looked at them in some time.

Around where I live at least, price for ToTW has been going up a bit over the past couple of years and it's been around $35 for a 15lb bag when I see it now. The classic ToTW flavors used to be fairly high up in my list of "bang for the buck" foods but with the prices lately, it's dropped down quite a bit for me. There's too many other good non Diamond foods at that price range.

For the Canadians, are Acana and Orijen not better priced? They're only maybe a couple dollars for a 15lb bag more than ToTW even here in the states.


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## gingerkid (Jul 11, 2012)

zhaor said:


> Kirkland is probably still the cheapest foods right now though I haven't looked at them in some time.
> 
> Around where I live at least, price for ToTW has been going up a bit over the past couple of years and it's been around $35 for a 15lb bag when I see it now. The classic ToTW flavors used to be fairly high up in my list of "bang for the buck" foods but with the prices lately, it's dropped down quite a bit for me. There's too many other good non Diamond foods at that price range.
> 
> For the Canadians, are Acana and Orijen not better priced? They're only maybe a couple dollars for a 15lb bag more than ToTW even here in the states.


Acana is ~$70/30 lb bag. Orijen is $85-90. They're better value compared to other foods in the same price range, but it's not any cheaper here than in the states.


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## Damon'sMom (Aug 2, 2011)

zhaor said:


> They're only maybe a couple dollars for a 15lb bag more than ToTW even here in the states.


I wish it was that cheap near me! I pay $75-85 for 28.6 pounds of Acana. Around $80-$100 for 28.6 pounds of Orijen. And $40-$45 for 30 pounds of Taste of the Wild.


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## zhaor (Jul 2, 2009)

Ok, i didn't expect that drastic of a price difference for different locations. Like I mentioned, ToTW is about $35 for 15lb. I pay $36-40 for the 15lb Acana Regionals depending on which formula I pick. Orijen is about $40, Orijen six fish is $45.


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## Damon'sMom (Aug 2, 2011)

zhaor said:


> Ok, i didn't expect that drastic of a price difference for different locations. Like I mentioned, ToTW is about $35 for 15lb. I pay $36-40 for the 15lb Acana Regionals depending on which formula I pick. Orijen is about $40, Orijen six fish is $45.


Neither did I, you would think it would be a lot closer in price. I can get the 15lb bag of Orijen six fish for around $55-$58 ($13 more than you). The Orijen Regional Red cost me about $60+ (usually $65) for the 15lb. I can get Acana Regionals 15lbs for $50 (up to $14 difference). I can get Taste of the wild 15lbs for $27-28 (Around a 7-8 difference).  I love seeing all the differences that where we live makes.


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## Foresthund (Jul 17, 2013)

zhaor said:


> Kirkland is probably still the cheapest foods right now though I haven't looked at them in some time.
> 
> Around where I live at least, price for ToTW has been going up a bit over the past couple of years and it's been around $35 for a 15lb bag when I see it now. The classic ToTW flavors used to be fairly high up in my list of "bang for the buck" foods but with the prices lately, it's dropped down quite a bit for me. There's too many other good non Diamond foods at that price range.
> 
> For the Canadians, are Acana and Orijen not better priced? They're only maybe a couple dollars for a 15lb bag more than ToTW even here in the states.


Kirkland was part of the big 2007 recall where over 100 dogs died,and another 500 getting kidney failure and had another recall later on so I wouldn't consider them better than diamond.
Taste of the wild wasn't specifically part of it,and what I've been feeding. It's about $43 for a 30lb bag and $32 for a 15lb bag,the bigger bag is a must. Now I try to watch for recalls and may move onto to fromm if I need to.

Here despite living int he states stuff like Orijen is a lot more pricey. Wellness is about $10-$15 more than TOTW and Orijen at least $30 more. Acana and Orijen are no go's price wise.

So anyways whatever happened to Wellness,a few months ago it seemed everyone on these forums where feeding it but all moved on to Acana and Orijen instead. Did something happen with it or is sort of a popularity kinda thing?


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## zhaor (Jul 2, 2009)

Foresthund said:


> Kirkland was part of the big 2007 recall where over 100 dogs died,and another 500 getting kidney failure and had another recall later on so I wouldn't consider them better than diamond.


Kirkland is a diamond food. The 2007 recall was due to melamine contaminated wheat gluten. ToTW being grain free is mainly why it wasn't affected.


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## ireth0 (Feb 11, 2013)

gingerkid said:


> Acana is ~$70/30 lb bag. Orijen is $85-90. They're better value compared to other foods in the same price range, but it's not any cheaper here than in the states.


Acana here is $55/30lb bag for me, it must vary by region.


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## R3DOGS (Jun 29, 2014)

*I recently started my dogs on Pro Form . I paid $36.99 for a 38 lb bag at our local feed store . http://www.poulingrain.com/products.php?category=7
*


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## Sstoudt (Apr 21, 2020)

bowie said:


> What would your husband consider extremely pricey?
> 
> Try Victor if it is available. My local feed store sells the Hi-Pro Plus for $45 for 40lbs, some of the formulas cost less.
> Eagle Pack
> ...


All of the products you have recommended are implicated in cases of DCM. Only 5 brands follow WSAVA guidelines : Hills, Purina pro plan, Purina one, Eukanuba, Iams, Royal canin. I would recommend one of them to be on safe side


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## LeoRose (Aug 20, 2015)

And third old thread you've posted in. Why not start a new thread?


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