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I am hoping to get advice from experienced pitbull owners only please.

I've been doing a ton of research trying to find the best food for my 10 1/2 month old pitbull. She is about 50 lbs. right now, and we would like to build some muscle. She goes running a lot every day, but she does not eat a lot. I'm concerned she doesn't like her food and/or isn't getting enough nutrition from it.

Anyway I would love to buy her the really good food like Innova, Wellness etc... But I am very broke right now and I can't afford it. So you see where I am going with this...

What is the best food for my money that I can buy for her?

I'd like to avoid products that use a lot of grains as fillers.

Right now I am spending about $0.45/pound, (We pay $20 for a 44lbs bag) but I think I could take it up to around $0.85/pound - probably not much more than that.

BTW - I can't afford to buy much meat for me to eat, much less the pup, so raw food diet is out considering pits need so much meat.

**I would also like to say that I am well aware of the stupidity of getting a dog you can't afford to feed - she's not my dog. But I refuse to sit by and not do as much as I can to help her. Adoption is out the question - she's a pitbull and is unlikely to get adopted. That having been said please don't waste anyone's time by trying to tell me about options that don't include information about a cheap, healthy dog food. I am not interested.

Finally,

Thank you for all your responses, I really appreciate the help.

Spammers: Don't worry about linking things; I am computer literate enough that if you mention the name, I am confident I can find it. Too many links and I will have to disregard.

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 3:00 pm Post subject:

A dog is a dog - they all have the same nutritional requirements. Doesn't matter if it's a pit bull, a Chihuahua or a mastiff.

Your dog will continue to fill out and put on muscle for months.

What are you feeding now? Have you checked out online sources for food?

Pet Food Direct, Pet Flow, Amazon, etc.? Where I'm at Costco carries Nature's Domain which is similar to Taste of the Wild. It is made by Diamond though which of course had 2 recalls recently due to problems with a couple of manufacturing plants.

Are you in the US? What state? Prices and sources will vary greatly by location.

We haven't fed kibble for years and stopped feeding commercial food 6 months ago so I don't really know how much a bag of kibble would cost anymore.

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 3:45 pm Post subject:

Thank you so much for your quick reply!

Unfortunately, I have been told by several people to steer clear of Diamond products because the recalls speak for themselves. Recalls are bad for business, thus a business would not make the decision to recall their product(s) unless someone has already decided that it would be more beneficial to issue a recall now, rather than face consequences in the future.

In terms of online food, heck yeah!! I hadn't even thought of buying dog food online, although I think shipping costs might be nasty for 40 lbs of dog food lol.

Also, I am in your state! Our state. Go ducks! lol Hope you're not a beaver believer, I won't be able to take anything you say seriously. No, jk. Smile

Thank you again for the advice, I will keep looking!

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 9:09 am Post subject:

some sites have free shipping if you buy enough, personally use smartpak thier livesmart line. have to order 2 bags to get free shipping but worth it.

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 4:46 pm Post subject:

I'm actually a Fighting Illini so no worries.

I'm not a fan of Diamond either but if we still fed commercial foods I would rather feed a food like Nature's Domain than a food of lower quality that would be the same price.

The better the quality of the food, the less you should end up feeding and you may end up saving money.
When we switched from Blue Buffalo Wilderness to EVO, the EVO was more expensive by quite a bit but we fed so much less of it that we actually saved money in the long run.
And overfeeding a higher quality dog food even just slightly can result in loose stool because the body can only utilize so many nutrients and the excess has to come out somehow.

When we switched from EVO to ZiwiPeak, we bought from a local, delivery only place that did free delivery to the Portland Metro area.
I also shopped for sales and deals and, if I found a good one, we would order online. Even with shipping factored in, the total price was still cheaper.

If you have an Amazon Prime membership, some dog food qualifies for the Prime free shipping.

Some stores have a frequent buyer program, buy so many bags and get 1 free.

You can like Facebook pages and search dog food company websites for coupon offers too.

Check feed supply stores too. They can have some very good prices.

And there are people who are or were on the board that dumpster dive the pet supply places. They can find all kinds of things that are thrown away that are usable. Including bags of food that have not expired and are still good.

Just as an example on price differences:
Wellness Core Original - 26 lbs.
Oregon Pet Supply (the local delivery place we used) $56.99
PetSmart (online price) $57.99
PetBest.com $58.99 (recurring delivery $53.09) plus free shipping
Amazon Prime $61.16 (recurring delivery $58.10)
PetCo (online price) $62.99

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Edited to add:
A little tip for you - shop the meat department in the evenings for reduced price meats that are reaching their expiration dates. Ask the butcher department when they reduce meat too.
When I was shopping one night after 8:00 p.m., Safeway had chicken on sale for $0.88 per pound (Foster Farms) and that was half off due to the date so $0.44 per pound! And of course my chest freezer & fridge freezer was jammed full of meat for Chance already.
Could have cried!

Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 8:22 am Post subject:

For commercial food, I switched to Proplan from Pedigree. Rusty, (Pit/ Ridgeback) liked the moist while Gretchen (Pit/English Pointer) likes the dry. I sometimes mix it with "people food" so they got more real meat.

Both my guys had unknown backgrounds when I got them. I was happy with Proplan as Rusty was 14 when he passed away just before Thanksgiving. He looked good and was still active for his age.

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