Greedy Guts

My dogs love to eat.  And they aren’t too darn picky either.

Last year when the pet food scare was hitting the news, I was upset to learn that the fairly pricey “premium” brand that I fed my pooches was on the the bad list.  Though it turned out that the particular formula was not on the banned list, I thought that this might be a good time to take a second look at the dog’s dinner.

Since my kids were puppies, I have always sprung for the better dog foods.  I figured it was a matter of pay me now or pay me later: “cheap” dog food would end up costing me more in vet bills in the long run.  Plus, you always want what’s best for your kids, right?

But this whole pet food scandal really gave the ol’ Frugal noodle a lot to think about.  There I was for years turning over my hard earned cash for what I thought was the “best”, when maybe it was actually the worst.

So I looked around and tried a few different things out.  This was hard on my lawn, as changing a dog’s diet results in particularly yucky messes. This always happens to my dogs, even when I mix it with their old stuff to try to minimize this, as the “experts” recommend (but really, I should know better.  “Experts” recommended that potentially poisonous dog food in the first place).

So after a little reading, research, and real-world testing, I think I came up with a good solution.  Of course it’s frugal, or I wouldn’t go to the trouble of blogging about it.

I find that my dog’s do really well on Sam’s Club Member’s Mark Exceed Lamb and Rice.  Lamb and Rice is a must because Farley seems to be allergic to anything else - he gets hot spots when he eats it.   This “store” brand gets pretty good customer reviews, and I can see with my own two eyes that the bits are rather moist and oily like more expensive brands, not dry and dusty like some national brands.

A big 44 lb bag is about $27.00 which is excellent compared to the $30-$40 I would normally pay for a 20lb bag of the old premium brand.  Also, I had to make a special trip to a somewhat out of the way big box pet store when I ran out of it, because this brand was too “good” to be sold in mere grocery stores.  I never make a special trip for the Sam’s Club stuff, because I go there on average of once a month, and 44 lbs of dog food is more than enough to feed my three little guys and big girl for one month.

But the proof is in the pudding.  How have my dogs done on this cheaper fare for the last few months?  Well, they seem to be just as rascally and energetic as ever.  Also, my Lab Sadie is well known for her super-shiny coat; fellow walkers often compliment her on it.  It’s still as shiny as ever.  That’s a good sign that her diet is nutritionally sound. Plus they really like it.  Dogs aren’t as picky as cats, but they won’t always take to a food.

So don’t feel bad if you can’t afford to feed your beloved pooch top-of-the-line gourmet foods.  There are reasonable, frugal alternatives out there.  And people will try to lay a guilt trip on you about it.  Once when I was picking up the expensive stuff, a Bil Jac representative was handing out free samples of their really expensive product.  She asked me what I fed my dogs, so I told her.  Boy, she really gave me the business about it.  Implied (not too subtly) that I was a bad doggy momma, and maybe even cruel to feed them such terrible dreck.  Unbelievable!  (That’s why I’m telling you the name of the product.  She was a nut!) This was before the scandal, so it made me really mad. I never went back there, and that store lost a good customer.

Any lingering feelings of guilt about the new “cheap” dog-diet regimen immediately disappeared when I observed 25%* of my dogs out in the backyard eating poop with relish.  That kind of puts things in perspective.

*I’m referring to the guilty party this way, so that if you ever come over to my house and get licked by one of my pooches you won’t feel too bad about it. You won’t know which one is the offender.  And I won’t tell you, so don’t ask!