- Commercial or Homemade

Commercial

Frozen

Frozen packaged raw food is available in patty, log, and chunk (e.g., Small Batch, Bravo, Nature's Variety Instinct, Primal, Stella & Chewy’s, Northwest Naturals, Steve’s Real Food).

Freeze-Dried & Dehydrated

Freeze-dried and dehydrated (e.g., Orijen, SoJo’s, ZiwiPeak) are also readily available.

Fresh-Cooked Commercial

Fresh-cooked commercial (e.g., Freshpet, Just Food for Dogs, The Farmer's Dog, NomNomNow) food is typically lightly cooked and then frozen and contains no preservatives. Available in better pet food stores.

Buy Local

Support local independently-owned stores first. You may pay slightly more but the money stays local rather than maintaining a distant corporate headquarters. And, the owners are typically more knowledgeable than clerks in big box stores.

Homemade: Cost/Benefit

You know, of course, that all commercially prepared food will cost more than food you buy & prepare yourself. That is the trade-off you must make.
Common sense dictates that, the more dogs you have and/or the larger your dog(s), the more it will make sense to make your own food/meals.
Time is another consideration. It may seem daunting at first, but as you develop a system to buy, package, and prepare meals, it will become your new 'normal.' Besides, when you watch your dogs consume the meal that you personally created especially for them, you will feel all warm & fuzzy inside.

I typically have three house Golden retrievers and a foster Golden. Buying in bulk, packaging meals myself, and feeding dogs to their ideal target body weights (usually between 50-65 lbs.), I spent, on average, about $1.50/day per dog in 2019.