[Bill K]

Can anyone make some suggestions on a food that our babies can eat that won’t upset their systems.?
Please help. We survive on a very small Social Security payment to feed us all. We are just about broke, but my two little dogs come first. They eat first before we do.

They are both rescues. Our boy, Little One is the oldest and Our girl, Zoey is the latest addition to our family. We got her this past Thanksgiving. A Utah judge was going to put her down if someone from out of state did not take her.

Our sweet boy, is a near blind and completely deaf 16 yr old male 10.5 lb Jack Chi with cancer that is very food sensitive. He wonders why Mommie and Daddy won’t talk or sing to him anymore now that he’s deaf. He looks up at you with so much love and wonder. After several surgeries for his cancer he still is not doing well. He vomits and coughs all the time so what he eats is very important. We need to try to make his last years good.

Our little girl is a six year old, debarked, 4.5 lb Chi that doesn’t even know how to play, or that she is a dog. She was kicked, punched, yelled at, thrown out in the cold and hot every day. Never being trained on how to be indoors without having “accidents”. Her owner kept her inside for 12 to 20 hrs, locked up in a room while she was at work. The owners Mom was home all day but would not do anything but leave her locked in the room, so while locked up she had no choice but to go in the room she was in.

When her owner finally came home, she was kicked, beaten and thrown like a object outside for the night. The next day would be the same. Bring her in, lock her up and throw her out. No one ever showed her any love or gave her the least bit of training. They didn’t even give her food or water often. She now has no idea on how to act at all. I have never seen such terrible abuse on a sweet little one. All she can do is freeze motionless except for shivering, wondering if someone will hit her again since whatever she does is wrong. So she does nothing…
So please help us out with some good brands to keep them healthy and happy that won’t break our bank.

[Pitlove]

Hi Bill-

What a heartbreaking story about your new adoption. Thanks for taking her away from that criminal owner. Any animal cruelty charges against her? I hope so!

Couple questions to help narrow down a good food….what size bag do you need? Also how much per lb can you pay for food each month? I have some foods in mind, but I don’t know if they would fit in your budget.

[Bill K]

Hey Pitlove,
It shames me to say that the criminal owner that I saved her from is a niece of mine and her crazy mother. When they literally kicked Zoey out for the night they broke her leg and ribs several times, she would roam around the 230 person town with the bad leg and other injuries till she got into trouble trying to find food and water. Animal control kept picking her up over and over till she supposedly bit a little girl that was trying to approach her scared as she was of people who were never ever kind to her. They then slit her vocal cords per an order from the towns judge to debark her and keep her quiet and not have to listen to her scream at night all night in the freezing Utah cold. Her only visit to a vet was to debark her, not to fix her leg or rib breaks. Small towns can be the pits…everyone knows everyone’s everything. The town judge got tired of the whole mess repeating itself over and over and instead of punishing my niece and her mom for their cruelty he had animal control put her in the pound and ordered Zoey to be put down as the best solution to fix things since he knew the supposedly bit little girl and her family. Some solution HuH? Lucky for us we were able to have a good close family member that lived in town convince the Judge to let Zoey live if someone would remove her not only from the town but from the state itself. So now it’s up to us…

I am feeding them Now Fresh, a senior adult, small breed, grain free food by Petcurean out of Canada. It’s $39.00 for a 6lb bag, and $52.00 for 12lbs. They had a 24lb bag for $80.00 on the shelf once but they didn’t have any more in stock so I ordered it and asked them to call me when it arrived. We didn’t grocery shop for ourselves for a few weeks but when the called us to come get it, upon arrival they said that their distributor for Petcurean no longer carried the 24 lb size.

I haggled with them and convinced them to pro rate the 12 lb bags to me for the 24lb price of $80.00 that they had advertised it on the empty space on their shelf ($40.00 for each 12lb bag instead of $52.00). That’s at the 24lb pro rate price for each 12 pound bag. So one 12lb bag lasts my babies one month at 1 cup each per day or $1.29 per day or $3.33 per pound.

Without the prorate 24lb price it goes up to $52.00 per 12lbs or $1.67 per day or $4.33 per lb.

I would like to see if I can come close to $2.00 per pound if 12lbs can still last me a month for both pups.

The Petcurean Now fresh, adult senior, small breed, grain free is the only food that has stopped Little Ones constant vomiting and frequent seizures. Whoops…I did not even mention Little Ones seizures before, just the cancer and surgeries…my bad. On all the other brands he starts getting sicker again. And since I free feed I’d like to feed them both the same good food.

Thanks Pitlove, for your reply to my post and story…It’s a long and sad one. You letting me vent and tell it has helped me already to deal with my pain and start to heal.

Keep me in your thoughts and prayers please. Maybe you can share your story with me someday!

Awaiting your reply,
Bill

[Pitlove]

My god what a horror story. That is unreal… You would think that someone, anyone in that town would have cared. The vet? You know?

Have you looked at NutriSource before? It’s far cheaper than NOW and it digests really well for their sensitive stomachs. They make a GF small breed chicken formula. Solid Gold also makes some grain and gluten free formulas that are also much cheaper than NOW. For Little One, avoid foods with rosemary. Some say they have seen a correlation between Rosemary and dogs who are prone to seizures. They say it can trigger one.

NOW seems like a good food, but that is way too much to pay on a budget. There’s lots more out there that are that good but cheaper. Any reason why you want grain free? That’s usually more expensive as well.

[aquariangt]

Do you have a Walmart close by? Pure Balance seems to do well for many dogs, haven’t tried it myself. Precise is often not too expensive-they have a few lines but just “Grain Free” there is chicken, lamb, maybe something else, are all under the $2/lb mark. The Holistic Complete Grain Free uses more unique ingredients and that’s more like $2.50

One of mine was taken from a family member in a bad situation too, I feel for ya

[InkedMarie]

What horrible people. I’m glad you have the dog. If you will order online, Victor makes a grainfree and nicely priced. Chewy dot com carries it

[C4D]

Hi Bill K,

First of all thank you for taking care of those pups. Your story brought me to tears.

The others have given you some very good suggestions for other food choices. I’m not sure where you are located, but there are many foods that could fill the bill at a much lower price. Whole Earth Farms, even though it was purchased by Purina, has a 25 lb bag for $39.98. ProPac has grain free chicken, fish, beef and lamb for around $45/28 lbs. These are chewy dot com prices. I have seen them form cheaper in local stores. My point is there are many options if you look in the 4-5 star dog food reviews and check out the prices online or at your local stores. The cost of Now is way too expensive for the rating and G/A it has. I would choose another food.

Good luck to you and your pups! Thanks for taking care of them! 🙂

[pugmomsandy]

Pro Pac Ultimates Grain Free Overland Red (beef) is a very small kibble as is Fromm Four Star Nutritionals Grain Free Beef Frittata Veg.

[Bill K]

Thank you for all your suggestions and for all your support. My pups thank you too….

[Lois Z]

My small dogs get Wellness dry food. We switch between the Toy Breed, Core, and Small Breed. They offer coupons, too. A 4 or 6 lb. bag is well under $20. For a canned food, Whole Earth Farms is 5* and very economical.

[Author]

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