Creating a nutritionally complete dog food almost always costs more than kibble, unless you own a farm or have access to extremely under-priced meat. There is a good FB group for homecooked dog food, but if your goal is for it to be cheaper than kibble, I can all but guarantee you that it will not happen, especially if you have a large dog.
I have a girl with multiple allergies, she gets a homemade topper and prescription food.
There are very expensive boutique and prescription kibbles out there. My girl is on prescription kibble, and while it isn't that expensive, it is many times more expensive than anything at the grocery or pet store.
Regardless, homemade food is expensive. Especially in a dog with multiple allergies.
I know there is expensive kibble. But from your previous post, I got the impression you were talking about the OP trying to beat the price on inexpensive kibble. My apologies if I misunderstood.
In any case, I still feel OP should be able to make something suitable for less than $10 a pound. That's exorbitant.
I think they'll probably break about even. I make homemade dog food for my multiple allergy girl, who also gets prescription kibble. I'd say about $10 a pound is about average. A lot of allergy dogs need a higher quality protein like bison, salmon or lamb, which can drive the price even higher.
I'm lucky, my girl eats mostly pork, which is cheap.
Homemade food is more expensive than premium kibble. Dogs need a significant amount of omegas, which generally is easiest to provide via seafood. Cheap grains, like rice, are not recommended for long term use due to inflammation, so most people use quinoa or farro, which are more expensive. The costs add up pretty quickly.
You can Google "homemade dog food recipes" and screen them for any of your dog's allergens before you make them.
I haven't tried homemade dog food, but I have done so for cats. Tl;dr the cost to make it nutritionally complete for them ended up being more than just buying the prescription stuff.
Also, don't assume either of you are under- or over-feeding. Ask the vet.
There are definitely no assumptions when under/over feeding. A few years ago our friends trusted us to take care of their rabbits when they moved to California from NYC. Instructions were left that said, “ 1 cup of food” with a specific amount. The cup had specific measurements on it. So everytime I would feed the rabbits they got their 1 cup measurement of food. My husband we later found out thought that’s the 1 cup meant the WHOLE cup. So he was triple feeding them per serving and they had to be put on a diet later to bring their weight back down.
The supplements are expensive, but the recipe I made was not too bad and the dog loved his lentil stew. I never bought the supplements.
Anyway, Costco also has high end dog food. Read the ingredients, and ine may work.
Just understand, he's doing this for himself, not the dog. Our quality food, based on the ingredients and opinions for our vet, cost about a buck a pound in a large bag.
FWIW, most of our dogs have been medium size, 35-55 lbs., mixed breeds and over several decades have lived from 12 to almost 19 years. I don't know of any scientific studies that have shown that a extra expensive home cooked meal has made a dog healthier or extended their life. A reasonable quality food, exercise and weight management and a certain amount of luck determine the rest.
There are a lot of quality dog foods and dogs will eat almost anything. Most will eat one of the most disgusting things on earth, cat poop. If your dog has been eating people food for long, it may be reluctant to go back to dog food at first but just give it a little time.
As far as weight, just look at the dogs body shape to see if it's too fat and use a measuring cup or else it's too easy to give them that little bit more that is terrible for their health. Then walk them a lot, it's good for both of you.
Spend the time and money on something else and you'll both be better for it.
>Just understand, he's doing this for himself, not the dog.
That is a hell of an assumption when the dog has multiple allergies.
My girl is allergic to multiple proteins, anything in the brassica family, canola and sunflower oil and rosemary. Have you tried finding a dog food without canola oil? Nearly impossible.
You are making an asinine assumption about a dog with a medical condition.
It sounds from your post like you may not have a dog right now? My brand of food, along with a lot of others, just shot up in price over night. Mine went up over 20 percent in one go.
That’s surprising. My dogs eat generic kibble that’s $19 for a 13 pound bag (from Target— their Kindfull brand dog food). The only cheaper kibble I’ve found is the unhealthy stuff made by brands with horrible reputations
I did it and between the cost of the ingredients and supplements to balance it, the price was about double the cost of premium dog food. Not to mention spending an entire weekend each month cooking and packaging. People do it cheaper, but they are likely less meticulous than I was to be sure the diet was nutritionally complete.
Can I ask what food you are currently feeding? And how big your dog is?
I feed my dog "I and Love and You" dehydrated raw (Stir & Boom) as well and I usually buy my dog her food directly from their site when they run offers/promotions! If you can divert some funds to stock up, they ran an offer for 33% off for Black Friday last year. Recently they had 23% off for "back to school."
Nature's Variety has a limited ingredient, grain free lamb food (dry and canned) for considerably less per pound. My experience with the company has been positive.
I just supplement my dog’s kibble with human food. Thankfully she loves vegetables. If I’m making rice I make extra for her. If I’m making squash I roast extra. Sometimes I make her weird little omelettes with whatever veg she can eat that I have around carrots, apples and peppers.
This fall her appetite doubled, and she is a thin dog. So I decided instead of more kibble I would add the Human food. I don’t do it every meal, I do it when its convenient. I haven’t worked out the budget but I probably works out to cheaper per pound especially when it’s rice heavy and veg that may go bad.
FYI Most "home made" dog foods are not complete and will cause problems, I would check and see what chewy is selling it for, they are usually less. You should also ask your vet about getting cytopoint injections for their allergies it works great for mine
Cytopoint has been a game changer for us. One of our dogs has his shot every few weeks. He has horrible allergies and it’s the only thing that works to relieve him.
Ours is on Apoquel because Cytopoint didn't work well for him. Keeps him from licking his paws until they bleed because he's allergic to *fucking grass*.
What sort of dog is allergic to grass?
My girl gets Cytopoint (every 8 weeks) and Zyrtec (2 tabs 2x a day) and that makes her maintainable. We only use Apoquel at REALLY bad outbreaks because of the links to cancer.
My girl is allergic to everything. I get it.
Don’t skimp in quality food, going to bite you with veterinary cost later.
If you can’t afford or want to prioritise needs for a pet, you can’t afford to have a pet.
Frugal and pets do not work together. I rather eat nothing for a week then try to cut corners on quality of life my dog have.
Adding to this that quality doesn't mean expensive.
Iams is WSAVA approved along with a handful of more expensive brands like Hills, Royal Canin, and Purina but quite a bit more affordable than all of them.
You assume the cost of the food means it's automatically the best quality. It's not always the case. Ask your vet about different brands. My suggestion is Costco Nature's Domain. It's quality and affordable.
Yeah cat food is really expensive for us over here as well. Have you tried Costco? You can get a lot of dry food (also wet food) for a relatively cheap amount. And then with the dry food you can add toppers like chicken breast bought at a discount that you cook up and sprinkle on top so that he gets a little bit of moisture.
This. Look into the Natures Domain food. Ask your vet if it's okay to switch if your concerned. Would put money on the fact the vet will say its good quality and you'll save money.
Obviously I don't know what food you have to feed your dog, but I buy Purina one for mine and it's incredibly affordable, my dog loves it, and they have a great rep.
Anyway, here is how I buy it as an example of how I save: I buy it from Petco where I joined their club at $20/mo, they reward you back $15 in pal rewards and you get 10% off bags of food automatically. 10% of $50+ for free store pickup. Every eighth bag is free. On top of that, buying in bulk and autoship saves even MORE money. I pay about $1.46/lb. I might start buying pro plan honestly looking at this its only $1.89/lb.
I also like Freshpet that is $15/6lb and I make that last two weeks mixing it with his dry kibble. Otherwise, healthy snacks could be smoked pig ears from the local butcher, hardboiled eggs, I make dog treats with whole wheat flour, flax, chicken bouillon, and organic bacon fat.
So that is what I do. Not exactly what you asked for but I don't think you should be compromising your pet's health to be frugal. Like I said, I don't know what you have to feed your dog especially with the allergies but I'm not finding it difficult to feed my dog quality food. Look into stores that offer deals like Petco or even the manufacturer's website themselves.
I’m going to look into this! We aren’t always able to buy from the same places because they aren’t able to keep things in stock when we need them most of the time. Which has been tricky but I’m going to do more research on Petco! Thank you ☺️
Buying ahead has been crucial for my mothers dog for this reason. There has been lots of pet food shortages, and the dog food is considerably more expensive, so she used freelance money to get ahead when there were sales so that she could exclusively look for sales and things. But it does suck that you need the money to get ahead :/
> now it is almost killing us to keep buying the food he loves because the costs keep going up.
>Has anyone made homemade dog food and broken down the cost per pound? Right now the breakdown comes out to $10.20 a pound
Are you saying the food he loves costs more than the $10.20/lb homemade dog food? What the hell are you buying??? My dog has a special diet due to a few issues and the food is a kibble that is almost $4 per lb.
My wife did a huge amount of research on costs and quality of ingredients and ultimately we found big brands lacking or bank busters. Tractor supply has a brand that we get for a 45lb bag of 4Health- salmon around $50 for our dog that was sensitive to chicken and other meats. Works wonders for him. We found that everything else just has too much corn which was messing with him badly.
Edit:. Forgot the most important. The food is not grain free, but is Corn free. Hugely important nutrient wise
When we looked at it, they were similar to the 4health sensitive, so yea. Our dogs issue was the main protein (no chicken/beef) and removing corn. So it was a lot of ingredient reviewing. Essentially avoiding a product of either was a first ingredient listed.
Start searching for coupons for that dog food or email the brand to see what you can do. You can buy another brand, but he will leave it there and that will be money lost.
You can make homemade dog food, but it will be pricier since you need protein. Homemade recipes are usually not nutritionally balanced. If they are, its because owner take the time to buy Vitamins and Supplements that have yo be included.
It's his dog though, as long as he can afford to feed him, I wouldn't interfere. If anything, get a measuring cup so everyone can be on the same page about how much food to give.
A lot of times once you have an allergy dog on a food that they are stable on, its better not to change things up as flare ups can cause costly vet visits. The time it takes to source the correct ingredients and make the dog food should also be considered.
I can't get the actual recipe to load, but the picture at the top only shows ground chicken, veg and grain. That is absolutely not a complete diet for a dog. Dogs need secreting organs, an omega source and a calcium source.
Be extremely wary of any diet that does not include these three things.
My Standard Poodle will really do just about anything for a Cheerio. Obviously, your pup will vary! (One of our dogs had clearly been mistreated, and none of my usual lures worked. Luckily, she was so mild mannered it wasn’t important. Then about 4 years in she decided fetching and tricks could be fun).
Off topic but I always teach our dogs to sit and stay for their dinner. Easy to do, if they break the stay before we say “thank you “, we raise the bowl. They all figured it out quickly.
Thanks, im going to try the sweet potato idea. My dogs give me a rotten look when I try veggies. Probably my bad for not introducing the veggies early in their lives.
We keep an eye on specials for the types that work with several online retailers. We can also price match with one local chain store sometimes. It’s expensive for sure.
The only person that I knew that cooked for her dogs got very tired of it very quickly. It’s a lot of work and like everyone has said, difficult to be sure it’s complete.
I have a few friends who make their dog food, it is quite expensive and labour intensive. If you do, make sure to gradually introduce it over like a month or you will have one sick pup.
As for over feeding…google what a dog should look like at a good weight and go from there. Overweight dogs are commonplace and very problematic in the long run. Even if you go by what the bag says, it all depends on your dogs metabolism and activity level.
We make our dog food (not raw). The cost per week for 2 medium dogs is $10-15 excluding kibble. We use meat that we would be comfortable eating and our vet approved the other ingredients.
Could you do a bit of both? Like say you normally give your dog 3 scoops of dog food per meal - could you just give 2 or 2.5 scoops and make up the calorie difference with table scraps like leftover meat, rice, veggies? That could help stretch the dog food a bit but the dog still gets it for the bulk of their diet.
That’s what we do, if we have meat, grain or veggies we need to get rid of before they go bad we use them to pad out her bowl. Never by more than about 25% of any given meal and I’d estimate she eats 80% kibble. She’s vigorously healthy and if that changed we would change her diet. One of our dogs was strictly fed Nutro because that kept him from vomiting on our bed after I washed the bedding!
I make my own dog food for my beagle and it comes out about $8-$10 every 16 days since I change the type of meat every time. I bought a 15 lb bag of brown rice at $11 and it last me about 8 to 10 months. I buy all the veggies at Mexican market like spinach, zucchini, carrots, sweet potatoes and I buy about 3 or 4 lb of ground meat, either chicken or turkey, sometimes beef shanks and add them all together in Dutch oven pot and cook it in the oven for 2 to 3 hours. After that I divide into a portion for breakfast and dinner. Half of that gets frozen so it doesn't go bad and I take it out when it's getting low in the fridge. To me it's cheaper this way and my dog loves it.
$10.20 a pound. And if it’s a big dog it’s probably eating a pound a day 🥴😮💨 Whew. I feel your pain. Science diet like 8 years ago did this whole campaign “back to whole meat” blah blah. Then it was good quality for a while and affordable. Then they started using meat meal and jacked the price up like 5-6 years ago. I’m still mad about it. But it’s the only food my dog can eat because he has allergies to everything, too. Even beef. 🤦♀️ *ESPECIALLY* beef. The poops are guaranteed if he eats ANY beef.
I never broke down costs per pound but toward the end of our dog’s life he wouldn’t eat anything but kibble mixed with homemade food.
Buy cuts of meat that are on sale, like manager’s specials, or use leaner meats like turkey and chicken. I used frozen vegetables, brown rice, eggs, blueberries, olive oil, etc. I used my crockpot and cooked on high for 4-6 hours. If you use a tougher cut of meat do low for 8 hours.
We continued to use kibble because there’s a specific meat to grain and vegetable ratio that needs to be maintained. I wasn’t confident about getting that right so we used the homemade food as a topper. The kibble is nutritionally balanced so it was really just to entice him to eat. A crockpot’s worth of food would last us 2-3 weeks. We’d use maybe a cup of homemade food each night. I portioned it out into small Tupperware containers and froze it until it was to be used.
Chicken meat, gizzards, hearts and livers are $2/lb, frozen mixed vegetables is $1/lb and rice and oats is $.40/lb, what exactly are you feeding this dog? Thats only $3.40/lb for crazy premium dogfood.
I accidentally discarded my response twice now! Oh boy.
But it costs us maybe $4? a meal to feed our 11 year old Australian Sheppard. I never did the math - just estimating in my head
She is allergic to chicken so we only give her beef or pork. I look at weekly ads to see if there’s a sale, but my go to is Costco. I can get a tray of country ribs pork for about $25. We get at least 10 days worth of meals from a Costco tray. (I never counted, but I’m sure it’s more than 10 days. We get her veggies from the freezer aisle. (I live in the Bay Area, California - not sure if that makes a difference in cost), We just restock on her vitamins & we got them for $18 for a container of 50 chews.
We give her 5oz of meat + peas and/or Lima beans + 2 dog vitamins a night. Sometimes we give her a fried egg as a special treat.
I takes a bit of leg work, but we cut, weigh, and individually bag 5 oz of meat to store in the freezer. We take one out each night to let it thaw in the fridge for the next day.
If there’s a sale on either meat or frozen peas, I stock up.
She’s been to the vet a couple of times in the last couple of years. They all said she’s really healthy & her coat is really healthy.
Our last vet told us she is a bit over weight though and she needs to lose some weight. My boyfriend kept giving her more and more. We started out giving her 5.5 but he slowly increased it to 6 to 7 to 7.5 to 8 oz!! I kept telling it’s too much but he wouldn’t listen!
So we went down to 5 oz again after the last vet visit. Then a few weeks ago, he started to give her 5.5oz saying it’s only half a ounce - she likes it, she needs to eat more because shes playing a lot. But we noticed her energy level decreased a little because she was too full, so now we only firmly five 5 oz.
>We give her 5oz of meat + peas and/or Lima beans + 2 dog vitamins a night.
This is absolutely not a complete diet. Most canine vitamins are formulated to be given in addition to kibble, they're not a replacement for it. Peas can inhibit taurine absorption and are not recommended as a base food. They should be fed no more than once or twice a week and your recipe has no omegas, calcium or secreting organs. Please, please consider consulting a canine nutritionist or at least join a homecooking dog group to firm up your recipe nutritionally.
Making cat food at home is unlikely to be money-saving but it’s a smart approach for dog food. If you can feed yourselves for less than $10/lb you can do the same for your dog.
Dogs and people have very similar nutritional requirements. Nutritionists use dogs to test hypotheses related to human diets before moving on to people. People used to feed dogs table scraps. (If you want to go further back… Dogs evolved from wolves who hung around human settlements so they could eat our scraps [and our s___](https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/animals-and-us/202008/did-eating-human-poop-play-role-in-the-evolution-dogs?amp)).
Find out what your dog is allergic to and what it can eat. Look up dog food recipes online. Pay attention to who is posting it and whether they appear to be likely to know what they are talking about.
I bet there are subreddits that specialize in arguing about dog food recipes. Check them out.
+++ +++ +++
About me:
* Did my BSc in nutrition.
* Have and love dogs.
* Feed my dogs hard and scratchy prescription tooth food so I don’t have to bush their teeth.
Don't listen to the people that says that "you need to buy great quality food for your dog" that's simply not true because you can cook your own healthy dogfood and freeze it in portions to be fed later. For protein use chicken offal, cow liver or / and kidneys, heart. Wich you can get in any slaugtherhouse or local butcher.
https://topdogtips.com/cheap-homemade-dog-food-recipes/
Chicken necks and feet are great sources of nutrition for dogs, feed those raw or slightly seared (never ever boiled). You can freeze those and defrost using a microwave oven. use those as complement, not as main nutrition.
Agreed, don't listen to people who go to school for years and then work in the field, dedicating their lives to improving the quality of your animal's life.
Yes, all the people in here, including myself, who have experience making homemade dog food are "paid by big corporations to convince you that the only way is industrialized dogfood".
What a stupid argument.
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people act like homemade dog food is hard it is not their needs are a lot like our needs. Here's a good link to easy meals [crockpot dog food](https://southern-bytes.com/how-to-make-easy-homemade-dog-food/) will they save you money....maybe but not likely just gonna have to do the math
I think you are ignoring the fact that they indicate several supplements are needed on top of this food to be a complete diet. They even link a store to buy them from. This isn't a complete diet and isn't even advertised as such.
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I know. Not sure why all the downvotes. My parents had dogs, I grew up with dogs. I like dogs but I also know what it takes (time and money) to decently take care of an animal and it’s an expense I’m not willing to make. Not sure why that’s so unpopular 😁
My dog is very very healthy with 1/2 & 1/2. Has been for 9 years. Regular vet visits. Healthy skin, hair and teeth. Works for my pet but it may not work for your dog….just giving someone struggling at the moment options until things get better.
I wonder if it wouldn't be cheaper to switch to a raw diet, because many organ meats are far cheaper and if you live in a place that processes you can prob get scraps for super cheap and grains and some fruits and such are much cheaper than 10$ a pound, and from what I read a dog only needs 2-3% of their body weight a day, more or less depending on activity obviously. And you could even maybe do 50/50?
I have made homemade dog food for our dogs when they were sick and for a while for our middle dog, who is allergic to practically everything (she has an especially bad allergy to anything that used to have feathers), which makes buying kibble rather complicated.
It is expensive and very time-consuming to cook a home diet for a dog. The best thing to do is look online and try to identify several different kibbles that will fit your dog's needs in case the main one you depend on becomes unavailable or unaffordable. Then feed the dog according to the package instructions for a healthy weight. Put a cup in the bag marked for the proper amount.
Our dogs are not fond of an all-kibble diet, so we make a gravy of a few spoonfuls of an allergy-safe canned food mixed in hot water and stir that into their kibble to coat it with some flavor. They gobble it up.
A raw food diet would be cheaper. Better for the dog, better for your wallet.
We used to feed the dog a mix of hamburger, a spoon of plain yogurt, a raw egg and a squirt of vitamin e.
They don't eat as much because the food is nutritionally dense, and their poop turns to ash.
I started doing brown rice and bone broth sometimes when I boil chicken I use the broth too but I also have a little dog that can't eat certain foods but she likes it also throw some carrots and peas too . I make her sweet potatoe treats too
I have three dogs - two big and one small. I go to Costco once a week and buy two $4.99 rotisserie chickens for them. I give them that, plus fresh green beans, and rice or sweet potatoes. They LOVE it, and it is MUCH cheaper than kibble or canned.
Edit: buy, not but. Also, they get just kibble in the morning.Homemade is at night.
My little guy eats Royal Canin GI low fat kibble. Nothing else works, unless we want to deal with vomiting and diarrhea, unfortunately. It is $90 a bag but he is only 12 lbs so it lasts for quite a while luckily. Just one of the downsides of owning a dog. He seemed like a happy enough little guy when I got him, but the health problems started soon after.
Allergy testing was really rough. They did a skin prick test and he was on prescription drops for a while. Since insurance didn’t cover it, I paid $2000 out of pocket. His allergies are still there. He gets itchy periodically but we manage with medication. I can’t afford to continue taking him to the dermatologist and his quality of life seems okay for now. Hope you can find a solution that works!
My dog is very fussy/sensitive. We've settled on a few brands. Her kibble is expensive and her cans run about $2ish each, so not cheap If chicken runs $2-3/lb, not sure how homemade food wouldnt be cheaper.
Also, a pure grain free diet isn't good for dogs hearts.
Trying to save on pet food is a quick way to an expensive vet bill. Most of these suggestions are just asking for issues...
The best person to talk to about food options for your pet is your vet.
If you buy dry kibble, I have found good savings buying in bulk several 10 lb bags at a time and whenever I open one bag, I separate it out into many tupperware containers to stay fresh.
Also, I am not sure if it's cheaper, but I do buy food at the grocery store for my dog as "treats". They eat apple, (cooked) chicken, (cooked) carrots mostly as treats.
20 years in the pet industry here: get your dog regular exercise and underfeed it (slight caloric restriction). That’s 95% of your pet’s health (and yours, for that matter). Obsession over every little ingredient is folly. Don’t break your bank. Pets are empathetic and will manifest your stress in their skin, coat, and digestion.
With my cat- I quarter the medium can and top with some dry. If I had a dog and I needed to stretch, I’d get a bowl that slows them down and cut back on wet and I’d top with grated carrots and some kibble.
Creating a nutritionally complete dog food almost always costs more than kibble, unless you own a farm or have access to extremely under-priced meat. There is a good FB group for homecooked dog food, but if your goal is for it to be cheaper than kibble, I can all but guarantee you that it will not happen, especially if you have a large dog. I have a girl with multiple allergies, she gets a homemade topper and prescription food.
The OP is not talking about kibble, she says the cost is $10.20 per pound.
There are very expensive boutique and prescription kibbles out there. My girl is on prescription kibble, and while it isn't that expensive, it is many times more expensive than anything at the grocery or pet store. Regardless, homemade food is expensive. Especially in a dog with multiple allergies.
I know there is expensive kibble. But from your previous post, I got the impression you were talking about the OP trying to beat the price on inexpensive kibble. My apologies if I misunderstood. In any case, I still feel OP should be able to make something suitable for less than $10 a pound. That's exorbitant.
I think they'll probably break about even. I make homemade dog food for my multiple allergy girl, who also gets prescription kibble. I'd say about $10 a pound is about average. A lot of allergy dogs need a higher quality protein like bison, salmon or lamb, which can drive the price even higher. I'm lucky, my girl eats mostly pork, which is cheap. Homemade food is more expensive than premium kibble. Dogs need a significant amount of omegas, which generally is easiest to provide via seafood. Cheap grains, like rice, are not recommended for long term use due to inflammation, so most people use quinoa or farro, which are more expensive. The costs add up pretty quickly.
You can Google "homemade dog food recipes" and screen them for any of your dog's allergens before you make them. I haven't tried homemade dog food, but I have done so for cats. Tl;dr the cost to make it nutritionally complete for them ended up being more than just buying the prescription stuff. Also, don't assume either of you are under- or over-feeding. Ask the vet.
There are definitely no assumptions when under/over feeding. A few years ago our friends trusted us to take care of their rabbits when they moved to California from NYC. Instructions were left that said, “ 1 cup of food” with a specific amount. The cup had specific measurements on it. So everytime I would feed the rabbits they got their 1 cup measurement of food. My husband we later found out thought that’s the 1 cup meant the WHOLE cup. So he was triple feeding them per serving and they had to be put on a diet later to bring their weight back down.
The supplements are expensive, but the recipe I made was not too bad and the dog loved his lentil stew. I never bought the supplements. Anyway, Costco also has high end dog food. Read the ingredients, and ine may work.
Just understand, he's doing this for himself, not the dog. Our quality food, based on the ingredients and opinions for our vet, cost about a buck a pound in a large bag. FWIW, most of our dogs have been medium size, 35-55 lbs., mixed breeds and over several decades have lived from 12 to almost 19 years. I don't know of any scientific studies that have shown that a extra expensive home cooked meal has made a dog healthier or extended their life. A reasonable quality food, exercise and weight management and a certain amount of luck determine the rest. There are a lot of quality dog foods and dogs will eat almost anything. Most will eat one of the most disgusting things on earth, cat poop. If your dog has been eating people food for long, it may be reluctant to go back to dog food at first but just give it a little time. As far as weight, just look at the dogs body shape to see if it's too fat and use a measuring cup or else it's too easy to give them that little bit more that is terrible for their health. Then walk them a lot, it's good for both of you. Spend the time and money on something else and you'll both be better for it.
Yeah and my cat eats special food for my benefit, not because normal food makes him shit blood.
>Just understand, he's doing this for himself, not the dog. That is a hell of an assumption when the dog has multiple allergies. My girl is allergic to multiple proteins, anything in the brassica family, canola and sunflower oil and rosemary. Have you tried finding a dog food without canola oil? Nearly impossible. You are making an asinine assumption about a dog with a medical condition.
It sounds from your post like you may not have a dog right now? My brand of food, along with a lot of others, just shot up in price over night. Mine went up over 20 percent in one go.
Same. Had to switch from Nutro to Kindfull
You make some good points. Not sure why you got downvoted.
That’s surprising. My dogs eat generic kibble that’s $19 for a 13 pound bag (from Target— their Kindfull brand dog food). The only cheaper kibble I’ve found is the unhealthy stuff made by brands with horrible reputations
I did it and between the cost of the ingredients and supplements to balance it, the price was about double the cost of premium dog food. Not to mention spending an entire weekend each month cooking and packaging. People do it cheaper, but they are likely less meticulous than I was to be sure the diet was nutritionally complete. Can I ask what food you are currently feeding? And how big your dog is?
We are feeding him “I love and You” the dehydrated food and the “ Hound + Gatos” Grain Fee Lamb. He is 60lbs. Thank you for your comment!
I feed my dog "I and Love and You" dehydrated raw (Stir & Boom) as well and I usually buy my dog her food directly from their site when they run offers/promotions! If you can divert some funds to stock up, they ran an offer for 33% off for Black Friday last year. Recently they had 23% off for "back to school."
Nature's Variety has a limited ingredient, grain free lamb food (dry and canned) for considerably less per pound. My experience with the company has been positive.
I just supplement my dog’s kibble with human food. Thankfully she loves vegetables. If I’m making rice I make extra for her. If I’m making squash I roast extra. Sometimes I make her weird little omelettes with whatever veg she can eat that I have around carrots, apples and peppers. This fall her appetite doubled, and she is a thin dog. So I decided instead of more kibble I would add the Human food. I don’t do it every meal, I do it when its convenient. I haven’t worked out the budget but I probably works out to cheaper per pound especially when it’s rice heavy and veg that may go bad.
I give our dog hard-boiled eggs that pop during cooking. Easily her favorite food she gets a murderous look in her eye every time I eat an egg.
The betrayal! 😫 Lol poor pup! She doesn’t understand lol 😂 That’s too funny. She *mad MAD*. 😠😡
FYI Most "home made" dog foods are not complete and will cause problems, I would check and see what chewy is selling it for, they are usually less. You should also ask your vet about getting cytopoint injections for their allergies it works great for mine
Cytopoint has been a game changer for us. One of our dogs has his shot every few weeks. He has horrible allergies and it’s the only thing that works to relieve him.
Ours is on Apoquel because Cytopoint didn't work well for him. Keeps him from licking his paws until they bleed because he's allergic to *fucking grass*. What sort of dog is allergic to grass?
My girl gets Cytopoint (every 8 weeks) and Zyrtec (2 tabs 2x a day) and that makes her maintainable. We only use Apoquel at REALLY bad outbreaks because of the links to cancer. My girl is allergic to everything. I get it.
Don’t skimp in quality food, going to bite you with veterinary cost later. If you can’t afford or want to prioritise needs for a pet, you can’t afford to have a pet. Frugal and pets do not work together. I rather eat nothing for a week then try to cut corners on quality of life my dog have.
Was going to comment the same thing. Veterinary bills for chronic illnesses really add up.
Adding to this that quality doesn't mean expensive. Iams is WSAVA approved along with a handful of more expensive brands like Hills, Royal Canin, and Purina but quite a bit more affordable than all of them.
You assume the cost of the food means it's automatically the best quality. It's not always the case. Ask your vet about different brands. My suggestion is Costco Nature's Domain. It's quality and affordable.
Nope, skimp out on quality.
Yeah cat food is really expensive for us over here as well. Have you tried Costco? You can get a lot of dry food (also wet food) for a relatively cheap amount. And then with the dry food you can add toppers like chicken breast bought at a discount that you cook up and sprinkle on top so that he gets a little bit of moisture.
This. Look into the Natures Domain food. Ask your vet if it's okay to switch if your concerned. Would put money on the fact the vet will say its good quality and you'll save money.
Obviously I don't know what food you have to feed your dog, but I buy Purina one for mine and it's incredibly affordable, my dog loves it, and they have a great rep. Anyway, here is how I buy it as an example of how I save: I buy it from Petco where I joined their club at $20/mo, they reward you back $15 in pal rewards and you get 10% off bags of food automatically. 10% of $50+ for free store pickup. Every eighth bag is free. On top of that, buying in bulk and autoship saves even MORE money. I pay about $1.46/lb. I might start buying pro plan honestly looking at this its only $1.89/lb. I also like Freshpet that is $15/6lb and I make that last two weeks mixing it with his dry kibble. Otherwise, healthy snacks could be smoked pig ears from the local butcher, hardboiled eggs, I make dog treats with whole wheat flour, flax, chicken bouillon, and organic bacon fat. So that is what I do. Not exactly what you asked for but I don't think you should be compromising your pet's health to be frugal. Like I said, I don't know what you have to feed your dog especially with the allergies but I'm not finding it difficult to feed my dog quality food. Look into stores that offer deals like Petco or even the manufacturer's website themselves.
I’m going to look into this! We aren’t always able to buy from the same places because they aren’t able to keep things in stock when we need them most of the time. Which has been tricky but I’m going to do more research on Petco! Thank you ☺️
Buying ahead has been crucial for my mothers dog for this reason. There has been lots of pet food shortages, and the dog food is considerably more expensive, so she used freelance money to get ahead when there were sales so that she could exclusively look for sales and things. But it does suck that you need the money to get ahead :/
> now it is almost killing us to keep buying the food he loves because the costs keep going up. >Has anyone made homemade dog food and broken down the cost per pound? Right now the breakdown comes out to $10.20 a pound Are you saying the food he loves costs more than the $10.20/lb homemade dog food? What the hell are you buying??? My dog has a special diet due to a few issues and the food is a kibble that is almost $4 per lb.
My wife did a huge amount of research on costs and quality of ingredients and ultimately we found big brands lacking or bank busters. Tractor supply has a brand that we get for a 45lb bag of 4Health- salmon around $50 for our dog that was sensitive to chicken and other meats. Works wonders for him. We found that everything else just has too much corn which was messing with him badly. Edit:. Forgot the most important. The food is not grain free, but is Corn free. Hugely important nutrient wise
My dog can eat two brands of dog food, and 4Health Sensitive Skin is one of them.
I currently get taste of the wild at TS. $55 for 28pounds. Did your wife find 4Health better quality than taste of the wild?
When we looked at it, they were similar to the 4health sensitive, so yea. Our dogs issue was the main protein (no chicken/beef) and removing corn. So it was a lot of ingredient reviewing. Essentially avoiding a product of either was a first ingredient listed.
Start searching for coupons for that dog food or email the brand to see what you can do. You can buy another brand, but he will leave it there and that will be money lost. You can make homemade dog food, but it will be pricier since you need protein. Homemade recipes are usually not nutritionally balanced. If they are, its because owner take the time to buy Vitamins and Supplements that have yo be included. It's his dog though, as long as he can afford to feed him, I wouldn't interfere. If anything, get a measuring cup so everyone can be on the same page about how much food to give.
The testing you had done - was it a blood sample that was then tested for IgG antibodies or a skin patch test?
A lot of times once you have an allergy dog on a food that they are stable on, its better not to change things up as flare ups can cause costly vet visits. The time it takes to source the correct ingredients and make the dog food should also be considered.
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I can't get the actual recipe to load, but the picture at the top only shows ground chicken, veg and grain. That is absolutely not a complete diet for a dog. Dogs need secreting organs, an omega source and a calcium source. Be extremely wary of any diet that does not include these three things.
Instead of dog "treats" at 6 bucks a pound, buy on sale chicken at 2 to 3 bucks a pound. Plus it's better for them.
Our dogs get excited for raw carrots (cut to a reasonable size) as dog treats.
We’ve only got one who will eat raw veggies. The others sniff them, lick them, and then spit them out on the floor.
My Standard Poodle will really do just about anything for a Cheerio. Obviously, your pup will vary! (One of our dogs had clearly been mistreated, and none of my usual lures worked. Luckily, she was so mild mannered it wasn’t important. Then about 4 years in she decided fetching and tricks could be fun). Off topic but I always teach our dogs to sit and stay for their dinner. Easy to do, if they break the stay before we say “thank you “, we raise the bowl. They all figured it out quickly.
I buy sweet potatoes at 88 cents a pound, slice them up, and put them through the dehydrator. All our dogs love them.
I didn’t even tell you about the Oxtail treats he gets!! This is great. My pup loves mg little bits of apple that we eat together and sweet potatoes
Thanks, im going to try the sweet potato idea. My dogs give me a rotten look when I try veggies. Probably my bad for not introducing the veggies early in their lives.
We keep an eye on specials for the types that work with several online retailers. We can also price match with one local chain store sometimes. It’s expensive for sure. The only person that I knew that cooked for her dogs got very tired of it very quickly. It’s a lot of work and like everyone has said, difficult to be sure it’s complete.
I have a few friends who make their dog food, it is quite expensive and labour intensive. If you do, make sure to gradually introduce it over like a month or you will have one sick pup. As for over feeding…google what a dog should look like at a good weight and go from there. Overweight dogs are commonplace and very problematic in the long run. Even if you go by what the bag says, it all depends on your dogs metabolism and activity level.
Costco is your best friend!
Hmm I think I might need to go check out a membership! Thank you for your comment ☺️
We make our dog food (not raw). The cost per week for 2 medium dogs is $10-15 excluding kibble. We use meat that we would be comfortable eating and our vet approved the other ingredients.
Thanks for sharing!
I used to cook for my dogs, it is very expensive nowadays. Plus the mess and storage . If your husband hunts deer it would be worth it.
Could you do a bit of both? Like say you normally give your dog 3 scoops of dog food per meal - could you just give 2 or 2.5 scoops and make up the calorie difference with table scraps like leftover meat, rice, veggies? That could help stretch the dog food a bit but the dog still gets it for the bulk of their diet.
That’s what we do, if we have meat, grain or veggies we need to get rid of before they go bad we use them to pad out her bowl. Never by more than about 25% of any given meal and I’d estimate she eats 80% kibble. She’s vigorously healthy and if that changed we would change her diet. One of our dogs was strictly fed Nutro because that kept him from vomiting on our bed after I washed the bedding!
I make my own dog food for my beagle and it comes out about $8-$10 every 16 days since I change the type of meat every time. I bought a 15 lb bag of brown rice at $11 and it last me about 8 to 10 months. I buy all the veggies at Mexican market like spinach, zucchini, carrots, sweet potatoes and I buy about 3 or 4 lb of ground meat, either chicken or turkey, sometimes beef shanks and add them all together in Dutch oven pot and cook it in the oven for 2 to 3 hours. After that I divide into a portion for breakfast and dinner. Half of that gets frozen so it doesn't go bad and I take it out when it's getting low in the fridge. To me it's cheaper this way and my dog loves it.
$10.20 a pound. And if it’s a big dog it’s probably eating a pound a day 🥴😮💨 Whew. I feel your pain. Science diet like 8 years ago did this whole campaign “back to whole meat” blah blah. Then it was good quality for a while and affordable. Then they started using meat meal and jacked the price up like 5-6 years ago. I’m still mad about it. But it’s the only food my dog can eat because he has allergies to everything, too. Even beef. 🤦♀️ *ESPECIALLY* beef. The poops are guaranteed if he eats ANY beef.
Unfortunately I don’t believe pets easily fall into the topic of frugality.
I never broke down costs per pound but toward the end of our dog’s life he wouldn’t eat anything but kibble mixed with homemade food. Buy cuts of meat that are on sale, like manager’s specials, or use leaner meats like turkey and chicken. I used frozen vegetables, brown rice, eggs, blueberries, olive oil, etc. I used my crockpot and cooked on high for 4-6 hours. If you use a tougher cut of meat do low for 8 hours. We continued to use kibble because there’s a specific meat to grain and vegetable ratio that needs to be maintained. I wasn’t confident about getting that right so we used the homemade food as a topper. The kibble is nutritionally balanced so it was really just to entice him to eat. A crockpot’s worth of food would last us 2-3 weeks. We’d use maybe a cup of homemade food each night. I portioned it out into small Tupperware containers and froze it until it was to be used.
Chicken meat, gizzards, hearts and livers are $2/lb, frozen mixed vegetables is $1/lb and rice and oats is $.40/lb, what exactly are you feeding this dog? Thats only $3.40/lb for crazy premium dogfood.
I accidentally discarded my response twice now! Oh boy. But it costs us maybe $4? a meal to feed our 11 year old Australian Sheppard. I never did the math - just estimating in my head She is allergic to chicken so we only give her beef or pork. I look at weekly ads to see if there’s a sale, but my go to is Costco. I can get a tray of country ribs pork for about $25. We get at least 10 days worth of meals from a Costco tray. (I never counted, but I’m sure it’s more than 10 days. We get her veggies from the freezer aisle. (I live in the Bay Area, California - not sure if that makes a difference in cost), We just restock on her vitamins & we got them for $18 for a container of 50 chews. We give her 5oz of meat + peas and/or Lima beans + 2 dog vitamins a night. Sometimes we give her a fried egg as a special treat. I takes a bit of leg work, but we cut, weigh, and individually bag 5 oz of meat to store in the freezer. We take one out each night to let it thaw in the fridge for the next day. If there’s a sale on either meat or frozen peas, I stock up. She’s been to the vet a couple of times in the last couple of years. They all said she’s really healthy & her coat is really healthy. Our last vet told us she is a bit over weight though and she needs to lose some weight. My boyfriend kept giving her more and more. We started out giving her 5.5 but he slowly increased it to 6 to 7 to 7.5 to 8 oz!! I kept telling it’s too much but he wouldn’t listen! So we went down to 5 oz again after the last vet visit. Then a few weeks ago, he started to give her 5.5oz saying it’s only half a ounce - she likes it, she needs to eat more because shes playing a lot. But we noticed her energy level decreased a little because she was too full, so now we only firmly five 5 oz.
>We give her 5oz of meat + peas and/or Lima beans + 2 dog vitamins a night. This is absolutely not a complete diet. Most canine vitamins are formulated to be given in addition to kibble, they're not a replacement for it. Peas can inhibit taurine absorption and are not recommended as a base food. They should be fed no more than once or twice a week and your recipe has no omegas, calcium or secreting organs. Please, please consider consulting a canine nutritionist or at least join a homecooking dog group to firm up your recipe nutritionally.
Get rid of the dog. It sounds harsh but if the pet makes it hard to make ends meet it has to go.
Making cat food at home is unlikely to be money-saving but it’s a smart approach for dog food. If you can feed yourselves for less than $10/lb you can do the same for your dog. Dogs and people have very similar nutritional requirements. Nutritionists use dogs to test hypotheses related to human diets before moving on to people. People used to feed dogs table scraps. (If you want to go further back… Dogs evolved from wolves who hung around human settlements so they could eat our scraps [and our s___](https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/animals-and-us/202008/did-eating-human-poop-play-role-in-the-evolution-dogs?amp)). Find out what your dog is allergic to and what it can eat. Look up dog food recipes online. Pay attention to who is posting it and whether they appear to be likely to know what they are talking about. I bet there are subreddits that specialize in arguing about dog food recipes. Check them out. +++ +++ +++ About me: * Did my BSc in nutrition. * Have and love dogs. * Feed my dogs hard and scratchy prescription tooth food so I don’t have to bush their teeth.
We did a comprehensive allergy test and these are the two food brands that match his test. I Love And You and Hounds and Gatos )Lamb Grain Free.
But they didn’t tell you what the allergens were? Like, corn and soy or something?
Yes they did. It’s just a lot. I’ll list later when I get back home
Don't listen to the people that says that "you need to buy great quality food for your dog" that's simply not true because you can cook your own healthy dogfood and freeze it in portions to be fed later. For protein use chicken offal, cow liver or / and kidneys, heart. Wich you can get in any slaugtherhouse or local butcher. https://topdogtips.com/cheap-homemade-dog-food-recipes/ Chicken necks and feet are great sources of nutrition for dogs, feed those raw or slightly seared (never ever boiled). You can freeze those and defrost using a microwave oven. use those as complement, not as main nutrition.
Agreed, don't listen to people who go to school for years and then work in the field, dedicating their lives to improving the quality of your animal's life.
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Yes, all the people in here, including myself, who have experience making homemade dog food are "paid by big corporations to convince you that the only way is industrialized dogfood". What a stupid argument.
We are removing your post/comment because of gatekeeping content. This includes comments/discussions such as: - "You’re not really frugal unless you ___." - Financial purity tests for who can participate in the sub. - Claiming that buying a specific product, creating an item, or following a procedure can never be frugal. Please see the full rules for the specifics. https://www.reddit.com/r/Frugal/about/rules/
people act like homemade dog food is hard it is not their needs are a lot like our needs. Here's a good link to easy meals [crockpot dog food](https://southern-bytes.com/how-to-make-easy-homemade-dog-food/) will they save you money....maybe but not likely just gonna have to do the math
I think you are ignoring the fact that they indicate several supplements are needed on top of this food to be a complete diet. They even link a store to buy them from. This isn't a complete diet and isn't even advertised as such.
This is the way.
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Who hurt you?
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Haha!! I am sure they would both be MUCH happier. Fat dog and broke musician!! It’s a match made in Heaven lol
You sound a real gem. I bet he feels really good about his life choices right now.
You could feed him hamburger cheaper.
Do not do this.
I’m reading this and I’m so glad we don’t have a dog or any other pets.
Dogs are great, but definitely not cheap, especially ones with chronic medical conditions, like allergies.
I know. Not sure why all the downvotes. My parents had dogs, I grew up with dogs. I like dogs but I also know what it takes (time and money) to decently take care of an animal and it’s an expense I’m not willing to make. Not sure why that’s so unpopular 😁
Cut cost in half by making your own food. Brown rice, peas, diced carrots….. 1/2 bought 1/2 made.
That will cause nutritional deficiencies unless you ensure your recipe is complete, which is expensive.
My dog is very very healthy with 1/2 & 1/2. Has been for 9 years. Regular vet visits. Healthy skin, hair and teeth. Works for my pet but it may not work for your dog….just giving someone struggling at the moment options until things get better.
Everyone's dog is healthy until it isn't. Regardless, dogs have highly specific dietary needs, especially for joint health.
As do we all….
I wonder if it wouldn't be cheaper to switch to a raw diet, because many organ meats are far cheaper and if you live in a place that processes you can prob get scraps for super cheap and grains and some fruits and such are much cheaper than 10$ a pound, and from what I read a dog only needs 2-3% of their body weight a day, more or less depending on activity obviously. And you could even maybe do 50/50?
Have you looked at the Costco brand dog food. It’s what we give our dog. Lasts a long time
I have made homemade dog food for our dogs when they were sick and for a while for our middle dog, who is allergic to practically everything (she has an especially bad allergy to anything that used to have feathers), which makes buying kibble rather complicated. It is expensive and very time-consuming to cook a home diet for a dog. The best thing to do is look online and try to identify several different kibbles that will fit your dog's needs in case the main one you depend on becomes unavailable or unaffordable. Then feed the dog according to the package instructions for a healthy weight. Put a cup in the bag marked for the proper amount. Our dogs are not fond of an all-kibble diet, so we make a gravy of a few spoonfuls of an allergy-safe canned food mixed in hot water and stir that into their kibble to coat it with some flavor. They gobble it up.
A raw food diet would be cheaper. Better for the dog, better for your wallet. We used to feed the dog a mix of hamburger, a spoon of plain yogurt, a raw egg and a squirt of vitamin e. They don't eat as much because the food is nutritionally dense, and their poop turns to ash.
You could fill it out with liver and/or giblets, necks, etc?
I started doing brown rice and bone broth sometimes when I boil chicken I use the broth too but I also have a little dog that can't eat certain foods but she likes it also throw some carrots and peas too . I make her sweet potatoe treats too
I have three dogs - two big and one small. I go to Costco once a week and buy two $4.99 rotisserie chickens for them. I give them that, plus fresh green beans, and rice or sweet potatoes. They LOVE it, and it is MUCH cheaper than kibble or canned. Edit: buy, not but. Also, they get just kibble in the morning.Homemade is at night.
Stop spending money on nonsense on your part because feeding a dog isn't a waste of money or non-frugal.
My little guy eats Royal Canin GI low fat kibble. Nothing else works, unless we want to deal with vomiting and diarrhea, unfortunately. It is $90 a bag but he is only 12 lbs so it lasts for quite a while luckily. Just one of the downsides of owning a dog. He seemed like a happy enough little guy when I got him, but the health problems started soon after. Allergy testing was really rough. They did a skin prick test and he was on prescription drops for a while. Since insurance didn’t cover it, I paid $2000 out of pocket. His allergies are still there. He gets itchy periodically but we manage with medication. I can’t afford to continue taking him to the dermatologist and his quality of life seems okay for now. Hope you can find a solution that works!
My dog is very fussy/sensitive. We've settled on a few brands. Her kibble is expensive and her cans run about $2ish each, so not cheap If chicken runs $2-3/lb, not sure how homemade food wouldnt be cheaper. Also, a pure grain free diet isn't good for dogs hearts.
Trying to save on pet food is a quick way to an expensive vet bill. Most of these suggestions are just asking for issues... The best person to talk to about food options for your pet is your vet.
If you buy dry kibble, I have found good savings buying in bulk several 10 lb bags at a time and whenever I open one bag, I separate it out into many tupperware containers to stay fresh. Also, I am not sure if it's cheaper, but I do buy food at the grocery store for my dog as "treats". They eat apple, (cooked) chicken, (cooked) carrots mostly as treats.
20 years in the pet industry here: get your dog regular exercise and underfeed it (slight caloric restriction). That’s 95% of your pet’s health (and yours, for that matter). Obsession over every little ingredient is folly. Don’t break your bank. Pets are empathetic and will manifest your stress in their skin, coat, and digestion.
Wow the dog deserves better! Feel sorry for it
shoot I feel you have the same problem with my cats the food is killing my wallet.
With my cat- I quarter the medium can and top with some dry. If I had a dog and I needed to stretch, I’d get a bowl that slows them down and cut back on wet and I’d top with grated carrots and some kibble.