Cheap, but Decent Food??

We've just worked out that with the Applaws kibble and Forthglade wet food, we are spending about £80 a month on food for our two!!! And we wonder why we never have any money lol!! We were getting the Applaws on offer (about £37 for a 12.5kg bag, instead of £50). But now it is back to full price and with the Forthglade too (one carton gives them about 2 meals each) and at £1.10 a carton, it is way too expensive.

We would really like to cut this down a little bit, but we don't really want to give them rubbish and Storm seems to be allergic to rice, as he always goes all scurfy and itchy when he is fed a kibble with high rice content. So, I have had a look at different no grain kibbles, but they are all quite expensive, except for CSJ 'no grain' food, which we might consider. Does anybody who feeds this know if the Vitamin D in this food is Vitamin D3, as online, it just says Vitamin D and it is very important that the right/natural form of Vitamin D is given, as opposed to the synthetic version!

We did think about using half Applaws and half a cheaper kibble, with the Forthglade too, but I'm not sure it will work out any cheaper, as Applaws is very high protein, so you give less, but with a lower protein kibble, you would have to give more!

I am really confused!!!

Ring the manufacturer if you want to know about whether or not Vitamin D is synthetic or natural and which type it is. As for protein content and needing to give your dogs more if a lower protein, I am not sure why think that is?

http://www.csjk9.com/productcart/pc/...5&idcategory=5

Which one were you looking at ??
Did you have a price point in mind ??

Applaws contains the same form of Vitamin D3.

Applaws large breed is currently £29.99 at Feedem http://www.feedem.co.uk/dog-c1/dog-f...-12-5kg-p18155

Which non grain free foods have you tried that he has reacted to?

I believe actual food allergies are quite rare in dogs so unless you have had him tested for food allergies (if such a thing even exists for dogs? I have no idea) it may not specifically be the rice.

I don't think you will find many grain free foods for cheap to be honest. If you want cheaper and grain free, feeding a raw diet may be the way to go.

Not really a price quote in mind, but want to spend roughly £20-30 less a month on their food.

Thanks redowl, just have to work out how much the p&p will cost!!

When we first got Storm he was on Skinnners Duck & Rice and he looked and smelt awful!! We also tried Autarky (rice version) and he got scurfy and itchy on that too, so we naturally assumed it was rice that we should eliminate from his diet. He did really, really well on Salmon and Potato (Simpsons Premium) and Arden Grange Sensitive, but as I said, these are too expensive!

They do have little bits of raw meat/offal and the frozen mince packs quite often mixed in with their kibble. But I wouldn't really feel too confident giving them all raw, for cost reasons and also making sure they got all the vitamins they needed. I know that meat in it's raw state should have all the vitamins and minerals in it naturally. But with today's factory farming practices, I wouldn't like to rely on it being as nutritious as it should, to just feed and nothing else. I also wouldn't mind just feeding good quality wet foods like Naturediet, Forthglade etc., but they would work out too expensive again!

Might try the CSJ no grain food though!

Thanks for all the help!!

I bought 2 Applaws large breed bags and p&p was free.

What about mixing it with this http://www.workinghprs.com/content/d...-dog-food-30kg This is cereal and grain free and is mostly free p&p and would work out "£27.70 ish per 15kg if you bought a 30kg bag.