Advice on quality dried food: cost and where to buy?

[mooching]

Just to say that some branches of Waitrose stock two varieties from the Arden Grange Adult range, but in the smaller bags, but for cheaper than the recommended retail price.

[Chris_J]

Thanks for all the replies!

It seems then, that CSJ and Arden Grange are the most popular, with CSJ being the better value for money. I wonder if CSJ would send me some samples?

I'd like to try her on a few before I bite the bullet and go and buy a huge sack!

[Geordietyke]

CSJ do send out samples, just get in touch with them

[mooching]

CSJ will send you a shedload (big box), they're very good at that.

But the thing is, there isn't much difference in recommended retail price between the good quality CSJ and Arden Grange (and some internet-based shops do do special offers occasionally on Arden Grange)

15kg CSJ Command Performance CP24 (Lamb and Rice) costs £29.40 + postage (unless you live near a stockist)

15kg Arden Grange Adult Lamb and Rice costs £36.99 normally, but PetPlanet are doing it at the moment for £24.99 and postage is £3.99, or FREE if your total order is over £29. (The Chicken and Rice Variety is £33.99 with FREE postage)
(http://www.petplanet.co.uk/product_group.asp?dept_id=633&pg_id=1280) (the smaller size packs are discounted too)

The lower quality CSJ foods are a lot cheaper, but I am not convinced about them.

[Jeanette]

Barking Heads for our puppy here and he loves it and will not change him from this.     Indie, my 3 year old has Burns.

I'd rather use one with as few fillers as possibly, particularly beet pulp (which I know some say is fine and some that it's not - it's usually the 'experts' who use it in their products that say it's great!), so it's Healthy Paws or Barking Heads for us. 

Just got a small bag of Barking Heads from NetPetShop as I may switch Jarv from HP to BH and they included some free goodies for him which I thought was fab - a trial pack of Sea Jerky Tiddlers, some Veni-dog treats and a 3 pack of dentastix (not that we use the dentastix but I thought the gesture was great!)   That was with a £7.99 2 kg bag of food 

I got the first small bag from here and only received the free trial pack of Tiddlers - I was robbed     

[Emma xx]

Alfie has a food called 'Challenge', its a really good food and he does really well on it.
Meg has Naturediet but we are considering changing her onto dry food, she is doing ok on it but we arent totally happy with it (the packets are really messy and hard to open, plus she seems a bit constipated. Considering barking heads but its a bit more expensive.
Emma xx

[Welsh_Wizard]

Interesting thread. My 3 mnth old is on Purina Beta and it is making him smell terrible. Will have a look online at the Arden and CSJ range....

[Danni and Freya]

Interesting thread. My 3 mnth old is on Purina Beta and it is making him smell terrible. Will have a look online at the Arden and CSJ range....

Harvey was on Purina Beta when I brought him home and he didn't look good on it at all, had horrible dry skin and a dry dull coat. Swapped him over to Burns asap and the change was incredible (depsite eventually taking him off of Burns as it didn't agree with his digestion). It is incredible what a good food can do

[JaspersMum]

When you work out cost, bear in mind that some of the cheaper brands have a higher weight ratio of food per meal so you may get through a bag much quicker.

I prime example of this is the Robbies where weight per meal is tiny as you soak the food before feeding.  It actually worked out as cheap as some of the mid ranged dog foods.

I'm currently feeding Royal canin Cocker but buying 2 bags at a time from Zooplus is saving around £10 a time and delivery free.  If you have a friend with a wholesale card, you may be able to take advantage of good prices from wholesalers.

[Chris_J]

Looking on PetPlanet, they're actually very competitive on price, particularly if you can get the free postage. In fact, the Arden they have on offer is excellent. I've asked CSJ to send me some samples and hopefully, the Arden samples should be with me by the end of the week.

If she takes to it well, I'll probably settle with the Arden. Going off what mooching and JaspersMum have said, I guess there is not actually that much saving to be done with the below premium brands. Plus, if it really does benefit the puppy in the end, I'd much prefer to spend the extra. I just try not to be such a sucker for branding if there's not much difference. In this case however, the premium brands mentioned really are the way to go it seems. 

[Jessie_Pup]

Barking Heads for our puppy here and he loves it and will not change him from this.     Indie, my 3 year old has Burns.

I'd rather use one with as few fillers as possibly, particularly beet pulp (which I know some say is fine and some that it's not - it's usually the 'experts' who use it in their products that say it's great!), so it's Healthy Paws or Barking Heads for us. 

Just got a small bag of Barking Heads from NetPetShop as I may switch Jarv from HP to BH and they included some free goodies for him which I thought was fab - a trial pack of Sea Jerky Tiddlers, some Veni-dog treats and a 3 pack of dentastix (not that we use the dentastix but I thought the gesture was great!)   That was with a £7.99 2 kg bag of food 

I got the first small bag from here and only received the free trial pack of Tiddlers - I was robbed     

I have started getting my Barking Heads from http://www.bowmeows.co.uk/dogindex.asp  it is a few pounds cheaper they deliver free over £30 it comes by DHL and you can track the order.  We ordered on the Thursday it arrived next day.

[Scarlett]

Barking Heads for our puppy here and he loves it and will not change him from this.     Indie, my 3 year old has Burns.

I'd rather use one with as few fillers as possibly, particularly beet pulp (which I know some say is fine and some that it's not - it's usually the 'experts' who use it in their products that say it's great!), so it's Healthy Paws or Barking Heads for us. 

Just got a small bag of Barking Heads from NetPetShop as I may switch Jarv from HP to BH and they included some free goodies for him which I thought was fab - a trial pack of Sea Jerky Tiddlers, some Veni-dog treats and a 3 pack of dentastix (not that we use the dentastix but I thought the gesture was great!)   That was with a £7.99 2 kg bag of food 

I got the first small bag from here and only received the free trial pack of Tiddlers - I was robbed     

I have started getting my Barking Heads from http://www.bowmeows.co.uk/dogindex.asp  it is a few pounds cheaper they deliver free over £30 it comes by DHL and you can track the order.  We ordered on the Thursday it arrived next day.

I loved this site!! 

[Welsh_Wizard]

I bought a small bag of Barking Heads in puppy form (blue bag). Will be finishing the small bag of Hills whilst weaning him onto BH.

Is it good practice to chop & change early on to get them used to different brands? I want to try the Ardent stuff next!

[mooching]

I don't personally think it's a good idea to chop and change too much as it could make them fussy.

What I did with Alfie was keep him on what the breeder gave me (Skinners) for the first 2-3 weeks, then changed him over slowly to Royal Canin (it was on half-price offer at my local pet shop). I also sent off for samples of several different foods, including Burns, The Natural Dog Food Company, CSJ, Barking Heads and Arden Grange, and used them as treats/training rewards. That way I got to try them out on Alfie, but obviously in much smaller quantities. I liked the Arden Grange sized kibble, I liked their ethics, the food smelled ok, and they did a variety of flavours. So then when Alfie was 5 months old I changed him over to Arden Grange over about 4-5 days.

[Jessie_Pup]

It is fine to use samples of different food as training treats.   I use take 7 to 10 days to change mine over to a new food.  Even with the same company using a different protein .   


If you change different makes of dog food too often you might get a fussy dog or a dog with an upset tummy.   I feel you need to feed the new food for a while to see how your dog is on it, coat skin general condition etc.