You can buy a 40 lb sack of dog food for about 30 or 40 dollars. You can buy a 50 lb sack for less than 20 dollars. Why is there so much difference in the price? Besides it's not the feed your dogs eat that makes them go all night, it's what in their genes..........

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I switched from a 50 lb 20.00 bag-24/20, to Diamond naturals chicken and rice 26/16 which is 40 lb 24.95 a bag for two reasons.

First and foremost because it doesn't contain - corn, wheat, or soy. Those products in dog food are hard to digest, and can be harmful to kidneys and other internal organs.

Secondly I can feed less, while still providing enough food and end up saving money eventhough it's less weight per bag and a little higher price.

Don't take my word or anybody elses, educate yourself on why more people are switching to a corn free feed.

Price of food depends in ingredients, name brand and where you buy it. A pound of chicken costs more than a pound of corn. Big name brands advertise a lot (look at Science Diet) and the consumer pays for the advertising with each bag they buy. Big chain stores can buy food in bulk and therefor the price goes down. I work at a ranch supply store and the only place in town where you can buy the same brand cheaper is Walmart. Sometimes the retail price at Walmart is cheaper than the wholesale price we're able to buy the same feed at.

I think people pay more for the big name brands because A) if it's a big name then they assume it's good and B) they have no idea how to read ingredients so they just put their faith in what they see on the most billboards.

Look at the #1 ingredient in Science Diet... corn... but everybody pays for the brand name and because that food is in virtually every vet clinic in town. I spend substantially less for a much higher quality food (in my opinion) because it's not really a brand name and I buy it at Costco which can order in more bulk than anyone else in town.

I'm going to provide some links, but want to warn you up front that they're from sites that are what I call "dogfood snobs." Some of them are "dog snobs" as well.

http://www.the-puppy-dog-place.com/dog- ... tings.html

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php ... belinfo101

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/

The first link is the reason I feed my own dogs Costco's "Kirkland Signature" dog food, made by Diamond. It ranks up there with the more expensive "premium" brands for quality, at a third the price.

I think some of the "premium" dog foods price their product so high simply because they think that will make YOU think it is better quality than a lower priced brand. Plus, I think hunters/working dog owners aren't their market - they're going after the "upscale" dog owner who might have one or two dogs, and is ... well... snobbish about what they feed them. So, to pay a greatly inflated price suits their sense of "status."

(Me, judgmental? Whyever would you think that? )

But beyond that, the quality of the ingredients makes a difference in the price, too. You can get "chicken meal" from the floor sweepings of a processing plant -- ground up heads, feet, feathers and bones (along with any chicken sh*t that happened to fall off in processing) -- or you can get it from actual chicken meat. Which would you rather eat? And "meal" from unspecified "animal by-products"? You really don't want to think about what that's made of. Yeah, they all provide protein, but the quality of the ingredients does matter, up to a point. Beyond that point, it's just snobbishness. IMnotsoHO.

im just wondering about this corn stuff in feed, i have been feeding the same exact feed forever since i was a teenager my dad fed his dogs the same thing, if it was so bad for a dog why does my dogs die of old age and not from kidney failure, and they can and will hunt all night if i let them and they stay healthy to, i feed them one cerial bowl aday not very much but they are better off than most dogs that get fed the suppose to be better stuff

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THE SHINE IN OHIO WILL HURT YOU

Delta, I've been reading up on dog food since I started volunteering, and here's what I *think* the deal is: It's not so much that corn will hurt your dog as that it's wasteful. There's protein, starch, fats and sugars in it, and none of those things are bad. It's just not very "dense" in the nutrition dogs need. So they have to put a lot of it in, only some of which actually is used by the dog. The rest ends up on the ground in a brown stinky pile.

Wheat is somewhat the same, but it also has the problem that some dogs are allergic to it. I don't know what the problem is with soy.

Hope this helps! And if I'm wrong (it happens now and again), I hope someone will explain where I messed up.

Delta what is funny is, go to most any of the Vets here in the US, look at the dog food they sell, then read the ingredients.

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I don't know why all of a sudden all this talk about feeding dogs corn is all bad. I can remember when I was growing up we would take 2 tow sacks full of corn to a grist mill and have 1 ground fine for our corn bread and 1 ground course for dog bread. My mamma would cook the dogs a pone of corn bread every day with nothing but hot water added to the meal and that with a little table scraps and greasy dish water was all they got to eat. Just remember,,,,,,,,,it ain't what in their belly that makes them hunt all night, it what in their blood. Course I imagine most of you don't know what a tow sack is, let alone a grist mill........

Delta- read the last sentence in my post. I'm not trying to tell you to switch. I'm saying corn doesn't provide your dog, like chicken/lamb/beef would. Corn is a filler, meaning your dog will feel full, but isn't receiving good nutrients.

As far as your dog surviving on corn to an old age. Sure your dog can live all its life on corn and die of old age. It happens everyday. But I want my dogs to have the best life I can give them. Because chasing coons is only half the fun, the other is messing with my dogs.

I spend more on the front end for food now. But the serving size is less, so the food actually goes farther at 40 lbs. than 50 lbs. of the food containing corn. Just something to think about.

Hi Billy D
You start some good topics!!! I too, grew up when dogs ate Corn Bread; and also agree that Grits Mills are a relic to young hunters. Dad only kept a couple of hounds so we had all the Meal ground the same. Two neighbors had Fox dogs and they had coarse meal for dogs.

Young people today have been brain washed by the big feed companies to believe the high priced feed without grain is better for dogs. I can't understand it; because dogs have survived for centuries and young hunters should know it.

If the economy gets worse, dogs just may start eating cornbread again.

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