Feeding a large breed dog organic foods costs approximately $90 monthly due to their higher nutrient density.
These foods require less fillers like grains. Look for whole proteins at the beginning of an ingredients list as this will give you the greatest overall value for your money.
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High End
As opposed to grocery store kibble, which typically contains less nutritious ingredients, more expensive dog foods often include higher percentages of premium products – this may mean quality meats and produce instead of fillers such as corn or rice that may otherwise fill out cheaper formulas.
Stella & Chewy’s Freeze-Dried Raw Dinner Patties contain 40 ingredients such as whole beef and its organs, cranberries, pumpkin seeds and other fruits and veggies that can be hard to source at an expensive cost.
Fresh foods can be more costly than their wet or dry counterparts due to additional steps involved in purchasing ingredients, cooking them yourself and cleaning up afterward – however they also contain more nutrients and are healthier alternatives, potentially making their expense worth consideration for some pet owners.
Moderate
At the middle of the dog food price spectrum lies foods with higher-grade ingredients than cheaper options, including whole meats and no preservatives or artificial flavors.
Just Food for Dogs’ fresh-frozen dog food features protein-rich ingredients like venison, carrots, kale, zucchini and peas to create this protein-rich blend. Furthermore, this fresh food offers omega fatty acid from fish oil and cod liver oil for added support.
This food is expensive because it contains an abundance of lamb, including various organ meats. While we appreciate meat meals as part of a balanced diet, we prefer products with whole proteins being prominent on their ingredient lists.
Low End
At the lower end of the price spectrum for dog food, lower cost offerings typically include dry foods like extruded kibble, wet foods in cans, pouches and tubs and frozen or freeze-dried raw diets that contain compromised ingredients that could negatively impact a dog’s health.
Lower cost foods typically consist of cheaper grains, meat by-products and fillers that may not digest as easily. Furthermore, some cheaper brands may contain artificial or chemical additives that could pose health risks to dogs.
Many pet parents are increasingly becoming interested in feeding their dog a fresh or raw diet, though these foods can be very expensive and difficult to come by on the market. That is why some brands now provide home delivery for these items so they are more accessible for pet guardians.
Freeze-Dried
Freeze-dried foods are highly palatable, making them an excellent option for pet parents seeking to transition their picky eaters onto raw diets but finding it challenging. In addition, freeze-dried food goes through high pressure processing (HPP), reducing bacteria counts considerably in its composition.
Freeze-dried foods offer another advantage, in that they don’t need refrigeration – making storage much simpler than with completely raw foods, which need refrigeration and can only remain safe for limited amounts of time.
Freeze-dried pet foods often include organ meats as a nutritious source for their dogs’ wellbeing, but can often be messy to prepare and not particularly appetizing to some pets. Freeze-dried organ meat foods offer an easy, mess-free solution.
Prescription
Food can sometimes serve as medicine. Some dog foods have been specifically created to address certain health conditions in pets. Such foods often provide extra nutrition while excluding ingredients that could exacerbate existing issues.
These foods can be expensive, but some pet insurance policies cover their costs.
Hill’s Pet Nutrition offers prescription diet foods to meet specific dietary needs of our canine companions, offering more advanced solutions than Science Diet products.
Limited ingredient dog foods offer another solution, as these contain only essential nutrition-rich ingredients which make digestion simple for canines.
Fresh meals from Just Food For Dogs tend to cost more than traditional kibble. However, the company provides an affordable Vet Support Prescription line of meals which are dehydrated for easy rehydration as wet food.
