a dog food thats comparable to Blue Buffalo

[Liz]

Purina also has a newer food out called Purina Pro Plan Selects. I saw it at Petsmart yesterday. It is formulated without corn, wheat & soy, which cause alot of allergies in dogs, like itching, redness & poor coats. There are several printable $3.00 coupons for it.

Doing some research into that food, i.e. looking at the ingredient list, it is still a garbage food. Not at all comparable to Wellness--it is more of a grocery store quality food, not good.

[kval07]

OP: I started this thread a while back and I posted lots of good links about dog food to educate yourself.

What brand food do you feed your dog and WHY?

I feed my dogs Innova Evo and it is awesome.

You should look for HIGH QUALITY food where the main ingredients are not fillers (see links in thread above) and a food that has not had any recalls.

I also keep a pet food recall thread. It is not retroactive though, only recalls that occurred after I started the thread are posted.

[farmergirl]

My only suggestion is to buy the best food you can afford!! Cheap foods have fillers and dogs will need to eat ALOT more of the cheap food than the expensive foods. I used to buy cheap dogfood, then we found out what Angelbaby's allergies were (alot of foods) and now buy Taste of the Wild. We buy 1 bag of ToTW every 3 weeks or so= $43 (35lbs) / 3 weeks = $14.33/wk. 40lb bag of cheap food would barely last us a week so $15.00ish for Dads. Actually cheaper to feed the better foods IMO. Just a bit of sticker shock when you have to purchase it.

I have 1 rotterman and 2 chi's

Oh, and TSC has been having $5 off sales lately so savings are even more.

If you do the math on your dogfood, you will probably find Blue Buffalo is comparable to cheap dogfood in the length of time a bag lasts vs price per bag.

[farmergirl]

Oh and the above isn't even considering the health benefits of not feeding the doggie equivalent of soda and corn nuts to your dog.....

[benniecooper]

Doing some research into that food, i.e. looking at the ingredient list, it is still a garbage food. Not at all comparable to Wellness--it is more of a grocery store quality food, not good.

Yeah, I was just coming to say that. I checked it out at Petsmart yesterday. Not only is it not very good quality, but it is expensive. A 6lb (i think it was) bag was $13.99. A bag of Wellness that size is the same price!!

[MAL's Momma]

Haven't posted in this section before, but had to pop in when I saw this thread. We feed our Lab Blue Buffalo and she does fantastic on it.

1. Thanks to the person who posted about the recall. I contacted BLUE since I'm not sure if the bag I bought is part of it or not. Eek! I knew I should have kept it despite storing her food in a container.

2. Cheap food is just that. Cheap. As others have said, way too many fillers & by-products. And seriously, wouldn't you rather eat the meat from an animal (ex. deboned chicken) that you know vs eat Meat And Bone Meal (uh, WHAT meat exactly???) And yes!!!! Feeding them the better quality food ends up being the same or cheaper in the grand scheme of things!! I did a break down of cost and the amount that the cheaper foods say to feed my dog was absurd! So it might look cheaper by the pound, but you need to look at price PER SERVING - and figure out what a serving is, too. Is a serving 1 C or is it 2 C? Then you really can compare apples to apples.

3. Orijen and EVO are top notch. Can't go wrong with them. Wellness & BLUE are good, too.

4. Check out your local small stores. I found that buying her food at a local dog supply store was much easier on my pocketbook. :)

Good luck to you!!

[MAL's Momma]

Wanted to add that if you go to Natura's web site (makers of EVO, Innova, and other great dog foods), you can get a coupon mailed to you good for a free small bag of food! I think up to about 6lbs?

The Healthiest Pet Foods in the World – Natural & Organic Pet Food – Natura Pet Products

If anything, you can see how your dog responds to good food on the cheap!

Oh, and wanted to add that if you ever try grain-free, be prepared to be amazed at the difference in your dog. More energy, more pep & zest for life, shiny soft coat... Amazes me to no end how such a small change can have such a big impact!

[kaemka77]

Avoderm is pretty good and on the lower price scale among premium foods. You can often find $5 coupons for it. I don't know if it's cheaper than Blue though.

[ari'smom]

I would say that if your dog did well on a certain food then go to any lengths to go back to that food. My dog has been plagued with food allergies of one kind or another (skin and GI) since she was a puppy. Now at 6 years old she seems pretty much allergic to anything we give her. Currently I am trying her on Natural Balance LID fish and sweet potato from Natural Balance LID duck and potato. She did better on duck and potato than the last food she was on, which even though was a decent quality food had rice in it. Which she wasn't initially allergic too but developed one since she's been eating lamb and rice since puppyhood. We're hoping the fish will work over the duck maybe because the duck might be too similar to chicken and turkey, both of which she has problems with, as well as beef and lamb so I'm afraid to try venison or bison.

While at the pet store I thought about trying Taste of the Wild fish and sweet potato as it had a lot of fruits and veggies my dog used to get with her old lamb and rice (Timberwolf) but the store owner thought maybe I should stick with Natural Balance LID since that's what she is on and maybe the switch might not be as difficult. Also for her he thought maybe the more complex ingredients might be tough for her since she's had digestion problems in the past i.e. loose stool and diarreah with some foods. But the Taste of the Wild ingredient list looked good and was 3.99 cheaper per bag than what I bought for her. She's small so I can get away with buying one small bag per month, so it doesn't hurt as much to pay a little more.