cheap vs quality food?

My pets have always been given the best food i can afford and have a mixed and varied diet which has worked well for me and Jack is a fit and healthy dog so we must be doing some thing right.
when we got Buffy she was fed on some very cheap nasty dog food (rescue dog a bit of a mess, under weight etc) so i tried to change her on to the same as Jack, we went through a few horrible weeks where when ever we tried introducing even a small amount of good quality food she would have horrendus poops. it was a long slog but eventually we managed to move her on to the same as jack and she started to put weight on and develop a healthy coat etc but she had a foul a**e and her wind could clear a room in a second.
So we switched them both on to a food for sensitive tummies and settled on wainwrights. they both are doing really well on this along side raw mince, veggies, pasta and rice. But due to relationship breakdown i will soon be living on my own again and money will be a lot tighter, now i will go with out before my dogs do but im trying to find a way of saving some money. A friend was recomanded chappie by the vets for her dog who had a funny tummie but ive always seen that as a cheap = low quality food? but the price diffrence is huge and could almost half my food bill!! 15kg WW id £35 + where 15kg of chappie is £15.
Does any one know if chappie is any good? would cutting / mixing the wainwrights with chappie be ok?
Another option ive been recomended is one of the working dog foods as you pay no VAT on them and again its a hell of a lot cheaper but since staffies are all ready full of energy i dont want to feed them some thing that will give them even more

any advice would be greatly apreciated i would like to save money but i dont want to skimp on the quality of their diet.

cheers in advance!

Chappie isn't a very good quality food. I feed both my dogs on a budget and they are both fed a raw diet and it only works out at about £15 a month to feed them both, I do buy in bulk though and looked around for it. Perhaps look around on the internet as alot of sites are cheaper for buying dry food then shops are.

I feed dry James Wellbeloved, its a good food and costs about £40 a month give or take, I also buy online.

Chappie is a bland food and reccomended by vets for when a dog is ill, it hasn't anything in it, its really bland and you'll have to feed twice as much to get the nutrients so in the long term it would work out more expensive and not so good for them.

If you can afford it I would remain on a better quality kibble and if needs must, mix it a little but don't use chappie as its main source but only as a treat and not as a staple diet, just my opinion

Hi and welcome btw from me and Moo Xx

Hi & welcome.

I agree with Janey, try to stay on Wainwrights as it suits them both. You can add some Chappie to it to make it go further, but I wouldn't give it exclusively.

thanks i thought i was a really low quality food but the fact a vet recomended it confused me.
its a mute point now any how offered them a little this morning and they turned their noses up at it lol!

vets often havent got a clue what they are talking about when it comes to food. Chappie is a strange one as your right it is often given to dogs with sensitive tums or allergys etc but its not a very high quality.

Concur with Janey and Caryll. If you can mix the two foods that would be best.

zeus was on hills sicene plan thats what the vet recomended. however he was getting the odd bold spot and his energy levels were off the scale after eating. so i changed his food to nature diet its been the best move ive made. no more bold spots lovely coat and no more trips to the vets!!!

I don't know much about Chappie, but Violet eats a dry food that the local pet shop produces, so it's organic, no additives etc, but it's about half the price of other brands and includes fish and meat. As far as we can tell, Violet is doing pretty well on it, and she seems to enjoy eating it, so it might be worth doing a bit of investigating and seeing if there's anything similar available where you are. I've also heard that some farms produce their own types of food, so that might be an option too?

I feed Dude raw, and it works out around 2 to 3 pounds a day. My OH often asks questions like "what happened to the lamb chops?" or "where are the ribs that were in the fridge?". I think she gets the hump that he often eats better than us. She's not an animal lover, but then again no one in the house likes her much either. So that kinda evens things out. But maybe I should spend more time sourcing cheaper cuts of meat for him to help keep the status quo

Feeding raw is much cheaper than £2 a day, Billy is in raw and he has chicken, beef, kidney, liver, chicken wings and necks and carcass plus lamb spine and it is really cheap,you can feed raw even cheaper if you give them mince

Dudes not too keen on mince, even if I crack an egg on it. I usually just by his meat from the chilled isle at Asda, or the Chinese cash n carry. Where do you source your meat?

Mobilepetfoods.co.uk


They are in London and deliver every 2 weeks, the raw food you feed should have been frozen first to kill all the bacteria, I think 2kg of chicken is about £3 which is about 6 meals, but google raw food for dogs and there are lots, Billy hates mince as well, but they also need raw meaty bones to give them a balanced diet, hope this has helped

Sure has thanks. The only bones he can manage recently are chicken as his adult teeth are pushing through in places. Once his big gnashers are all in place, I shall be able to add more to his diet.

I order my raw from http://www.daf-petfood.co.uk/wb/

I have two dogs on raw and at most it works out at £15 a month altogether

Thanks Ella, I imagine you need an extra freezer for this type of delivery? Prices are good.

We feed ours on CSJ i get it online, i only started them on it because it was recommened through people on another forum who had tried and tested it, its very cheap too.

http://www.csjk9.com/productcart/pc/viewCategories.asp

Ours are doing fine on it no problems, we add this
http://prizechoice.co.uk/products/freeflowmincedmeats/chicken.php

too their dry food aswel and they have no problems toilet wise or anything.

since tara has moved in and been on the sam ediet her coat is glossy and looking really good.
Michelle

BLAKEJORELL wrote:Thanks Ella, I imagine you need an extra freezer for this type of delivery? Prices are good.

Haha yes i do i have a chest freezer just for the dogs food, i bought it second hand off ebay and from there if you order over £50 it's free delivery