Cheap Dog foods

I have been wondering why Candidae dog food is so highly recommend by many, yet it is so cheap to buy. I found a 40 pound bag of Lamb and Rice Kibble on Amazon.com for less than $20, while a 37.5 pound bag of Purina is much more expensive. ( $32) That doesn't make any sense to me, if the food is so good, how can it me produced for 50 cents a pound?

Perhaps it's because Purina spends a lot of money on advertising and less on the ingredients, while Canidae does not advertise- so the money goes directly into their product.

sounds right to me!
they dont advertise

Good to know, and you are probably right on the money. I have heard good things about the canidae. I feed timberwolf.

Yah probably right

I have NEVER seen an advertisment for Canidae or Eagles Pack or Innova!

And really never heard of them before I can on here!!!

I think it also has something to do with the fact that Canidae doesn't perform their own feeding trials. They used recommended AAFCO feeding profiles to design a, in my opinion, really nice food.

I think food is great, and the price is extremely reasonable. I recently switched my dog from Canidae to Innova (regular adult) just to give him some variety and I can't wait to switch back!

Canidae does advertise- I have seen Canidae/Felidae ads in several dog magazines. Never seen a TV ad for them, though.

Price doesn't always say much about the quality of the food.

Of course most of the really cheap products (of which you can buy a 50 pound bag for $10 or so for example) are made from little more than floor sweepings and rendered garbage, but look at products like Science Diet, Beneful, Pro Plan and what have you - they are often in the same price range as the much better quality products and sometimes cost even more.

Also don't forget that companies like Hills, Purina etc. do a lot of research not only on pet food but also develop and test prescription foods and fund research:

http://www.purina.com/science/facilities/Index.aspx
http://www.hillspet.com/zSkin_2/company_info/company_info_general.jsp
http://www.nutritionsymposium.com/

Honestly I think purina is crap, just my opinion, I have had some bad experiences with it, but anyway.

I look at it this way, just because it doesnt cost as much doesnt mean the product is inferior.

I mean look at mcdonalds, they advertise like crazy, their prices arent that great, and their food is not exactly healthy.

Whereas I can go to No frills, which does no tv advertising where I am, and get more than a meal for a cheaper price, that is a hell of a more healthy than a Mcdonalds meal.

The lesson here "Dont judge a book by its cover"

I think they are very smart by reasonably pricing their food. The truth is, high quality food can very likely be produced for even less than 50 cents a pound. However, greed and avarice are the name of the game in many cases. Look at it this way, if price were commensurate with quality, Science Diet would sell for about 10 cents a pound. Instead, Hill's markets and then markets and then markets it some more. So essentially, they make a killing selling crap at a high price. Now the makers of Canidae probably have a wiser strategy. They probably figure that as their product continues to catch on, their volume will give them all the profit they will ever hope for, while at the same time they impact the market of other premium food makers.

In the meantime, I suspect that might play a part in yet something else in the future: the repricing of premium foods to get closer in line with Canidae. If ever a market smelled of price fixing, it's the premium dog and cat food market.