Saving Money on Pet Food
April 2nd, 2008 by Ana
When I wrote my post on common sacrifices in budgeting to get out of debt, I forgot to include one major area we saved money: pet food. I used to buy high quality pet food for my dog and cats. When I say “high quality” I am talking $28-33 per 40 pound bag for the dog and $20-23 per 20 pound bag for the cats.
Warning: what follows might be TMI for some of y’all. (TMI=Too Much Information)
Last year, after much deliberation, I switched the dog to the Kroger brand of dog food, which is now up to only $10 for a 40 pound bag. However, there is a non-monetary price for that decision considering I turned in my Army-issue gas mask when I left the service in 2005. The cheap dog food gives my Rottweiler gas!
To make matters worse, hubby has hidden his Army-issue gas mask to keep me from putting my eyeglass inserts into it and using it at night or while he is at work (my eyeglasses are thick enough “to see into the future” as the joke goes). He knows I can sleep in a mask if need be, having learned that little trick in Kuwait and Iraq. So I am stuck with suffering noisily or chasing the dog with a can of air freshner and lighting a large amount of incense and scented candles. It might not be so bad if she wasn’t a house dog who only goes outside to leave yard mines and puddles. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad if she were a smaller dog (she is about 130 pounds of spoiled wanna-be lap dog).
As for the cats, they simply refused to eat the Kroger brand of cat food. There was much meowing and pitiful crying the one time I bought a bag of it. They don’t seem to mind the Wal-Mart brand of cat food, which is $12 for a 20 pound bag. Of course, there are olifactory consequences to that decision as well. They might not get gas (that I can tell) but they do stink bomb the litterboxes now. Did I mention there are three of them?
Days like today make me seriously reconsider my decision to switch to the cheaper pet food brands. Right now I am really suffering. Perhaps I should refigure my cost analysis to include the extra expense of air freshner, incense, and scented candles into the equation. Or maybe do another sweep-and-search for hubby’s gas mask…
Posted in budgeting, stupid tax |
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:35 am
You know, I’ve been eating Kroger dog food for the last year and my wife has been complaining about my gas too. Perhaps I should switch to the Walmart brand too. You know, my wife actually told me I shouldn’t be eating dog food at all, but I told her that’s just nonsense talk.
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:45 am
Dude, you eat scrapple, so I don’t see the difference…
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:47 am
What does your vet think about this?
I ask because all my life having cats and dogs (and now as an adult having cats) each of our vets have drilled into us the idea that you need to feed the pets Iams or Science Diet or you are causing health consequences down the road.
Which actually held true for two of my parents cats that had pre-existing urinary tract issues, but I am wondering if it is generally true or just a ploy to get you to spend more money on food.
My cats eat expensive food lol. I’ve thought about switching but honestly I don’t dare.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I’m cheap when it comes to our cat, and I feel terrible saying that but it doesn’t mean I love her any less. We buy the generic brand at Whole Foods which is 1.99 for a bag that lasts about 2 weeks. I’ve heard the same advice PaidTwice mentioned and I do worry sometimes. But she always passes her vet exams with flying colors.
I’ve also wondered this: My husband and I spend a little extra to get certain foods and to buy fresh produce when it’s not in season because we believe a healthy diet can be a great preventative measure for health problems, so why not apply the same theory to pets? Spend the $20 or $30 and avoid the surgery or expensive meds later. Just a thought, we’re mulling it over and spending 1.99 in the meantime =)
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I could have used that gas mask on the metro earlier today…somebody there needs to switch to Iams.
It conjures up a really funny picture too…I don’t think I could sleep with someone wearing a mask. Too much freakiness.
April 2nd, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Would you feed your kids McDonalds every day? Cheap food is very detrimental to the health of your animals. They get the same nutrition-related diseases that people get - diabetes, coronary disease, kidney failure, etc. Your vet bills as they age will be very high and their lives will be much shorter.
You can feed quality without spending a fortune. The Costco dry cat food is corn and wheat free and most cats do well on it. I can’t comment on the dog food, because I don’t have dogs.
Lots of expensive foods are not high quality - they are just heavily marketed. Read the ingredient labels and in cat food look for chicken and fish (chicken and fish meal are not as good) as the top ingredients. Avoid foods with corn and wheat, as these cause food allergies in dogs and cats. Gluten, which is almost always imported, should be avoided at all costs. Gluten was the cause of all the dog and cat deaths and the food recalls last year.
Feed quality, and you and your animals will all be much happier.
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:07 pm
I never understood spending a bunch of money on dog food, we are talking about an animal that will eat it’s own poop.
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:30 pm
If you look at the total cost of pet food, even the luxury brands seem very cheap compared to what you or I eat every day. We consider our two cats to be members of the family and so they get IAMS. They also split a half of a can of wet food every evening as most vets say as cats get older this is good for their health (they are 12). We switch brands around quite a bit for this but generally use Purina Pro Plan.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:21 pm
The high quality/price food I used to feed was Nutro Natural Choice, which has no fillers and no artificial preservatives. As for my vet, his only comment is still that my dog and two of my three cats are fat (after over six years on Nutro’s “diet” food). No Costco in the area, so I can’t try that suggestion.
Days like today make me think about switching back. The dog was quite rank around lunchtime!
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Please read the ingredient label on the Nutro Natural Choice. It contains fillers in the form of corn gluten. After Nutro was involved in the recall last year and handled it poorly, I stopped buying their products.
If the cats are fat, you are probably allowing them to free-feed. That’s like letting your teenage son free-feed. Reducing them to two “meals” a day of dry food and only giving them small portions of canned food once a day may help. More playtime with toys (exercise) will also halp.
The dog needs less food of higher quality and more exercise….
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:30 pm
With the cost of corn going up, my dog food has gone up $5 for 50 pounds in just a month. I have looked into making my own but I haven’t costed out the price per pound. I tend to buy a mid quality dog food and supplement it with human food. My dogs get vegetables, fresh eggs, and meat scraps thrown in. Feeding table scraps is only bad for your dog if the food you eat is bad for you.
April 2nd, 2008 at 5:17 pm
My dog never did well on commercial foods, even the so-called premium brands. I have been giving her fresh food for years. I bake chicken in large batches or scramble eggs, then add vegetables and starches. I found great recipes in the book “Barker’s Grub” by Rudy Edalati.
My dog has absolutely NO gas problems and leaves much smaller amounts of waste to clean up. Her teeth have only needed a professional cleaning once in her life (when she was much younger and was still eating some commercial foods). She is 13 years now, and her new vet is amazed at the beautiful condition of her teeth and coat, her very healthy weight, and her general level of energy. Even at her advanced age, she likes to take long walks, sometimes keeps me going for an hour or more.
It takes a bit of time and a bit of money (I buy lots of frozen chicken on sale), but my pup is part of the family, and I want to take good care of her.
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:33 pm
LOL - my rotty gets $10 a week from the $100 grocery money.
She eats some type of natural organic dog food stuff. Its about $40 for a box of 4 10 pound bags. My sister in law is a dog health nut. She cooks her dogs organic duck for dinner every night. She’s also a professional doggie massage therapist… and actually has some people with more money than they know what to do with $50 to give their dogs a massage….
My wife would spend every last dime we had on the dog… So we have her own emergency fund that gets funded $50 bi-weekly… My dog has $1200 in her emergency fund now… Freaking insane if you ask me…
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:40 pm
We used to buy expensive Eukanuba food at PetSmart until we got to comparing the size of the bags and ingredients of similar brands sold at Sams Club. Turns out the Sams bag was $10 cheaper and we got quite a bit more it. Our dog seems to like it!
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:44 am
We feed ours Nutro Natural Choice. They are both fat, but that is because we don’t have a dog park nearby anymore. My shepherd rottweiller mix (112 lbs) could run or swim for 2 hours or more and not be tired. And our neighbors love them and feed them snacks all the time.
I have been around dogs my whole life. I have noticed a few things about cheap dog food. When the 112 pounder was a baby, we fed him Pedigree, because that is what he ate at the shelter we got him from. He ate his own poo, because he wasn’t absorbing enough of the nutrients. We learned that after talking to our vet. As soon as we switched to a higher quality brand, he quit (much to the relief of everyone!). When we have fed lower quality foods, we have noticed 1) they eat a LOT more (our 2 free-feed, mostly because they REFUSE to adhere to our schedule. We control how much they eat, but they decide when) and 2) they leave more yard mines as you so quaintly put it. One of our mutts has a sensitive stomach, and the lower quality stuff irritates it. Sometimes I wonder if we could do better, if there is a higher quality food we could feed them, or if we should switch to making our own, but that isnt really something that I have time to do the research on right now.
I guess if you can stand the gas, you can keep feeding the low stuff, but I agree that higher quality = longer life and happier puppies (and kitties).
Also, if you are able to save $1350 a month, couldn’t you afford to back that off by $20 a month and get the better stuff? I agree with cutting back where you can to get out of debt, but now that you are debt free (yay!) maybe you can reconsider some options. Just a thought.
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:55 am
Becca, if my dog only went through one bag of food per month , it wouldn’t be so bad … but she goes through THREE bags per month. The cats (three of them) go through at least two bags of food per month. Right there is almost $100 per month.
April 3rd, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Ana,
I saw this recent posting about saving money on pet food while keeping them healthy. I hope you find it useful.
http://www.queercents.com/2008/04/01/reducing-pet-costs-how-to-save-money-on-pet-food/