Hey, Dana, and welcome to DFA.
First off, I really think that getting your dogs off of the Science Diet is a wonderful decision! I also know what shopping on a budget is like, so what I can recommend is emailing/facebooking companies to ask for coupons (Nulo would send you some, it is a brand sold at Petsmart and online too), and sign up for coupons from Merrick/Castor and Pollux/Wellness. They will send you coupons as well. And if you order online, websites such as chewy.com , petflow.com , wag.com are great places to look for deals on.
Also, feeding a rotational diet will help with scooping out deals and sales – basically you will be able to rotate to different foods that are at a good price at the time of purchase.
Now, I can recommend you several brands that are mostly affordable (without coupons), and are available online. Earthborn Holistic, Dr. Tim’s, Annamaet, probably NutriSource (not affordable in my area though), Victor (available at sportdogfood.com), and if you don’t mind Diamond as a manufacturing company (lots of recalls, not handled well), Taste of the Wild and Canidae Grain Free Pure would be good options.
Most of these foods are pretty calorie-dense so you would also feed less and possibly have smaller stool. And I can actually give you an almost-personal example – my roommate used to feed the same Science Diet formula as you, and he fed it for almost 5 years to his dog (except he did feed her the puppy version when she was a pup). Then he switched to Nulo Lamb and Lentils (a grain-free, high-animal-protein food) and his dog lost weight, actually enjoyed eating her food, and her coat looks a lot better. I am not sure about stool size though. And now she eats Blue Buffalo Wilderness Red Meat. She seems to be doing well although many report issues with Blue so I wouldn’t really recommend it. Plus, it is pricy as heck.
Now, I can’t really help with the gas issues. Maybe someone else can give you direction with that and you can see what food matches others’ recommendations from the brands I suggested, and other brands others may suggest. Good luck!
