Cheap and considerably decent food??

2484 Views 13 Replies 8 Participants Last post by Yuelang, Mar 14, 2016

Kiba

Discussion Starter · Feb 26, 2016

I own a puppy named Kylo and he doesn't live with me, he lives at my dad's house. my dad doesn't own all the money in the world and that's okay. but what's not okay is he feeds the puppy cheap commercial dog food and thinks it's totally healthy. I don't want my puppy growing up off of junk, but my dad doesn't listen to me when I try to tell him the food he gives Kylo is awful.
my dad knows that the food is made of 4D meat, he's personally met people picking up roadkill and wood shavings from his workplace to make it. he thinks it's still healthy just because they clean it.
what I'm asking is more than what the title says but I don't want to make it too long... I want to know three things
1. is there any way I can convince my dad to get better food?
2. is there anything that's at least decent but still cheap?
3. is there anything I can still do for Kylo's proper growth outside of his food? like any vitamins or anything?

Kylo currently eats Purina puppy chow but when he get's older I know my dad will move him onto $3 bags of Dollar Store food. he also gets 4Health joint vitamin treats every other day. thank you so much.

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Cindi

· #2 · Feb 26, 2016

Hi Kiba,

The first thing you could do it remind your dad that dogs evolved directly from the timber wolf somewhere around 15,000 years ago. And, of course, it should come as no surprise. Wolves are clearly carnivores.

Look at the ingredients in the dog food you are getting. If it has a lot of corn or wheat, those are just cheap fillers. They aren't good for your dog. The more meat, the better.

Hope this helps!

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Rain

· #3 · Feb 26, 2016

Your best bet will probably be to convince him that by feeding your puppy cheap food he's likely to run into higher vet bills as your puppy gets older. You can also let him know that for a couple dollars more he can buy the puppy a food that is much better quality and he'll be able to feed the puppy a little less so the food will last longer. You feed less because a good food is full of stuff a puppies body can use where a cheap food is full of fillers so you need to feed more.

I noticed that you mentioned you use 4Health so I'm going to take a guess and say you have a Tractor Supply Store near you. Check out there 4Health dog and puppy food, it's their store brand but is a decent food and it's around the same price as puppy chow.

Here's the Puppy Chow, it's a 32 lb bag and it cost $48.45 at Wal Marts on line site Purina Puppy Chow Healthy Morsels Puppy Food 32 lb. Bag - Walmart.com

Here's 4Health Puppy Formula Dog Food at Tractor Supplies on line site. It's a 35lb bag and it's $36.99 The link also includes the foods ingredients list 4health Puppy Formula Dog Food, 35 lb. Bag - For Life Out Here

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Rain

· #4 · Feb 26, 2016

You could also try asking your dad to let you buy Kylo's food. If you are to young to have a job try asking if there is anything you can do around the house to earn money to pay for the food.

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Kiba

Discussion Starter · #5 · Feb 26, 2016

thank you both so much!

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Reactions: 1

travelingswift

· #6 · Mar 1, 2016

I agree with PP, if you can offer to purchase the better food, then that's a great way to go. Or, even better, if you offer to pay the price differential between the food he would buy and the food you want to give (saves you a bit of money

)

You don't even need a car or to pick up the food yourself if you go through chewy.com -- they'll deliver all sizes of dog food and they typically have reasonable/competitive prices. Once you figure out how quickly your dog goes through a bag you can even set up auto-ship and that saves you some $$ too.

On chewy.com taste of the wild and Fromm are both great options that are on the more affordable end of quality foods. About $45 for a 30 lb bag.

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ZIPPY

· #7 · Mar 11, 2016

I like the diamond natural lamb and brown rice $34.00 for 40 lb
they also make a grain free that is a little more money

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stapov

· #8 · Mar 12, 2016

There are many inexpensive products out there (that are much better than what he is feeding), but I think you need to gather some research together and sit down with your dad and show him what you've learned. Make him realize how much this means to you.

I'm not sure how old you are, but you can maybe try to make some money by doing chores or yard work and buy the food yourself!

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Yuelang

· #9 · Mar 12, 2016

White rice stir fried in margarine with a dash of soy sauce, a little coconut milk, and egg stirred into, very cheap, and reasonably delicious for humans too.

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patronizingrabbits

· #10 · Mar 12, 2016

Yuelang said:
White rice stir fried in margarine with a dash of soy sauce, a little coconut milk, and egg stirred into, very cheap, and reasonably delicious for humans too.

This is so not an appropriate diet for a dog and I pray that nobody actually feeds this instead of a proper, meat based diet that a dog's body needs to survive and thrive.

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Yuelang

· #11 · Mar 14, 2016

My father's (and so was my grandfather's) dogs mainly consume rice and leftovers for their dinner, breakfast used to be either raw meat or dry kibbles. I do give my own dog more puppy kibbles or canned dog food now, but sometimes when I cook fried rice, my Dog has it and she actually loves it more than Pedigree.

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Rain

· #12 · Mar 14, 2016

Yuelang said:
My father's (and so was my grandfather's) dogs mainly consume rice and leftovers for their dinner, breakfast used to be either raw meat or dry kibbles. I do give my own dog more puppy kibbles or canned dog food now, but sometimes when I cook fried rice, my Dog has it and she actually loves it more than Pedigree.

As a topper or addition to kibble, or a properly done raw diet, the rice mixture is fine. If it's the only thing the dog is fed, over a long period of time, it's not O.K.. The raw egg is a good addition but only if it's fed egg shell and all, the egg shell so that the dog gets calcium, and even then I'm still worried about missing vitamins and minerals.

Just because a dog loves some type of food it does not mean it's healthy for it. My dog LOVES whipped cream, unfortunately it's not healthy for him.

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patronizingrabbits

· #13 · Mar 14, 2016

When given the choice over "people food" and kibble, most dogs will choose people food. That doesn't mean it's good for them. My beagle will literally eat any food until she chokes and pukes. Surviving and thriving are very different things. Sure a dog could probably live off rice and Pedigree (which is probably mainly corn anyway, but probably enough meat for a dog with a strong stomach to work with) for a pretty long time, but if the issues don't start to surface immediately, they will as your dog ages.

OP wanted options that were better quality than the food their father was feeding at a reasonable price, not something to keep their dog alive while they figure something else out.

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Yuelang

· #14 · Mar 14, 2016

patronizingrabbits said:
When given the choice over "people food" and kibble, most dogs will choose people food. That doesn't mean it's good for them. My beagle will literally eat any food until she chokes and pukes. Surviving and thriving are very different things. Sure a dog could probably live off rice and Pedigree (which is probably mainly corn anyway, but probably enough meat for a dog with a strong stomach to work with) for a pretty long time, but if the issues don't start to surface immediately, they will as your dog ages.

OP wanted options that were better quality than the food their father was feeding at a reasonable price, not something to keep their dog alive while they figure something else out.

I do admit that maybe Rice isn't just the best food available, but they do considerably cheaper than most and dogs do love them. Yeah, I do knew that not all things that your dogs like are good for them... but then, when you eat fried rice and your dog begged with their puppy eyes...

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