Changing dog food

[Plummy16]

Hi, I need some advice with my little dog louie. When we got him the breeder was feeding him Royal Canine so we carried on as you get some free with the pup, i then bought some more it's really expensive stuff which you can only get on the internet. Then as i hadnt been paid i bought a little bag of it last month or so and the last of it has gone. I'm not joking here but this stuff is like the Gucci of dog food and i cant afford it anymore. We have now tried every other brand of puppy mix and he wont touch it. what can i do?? However this dog food is brilliant he is 7kg and a grown lhasa apso only grows to 7.5kg he isnt fat he is all muscle. Do you think i should just stop complaining and pay up?
sorry for all this mumble jumble and thanks for reading it who ever can be botherd to. :)

[MrsRottie]

If you want to change the food, the do it. I'm in the same position, my two always had Purina but this month I just couldn't afford it, so got a lower priced one.

Do you usually feed the food on it's own, or with a bit of meat? My GS bitch is fussy, so I use a spoonful (literally!) of Butcher's tripe (the only one I can find without artificial colours etc in), mix that into a gravy with some hot water (smelly!) and then cover the food in it.

Pup will eat when pup is hungry enough - don't beat yourself up over him, he certainly won't starve :D

[Becky]

I think you'll find with any better quality food, that you'll pay more for it. I don't know if Purina is a better quality across the pond, but over here, it has a lot of ingredients that are low quality or make up too high of a percentage in the food.

If Royal Canine is too expensive, you might try Innova's Adult Formula. Per bag, the price might be about the same as RC, but has about 3/5 the Kcals per cup as Innova. Innova's ingredient list looks a bit nicer as well. A 33lb bag also lasts my over a month; I bought my last one April 8th and I still have a least a couple day worth left... my dog weighs around 80lb and I pay approximately $38 a bag. We used to have to buy a 20lb bag of Dog Chow once a week at $8 for our 90lb akita.

You may also want to contact her breeder, as he/she may be able to recommend another food.

Finally, I wanted to add a link on how to read dog food labels and identify better products in case your interested.
http://www.dogfoodproject.com

HTH