About once a month I buy 5-6 pounds of the cheapest chicken I can find (usually bone-in thighs) and a couple pounds of chicken gizzards. In Brooklyn, this costs me about nine or ten bucks. And a pound of carrots for 50 cents-one dollar.
Put all the chicken in a big stockpot, cover with water, simmer for an hour. Remove the thighs and pull the meat and fat and skin and gristle off the bones, discarding the bones. Chicken (plus fat skin gristle) goes back into the pot along with a few cups of raw rice and the carrots, scraped and sliced. (Sometimes I ladle off a quart of the chicken stock for human use, and replace with plain water.)
Bring to a boil, simmer for a half hour, then let sit until the rice grains absorb all the broth and explode. Serve it warm that night, keep a quart in the fridge, freeze the rest.
Voila. A month of meals for two miniature poodles for about ten dollars. They also get table scraps, plus I tend to buy steaks and chops on the bone to give them a treat. But this is their staple food, and they love it and thrive on it.
You scratch-make your beasties chicken soup. That’s impressive. I’m sure they appreciate it. (Not being ironic, btw; the internet is bad for that. Those pups are well-fed.)
More seriously, our Anatolian Shepherd had small ear canals that were always irritated, to the point where she scratched a lot. Surmising it might be a corn irritation (corn is notorious for that} we went on a hunt. Kirkland’s kibble was the only one not costing a bazillion dollars that had no corn – wheat middlings and rice among the ingredients but no corn in any form. Her ears cleared right up. Might have been a placebo effect – is that a factor with dogs? – but it worked for us.
I’m currently doing cat duty, not dog duty, but IMO, the best quality/price value in pet foods is actually Walmart’s house brand, which is called Pure Balance. Real meat as first couple ingredients, no corn/wheat/soy/fillers/artificial flavors/artificial preservatives.
More of a rice gruel with chicken and vegetables. Or “congee” or “jook,” to use the far-east Asian terms. The rice eventually sucks up all the broth, so the consistency is a mush, rather than a soup.
Also, I try to have spare ribs for dinner about once a month (big sacrifice, huh?). They go on sale for about $1.99/lb fairly frequently.
Season thoroughly and slow-roast in a 300 degree oven until done, 1-2 hours. Flip over halfway through. A treat for me, and a bigger treat for the poods.
(This was James Beard’s favorite way to make spare ribs…no goopy BBQ sauces to distract from the lovely porkiness. I just put my share on the table alongside a bottle of Frank’s hot sauce.)
The one my vet recommends (Advance) is an Australian made product, and she specified that it’s similar in composition to several imported brands, but she likes that one because it’s Aussie.
There’s probably a similar product available to you that doesn’t need to be imported, and a vet could advise you which ones would be worth considering.
I was at the local grocery store today buying cat food and they had at least six different brands of “No grains!” cat food with 2-3 types (Adult, Indoor Cat, Urinary Health, etc) per brand. Plus the usual array of foods presumably made out of corn husks, pork hooves and wood chippings. No shortage of the fancy stuff though.
My dog will eat any number of things that are not food, including leaves, sticks, his toys, socks, ropes, and God knows what else, but that doesn’t make it a good idea to just say “meh, it doesn’t matter what I feed him.” We feed Benny, as well as Mittens the Cat, the expensive stuff, but I’m still spending a miniscule fraction of the money it costs to feed a person. And extra four bucks a week or whatever it is isn’t going to kill me, so if it keeps the in tip top shape, might as well.
Based on a lot of experience I would agree that the ideal dog food depends on the dog; different dogs will react differently to different ingredients, and unfortunately they are prone to allergic reactions to some foods and those reactions depend on the dog. It is not necessarily or even strongly the case that if Food X is better, the more expensive Food Y will be better still.
I will say this, though; the “raw food” obsession is horseshit. Anyone who tells you a dog needs raw food doesn’t know what they’re talking about, and it is both expensive and dirty.