[Travis A]

Hey,

So i’m looking for a rotational dry food to sub in with the current food I have my 2 pit/(lab/boxer) mixed boys, 5 months old and on Zach’s Quality Dog Food for the last month or so. Seems to be good food they like it but it’s a bit of a hassle for me to get ahold of it at my location, so i was hoping to find a grain-free good food that won’t break the budget i can sub for to ease things. I pay $33 for a 50lb bag of that stuff though so anything else is going to be a worse deal i understand but still i need something that isn’t overpriced and comes in somewhat of a bigger bag, can’t be feeding 2, 35 lb growing pups little 12lb bags all the time. Any suggestions would be helpful, thanks for you time.

[pugmomsandy]

Check out Victor dog food. Comes in 40-50 lb bags. I saw a large bag of regular food for $33 at the feed store a couple weeks ago. They also have grain free food and you can buy this online. victordogfood.com

[Travis A]

Thank you very much i have heard that brand thrown around when looking for a bigger bag of quality, i’ll check it out. Any other brands you have had experience with that are grain free and not too expensive? Doesn’t have to be in a huge bag just wondering what brands i should look into.

[aquariangt]

affordable is somewhat dependent on your opinion of “affordable”

Authority Grain Free (4 stars)
Simply Nourish Grain Free (4 stars)
Simply Nourish Source (5 stars)
Earthborn Holistic (5 stars)
Victor has been mentioned-I will say ordering victor online gets a bit more expensive that finding a retailer

all can be a bit cheaper than some other options you’ll find out there

SNS and Earthborn are both brands I use-Fromm’s 4 star grain free as well, also cheaper than some other options. I also use Acana-while not super cheap, you don’t need to feed as much as some other options so it cuts down the price a bit. Authority I don’t particularly like, and simply nourish grain free is too low in protein for me

[crazy4cats]

Hi Travis-
Have you checked out Victor’s retail locater? If you can buy it locally, I don’t think you can find a better price for a five star grain free food. Otherwise, Amazon, Sport Dog, or RocketPetz sells it online at a higher price. I can’t get it as cheap as others as we have only one dealer in our area. I have to drive a ways, but I can get a 50lb bag of the grain free joint formula for $74. Not near as good as the Zach’s that you are currently feeding. Also Earthborn, Nutrisource and By Nature have decent prices. Good luck!

[Travis A]

Thank you all very much for the suggestions, and I understand affordable is relative to my means, so that 50 lb bag lasted right at a month for my 2 boys so all i spent was the $33 for that month on food which is pretty good for a decent food, i’m having a friend pick up another bag of the Zach’s in Lubbock,TX so that will save me on the shipping but it’s also not grain free and while my dogs seem to be ok with it, i’d prefer to use grainless food to prevent any issues. I will look into the victor brand though along with the other suggestions, thanks again for the assistance. I know it’s the wrong forum but i was also looking into some sort of Raw diet that won’t break the bank either, any starting place suggestions on that? And is it ok to start my 5 month old’s on it?

[aquariangt]

You can start any age on raw really (what breeds do you have?? 2 5 month olds go through 50 lb a month, oi-my 3 go through 15 ish pounds)

There are a few threads about starting raw, and Hound Dog Mom and Rescue Dane Mom both have a lot of tips

[Travis A]

Ok i will check those threads out in the Raw section, but I have 2 pit/(boxer/lab) mixes, I’m guesstimating the boxer/lab part as i took them off a friend’s relative who was in a bad spot so didn’t really have all the background info i wanted, she said pit/boxer but they are for sure pit/ either Lab/boxer mix or may just be lab their snouts are narrower and longer than our other pit. But they are in the middle of their 5th month and about 35-40 lbs. Also on the first bag i did feed our other pit some of the time too so that didn’t help in conserving but that was temp. Unfortunately my roomies don’t care what they feed their dogs so he gets stuck with the worst of the worst Purina Puppy Chow…. 🙁 They just don’t care to buy a better brand i give them plenty of info but still no changes. And i can’t afford the better food for 3 big dogs.

[DogFoodie]

Hi Travis,

I couldn’t tell if you had already looked for a local retailer of Victor products or not. I live in the Chicago area, but my friend is in Texas and when I was looking for a local retailer for her I was shocked to see there were lots of them. Lots. Not to pester you, but do check and see if you might have a retailer near you. Click on the tab in the black bar at the top of this page that says, “find a dealer.” http://victordogfood.com/

Also, something you could consider would be supplementing your dog’s diet with raw, meaty bones as an introduction to raw food. Something as simple as a turkey neck in place of a meal of kibble. And, if you keep the extras to no more than 20% of your dog’s diet, you don’t have to worry about throwing off the nutritional balance of the kibble. I don’t feed raw full-time because of my schedule and it worries me far less when I know I’m feeding it less than 20% of the time. Here are the forum search results for “raw, meaty bones” or RMB’s as they’re called: /forums/search/raw+meaty+bones/

[crazy4cats]

Hi Travis-
Sounds like you have your hands full! You could always rotate between the Zach’s kibble with a grain free kibble to keep your costs down. I’m rotating between Victor grain free and a grain inclusive brand right now. Another thing besides the raw meaty bones that Besty suggested, you could add an egg or a sardine to their kibble a few times a week to boost their diets a bit. Eggs are a pretty cheap addition! I add sardines once a week and eggs twice a week to my dogs’ meals. I also add a few Northwest Naturals frozen raw nuggests a couple times a week. That is a a little more expensive though. I wish you well on your quest!

[Travis A]

Yea we actually have a special needs dog too so it is a bit challenging at times but still worth it in the end. But I haven’t looked into the Victor line-up yet but will do so for sure. That’s exactly what i was wanting to do is sub a grain free with a non grain free if it doesn’t affect them in a negative way with the switching, but i did want to get something like a neck or other raw treat more or less to add into their diets and see if they like it and do well with it. But with a larger breed dog i know i need to focus on Calcium consumption so how do i measure that, not all brands give that info on their products. Thank you all so much for the assistance as well i really appreciate it, i will upload some photos soon of my boys as well.

[Author]

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