Kirkland kibble at Costco — is the low price the only reason people keep buying it? Dog

Switched both of mine to save money and switched one back. The younger one was completely unbothered. The older one had loose stools for about three weeks, which everybody told me was a too-fast transition, except I took two weeks over it. Some dogs are just sensitive to a fat and fibre profile change, and no amount of slow transition fixes that. Budget for the possibility that it works for one animal and not the other.

Fed it for five years across two dogs. The useful thing about store-brand kibble is that it is made under contract by a large manufacturer, so ask which one and then ask that manufacturer the standard questions — nutritionist on staff, feeding trials, who owns the plant. The store will usually tell you the co-packer if you ask customer service directly. That is a more informative path than reading star ratings.

Storage is the part people get wrong with big bags. Do not decant into a plastic bin — leave the food in its original bag and put the whole bag inside the bin, because the bag liner is designed to keep fat from going rancid and bare plastic bins pick up old oil that turns every subsequent fill. With two dogs you will get through a large bag fast enough that it hardly matters, but this is why single-dog households complain about batches "smelling off".

Politely pushing back on the framing that cheap means compromised. Price per kilo at that scale is mostly about distribution and margin, not ingredients. What you should actually check is whether the specific formula carries a statement that it was tested in feeding trials rather than just formulated to meet a profile — that distinction is printed on the bag and it is a more meaningful signal than the price.

Two years, two large dogs, no drama, and the annual saving in my case was enough to cover both of their yearly checkups. That is the entire review. I would not claim it is better food, only that nothing got worse and I stopped flinching at the receipt.