# Cost of high-end kibble



## Kristen Cabe (Mar 27, 2006)

I went to the 'expensive store' that's just down the street from where I work today, and attempted to write down their prices, but they don't do a very good job of labeling them at ALL (according to the lady who kicked me out, it's because everything sells so quickly that they don't have time to mark each bag :roll: ), but I managed to find a few bags with price stickers on them, so here goes:


Merrick $44.25 for 30lbs ($1.48/lb)

Before Grain $46.80 for 25.3lbs ($1.85/lb)

EVO $21.40 for 13.2lbs ($1.62/lb - the big bags had no prices, but last time I was in there I believe they were $60-something)

Solid Gold $24.70 for 15 lbs ($1.65/lb - again, no prices on the big bags)

Wellness Super5Mix $46.98 for 30lbs ($1.57/lb)

Taste of the Wild $22.25 for 15 lbs ($1.48/lb - no prices on big bags)

Canidae $7.10 for 5lbs ($1.42/lb - no prices on big bags)

None of the following foods they carry were priced, and the lady would not tell me what they cost; I guess she thought I was a spy from another store or something. Who knows. I told her I was just comparison shopping, but she told me that unless I planned on buying something, I needed to leave! I used a coupon and got a free 5lb bag of Canidae for one of my puppy owners! :lol: I tried to use all four, but was told I was not allowed to do that because 'It takes too long for [the store] to get reimbursed when [they] accept coupons like that." OMG, it would have been a grand total of $29!!! 


Timberwolf Organics
Nature's Variety
Innova
California Natural
CORE
Chicken Soup




After I got off work, I went to the store I usually shop at. Here are their prices:

Royal Canin GSD 24 $42.98 for 35lbs ($1.23/lb)

Wellness Super5Mix $43.98 for 30lbs ($1.47/lb)

CORE $46.98 for 26lbs ($1.81/lb)

Canidae $41.98 for 40lbs ($1.05/lb)

Chicken Soup $37.98 for 35lbs ($1.09/lb)

Solid Gold Hund-n-Flocken $44.98 for 33lbs ($1.36/lb)
Solid Gold Barking @ the Moon $58.98 for 33lbs ($1.79/lb)

Nature's Variety Prairie $41.98 for 30lbs ($1.40/lb)
Nature's Variety Instinct $44.98 for 25.3lbs ($1.78/lb)

Merrick $39.99-44.98 for 30lbs ($1.33 - $1.50/lb)

Innova $53.98 for 33lbs ($1.64/lb)

EVO $52.98 for 28.6lbs ($1.85/lb)

Eagle Pack Holistic $37.98-47.98 for 33lbs ($1.15 - $1.45/lb)

Taste of the Wild $22.98 for 15lbs ($1.53/lb apparently they no longer carry the larger bags, or they were just out)

Timberwolf Organics $61.69 for 33lbs ($1.87/lb)

Premium Edge $29.97-37.98 for 35lbs ($0.86 - $1.09/lb)






So how much is high-end kibble in your area?


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

I actually priced out a few just today - Charlotte area

Now that Toby is gone and I only have two dogs to feed...and those two can eat chicken....

Innova Evo Large Bites. The 28.6# =$48=$1.67/lb**
Wellness Core Chicken 26# = $50 = $1.92/lb
Wellness Core Fish 26# = $59 = $2.27/lb
Orijen Chicken = 29.7# = $56 = $1.88/lb

**I gather this is a pretty good price for , My vet sells this and they are competitive with internet pharmacies on heartworm preventive etc.


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## Ashley Hiebing (Apr 6, 2008)

I go to work tomorrow so I'll take a look and see what we've got. Though we don't have much =P


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## Melissa Hoyer (Aug 28, 2006)

I keep Wellness CORE on hand for those days I forget to thaw or am traveling, etc. At a local feed store by me, it cost just over $45.00 with tax for the 26 lb bag - so that is about $1.73/lb. I feed raw for under that by the way and I feed expensive pre-ground raw meaty bones! (Due to my GSD having EPI and she does better on ground bone). Plus I don't pay taxes on the raw meat.


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## Jamielee Nelson (Apr 24, 2008)

I will call my place I buy my food at they will give me prices over the phone... they kinda know me by name bc I yell at them about having my dogs food in stock


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## Kris Dow (Jun 15, 2008)

Just bought a 33lb bag of Solid Gold Barking at the Moon at our local PetCo (of all places) for $54.something. (Being a big-box store, probably $54.95 or something similar.)

I haven't found an independent shop within reasonable distance for food shopping- seems to mainly be PetCo/PetSmart/Petland.


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## Mike Schoonbrood (Mar 27, 2006)

Why did you get kicked out of the store Kristen???

(based on today's exchange rates)

Orijen 30lb (13.5kg) bag
about $102.90 ($3.43/lb)

Nutro Choice Adult Large Breed 33lb (15kg) bag
about $85.80 ($2.60/lb)

Solid Gold Barking At The Moon 33lb (15kg) bag
about $122.76 ($3.72/lb)

Timberwolf Ocean Blue
Timberwolf Wild & Natural
Timberwolf Southwest Chicken & Herbs
33lb (15kg) bags
about $113.85 ($3.45/lb)

Hill's Science Plan for Large Breed Adult 33lb (15kg) bag
about $99 ($3/lb)

So quit ya whining about the price of dog food


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## Howard Gaines III (Dec 26, 2007)

High end food is in our area and depending where you buy it is about $1.50+/pound. Remember, ALL dog foods which are in kibble form must first be remendered into a *cereal *form. With that said, second point I look at is the protein/fat numbers. Depending on the season, I up the fat in my dogs diet. 

After I look at cost and what goes in and out of my dogs, the better end WalMArt food and Nutro Lamb and Rice seem to work the best. I don't always buy the commercial label beans, corn or fruit for myself, store brands are just as good. Why spend more on my dogs? :-$


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

I think the two things that are hard to get away from unless you buy super premium - [and the cost break between top of the line meat based and premium foods with grain is not that great.....the real savings are when you get to the nutros and the pro plans and the costcos..] -- 

Are menadione and ethoxyquin free meat sources

Who knows?

_______________________________________

The rest is just thoughts - not directly relevant to the post but part of my ongoing thought process ..............................

I know menadione is NOT approved for human foods and the FDA has concerns about ethoxyquin in animal foods and they are not particularly reactive so when they have a concern, I wonder.........having just lost a relatively young dog to a fast growing cancer, I wonder too - I am used to dogs living longer than 11. We seem to normally have gotten 14-15 years on basic foods like Nutro, Eagle, etc.in the past.

The other thing is carbs and heat tolerance. I don't know but when Cyra was on raw, she really was quite capable of working in 90 degree temps with the sun on her back and not overheating [and she is a very dark blanket black with a black undercoat] - I am seeing less heat tolerance on the kibbles with higher carbs, less protein, less fat --- is that subjective or not? 

On the other hand, Cyra did not eat dry dog food until well after she was diagnosed with severe HD and has done very well (joint wise) for two plus years after diagnosis on a basic mid level kibble..............

I agree about name brand vs branded - I mean Diamond makes an incredible amount of dog food brands and a lot of it is probably all the same stuff labeled differently.


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## andy norris (Jun 23, 2008)

We are paying 38.75 for the 40lb. bag of Canidae ALS. Luckily our local feed store carries it. We've priced Taste of the Wild which I believe runs close to $40 for the 30# bag at the feed store. We just prefer the Canidae as we've had good luck with it.


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## Greg Leavitt (Aug 31, 2006)

I pay 32 flat for a 40 lb canidae als bag. Have a couple pups and 1 dog who have not witched ove rto raw yet. so i guess that breaks down to less than a buck a pound. like 80 cents last time I figured.


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## Patrick Cheatham (Apr 10, 2006)

Well for what its worth if you have enough people feeding the same thing in your club or area you can get it wholesale. For us all it took was someone with a retail license and they deliver right to the kennel. It's not that big of a savings in some cases. But sell a little here and there and you get some of yours paid for.


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## Kristen Cabe (Mar 27, 2006)

Mike Schoonbrood said:


> Why did you get kicked out of the store Kristen???



I was going around the store digging through each shelf trying to find a price on one of the bags on that shelf, and scribbling what prices I _could_ find on my little notepad. An old lady that worked there asked if I needed any help, and I said, "No thanks, I'm just trying to find the prices." That's when she told me that the food is sold so fast that they didn't have time to put prices on all the bags (um, HELLO? Maybe try putting the price on the shelf the food is sitting on, like every other store does! #-o ). Then she disappeared for a minute and came back and told me that if I wasn't planning on buying anything, I needed to leave.


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## Mike Schoonbrood (Mar 27, 2006)

Thats some pretty crappy customer service right there. What if you were planning on buying 30 bags a month from her and wanted to note down the prices so you could think about it before committing??

Or maybe she just didn't like you


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## Diane Seaman (Jun 21, 2007)

I'm in KY, near Bowling Green, out in the country where resources are limited. I had trouble finding enough of the better kibble brands here to keep my dogs happy, so became a distributor myself. I place orders for anyone in my area who wants any of the foods I can get, at my cost. There are several breeders here who order from me and the larger the order, the cheaper we all get it.

I currently have Solid Gold, Fromm, Canidae, Taste of the Wild, Wysong, all Diamond brands including Chicken Soup (there's a collie breeder who uses Diamond so I order for her), among others. I used to carry Royal Canin products, including Sensible Choice but will not do so any more.

Yesterday I received a letter from my supplier stating:

"Effective Monday, July 21, 2008 the price of Royal Canin products will increase an average of 12%. This increase is due to a significant price increase from Royal Canin. To quote the RC Increase Notice: Since our most recent pricing announcement in Dec 2007, we have continued to experience significant increases in our costs of doing business. These have broadly affected the prices of corn, rice, wheat and proteins, as well as energy, transportation and packaging. In order to ensure sufficient supply, RC USA is limiting orders to 100% of your average weekly volume. Our goal is to provide adequate inventory with consistent service levels."

A 12% increase in cost is simply not acceptable to me and I won't use their products nor carry them any longer. Supplies have been hit or miss even before this notice and customer service has also been more bad than good from RC. 

Prices I pay for some of the brands I get are listed below, plus I have to add 6% sales tax and $1 freight fee per bag to the amount listed (I'm billed for freight and it evens out to approx $1 per bag). The prices below go down a bit if we order large quantities of one brand.

Solid Gold Barking at the Moon (33lb): $45.53 
Canidae ALS (40lbs): $32.16
Chicken Soup Adult (35lb): $27.45
Fromm Chicken ala Veg (30lb): $34.21
Wysong Maintenance (32lb): $32.35
TOTW (all flavors) (30lbs): $32.87

Those are just a few of the brands I can get for myself and others in my area. It really does pay to become a distributor and order for people in your club/area. I just call people when the order arrives and they all pick it up right away, so everything is fresh and I don't have to store it for anyone. Works great for everybody and saves quite a bit of $.

Diane Seaman


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## Kristen Cabe (Mar 27, 2006)

Mike Schoonbrood said:


> Thats some pretty crappy customer service right there. What if you were planning on buying 30 bags a month from her and wanted to note down the prices so you could think about it before committing??
> 
> Or maybe she just didn't like you


Maybe she didn't, :lol: but I've been in there before and had no issues. I hate that store, though, and I actually avoid going in there if I can help it. It's in the 'ritzy' part of town and caters to the people that live in homes that cost more than double what mine is worth, so I always feel out of place in there. 

That's okay, though. I made sure to tell her that I would be recommending that my puppy buyers* not* shop there, after she told me I could only use one of my coupons. I don't shop there anyway, so no big deal for me.


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## David Frost (Mar 29, 2006)

I buy it a year at a time, delivered in 50 bag increments every 30 days. I won't have to renew my contract until November, so I don't know what the price will do. We feed Nutro. this years contract was $12,000.

DFrost


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Diane, I also don't like Royal Canin's website. Maybe I need a special way to get on, but I can't get the ingredients or detailed guaranteed analysis of any of their veterinary diets off their website, which is rather inconvenient.


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## Howard Gaines III (Dec 26, 2007)

Not sure about high-end kibble today, but I went to our tractor supply store to get sheep food. The current price of corn based feed has hit the ceiling. It is well over $10.00 per bag! Has the corn price caused the price of your dog food to go up? Everyone is looking into the use of small grains for gas price reductions. :-k


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

I'm a grass-fed convert, I must say (despite being born in Nebraska). It just makes so much more sense. We go on about how it's best to feed what our dogs and cats eat "naturally" and then we ignore grain fed and finished beef, lamb, etc. [-( If we converted a good deal of the crop land that we use for corn and soybeans that goes to animal feed into grass for grazing, we'd be much better off. Grasslands and prairies also suck up carbon dioxide much faster than even forests because they grow back quickly. Bamboo is a champion of this. Anyways, we didn't have a global warming issue when there were millions of bison running around eating grasses, but we do when the same number of cattle are primarily grain fed and finished. :-k And pasture raised poultry and eggs are sooo much better tasting. We had a pasture raised turkey for Thanksgiving last year. Mmmm mmm! =P~


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## Kristen Cabe (Mar 27, 2006)

Howard Gaines III said:


> Not sure about high-end kibble today, but I went to our tractor supply store to get sheep food. The current price of corn based feed has hit the ceiling. It is well over $10.00 per bag! Has the corn price caused the price of your dog food to go up? Everyone is looking into the use of small grains for gas price reductions.



Apparently it has. Have you seen the prices of the low-end, 'grocery store kibbles' lately? You would pay nearly as much for a bag of Iams or Purina ONE as you would some of the mid-grade foods like Nutro Natural Choice or Diamond Naturals. 


On a whim, I went to PetsMart yesterday to check on the price of BLUE, and saw that they are now carrying a new food put out by Eukanuba, called "Naturally Wild." It seems to be a step up from _regular_ Eukanuba, based on the ingredients list, but is _very_ expensive (for what it is), at $45.99 for a 30-pound bag ($1.53/lb). That price is right alongside foods like TotW, Innova, Solid Gold, Merrick (depending on formula), & Wellness, and isn't _too_ far behind foods like Nature's Variety Instinct, EVO, Solid Gold Barking @ the Moon, CORE, & Before Grain!

They have a whole meat as the first ingredient, but there is no more meat until after rice, sorghum, potato, & barley, which means that the food is primarily rice, grass, & potato. The protein content also supports this - it's only 23%. Here are the main ingredients if anyone is interested:


*Venison Formula*
Venison, Potato, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Brewers Rice, Ground Whole Grain Barley, Chicken Meal, Fish Meal, Dried Egg Product, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken Flavor, Potassium Chloride, Brewers Dried Yeast, Fish Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), [vitamins & minerals]

*Salmon Formula*
Salmon, Brewers Rice, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Potato, Ground Whole Grain Barley, Chicken Meal, Fish Meal (source of fish oil), Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Dried Egg Product, Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken Flavor, Brewers Dried Yeast, [vitamins & minerals]

*Turkey Formula*
Turkey, Brewers Rice, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Potato, Ground Whole Grain Barley, Chicken Meal, Fish Meal, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken Flavor, Dried Egg Product, Fish Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), [vitamins & minerals]


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## Dan Long (Jan 10, 2008)

Maren we also didn't have millions of tons of CO2 being expelled into the atmosphere by cars and factories back when bison roamed the plains either. I'm sure that is a far bigger influence on global warming than planting grain crops where there used to be grasslands.


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## Ashley Hiebing (Apr 6, 2008)

Kristen:

Yeah, that new stuff just came in within the past month or so. It always makes me laugh when pet food companies make a "natural" line of food. Like, what does that make your other stuff, then?

I haven't seen too many people buying it, despite the fact that at my work it's displayed quite prominently on an endcap. Then again, my post is by the fish at the other end of the store, so I don't see too much of what people buy.


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Kristen Cabe said:


> Apparently it has. Have you seen the prices of the low-end, 'grocery store kibbles' lately? You would pay nearly as much for a bag of Iams or Purina ONE as you would some of the mid-grade foods like Nutro Natural Choice or Diamond Naturals.
> 
> 
> On a whim, I went to PetsMart yesterday to check on the price of BLUE, and saw that they are now carrying a new food put out by Eukanuba, called "Naturally Wild." It seems to be a step up from _regular_ Eukanuba, based on the ingredients list, but is _very_ expensive (for what it is), at $45.99 for a 30-pound bag ($1.53/lb). That price is right alongside foods like TotW, Innova, Solid Gold, Merrick (depending on formula), & Wellness, and isn't _too_ far behind foods like Nature's Variety Instinct, EVO, Solid Gold Barking @ the Moon, CORE, & Before Grain!
> ...



Thanks for sharing but for only twenty cents more a pound, EVO looks like a better choice to me. Herring vs generic fish meal and no sorghum or beetpulp - It seems that either you go with a food with menadione and no clear guarantee about ethoxyquin or you go up the scale. These two concerns are why I am making a change and the differential once you get to that level is not that great. Picking up a bag Friday - wish me no EVO farts. [I have to drive 30 miles to get Orijin and Wellness CORE is more expensive than EVO]

Turkey, chicken, turkey meal, chicken meal, potatoes, herring meal, chicken fat, natural flavors, egg, apples, tomatoes, potassium chloride, carrots, vitamins, garlic, cottage cheese, minerals, alfalfa sprouts, ascorbic acid, dried chicory root, direct-fed microbials, vitamin E supplement, lecithin, rosemary extract.

I don't really like the results of beef or lamb when I have tried them for some reason, not sure why but it does not seem to agree with the dogs as well.


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## Michelle Reusser (Mar 29, 2008)

I was paying $44.99 for TOTW. Now I found Orijen for $47.99 and am switching to that.


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

I found EVO for $48.99 so I am giving it a try ............ I am a bit queasy about giving anything packaged by Diamond [TOTW] - I would try Orijen if the drive did not cost me 45 minutes each way in time on a good day and gridlock on bad days.


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## Ashley Hiebing (Apr 6, 2008)

I found a supplier of Orijen that, according to Mapquest, is 23 minutes away (about the same distance we have to drive to get TotW and EVO). I've never been there before, but from their website it seems like a super-awesome place. NO, Ashley, stop that; you're not working at any more pet stores ever again! =)


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## Tammy McDowell (Dec 4, 2006)

We have been ordering Canidae ALS in bulk for the 7 months or so but have decided to look into other foods after the ingredient change and the change to Diamond for manufacturing. We were paying (w/ shipping) about $32 per bag for a 40# bag when we ordered over 500#'s.

Last week we went to another distributor and picked up a few bags of Solid Gold Hunden Flocken and Nature's Variety Instinct.

I believe it was a35lb bag of Solid Gold, we paid around $39 per bag. Instinct was a smaller bag and was about $35.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Dan Long said:


> Maren we also didn't have millions of tons of CO2 being expelled into the atmosphere by cars and factories back when bison roamed the plains either. I'm sure that is a far bigger influence on global warming than planting grain crops where there used to be grasslands.


Well, cars and factories are certainly a big part. No doubt about that. But keeping a monoculture of crops like corn and soybeans take much more water and petrol based fertilizers and pesticides than a polyculture of native grasses that livestock can eat is bad for the cattle, not great for the small family farmer, and bad for our waistbands. 

Speaking of bison, the reason that bison meat has become so popular was because it was touted as being healthier than beef. Well, not when you go to a grocery store and you can get grain fed bison. It pretty much negates all the positives about bison. Just like dogs and cats do best on a diet centered on animal protein with a small amount of plant matter, cattle do best on a grass diet, not grains. It's the yellowish fat on grass fed animal carcasses, deep yellow (not pale yellow) in grass fed butter, and the bright orangeish yellow yolks in pasture raised chicken eggs that make them so much healthier for us than "conventionally" raised grain fed animals. Which is ironic, because before about 50-60 years ago, just about all beef was grass finished. Then they decided to start getting rid of the excess corn crops we were producing and feeding it to animals. It went into both pet food and food animal feed.


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## Kristen Cabe (Mar 27, 2006)

Nancy Jocoy said:


> Thanks for sharing but for only twenty cents more a pound, EVO looks like a better choice to me.


I know. That was kinda the point.


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## Howard Gaines III (Dec 26, 2007)

So where is the cost balance in feeding raw vs feeding dry high end? With grain prices going up on corn, what will barley or other grains look like this fall? Makes me want to harvest lots of deer!


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## Kristen Cabe (Mar 27, 2006)

Howard, it depends on where you live. If you have a food co-op in your area, local butchers or meat packing facilities, etc. places you can get free or cheap raw meat, you're probably better off doing raw because it will work out to being about the same, cost-wise. If, however, you have to depend on grabbing up meat that's been reduced for quick sale at the grocery store and left-over meat from last year during hunting season, etc., then it's not quite as cost-effective.


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## Dan Long (Jan 10, 2008)

Howard you know I'm feeding 4 dogs raw. I've just started adding Evo in just to balance things out on the vitamin/mineral side in case I'm missing something. 

We do a lot of bulk purchasing at Sam's and Wally world. Cases of chicken leg quarters and whole broiler/fryers, cases of pork ribs and shoulder butt. Wally world has good prices on beef briskits in cryo packs. I also take whatever free stuff comes my way- deer in season, as my brother hunts and he'll give me the entire front end and ribs.

Evo probably costs more per lb than raw does for me, but you are not feeding nearly the same weight of Evo as you do raw. 3 cups of evo isn't close to 2lbs of raw food by weight. 

I try and balance out raw so it ends up costing 1-1.50 per lb. Figure if I give Daisy 2.5lbs of chicken quarters @ .60/lb, and 1.5lbs of of beef that cost 2.10, my average price is around dollar a lb. 

As far as prices go, the pork shoulders are anywhere from a dollar a lb to 1.30/lb in bulk. The whole chickens are about 40 bucks a case which is 12 whole birds between 4 and 5lbs each. The leg quarters are 25-26 bucks for a 42lb case, around 60 cents a lb. 

I also cruise the supermarkets for the "buy it today or we throw it away" sale stuff. Sometimes you can get good prices on stuff that way. People don't want ground beef that is brown, etc. I've found good deals on lamb that way too, which is normally prohibitively expensive. 

Howard, you have those sheep there- perfect source of food. Get yourself a flock of chickens, some ducks, raise some rabbits, you'd have it made. I bet Rock and Bear would only eat 2-2.5lbs of food a day. That's what Gunnar eats. Daisy is the one who needs 4lbs of food to keep her from turning into a bag of bones. My 2 little guys only eat 8 to 12 ounces each per day.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Hey Dan, thanks for tip on the whole birds at Sam's Club. That's my preferred way of feeding them. I split them right down the middle and each dog gets half, so two whole chickens (or one smaller 10-12 lbs turkey) does me for a meal. Half the time I buy like 6-8 at a time anyways. 12 isn't too much of a hardship to fit in the freezer. My youngest in particular doesn't do well with pork muscle meat, so we'll have to forgo the pork.

One of the vendors at the farmers market has been selling me grass fed lamb ribs (which taste really good, btw) for $2 and lamb hearts and lamb bones (mostly leg bones and spinous processes) for $1 a pound. Dogs love 'em and can't beat the quality!


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## Dan Long (Jan 10, 2008)

Those whole birds are great- our Dane will get a smaller one to herself, about 4lbs once or twice a week. Makes an easy meal. 

I'm not sure what I could get from the farmers markets here. They all seem to be somewhat commercial though, like you don't really get a great deal on the meats but it doesn't hurt to ask. 

I'm off to the butcher in a bit to buy a bunch of liver. My grocery store around the corner hasn't had it so I'm going to stock up and not worry about hit and miss supply at the grocery. Liver is the only thing I don't mind paying grocery price for, since we don't use a lot of it. I buy a pound or so, feed them all a small piece with their dinner until it's gone, then skip a week or 2. 

I'm going to ask them about green tripe and scrap meats as well and see what they can do. Plus they make some awesome turkey jerky, and I'm hankerin for a nice steak on the grill tonight....


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## Howard Gaines III (Dec 26, 2007)

Dan I thought any chicken bones were bad for a dog. Do you debone?


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## Ashley Hiebing (Apr 6, 2008)

Hey, I can answer this one! Cooked chicken bones are bad for dogs, as are all cooked bones, because they splinter. Raw chicken bones are rather soft and easy to crunch up.


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## Howard Gaines III (Dec 26, 2007)

Ashley Hiebing said:


> Hey, I can answer this one! Cooked chicken bones are bad for dogs, as are all cooked bones, because they splinter. Raw chicken bones are rather soft and easy to crunch up.


Thanks Ashley no bones to pick with YOU! [-X :razz:


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Well, darn it, Dan...yesterday I went to Sam's Club and asked about buying whole chickens in a case. Normal priced, it's $0.85 a lbs for whole chickens. The case price for 12 birds was $0.84 a pound. :sad:


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## Dan Long (Jan 10, 2008)

Wow, that's not much of a price break is it! I think we get at least 5 cents off on the case. Not much but every penny counts. 

Howard, I feed bone and all, be it chicken, pork, deer, softer beef bones like ribs and short ribs. As long as they are raw you are fine. Cooked bones change chemically and that's why they splinter instead of crush. You also want to stay away from weight bearing bones especially beef ones, they are very hard and can crack teeth. I use those, like beef knuckles, as recreational bones for the dogs.

Maren I went to the butcher and asked about green tripe. They can't sell it to the public. They have USDA inspectors there while they do the slaughter and gutting all the way till the meat is on the meat locker. I asked if I could just come up and have them give it to me and they said they wouldn't be allowed. They told me they have a vendor who comes and picks up all the unsellable organs, and they were happy to give me their number, so Monday I'm going to call and ask if there is a way for them to sell me 50lbs of it per month or so. Hopefully they will do it and give me a good deal.


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## Kristen Cabe (Mar 27, 2006)

I considered what Diane said, and decided to inquire about becoming a 'distributor' of a few of the foods I like. Apparently, the warehouse for Taste of the Wild is located in Spartanburg, SC, which is about an hour and 15 minutes from my house, and they deliver to stores in my area twice a week, so I'm considering that. I have to order $400 at a time, though, which is 12, 30-lb bags. That equates to roughly $34 per bag (plus tax). There is also a $25 fuel surcharge added to each order, which, if you add it to the price per bag, would increase it by $1 or so. That means I'd be paying around $1.18/lb. I can't remember if it runs $39.99 for a 30lb bag at Tractor Supply Co. or $49.99. I believe it's $39.99, which means that I'd be saving $0.15 per pound by ordering it in bulk direct from the warehouse. Right? Math was never my strong point. :lol:


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Well the whole thing is Diamond [Still not sure there about what to think about them] and no statement the food is ethoxyquin free.........

Innova EVO is readily available in your area - one thing NOT availabe in WNC is Orijen. I think there is one distributor in Huntersville. Period.


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## Ashley Hiebing (Apr 6, 2008)

We got a whole spiel on the new "natural" Eukanuba stuff today at work. We're supposed to recommend it to people, I think. The sad part is, it's better than at least half the foods we sell. :neutral:


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## Kristen Cabe (Mar 27, 2006)

I haven't heard back from Champion Pet Foods about being a distributor of Orijen yet. There is a distributor in Hickory/Conover, but his name is Wayne Simanovich and he charges just as much as internet dealers do, so what's the point? :lol:


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