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Could someone please tell me the name of some brands of good all meat, no grain or vegetable dry dog food? I want to put Shadow on the RAW diet but my parents will not allow me to. My mom says she doesn't have the time nor the money even though I told her I would get a job and feed him myself but no. So I figure the least I can do is get him an affordable all meat no grains or vegetable kibble. So the big question. Could anyone tell me some brand names? I looked at the PetValue near my house but I couldn't find one, though they had LOTS of different companies so I could have missed it. Thanks ahead of time!

I don't think there are any just meat dry foods. The grain free foods still have veggies. There are some great foods that have the first 4 or 5 ingredients as a meat.

You could try some pre made raw foods. There are some brands and formula's that are just ground meat.

Some dry foods are more expensive than raw. That should be factored into what you choose. Big pet stores (Petland, Petsmart etc) don't have a great selection on good foods and if they do, they are expensive. Small, independent stores have a better selection and prices.

Check out http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com. They rate dogs foods. Look at the 5 and 6 star foods.

There really is no such thing as a grain free "kibble". They have to use something to make the pellets hold their shape and grains are what do it. You can buy dehydrated food (one company is NRG which is usually sold at independent pet stores) but it does have veggies and is pretty expensive.

Seems to me you'd be talking about a jerky type product which your dog would probably like but I am not sure how good it would be to have that all the time. I would question whether it was missing some important enzymes or something from being dried. If you have a Costco near you they have bags of chicken and duck jerky for dogs that is pure meat. The only catch is they are made in China which may or may not mean some bad additives. My dog likes them for treats and hasn't had any issues with them at all. You also get a lot for the price.

The other issue with a jerky type product is that the dog may eat too much because I would think they aren't as filling as the natural version.

What are your mom's concerns? If it's thinking it's a lot of trouble I can tell you my dog loves chicken legs which I buy for $1/lb when they are on sale (Superstore or Sobey's usually). If I run out of those, I get the big pack of drumsticks from Costco. My dog is 40 lbs and would eat 1/day so that ends up really cost effective and the only work is packaging them up into smaller portions and putting them in the freezer. Then it's just pulling one out and giving it to her. Also the dog can eat anything that has been in the freezer or fridge too long with no problem. Freezer burn is nothing to them. You can also watch stores for sales on older packages or find you local raw feeders as there are often co-ops and suppliers they can get things from very inexpensively. The more you can buy in bulk, the cheaper it gets to feed this way. What you do end up needing to make it cost effective is some room in the freezer.

Maybe if you tell us where you are, people can mention some good sources of food for you.

Meanwhile, when it comes to cost, you make it back by what you save at the vet. My vet loves to complain about not making any money off my dog.

I feed my dog Orijen, it's a very high quality food, and made in Canada (Alberta). It's not cheap, though--$40/bag, I think it's about 7kg. It lasts my 40lb dog about a month, and she really loves it!

Thanks for the replies guys!

I'll try to convince my parents again, but I think I'll give them a week, I've been pushing for the last few days and they're getting sick of hearing about it

JeanJean: I live in North Bay, ON Small city in between all the major ones

I too feed my girls Orijen; great food, reasonable price.

There are quite a few few no-grain dog foods, although they all have some filler in the form of vegetables, fruits, etc. Orijen is a very popular one, there is also Horizon, Go Natural and a number of other ones. If you go to the website www.dogfoodanalysis.com there is a lot of detail about high quality kibble brands. I've chosen raw myself for our dog, but there are so many options nowadays and there are probably as many healthy dogs raised on kibble as there are on raw. Ours friends have 2 border collies that are both 17 years old that have been fed Pedigree kibble for years and they are still active farm dogs. Go figure!

I feed Jessie Fromm - a high-quality kibble. They've got a good flavour variety. I do plan on going the RAW route, but want to do a bit more research first. Also prefer to have a chest freezer in my possession before I do lol...

Do you have Global Pet Foods store out your way? If so, check them out - http://www.globalpetfoods.com/good_eats/dogs.htm. They're a good source for high-quality food, etc.

I feed my dog Legacy, she loves it It is alittle on the expensive side but it lasts longer than store brand kibbleé