Reasonably Priced Dry Dog Food

[greysandmollie]

I haven't decided to switch...just looking at other options....I did buy a bag of the Turkey version of Nature's Domain. It was not in the recall so I wonder if it is made in a different facility...going to start mixing it in with the salmon and see how it goes.

[Guest MyCody]

Interesting reading:

 

The Dog Food Project

[Guest june]

Before anyone switches because of price check out www.wag.com. I found my brand way cheaper there with free 2 day shipping (and no sales tax).

 

I don't know about where you live, but in Illinois we are required to pay state taxes on items/products purchased on the internet.

june

[mom2four]

I don't mean this in a bad way as I know in the US you generally pay less for dog food. We pay $70 CAD (around par right now so $70 US) for a 28.6 lb bag of First Mate Large Breed Ocean Fish and Potato. It's grain free. Our Greys get fed 2.5 cups of this per day and have nice poops and are of good weights. So I go through one bag of this per week. Do I want to save money? Of course! But I'm very reluctant to try! I wish you all good luck with your endeavors to find a food that works for your Greys that is a good price! it's hard.

[Guest KsFrets]

Ours have done better on Wal-Mart green bag $19.95/44 pounds Purina dog chow, than any of the expensive stuff we’ve tried. We had bought a bag of the Purina as an emergency, when there wa$ a break in the delivery of the premium $tuff we were mail ordering. They loved it and we could tell a poo difference within two days. There’s been a couple threads about it, and I don’t feel like writing that much again. But there you go.

[Guest amethyst]

I agree with Kamsmom. We're not switching either.

We're staying with Cosco and the Kirkland Lamb and Rice.

[winnie]

I may get totally flamed for this but I'm not changing food. I've not had issues with it and I figure now that they had the inspection they will be even better than ever.

 

No flames here. We still have 1.5 bags left of the Diamond Naturals Chicken and Rice. I wasn't planning on switching based off the recalls alone, but only considered it after reviewing the FDA's report. I'm not inclined to criticize anyones choices. Honestly, I thought I'd get flamed starting this thread because I don't want to spend $60 on a single bag of dog food.

[tbhounds]

Before anyone switches because of price check out www.wag.com. I found my brand way cheaper there with free 2 day shipping (and no sales tax).

 

I don't know about where you live, but in Illinois we are required to pay state taxes on items/products purchased on the internet.

june

Not in NJ--- varies from state to state

[Guest WhiteWave]

As long as the company isn't in FL, we don't have to pay taxes either. Wag.com, petflow.com, doggiefood.com I don't have to pay taxes or shipping. But I do have to pay taxes on mrchewy.com b/c one of their offices is in FL. I've found everything I feed cheaper online and I get it delivered to my door and I don't have to worry about going shopping b/c most of the good dog food places are closed by the time I get off work and my week day off I'm too busy taking my mother to doctors and my weekend day off is Sunday and they are all closed! So it makes things simpler for me to order online.

[Burpdog]

I may get totally flamed for this but I'm not changing food. I've not had issues with it and I figure now that they had the inspection they will be even better than ever.

 

I would not flame you However, that is what everyone said the last time they had a problem. Apparently they don't learn. It's very sad because they produce so many different brands. I believe Solid Gold pulled out of the Diamond facility.

[Batmom]

I'm with Burpdog here. Not going to flame anyone but after reading some of the documents from this incident and the aflatoxin one, I will not knowingly feed anything produced by this company. The nature of their violations isn't anything resembling accidental. These people show signs of having set out to cut corners, falsify records, and wilfully not do what their own procedures say they should do. The next problem could be a lot worse.

Edited May 23, 2012 by Batmom

[PatricksMom]

I'm at the end of my rope. Diamond got recalled, fine, switched to Professional, now I find out that's made by Diamond, how long until that gets recalled? I'm looking for a quality food without super high protein levels (kidney issues), that my super fussy dog will eat. (Actually, that's not true, he'll eat anything and everything but kibble he's been fed for more than a few weeks). Given our recent and ongoing vet bills/slew of new medications, I'm also trying to keep the price under control.

 

Anyway, the pet store just gave me a couple of days worth of free Country Naturals--the ingredients look pretty good, it isn't made by Diamond so hopefully it won't be recalled to soon. I don't know how much it costs though.

[gazehund]

I'm with Burpdog here. Not going to flame anyone but after reading some of the documents from this incident and the aflatoxin one, I will not knowingly feed anything produced by this company. The nature of their violations isn't anything resembling accidental. These people show signs of having set out to cut corners, falsify records, and wilfully not do what their own procedures say they should do. The next problem could be a lot worse.

 

My problem too with this company. Had I researched more thoroughly and known TOTW had anything to do with Diamond, I would never have fed it in the first place. I don't care what anybody else does and I certainly could not be bothered to make a fuss about it. My dogs, my responsibility, my call.

[JJNg]

We all have to do what we're comfortable with. At this point, I'm still feeding Kirkland Chicken & Rice and have 3 bags left, so I have some time to think about it.

 

The FDA report definitely indicates problems with the Diamond plant, but as I mentioned in another thread, no one really knows if similar problems exist in other company's plants as well. So the choice seems to be between staying with a company whose problems have been revealed, which may mean they will be monitored more closely and have the incentive to make changes and improvements to prevent the same thing from happening again. Or switching to another company whose manufacturing practices are completely unknown.

 

I also understand that the blemish of the aflatoxin recall coupled with the current problems, has made many distrust Diamond. Personally, I don't see the old aflatoxin issue as being really relevant to the current problem, as they involve different ingredients and different aspects of production.

 

Staying with Kirkland is definitely an option for me. If I do decide to switch, I'll probably end up going with something from one of the major manufacturers - probably either Purina or Iams/Eukanuba (both of which, btw, have had limited Salmonella recalls within the last couple years), or maybe Science Diet or Royal Canin. IMO, these large companies have a long history with a proven track record, and they are also the ones that are involved with much of the leading nutritional research and advancements. And I've fed both Eukanuba and ProPlan in the past and been happy with how my dogs did on them. Unfortunately, most of these formulas are more expensive than what I'm feeding now.

 

Btw, is anyone familiar with Exceed sold by Sam's Club? It used to be made by Purina, and was pretty similar to their old ProPlan line (before they switched to the Shredded Blends). But I believe Purina dropped it a couple years ago, and Sam's went to a different manufacturer. Anyone know which company is making it now? I used to feed ProPlan but switched to Exceed when they replaced it with the Shredded Blends (decreasing caloric content and increasing price at the same time).

[Guest badderh]

Nature's Recipe is about $37 for their Lamb and rice flavor. Their other flavors( because of the more expensive ingredients ) tend to be closer to $50. But after a rough patch of trying other dog foods and not having any luck with them, this one seems to work.

[Yamaha_gurl]

Does anyone know if the standards/control are differnt in Canada vs the US?

[Wonder]

What about Southern States? Their hallmark is quality feeds/foods and they are headquartered in Richmond. I checked with them yesterday and they said "Our line of Southern States brand dog food includes Complete, Advanced, and Natural; none of which are produced by Diamond. Our manufacturing sites are located in the heart of the farming community where raw materials are produced. (St. Marys Ohio , Kansas City Kansas , and Owatonna Minnesota ) Our locations allow us to build long term relationships with local producers ensuring that only the highest quality, freshest ingredients go into the production of our foods." As a result of this and other marketing factors they are also very reasonably priced. I'm switching my farm dog to it. It is the only dog food I know of that I can't remember ever having been recalled that is a pretty good quality food.

It's manufactured in MN but not sold here...

[Guest buttonwillow]

Evanger's ... been feeding the canned for a while along with other brands of dry, but going to switch to their dry now. $43 for 33lb (also from wag.com via Amazon)

 

http://www.amazon.com/Evangers-Super-Premium-Chickent-Brown/dp/B000WFTQV2/ref=sr_1_15?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1337871924&sr=1-15

[Feisty49]

Annie Bella's on a 'script food and from the looks of it, will be on it for the rest of her life. I pay $50 for 18#. To extend it, I give her a ratio of 2 to 1, that is 1 cup of prescription food and 1/2 cup of Iams Green Bag. If I increase the Iams, her poo, which is never bouncy, goes down hill quickly. I'd love to find something that cost $50 but gives me 30 pounds of food and that she can tolerate.

[Guest Gert]

I may get totally flamed for this but I'm not changing food. I've not had issues with it and I figure now that they had the inspection they will be even better than ever.

 

I do mix the Costco chicken and rice with natures domain.

 

Anyway, my crew does pretty well and we've been on it for about 4 years now.

 

No flames from me. I'm still feeding TOTW High Prairie with no issues. In fact, they've done better on this food than any I've tried in the past.

 

I like to switch foods every 3-4 months, though, and it's about time......so I'm also looking into other options. Most of the foods I usually rotate with are manufactured by Diamond (Chicken Soup, TOTW and Nature's Domain).

 

My crew does best, it seems, on bison or salmon based kibbles. They didn't do as well on chicken and/or lamb, which seem a lot easier to find.

[Guest Gert]

Just found another food. Made by PMI nutrition- they make Exclusive too.

 

They have some grain free formulas too. My local feed store carries and it is priced similar to TOTW and you buy 8 bags and get one free.

 

Chicken and Rice

 

http://www.infiniape...BROWN_RICE.aspx

 

Bison (grain free)

 

http://www.infiniape...SON_POTATO.aspx

 

Salmon (grain free)

http://www.infiniape...IVE_SALMON.aspx

 

Turkey (grain free)

 

http://www.infiniape...EET_POTATO.aspx

 

I buy TOTW at a feed store. They were listed as a dealer for Infinia, but, I've never seen it in the store, so, I emailed them. They said they can order it. It's $47.95 for 30 lbs (about $6 more than I pay for TOTW).

 

 

Btw, is anyone familiar with Exceed sold by Sam's Club? It used to be made by Purina, and was pretty similar to their old ProPlan line (before they switched to the Shredded Blends). But I believe Purina dropped it a couple years ago, and Sam's went to a different manufacturer. Anyone know which company is making it now? I used to feed ProPlan but switched to Exceed when they replaced it with the Shredded Blends (decreasing caloric content and increasing price at the same time).

 

I've never tried Exceed. On dogfoodanalysis, it was only given 2 stars: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=2012&cat=all

[Guest WhiteWave]

I buy TOTW at a feed store. They were listed as a dealer for Infinia, but, I've never seen it in the store, so, I emailed them. They said they can order it. It's $47.95 for 30 lbs (about $6 more than I pay for TOTW).

 

 

 

See, here TOTW is $46.99 to $52.99 most places, actually one store had it up to $59.99 for the puppy formulas. Infinia was $45.99 buy 8 bags, get one free at my store. I've never tried it though, I may in the future, but for now I'm happy with Earthborn.

 

Earthborn, I pay $39 a bag and the dogs eat less than TOTW and do so much better. Firm poop which they never had on TOTW. Good skin/coat, better weight maintenance and I save money. Plus the food is safer to feed. Also most are doing fine on Victor Grain free. They run $42-45 for 30lbs. But I'm probably going back to Earthborn, they just seem to do better on it. And being able to feed 9 dogs all the same food is not easy!

[Guest Gert]

See, here TOTW is $46.99 to $52.99 most places, actually one store had it up to $59.99 for the puppy formulas. Infinia was $45.99 buy 8 bags, get one free at my store. I've never tried it though, I may in the future, but for now I'm happy with Earthborn.

 

Earthborn, I pay $39 a bag and the dogs eat less than TOTW and do so much better. Firm poop which they never had on TOTW. Good skin/coat, better weight maintenance and I save money. Plus the food is safer to feed. Also most are doing fine on Victor Grain free. They run $42-45 for 30lbs. But I'm probably going back to Earthborn, they just seem to do better on it. And being able to feed 9 dogs all the same food is not easy!

 

I can imagine! I've got 3 and it's hard enough to find something they ALL do good on.

 

I've heard good things about Earthborn....but, it's only sold in a few places here. I'll have to check out their prices.

[Hubcitypam]

I've never tried Exceed. On dogfoodanalysis, it was only given 2 stars: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=2012&cat=all

As always, I don't think Dogfoodanalysis is the be all and end all. It is one man's PERSONAL OPINION on every ingredient in every food. Just because he's a dentist doesn't make his opinions scientific. There are probably studies on either side on MANY an ingredient. He even points this out in regard to beet pulp. Beef pulp in food is OK dogfood advisor because he chose that side of the fence. If he was against it some foods would probably get lower stars. Any food with corn is whammied but not so much those with soy, which many believe is the sign of an inferior food.

 

Back to Exceed...I've never fed it, you could give it a try and see how the dogs do on it. On the same aisle at Sam's will be Beef 'n More, another two star food, but hey, it's made by Merrick.

 

Petsmart Authority might be one to look into if one is driven by star ratings. It is 34# for $29.88 and a 3 star food. I fed it to my first two greys for a couple of years and was always getting tons of compliments on the black ones shiny coat.

[Hubcitypam]

For some reason I can't edit the above, but here is what he says about corn in Authority

"The fourth item is corn. Now, contrary to what you may have heard, corn isn’t necessarily a bad ingredient".