At the age of 13, my dog has slightly elevated creatinine levels which means I have to watch her diet. The vet flogged me an expensive dry kidney diet formulation - which however is contraindicated according to a lot online resources.
So I was having a look at other non prescription relatively low phosphorus food - even considering a move to wet food - which is recommended.
Up came the cans of Hills Science Plan. I was astounded to see that they retailed between £2 and £3 per can and the recommended daily allowance for my medium size dog is 2 to 3 cans a day! So a minimum spend would be £5 a day Is it me or is this outrageous? I've already started with home made food (after getting a lot of advice) because it seems to me you can provide much higher quality food yourself at a fraction of the price.
What do others spend on pet food?

***waits for GG's hills/science plan lecture***


seriously op - there are some cheaper foods out there, and if you look on amazon subscribe and save you might get a better deal. Maybe something by nature diet? not sure if they do a specific kidney food, but the may do one thats better? you could also contact hills direct, as they do massive discounts for staff etc, explain and you might get a deal. They sponsor the food at my rescue and staff there get big bags for about £5 (dependant on food!)

just had a quick peek and denes do one that looks ok on the surface (I've not done much research - but its senior and helps with renal issues) http://www.petshopbowl.co.uk/product...FfIPtAodqFQAVg

Nearly £20 a week. We have 4 cats and a dog!

Thanks folks. I'm on a pension and can't really afford £5 a day minimum for one dog

It's blooming expensive, perhaps a raw diet maybe more cost effective?

Lol I spend that on one dog! The lurched pup is on 3 packs of naturediet a day :0

We spent about £7 a week on home cooked food, and another £5 a week on dry complete (james welbeloved). Mollie is gluten intolerant and just discover Betty cannot have turkey or pork (not a good result poo wise).

Just wondered if a low phosphorous diet could be cheaper to cook yourself ?

£1.59 a day on 1 large can of chappie, 3 small dogs. sometimes it's mixed up with our leftovers.

Just found this. it's an American site but they have some good ideas for dog diets http://www.ehow.co.uk/info_8500570_l...iets-dogs.html

Cheers folks
At her stage in life I'm not sure it would be good to switch to raw.
That said I have started incorporating some home cooked along with a kidney specific commercial food. But the trouble with the latter is that the protein content is low (and usually low quality) and the most recent thinking is not to restrict protein - just make it higher quality - but to concentrate on restricting phosphorus.
I've actually found a decent source of boneless skinless chicken thighs and minced lamb and serve it up with budget white rice or pasta, sweet potato, a bit of greenery and occasional kibble. Plus recommended supplements. That dog eats better than me at times! It actually works out cheaper than a lot of pet food but I worry about missing an essential nutrient.
Maybe the pet food industry has just got a bit precious. Some friends overseas cook up a big pot of offal, maize flour and peelings - without agonising about whether they are getting this and that and the dogs thrive on it.

I have i cat a 6 month old kitten and i tend to get whiskas kitten 2kg bag. Tesco normally have them on offer 2 for £7 so i just buy in bulk i'd say i spend probably around £1.50 per week give and take on food it's the cat litter that's most expensive lol.

At that age getting right vits etc isn't so worrying, we put Betty on a commercial food as we were worried a puppy needed all the vitamins etc, but as she gets older we are weaning her onto homecooked.

I dare not tell you my food bill.

Same here we have 3 dogs all on a raw diet we do stock the fridge freezer with frozen drumsticks etc from Tesco but we do mix it up with reduced price fresh meat from Waitrose

My cat costs roughly 50p a day - 30g dry food for breakfast and 100g pouch at night with extra treats.
Food is cheap - its the insurance, jabs, flea treatment and cat prison that costs, bless her.

My dog is allergic to alot of dog food. He loves chicken if we are eating and would sulk for England if he did not give him any. But at the moment we are are giving him burns dog food. The wet food has only got two varieties though. So I changed his wet food to a supposed natural food, but he has started itching again. So going to have to think again. Might try making my own as the op has done. He loves fish.

Well I use at least 2kgs of cat buiscuits and 16 tins of food per day. It costs aroun 28p per cat per day.

A 3kg bag of Purina One was on offer in Sainsbury's at £10.

So £1 for 300g, My cat has 50g daily so that works out at 17p a day.

I feel like a cheapskate! Mind you flea and worm treatments, insurance and occasional trips to the vet and cattery are much more significant than the cost of food.

i did home feeding, a hand full of offal, a hand full of pasta/rice/potato, a handful of cheap, mixed frozen veg all boiled together with a pinch of gravy granules

kept our old girl going quite happily. and apparently this was quite well balanced.
calcium is the main thing people forget apparently, but if you can grind up say some whole chicken wing, other bone, or even egg shells, that should cover the calcium requirements, if your supplements don't do that all ready.

we did leave her with a bowl of kibble to pick at (bakers, ha! she wouldn't eat any other)
between meals, but she did well on it for the last few years of her life.
she had a terrible diet before i took over on feeding her, she wouldn't touch commercial wet food at all.

our boy now is the same, he was raised on dry food though, i have found that he absolutely LOVES applaws tinned food, as i was given a few as free samples at a local pet show last month, but at £1.49 for a can the size of a standard can of tuna, it's not something he'll get often!

he is on a veterinary diet as he was quite over-weight. (not the hills metabolic, which my vet wanted to flog us from the off, but rather a more sensibly priced (after company discount) purina veterinary diet.)
it still cost a pretty penny for the 14kg sack (£28) but that's peanuts compared the the price it would have been. and for the good it's done for just £8 more on top of his usual food, i'll sing it's praises until the cows come home.
i think we bought this sack of food in may, started feeding him it in june and there's still a quarter of the bag left, some how, so we're under about £4 a week for him, somehow, i think :S
plus joint chews and dental sticks
so another £2 there.

all adds up.

Just an update.
First thanks to all who responded.
This may be helpful to anyone else who is struggling. I've come to the conclusion that home prepared is both better and cheaper than many commercial foods. I don't intend to start her on raw at her age though so it will be mostly cooked.
First my local farm shop will sell some very cheap beef heart which they cut into pieces for me. I only add a little of that though. I've been buying their cheapest meat too but I have come across a couple of suppliers which sell cheaper frozen packs of meat online. One of them you can generally find in the frozen section of big pet food chains. The other is in Durham and even factoring in delivery costs it's good value. You can also get inexpensive green tripe which is supposed to be very good for them.

Some people may not want the faff of preparing their own dog food but as I'm time rich and cash poor it makes sense. Plus if you cook it in batches and freeze in daily portions, its not too bad.
Agree about the calcium. I do the egg shell thing but also I use a standard calcium supplement which I add to her food as a powder.

I spent about £40 a month on dog food for my two.

I spend roughly £60 for food for 2 adults and a puppy, including treats and bones. All Royal Canin at the minute although I am considering moving back to Burns.

I spend £12.85 every 3 weeks, Hills Science plan 1.5 kg

Every 2 months I buy a different type of Science plan, also £12.85, which I top his food with.

My cat costs more a week to feed than my 2 dogs, she's such a fussy bugger!