Answers:
The world's oldest dog in the Guinness Book lived to be 27 years old, on a vegan diet! She was a Border Collie, who lived in UK, and only died last year, after a healthy 27 years. She was fed a diet of Lentils and rice with vegetables in season..Lentils and rice is CHEAP!
Table scraps.
Please don't get pets if you can't afford to take care of them.
Not table scraps.
That would just mess with their digestive system.
You can cook their food, however. I know that rice is good, mixed with some sort of meat. Be sure to ask a vet because you can end up doing more damage than good if you're not cooking the right things.
If it's a small dog, try cat food, they love it and its mostly meat products. If not read the labels carefully of other canned dog foods.
Depends on the breed. DO NOT COOK THE MEAT OR GIVE TABLE SCRAPS! Raw meat has all the nutrients. Buy a book. On the other hand, for a large dog, it could still be a little pricy
www.rawfed.com
See if there are any programs in your area that help people feed their animals. Locally, we have a program run by people in our vet clinic that is like 'meals on wheels' for pets. Ask you vet or local shelter about this. If they say no, try calling other vets until you've exhausted the list.
If this does not work out, then it's time to start reading labels at the store. Visit a petsmart or petco.
I know that Blue Buffalo adult dog food doesn't have corn.
Natural Choice by Nutro Lamb %26 Rice is also corn free. It's basically a dollar a pound for the dry food. Less for the large bag.
Solid Gold is also Corn Free, is much higher quality, but is also more expensive.
Sensible Choice Lamb %26 Rice is corn free. Also about $1 a pound.
More Corn Free products available at PetCo:
Natural Balance
Nature's Recipe "Easy to Digest"
Castor %26 Pollux Organic Adult
Wysong Anergen
Sensible Choice Chicken %26 Rice
Ones that typically include corn are:
Science Diet
Iams
Eukanuba
Nutro Max
ProPlan
Royal Canin
most supermarket brands
I truly hope this helps you out. : )
Read the labels on the lower end dog foods. Some of the store brand dog foods use rice instead of corn. I'm not positive but I believe both Target and Walmart have "house" brand dog foods without corn as an ingredient.
Additionally, many pet stores have a bin of "scratch %26 dent" pet food - bags that tore in stocking, etc that they have marked down. Check for these in your pet stores.
Another thing you can do is ask your local pet stores about discounts for Senior Citizens or disabled people (as you are on a fixed income one assumes you are either disabled or a Senior Citizen) or if they know of any local organizations that help with low income pet issues such as yours.
If your dog is a small one many store brand cat foods have no corn so you could try feeding him cat food without corn in it, too.
Another thing you can do is identify a list of those dog foods that do not have corn as an ingredient and clip coupons for them or even look online for coupons for those varieties of dog food.
Another thing I wanted to mention is that foods without corn are more easily digestible and often your dog won't need to eat as much of them to meet his requirements. A more nutritious bag of dog food may cost more pound for pound but your dog may well eat less of the corn free food making the cost of feeding him the same over the course of a month as with corn based food. He'll also poop less, smell better, and stop itching.
Rice is one of the cheapest food around, it is also very good for your dog, it is easy to digest and is easy on a sensitive or older dog.
You could mix half rice (NO salt) and half the dog food that is within your budget.
My area does not have any programs that assist with care of your animals. Hopefully there is one in your area.
Some stores will offer a nice discount on bags that are torn or have been on the shelves longer. You can always ask if there are any damaged or older bags available.
For me rice is the best answer, as I am on a fixed income also, I can buy the better feed and mix it with the rice. I usually get the rice in the larger bags from the discount stores, not the major outlet stores.
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