Good cheap dog (and cat food recommendations), canned only.

[alkemyst]

I have been looking to downsize and push more and more money to savings lately as I am expecting my first child and want to make sure they have college and other expenses taken care of when they get to that point.

One thing I will not sacrifice is nutrition for my family or pets. Whole food goes a long way to being and staying healthy.

I personally don't believe in dry foods. I started feeding my cats wet/dry, because I was caring for cat colonies and it was far too expensive to go all wet. I am switching my cats to wet now as I am not so involved in animal charities at this time.

If one wants a VERY high quality and cheap dry food, the Kirkland dog and cat dry foods (was about $16 for 25lbs the last I purchased) are excellent. Sadly Kirkland's canned dog food can range from 3 to 5 stars so review what you are getting rather than just trusting the brand (the Kirkland Cuts and Kirkland Signature are the 5 stars).

I have been doing more research and recently (probably due to the economy) there are many brands of pet foods that are AMAZINGLY cheap. Small dogs are much easier in this regard, but even my reasonably sized Texas Heeler mix (about 60-70lbs) needs substantial nutrition per day.

Please only recommend 3.5 star foods or better here. These ratings can be found on http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/ (ratings 1-5 stars) and http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com (ratings 1-6 stars) (please no comments on the sites being inaccurate, these rumors stem from people butthurt their choice of foods got 1 star or worst not recommended as safe/healthy).

I am sure many have been feeding their pets foods that only rank <3, but some people can survive on fast food only too. If you know how many varieties (or can even list them by flavor) that would be helpful

Please include price, what store(s), size of can to help others. A $0.75 3-4 oz cup of dog food is a lot different than a $1.50 22oz can of it.

I have been feeding my dog Merrick brands, they are a 5 star food; but he needs two $2.99 12.7oz cans a day.

I am only doing the dog foods now, in most examples the cat foods are equally good and priced similarly.

In the 4.5 star category:

4Health 13.2oz and 22oz cans at $0.99 and $1.59/can respectively.

13.2oz flavors: Chicken/Rice, Lamb/Rice, Beef/Vegetable Stew, Turkey/Sweet Potato

22oz flavors: Chicken/Rice, Beef/Vegetable Stew​

Available at TractorSupply.com stores

(the 4Health canned cat food is also widely recommended for cats that suffer from bladder stones, which is fatal to a male cat within 48 hours or less usually.)
​

Nutro Max 12.5oz cans at $1.59/can (at Petco)

flavors: Beef/Rice, Chicken/Rice/Lamb, Chicken/Rice/Turkey​

Available in most pet stores
​

In the 5 star category:

Kirkland Signature Super Premium ~$0.78/can, around $18.50 in 2012 for a 24 pack of 13.2-14oz cans

flavors: Variety pack of Chicken/Rice and Lamb/Rice​

Available at SOME Costco's​

Kirkland Super Premium Cuts in Gravy ~$0.78/can, around $18.50 in 2012 for a 24 pack of 13.2oz cans

flavors: Beef/Vegetables, Chicken/Vegetables, Variety Pack of both​

Available at SOME Costco's​

Kirkland Signature Nature's Domain (GRAIN-FREE) $0.88/can, $20.99 for a 24 pack of 13.2oz cans

flavors: Turkey/Pea Stew​

Available at SOME Costco's​

Pure Balance 5oz and 12.5oz cups/cans at ~$0.67/cup ($8 for a 12 cup pack) and $0.99/can respectively

5 oz flavors: 12 cup Variety Pack of Chicken and Beef Dinners
12.5oz flavors: Chicken/Vegetables/Brown Rice, Beef/Vegetables/Brown Rice​

Available at Walmart, maybe Sam's at some locations​

Do not confuse the Walmart 'Ol Roy' label on the Pure Balance cans, Ol Roy was one of the worst possible foods out there. This new line up has been well-reviewed and ranked. I hate WalMart, but Tractor Supply is about 60 miles from my house and I only get up that way once or so a month. There are more varieties of 4Health though.

Some Dry Foods, more ok for a dog than a cat, but if you can't afford better these are good foods

4.5 star
Kirkland Signature Puppy Chicken/Rice/Vegs $14.69/20 lbs
Kirkland Signature Small Dog (Not at my Costco)
Kirkland Signature Mature Dog (Not at my Costco)

4 star
Nature&#8217;s Domain Grain Free Turkey Meal and Sweet Potato $30.99/35 lbs
Nature&#8217;s Domain Grain Free Salmon Meal and Sweet Potato $33.99/35 lbs
Kirkland Signature Adult Chicken/Rice/Vegs $27.89/40 lbs

3.5 star
Kirkland Signature Adult Lamb/Rice/Vegs $29.99/40 lbs


3 star
Nature&#8217;s Domain Grain Free Organic Chicken and Pea (Not at my Costco)
Nature&#8217;s Domain Grain Free Beef Meal and Sweet Potato $31.99/35 lbs
Kirkland Signature Healthy Weight $26.99/40 lbs

Some Cheap Cat Foods, wet:

My own ratings

I'd give a 3 star

Friskies/Grreat Choice (Petsmart Friskies), $0.45/$0.40 cents a 5.5oz can, respectively. Less when on sale or in boxes

flavors: Chicken/Tuna, Classic Seafood, Country Style, Liver/Chicken, Mariner's Catch, Mixed Grill, Ocean Whitefish/Tuna, Poultry Platter, Salmon Dinner, Sea Captain's Choice, Supreme Supper, Turkey/Giblets, Beef/Liver, Tuna/Egg, more​

Friskies is everywhere even grocery stores, Grreat Choice is a PetsMart Exclusive

There is a lot of misinformation about these two foods going around esp. that the first ingredients are corn. This is not true.

I am only considering the Pate products as the filets, bits, flakes, others all contain Wheat Gluten.

This is a typical breakdown for the pate.

Fish, poultry by-products, water sufficient for processing, meat by-products, liver, rice, shrimp, artificial and natural flavors, added color (Red 3 and other color), guar gum, calcium phosphate, potassium chloride, salt, carrageenan, magnesium sulfate, choline chloride, taurine, Vitamin E supplement, thiamine mononitrate, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, niacin, sodium nitrite (to promote color retention), calcium pantothenate, Vitamin A supplement, copper sulfate, manganese sulfate, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, biotin, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, potassium iodide. B-6051

Now "Fish" and the by-products aren't the best, but they are meat/flesh sources, liver can be anything from boar to zebra liver....however cats really like this food and it's far better than dry food and cheap esp when stacking coupons. Today I bought $35 of food (96 cans) and qualified for $10 cash back and $2 off immediately with a PetSupermarket coupon bringing my effective price to 24 cents a can.​

Probably a 3.5 to 4 star

Trader Joe's $0.69 a 5.5oz can.

flavors: Chicken/Turkey/Rice, Tuna, more

Only at Trader Joe's​

Authority $0.89 a 5.5oz can.

flavors: Beef, Beef/Brown Rice, Catfish, Chicken/Pasta, Turkey/Giblets, Chicken, Chicken/Liver, Ocean Fish/Rice...Adult, Senior and Kitten varieties.

Only at PetsMart​

One of the better dry foods for your cat is Kirkland's Feline Maintenance. It's $20-23 for 25lbs.

I am not going to get into politics on companies nor food recalls of the past, I will leave that to the reader to figure out what's best and do their own risk assessments.

 

[slightlyhuman]

I feed my cat and great Dane call of the wild. It's cheap or a cat but not for a 150lb dog.

Nice post.

 

[Homerboy]

Uhhh.... doesn't the site you provided (http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/) do exactly what you are asking people here to do?

 

[alkemyst]

I feed my cat and great Dane call of the wild. It's cheap or a cat but not for a 150lb dog.

Nice post.

Taste of the Wild, everyone I know calls it Call of the Wild too , is a premium priced dog food; it's over $2 a can for a 13oz.

There are many great foods for $2+ a can, but this is about the low cost choices. I used to feed Wellness, Pure Gold, and currently have a week of Merrick food left and I am going to try either the 4Health, Kirkland (by buying myself a gift card for Costco since I don't have a membership currently) or brave WalMart and try their food.

With the kids and their school requirements for non-branded/labeled clothing I end up in WalMart at times.

 

[alkemyst]

Uhhh.... doesn't the site you provided (http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/) do exactly what you are asking people here to do?

ummm, uhhh, ummm no it does not. There is no pricing there.

 

[Uppsala9496]

Why don't you believe on dry foods?
Fed my dog dry food and she lived for 16 years.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

i think the primary reason to use wet food is because cats don't drink a lot of water.

For cat food you want to stick with something that's mostly protein. carbs aren't a big part of their natural diet and it can cause them health problems later. I would avoid the foods that contain gravy for that reason. i usually free feed my cats dry in the day while i'm gone and feed them wet when I come home. I'm just using fancy feast for wet at the moment. It's not the greatest but if you stick to the classic flavors it's mostly protein based.

this is an honest question but have you thought about doing a raw diet for your cats? i haven't crunched the numbers but maybe it could be cheaper? probably not more convenient since the meat can spoil.

edit: actually here's a good article on canned food for cats. it does mention carb content is higher in dry http://www.littlebigcat.com/health/why-cats-need-canned-food-2/

 

[OutHouse]

ummm, uhhh, ummm no it does not. There is no pricing there.

so google the price.

sounds like you is so broke you cant afford dog food.

fail.

 

[FleshLight]

Costco grainfree dry food is the best value

 

[slag]

I personally don't believe in dry foods.

I can guarantee you that they do make them and that they are good for your pets. You eat dry food, why not your pets?

 

[Pheran]

I can guarantee you that they do make them and that they are good for your pets. You eat dry food, why not your pets?

Cats are carnivores. There is no meat/protein in nature that is not mostly water. Therefore, they don't really have much natural instinct to drink water because they should get it from their food. But, dry cat food subverts this and can cause chronic dehydration over the life of the cat eventually leading to kidney failure.

That's the theory anyway, sadly the research on this is not very good. But after losing my first cat to kidney failure, I only feed my cats wet food now.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

I can guarantee you that they do make them and that they are good for your pets. You eat dry food, why not your pets?

read the link i posted above. cat diet is naturally more protein and less carbs. dry foods contain more carbs, which can give them kidney problems later in their life. also they don't drink enough water and the dry food makes it worse. you can help alleviate this with a fountain. not drinking enough water also causes them problems later in life.

when the cat is older it actually needs less protein, so you would switch it's diet up again.

doing a little research is good if you want what's best for your pet. i wouldn't just take my word on it.

 

[z1ggy]

I feed both my dog and cats Natural Balance. It's like $55 per the 40lb bag for the dog, and $35 for the (I think..) 30lb bag for cats.

Don't feed my dog wet food at all, but I should probably give my cats wet food a bit more, just to help with their urinary tracts. Male cats especially need enough water or they can get kidney/bladder problems which can lead to death. I make plenty of water available to my cats though..

 

[momeNt]

Congratulations on expecting.

I know wet food is absolutely better for cats, as they do not always get enough water in their diet and can develop urinary tract infections. I guess the same thing could happen with dogs but it is a lot more common with cats.

With any dry food storage is very important, the best would be freeze as much of the dry food as possible and only have a few days thawed, so that your pet does not risk developing an allergy to storage mites.

Do you have an issue besides that with dry food?

 

[alkemyst]

Why don't you believe on dry foods?
Fed my dog dry food and she lived for 16 years.

Not the place for this debate.

 

[alkemyst]

I can guarantee you that they do make them and that they are good for your pets. You eat dry food, why not your pets?

Cats normal prey contains around 70% water, canned food about 80% and dry foods are usually around 5%. Cats that eat a wet diet consume 50% or more water than cats on dry.

They have a very low natural thirst drive, so even if you think your cat is drinking enough; it's usually not enough for a healthy urinary tract.

I have had to have one cat operated on 4 times now for stones. Since switching diets they have gone away.

This is not really the place for this debate though, this thread is about low cost, high quality canned pet food.

 

[Linux23]

um, can you, um, moisten dry food, with, um say a little water?

 

[Linflas]

How about making your own?
http://www.drfoxvet.com/library/spe...-behavior-and-health/dr-fox-homemade-dog-food

 

[alkemyst]

um, can you, um, moisten dry food, with, um say a little water?

Doesn't work the way one thinks it would. It could help.

 

[alkemyst]

How about making your own?
http://www.drfoxvet.com/library/spe...-behavior-and-health/dr-fox-homemade-dog-food

Making your own can be very time consuming and not as cheap as many think.

I did this for a cancer dog that had no appetite for any foods I tried for several months until she had to be put to sleep due to her lungs filling with fluid from the cancer. The first cancer site was her spleen, which made future surgeries realistically not an option due to her not only having only three legs, but she was over 10 years old.

She was under 20 lbs and it was a lot of work to keep up with her diet needs.

If you have time and the money, it's probably the best way to ensure your pet never suffers from a food recall. However; make sure you follow a proper recipe. Too many think they are making good food for their pets, but forget the needs that are not so apparent.

 

[PricklyPete]

You're not epic or awesome if you are not making your own. Period.

 

[Uppsala9496]

You're not epic or awesome if you are not making your own. Period.

Not the place for this debate.

 

[momeNt]

um, can you, um, moisten dry food, with, um say a little water?

You'd have to cook the food to get the water to be absorbed. Cats will pick out the dry kibbles and leave all the water there.

Dogs will lick the bowl clean though.

 

[TheFamilyMan]

With all the input you've given over the years on animal foods and their relative pricing, one would have to wonder the real, underlying reason for this thread. I know it but I won't tell...ever. Even if you've somehow forgotten the relative pricing information you've shoved down our throats in the past, there's this thing called google as well as websites for individual stores that have been rumored to carry pricing information.

In a nutshell, you already know what the good foods are...google the price. Not that hard...

I will give you kudos on your love and dedication to animals along with all the charity work and donations you provide to them though...you get props and admiration for that.

 

[momeNt]

With all the input you've given over the years on animal foods and their relative pricing, one would have to wonder the real, underlying reason for this thread. I know it but I won't tell...ever. Even if you've somehow forgotten the relative pricing information you've shoved down our throats in the past, there's this thing called google as well as websites for individual stores that have been rumored to carry pricing information.

In a nutshell, you already know what the good foods are...google the price. Not that hard...

I will give you kudos on your love and dedication to animals along with all the charity work and donations you provide to them though...you get props and admiration for that.

This is really not the thread for this debate. I mean really, unless u mad.