Best affordable puppy food options besides Hill's Science Diet?

Beau is a real cutie! Yes, I agree you should switch food. There are better brands with higher quality ingredients. Science Diet, Purina ProPlan and Eukanuba are all great diets. My favorite brand (and what I feed my own dogs) is Royal Canin. For Beau, I would recommend this food: https://www.royalcanin.com/us/dogs/products/retail-products/pug-puppy-dry-dog-food Beau does not need canned food but you can give it as a treat or mix it in with his kibble every day. Pick a high quality, canned puppy food. Canned food does tend to have more calories than dry food so watch his weight closely. Here is also a link about feeding puppies: https://www.petcoach.co/article/feeding-puppies-what-when-how/ I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Iams is a great brand of food, and it's not as expensive as Hill's. I also like Purina ProPlan, and Purina One. All of these are healthy, and cheaper than Hill's. I recommend trying Layla on one of those foods. You will have to transition her slowly to prevent GI upset. Mix together the new and old food, and over the course of two weeks, gradually increase the amount of new food and decrease the amount of old food until she is eating the new food only. Good luck, I hope this helps!

Great question! The difference is the ingredients. The pro food will have higher quality ingredients, more specially the protein source and the cuts used in the food. That is why it is more expensive. If you can't afford the pro food, you can try Iams. It's still a high quality food but it is not as expensive as Pro Plan, Eukanuba, and Hills :-)

Purina ProPlan is just as good as Royal Canin and Science Diet, and the Purina you find in the grocery store is lower quality, but it's still the best of the supermarket brands. The reason it is lower quality is because it doesn't use the high quality ingredients, hence the lower price. I hope this helps!

As you've experienced, diet changes can certainly cause some changes in stool volume, and for some dogs, can cause a bit of vomiting and diarrhea. When it comes to the countless brands of dog food on the market today, it's overwhelming to pick one for your pup. I recommend brands that have been formulated by a board-certified veterinary nutritionist, are manufactured in their own facility (less cross-contamination that facilities that manufacture numerous formulations), conduct AAFCO feeding trials, and meet WSAVA guidelines. When it comes down to it, the brands that meet those criteria include Hill's Science Diet, Purina, Royal Canin, Eukanuba, and Iams. As a result, I would recommend switching Lilly over to the Science Diet puppy food. Just remember that anytime you switch foods, be sure to do so by gradually mixing the old and new foods together over a 5-7 day period. I hope that everything goes well!

Hello, any of these diets could be recommended by your veterinarian. If you feed the recommended doses as detailed on the bags then this should be sufficient for a puppy, however, in an older dog this may be too rich for her. If your veterinarian is recommending that she continues to eat a puppy food, then my choice would be a Royal Canin diet. Otherwise, you can feed a supplemented or bigger portion adult diet. Hope this helps and best of luck.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! There are diets that are more inexpensive. I like Purina Pro Plan shredded blends. It is very good in terms of nutrition and relatively inexpensive. Good luck and have a good day!