Increased price of dog food

Gael23

Has anyone noticed a fairly big hike in the cost of dog food over the last while? Pedigree dried food( I know) now costs €9 for a 3kg bag which is a bit steep.

stargazer 68

Cat food has gone up too!

Sappa

Pigs ears have gone up
From .95 cents to 1.65 euro.

Paddysnapper

All due to the increased cost of cereals, due to bad harvests and increased world demand..All food stuffs will be up in price! Even Fido and Tiddles will be affected!

kylith

You'd be better off bulk-buying a good food. At that price 15kg of Pedigree works out to €45; you can definitely get better quality food for less money than that.

Gael23

kylith wrote: »

You'd be better off bulk-buying a good food. At that price 15kg of Pedigree works out to €45; you can definitely get better quality food for less money than that.

Your right but he's 13 now I dont think changing at this stage of his life is a good idea. Might look into bulk buying online as its supposed to be alot cheaper

Condatis

We changed from Bakers to Orlando which we buy in Lidl for about half the price.

No issues with acceptance – two of the dogs are eleven.

andreac

Condatis wrote: »

We changed from Bakers to Orlando which we buy in Lidl for about half the price.

No issues with acceptance – two of the dogs are eleven.

Awful stuff, it's cheap for a reason... Have you ever looked at the ingredients and what you are feeding to your dog?

kylith

ryanf1 wrote: »

Your right but he's 13 now I dont think changing at this stage of his life is a good idea. Might look into bulk buying online as its supposed to be alot cheaper

Zooplus are doing a permanent offer on Markus Muhle where it's 2 x 15kg for €70. I'm disappointed with Creavens at the moment (sent me wrong food, told them, no reply, one dog scratching, other one bouncing off walls) so I'm giving that a try. Ingredients look good, and no wheat

Condatis

andreac wrote: »

Awful stuff, it's cheap for a reason... Have you ever looked at the ingredients and what you are feeding to your dog?

Ingredients are fine – of course I've looked. They like it and they're thriving.

Yes! It is cheap for a reason – Lidl are competitive,.

andreac

Condatis wrote: »

Ingredients are fine – of course I've looked. They like it and they're thriving.

Yes! It is cheap for a reason – Lidl are competitive,.

The ingredients are far from fine. What's the first ingredient on the list? If you think it's fine then that's your opinion. It's nothing to do with being competitive, it's because the ingredients are cheap and poor quality, with little meat content and full of colours.

Gael23

andreac wrote: »

The ingredients are far from fine. What's the first ingredient on the list? If you think it's fine then that's your opinion. It's nothing to do with being competitive, it's because the ingredients are cheap and poor quality, with little meat content and full of colours.

We did buy that once and never again after I found out whats in it. Its €3.99 for a reason i.e its full of rubbish.
Our guy has been on Pedigree for most of his life and thats far from the best but he likes it and hes always been healthy apart from the affects of his age in more recent times. In fact, one time I remember being at the vets and she couldn't believe his age.

boomerang

I'm buying Skinners' Duck and Rice from the UK for my pet greyhound. It's a working dog food so it's VAT free and is only €30 a bag incl. delivery. It's as good as the brands we pay €50-€60 for here - Burns, James Wellbeloved, Arden Grange, etc. but barely more expensive than the likes of Pedigree, Bakers or the cheaper Red Mills/Gain brands!

If you're finding the cost of feeding your dog is becoming a problem, I'd encourage any one to add healthy scraps and leftovers to the diet. A bit of natural yoghurt, Lidl cottage cheese, tinned fish, boiled egg, leftover chicken or mince or cooked veggies on his food when you have it will really boost the quality of your dog's diet and he'll love you for it! I get a lot of things like that reduced to clear in Tesco and it saves me an absolute fortune. Usually 75% off the normal price and I stick it all in the freezer.

corkimp

I buy direct from Arden Grange - and they deliver to me free of charge. I get 3 x 15kg bags at a time and they last me around 3-4 months with my GSD girl. Yes I am paying nearly €50 a bag but considering how fussy she was as a pup/1 year old, it was a food she liked and her condition/weight/coat all improved within a short time of using it. I has gone up a bit since I first started buying it but was dearer in pet shops then direct from the supplier/manufacturer.
Her breeder had her on pedigree when I bought her, then I changed her onto Royal canine puppy food. She loved it but when time came to change her onto the adult/gsd food - it didn't work - she refused hence the change to Arden Grange. she loved it.

Also, in winter I add a cod liver oil to her food as well as some scraps and if there's grease/fat off the meet I pour it over her food as well as some canned food.

But if you are thinking of changing food, do it gradually over a week or so. start mixing it with the food your replacing, in larger quantities as you go into the week until it becomes more new food, less old food. Less upsetting for sensitive stomachs.

mosi

I've started buying Arden Grange from various UK sites and find I can get it way cheaper than here.
The dogs all do really well on the AG. My parents' greyhound was a bit underweight when they first got him but he has filled out really well on the AG. I'm hoping to see similar results with the mastiff I have. Out of interest, I looked up feeding guides for Pedigree large puppy variety...I would have to feed him almost 200g more per day if I gave him that...and it's muck. Even at full Irish prices, AG still works out better.

Condatis

andreac wrote: »

The ingredients are far from fine. What's the first ingredient on the list? If you think it's fine then that's your opinion. It's nothing to do with being competitive, it's because the ingredients are cheap and poor quality, with little meat content and full of colours.

There's nothing wrong with the ingredients in Orlando dog food – they're pretty similar to other products.

Carbohydrates are 47% – though meat and vegetable are on the low side we supplement Orlando with liver and broccoli and it still works out cheaper than so-called premium brands. Just because it comes from Lidl does not mean that it does not provide adequate nutrition.

The telling point is that all the dogs thrive on it – don't be taken in by the marketing blather of the more expensive brands.

Mo60

Condatis wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with the ingredients in Orlando dog food – they're pretty similar to other products.

Carbohydrates are 47% – though meat and vegetable are on the low side we supplement Orlando with liver and broccoli and it still works out cheaper than so-called premium brands. Just because it comes from Lidl does not mean that it does not provide adequate nutrition.

The telling point is that all the dogs thrive on it – don't be taken in by the marketing blather of the more expensive brands.

Agree with you 100%.

If your dogs are healthy and happy, wheres the problem?. Some people prefer to give their dogs expensive 'premium' brands, thats their choice, but it does not give them the right to criticise others that do not.

Gael23

Mo60 wrote: »

Agree with you 100%.

If your dogs are healthy and happy, wheres the problem?. Some people prefer to give their dogs expensive 'premium' brands, thats their choice, but it does not give them the right to criticise others that do not.

True and some people have no choice but I do believe there are benefits to the better brands. We feed Pedigree which is far from the best but its like the diffrence between a person living on junk food rather than a proper balanced diet.
That said, someone in our family got a dog from the same litter of pups and fed him mostly human leftovers to cut costs and he died just over a year ago. Im not saying his diet was the reason but I couldn't help thinking it may have been a factor. We do always give scraps and occasionally pieces of meat past the best before date but his main diet is commercial dog food.

Sligo1

Yes have just noticed prices going up! We would usually buy Eukanuba for our Siberian Husky. It would usually cost between 60 and 62 euro for a 15kg bag. But went in last week to buy some and it was up at 70 euro for a 15kg bag! Went to a few other stockists and was the same story. I love my dog but think this is a huge price!

So a dog kennels told us they feed all their dogs Husse Dogfood. Its a swedish brand and they deliver to your door free of charge. We started Husse with her last week and its 50euro for a 15kg bag. So its a bit cheaper. Has anyone heard of Husse? Would anyone recommend it?

mnstlj

peddigree 3kg now 6 euro in superquinn

Inexile

anyone else notice that prices have gone up but bags have got smaller. Some companies used to do a 15kg bag and now do a 12 kg bag for the same if not dearer price.

Millem

Inexile wrote: »

anyone else notice that prices have gone up but bags have got smaller. Some companies used to do a 15kg bag and now do a 12 kg bag for the same if not dearer price.

Yes I have noticed this first with science plan now with Arden grange. I see zooplus.ie are selling the 'normal' James wellbeloved in 10kg bags!! It is very annoying for anyone with large dogs! We go through 15kg in 18 days!

Ayla

If you contact Arden Grange directly (number's on their website) you can bulk buy in 15kg bags. I recently did this & they said they weren't selling the 15kg bags to stores anymore but you can get them directly from them. I bought 6 (15kg) bags & they gave me one bag & a grooming kit free. Shipping was free.

It worked out reasonable value, but we've gone off AG because our dogs seemed to be losing weight even though we were giving them more than the recommended amount. We just found Blue Grass in a local pet shop & it's only €20 for a 15kg bag. I was amazed that the ingredients are actually not that bad: https://bluegrasshorsefeed.com/dog-products/bluegrass-dog-delight-nuggets.html

Considering it's over €30 less per bag than AG we're happy enough to use it & supplement w/ other food stuffs if required. So far though our dogs seem to be actually improving since the switch.

Millem

Ayla wrote: »

If you contact Arden Grange directly (number's on their website) you can bulk buy in 15kg bags. I recently did this & they said they weren't selling the 15kg bags to stores anymore but you can get them directly from them. I bought 6 (15kg) bags & they gave me one bag & a grooming kit free. Shipping was free.

It worked out reasonable value, but we've gone off AG because our dogs seemed to be losing weight even though we were giving them more than the recommended amount. We just found Blue Grass in a local pet shop & it's only €20 for a 15kg bag. I was amazed that the ingredients are actually not that bad: https://bluegrasshorsefeed.com/dog-products/bluegrass-dog-delight-nuggets.html

Considering it's over €30 less per bag than AG we're happy enough to use it & supplement w/ other food stuffs if required. So far though our dogs seem to be actually improving since the switch.

Ayla do they have ingredients on bag? The link only shows the analysis.

Ayla

I noticed that too...I haven't seen the actual ingredients list online but I remember it was Rice (around 26%ish), then Poultry (around 23%ish)...there were only a few ingredients & it was wheat/gluten free. I'll confirm exact ingredients when I get home this evening & can look at the bag again.

I should also mention that the amounts that we have to feed each dog are actually less than AG as well (which makes it even more economical). For instance, we were feeding our 32kg Rottie 420g of AG a day (which was more than recommended but she was losing weight) and now we are only doing 320g/day of BG and she's filling back out.

Ayla

Right: The ingredient list for the Blue Grass Dog Delight food I linked earlier:

Rice (min 26%), poultry (min 26%), maize, poultry fat, oats, sugar beet, linseed, brewers yeast, fish meal, fructo oligosaccharide, extract of yucca shidigera

Protein: 23%, oil: 14%, fibre: 2.4%, ash: 6.5%

Granted, I don't know what a couple of those ingredients are (I can hazard a guess) but overall it's not that horrendous considering it is almost 1/3 the cost of AG. And, let's be honest, sometimes I think we can overthink a lot of this stuff...imagine if we were as deadfastedly concerned about what we ate all the time.

So far so good with our crew (which is saying something considering some of the explosions & smells we've endured in our trials). We'll be happy with that

canin_canin

ryanf1 wrote: »

Has anyone noticed a fairly big hike in the cost of dog food over the last while? Pedigree dried food( I know) now costs €9 for a 3kg bag which is a bit steep.

there's a shop on Belgard Road in Tallaght (PET FOOD DEPOT) they have 15 kg Pedigree bags for €27.49