Costco makes a pretty good dog food at a reasonable price. Think it is Kirkland's brand and I have been told that it is good stuff.

 

Yes. Found that to be one of the best bang for the buck.

 

Well, to answer your question, I think Ol' Roy is the cheapest brand that I know of. It is a walmart brand and it is the same stuff that was killing dogs a few years back. It is manufactured in China.

You may want to look into recipes for dog food on the internet. Some of those seem pretty cheap.

Another way to look at it is I can buy my dog a $20.00 bag of IAMS all natural. It will last a little over a month which comes out to less than a dollar a day. That is cheaper than I can feed my kids. Just food for thought.

 

When I fed my dog on that walmart line, he lost alot of weight, and alot of hair, like it was poisoning him, and it probably was. Took ages to straighten his health out, and he never was the same afterward, til his dying day.

If you care enough about your dog that you're concerned what they eat, then keep in mind the oils in dry kibble WILL go rancid over time, in much the same way the natural oils in brown rice will, leading many of us to purchase white rice for long term storage.

Yes, keep enough kibble to last as long as it can last, and rotate it out faithfully. Like your own supplies, store what he eats, and feed him what you store. Do NOT dump a new bag into a container that has a bit of older food going stale in the bottom, eventually you'll end up with a huge container full of tainted food. Also, plan for the dog to transition back to eating whatever is left, they are omnivores and will scrounge whatever is available, even squash, and they'd rather have what's on your plate than anything else in the world - because having the leader of the pack share food with them means their place is still secure and they are wanted. If you don't use the heart and liver when you hunt, Fido gets those (after you eat, and after you cook it if you are squeamish about giving them raw.) If there is some of any meal left, he gets that too, unless it was already slated for tomorrow's soup. He should at least get some kind of plate scrapings at each meal. If your kid kills a snake and your wife doesn't want to cook it - skin and cut up that sucker and see if your sweet little poodle wants it. Yes, he'd be ok on his own, but by being his friend and convincing him to stay, you benefit from his eyes, ears and nose, and maybe those teeth too.

 

Decent brand dog food (Chum) costs me 50c per day.

I dont think you want to go for the "cheapest" brand of dog food, but a decent but affordable one.

I buy my dog food in 15kg bags, if you consider that bulk.

My dog has turned his nose up at other dog foods also, so you might want to test it on your dog before you go buying up a lot of it.

 

Kirkland Signature (costco) is a good dogfood Lamb 'n rice or chicken 'n rice. I'd recomend Chicken, less fat to oxidize 'n taste 'muttony.' If you use oxygen absorbers, it will help with that!! I'd also recomend some diatomaceous earth for insect control. It will only give calcium and de-worm the dog.......... Wont hurt you if you have to eat it, too. =)

 

Forget dry food, it will not keep for any length of time, it has fat in it that will go rancid in a year or less.

We have purchased canned food, more expensive but will last many years, when the SHTF we will mix some canned food with rice for the dog, most dry foods are high in rice content anyway. So 1/3 canned food mixed with 2/3 rice and she will be fine.

 

Cheapest? A .22 and keep him supplied with rabbits. 2nd cheapest is 'Ol Roy. Don't do it. My vet said that will ruin a dog. I believe it was Purina that had the protein from China that was killing dogs. There might have been other brands as well. Sounds like fullofit has a good idea.

 

I am heading out the door right now, but will be back later to discuss pros/cons to Raw Diet. Basically the good stuff costs about a dollar a pound, raw has put us in the 50 cents a pound range. Commercial food is about 70% water and will ruin your dogs teeth because they don't chew but inhale the kibbles.
We have multiple dogs, This sight has been God-sent.
http://www.rawlearning.com/

 

The cheap dog foods make the dog crap a lot too. So you would have a dog with a bad digestive tract eating lots of bad food. I'm sure there are a lot of unhealthy fillers in there which makes the dog make almost twice as much poop as on a decent brand of dog food.

 

Exactly. The poo is now white, less volume, less smelly, and doesn't coat the grass and kill it. Less poo means more was digested and more was used. With commercial, a pound goes in, a pound comes out.

 

Cheap Dog Food = Dead dog or large vet bills.

 

I use EVO dog food and have a six month supply I rotate. My German Sheppard is 85 LBS and get 2 cups a day. (I was giving her 2 1/2 cups per day and she was gaining weight) Small piles, clean teeth and the dog is very healthy. It's expensive but I am convinced this is the best dog food on the market. It did take a while for her to become accustomed to it but no problems now. She has been on it for about 3 years.

 

We are feeding 7 german shepherds. The best deal We found is at sams. It called Exceed and its"members mark" thats a fake name for eucanuba. Its $29 a bag. You could feed less of a good food than ol roy which is REALLY bad and as others said it really is less poop. most good name brands...iams..etc are $40/bag so $29 isn ot too bad.
The first ingredient listed on the bag should always be meat, not some meal or crap.
maybe put up 6 months of dry just in bags and then use cans, the money you save by not preserving could pay the diff in price of cans over bags.

 

We always have one open and one full 50 lb bag of pedigree dry adult dog food that we rotate for our two small king charles cavalier spaniels. After that(probably several months at least), they'll be eating animal scraps and any leftover rice and green beans. They LOVE green beans and it's supposedly good for them when mixed with dry dog food. They just woofed some up this morning actually. But I'll never take food away from my family to keep a dog alive...

Duke

 

When I had my Shephards, our vet told us to never give them Ol Roy. He said that is the worst dog food he had ever come across and had a lot of patients who were harmed from it.

 

Kirkland dog food. Look for meat as the first ingredient, not by-products or corn. If price is your only concern, go with Ol Roy as others have said; but your dog will not prosper and you'll end up with a sick dog. We keep a couple of bags in the freezer to prevent spoilage, and to keep the beasties out.

Eventually, in a *HTF situation, we'll run out. Then the dogs will eat whatever we do, supplemented by whatever they can kill. (not likely as they are poodles and a wee bit pampered; but who knows, maybe their hunting skills will kick in?)

 

we have a chocolate lab and a pomeranian and we feed them kirkland. here in texas is about 19$$ a bag. but i took our lab out this mornin and it grabbed up some rabbit remains where a fox must have got it. it just shows you what a dog will eat

 

Your dog is your friend..Treat them right..If i were your dog i would bite you repeatdely on your sensitive body parts for such idea's..

 

A word of caution on table scraps - my vet said to never feed a dog anything with salt. A grain of salt ingested when he's a pup will be with him when he dies.

 

Nothing with onion or garlic either! My dog eats Wellness dry. It costs this arm and that leg, but you should see her coat!

 

I don't know the answer. But a good dog could be very important in bad times. Take care of him.

 

ForestBeeKeeper gave an excellent post on how to make dog food on this board. Healthy food for your dog is more important than purchasing that cheapo food from china. Read all labels and do not purchase any food from china or you're asking for potential problems. Just my 2 cents.

 

Sams club. Pedigree 50lbs green bag 20 bucks

 

I have fed Members Mark complete nutrition from Sam's Club. Never had a problem with two very active (not tied) dogs. They both seem to like it and have goods coats and no vet bills other than shots. Of course there are better foods out there, but for the price, it's hard to beat. They also get all the table scraps every day. They eat everything from left over oat meal to bacon grease. I have fed table scraps to every dog that I have ever owned and the youngest one that I have lost was 15 years old. There may be some breeds that don't do well on scraps, but out of all my mutts, I haven't had one do poorly yet.

 

Commercial foods are made from grain. Grain ain't so good for dogs. Given a choice between kibble and raw, my dogs choose raw turkey necks, chicken parts and whole fish, every-time. Dogs need the bone as nutrition, this is fact not opinion. The chewing process also starts the digestion process, kibble doesn't do this. Cooked bone is brittle and is a danger to the dog. But no wolf,fox,coyote ever choked on a chicken bone.
One draw back is if the dog has been raised on kibble they may not know how to chew or deal with meat on bone. This sounds kinda funny, but also kinda supports the idea of raw natural diet. We keep the German brand SolidGold for back up.
Commercial dog food historically started out as a way to feed poor folks, but people started buying it for their dogs and hence the commercial dog food industry was born,...only a few short years ago.
Advising people on how to care for dogs is like telling them how to raise their children. Take a look at this site on Natural Raw Diet for dogs and cats. If your still convinced with kibble, at least the reader will have a greater vocabulary on K9 health. Just think about how your dog gets that glazed over look in its eyes when given a bone. Now just ad meat to the bone.
http://www.barfworld.com/

 

Cheap food would be Ol Roy or the dollar store no-name. However, it is very bad for the health of your dog. You may want to read a few books. One in particular is: Food Pets Die For" by Ann Martin. You may change your mind about cheap pet food. A couple other good pet health books are: "Pet Lovers Guide to Natural Healing for Cats and Dogs" by Fougere and "Natural Health Bible for Dogs and Cats" by Messonnier. Stay away from corn, wheat and soy as these cause a lot of skin and alergy issues. A named meat source or three should be the first three ingredients of what you are feeding. Example from can of Taste of Wild Wetland "Duck, duck broth, chicken broth, chicken liver... Better brands: Taste of Wild, Natural Balance, Wellness, Merrick, Kirkland (Costoc)