What is a healthy, inexpensive way to feed a german shepherd mix?

Question

This neutered german shepherd mix is about 60 lbs. Any recommended food brands? Or other methods of feeding? I'm really looking for something healthy, but not beyond $400 a year.

Answer 1

Any dry dog food. You can spend extra on the premium brands if it tickles your fancy but remember that it costs very little more to make these products look better and to be more concentrated. The main reason for the higher cost is that, by selling them solely through pet stores or veterinarians, they can get a much higher profit then in grocery stores. It is basically marketing 101.

Answer 2

I have a German Shepard mix who was 66 lbs last vet visit. He is an extreeeemly picky eater! He likes Pedigree dry which is probably not so good for him. He also likes Eagle Pack Duck flavor which is much better because it doesn't have the grains that the Pedigree has. He eats people food with us ( I try to keep it healthy with lots of chicken, carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes, plain yogurt, etc but he gets some other stuff like a piece of ham or oatmeal cookies occasionally). Occasionally he gets a can of dog food because he ate it before he came to live with me and he still looks for it every once in a while for variety. He likes Merrick canned food alot. I switched my dogs to that after the recall. Before the recall, he was eating Pedigree pouches. I think it is cheaper in the long run to make human food for your dog and just leave out dry food for when they need it. There are lots of recipes on the web and if you find the right vet, they will help you set up a diet plan that includes food you make yourself. My dogs never get sick from a "change in diet" either. They can eat anything without getting diahrea or vomiting. So if we are somewhere that we can't get certain ingredients, we don't have to worry.

Answer 3

Oh another cheap-o that thinks all they have to do is pay for the initial cost of an animal - and completely ignores the fact that MAINTENANCE is an ongoing commitment for the life of the animal!

This is not the time to go 'cheap.' Cheap food will not be best for your German Shepherd health-wise. You'll spend far more in vet bills down the road with greater health problems than if you do it the right way now.

If you can't afford to properly care for a pet you have no right to have one.

And you want to spend $400 or less on food! Heck, a thorough teeth cleaning alone is approx. $250! Just exactly how do you plan on caring for this dog?! Minimally at best, I'd say. How horrible.

Answer 4

I would recommend Canidae. It is an excellent food at a reasonable price (around $32/40lb bag). Our local feed store (where we buy all our food) has an annual pet fair and one of the deals is where you can buy extra food and they'll "store" it for you (actually they put a card with your name and the amount you've bought in a box and each time you come in to pick up a bag they pull a fresh one off the shelf, they don't actually store the bags for a year). We try to buy a year's worth of food because Canidae never goes on sale except during this pet fair when they sell it for 10% off. Even at 10% off we had to buy enough food to feed a 65-70lb (her weight fluxuates depending on the season, her activity level, etc) adult German shepherd and a growing GSD puppy who was the same size as my adult dog by the time he was 6 months old. We over-estimated the amount of food we would need for a whole year by 4 bags and the total was about $350.

Answer 5

I have been feeding my dogs(3) Diamond Naturals Lamb and rice. No corn products and first ingredient is meat. You can find it at a store like Tractor Supply or some pet stores. I pay $27.00 for a 40# bag.

Answer 6

costco sounds good, right? Just buy the kirkland brand dog food, im sure its as healthy as the other brands. After the food recalls we realized that only 2-3 companies make the food for all the different brands, so chances are if your looking for inexpensive food costco has the cheapest.

Answer 7

Kirkland from Cosco is a great brand and is pretty inexpensive. The ingredients are good and it compares well with the expensive brands! We feed our 6 preformance dogs on it and they like it and are healhy.

Answer 8

i had a German Shepperd mix and she eat constantly!............so we went to our local farm store(tractor supply, orshlands...for exsample) and we got a high proteen dog food by five point........it is only 8 to 10 dallors per 50 pound bag!...it helped her not eat as much!........but make sure u get the bird dog kind

Answer 9

i would say iams its in my opinion one of the best once and still in a fair pricerange.

Answer 10

Make him your own food. Give him cooked meat.