Spill the beans... on how to care for Fido or Tiddles for less

zaksmum

I switched my dogs' food from Hill's Science Plan costing £40 for a 12kg bag to CSJ food costing £12 a 15kg bag.

Not only a massive difference in price, but the dogs' health has vastly improved too.

1jeannie

Do not change pets foods suddenly as it will cause stomach upsets in both cats and dogs. If u change pet foods it has to be done in stages, just changing a small amount of food each day to see how pet reacts to the new food. DO NOT SUDDENLY CHANGE DIET.

I save money by buying wormer and flea&tick treatments off the WEB eg. petsensedirect.co.uk they even deliver quickly and FREE:jdelivery..

bluebird

We i believe are the cheapest home dog (small dogs only ) sitting in Bristol,i regularly phone around to compare prices,no cages just our lovely home and your pampered pooch or poochess.£10 a day.check out your local home sitters they often undercut kennels.

Libertykmm

I have two dogs and it can certaintly get expensive but I cant reccommend shopping around enough!! The youngest dog has a stomach condition which means he has to have allergen free food, £75 for a 10kg bag when my vet sold it to me. When it needed replacing I went online and found it for £48, a huge saving. The same goes for worming and flea treatments, I never buy from vets or Pets at Home, always online. Web sites like petmeds.co.uk are brilliant, I always look out for offers and try to bulk buy!
My other reccommendation is to buy working dog food, I buy a large bag from Countrywide Farmers stores and its so cheap, my dog loves it mixed with veg and minced meat. Gives him a much shiner coat and cleaner teeth than any branded product we have tried!!
Use Ebay to find great pet supplies like dog blankets, beds, leads etc, always hugely cheaper than any pet store!!
My only other tip is make sure you have a good pet insurance, I learnt the hard way. Did the right thing by getting cover for life per condition (highly reccommended) but didnt realise the £4k limit per annum per condition wouldnt be enough. We spent that £4k in less than 6weeks when the young one was sick, am now waiting for the insurance year to begin again for him in March so I can start claiming for his meds he will be on for life..... have since increased the amount for my other dog... lesson learnt! :T

Fridaycat

I have five cats, so quite a few feline mouths to feed.

I am on the mailing list for special offers of most of the large online pet suppliers, and I keep my eye on these regularly to spot good deals such a BOGOFs etc. However, I always compare pence per kg prices for food, and not just blindly go with an offer.

I benefit as I can buy in bulk without the food going off and quite often the pence per kg on a 10kg bag of food is lower than smaller bags even when the smaller bags are on offer and the larger one not.

Also, it may sound obvious, but I don't over-feed my cats - far too many cats and dogs are overweight/obese in this country, and if we cut down what we feed them, not only will it benefit their health but also our wallets!

SneaksyWhippet

sunshinesadly wrote: »

Is the dog getting all the right nutrients with this diet? Not a criticism, just a question. Dog and cat food commercially bought has added vits and nutrients - not sure if these are necessary or just hype.

The dog is probably getting better/more appropriate nutrients on this diet than any commercially produced food. Raw feeding is a huge area in the dog world at the moment; it is the most natural, healthy diet for a dog to have. They don't need added vitamins etc on a good raw diet because they get it all from the food Actually, raw feeding was going to be my money saving tip too:

It takes a bit of research to understand what you can/cannot feed, and you do need freezer space, but a diet of raw meaty bones, offal, muscle meat and fish with or without vegetables/eggs/cottage cheese etc (some do, some don't) is not only additive free (with a lot of commercial foods you are paying for artificial flavours, colourings and preservatives, and "fillers" such as wheat which dogs do not need), healthy and natural but can work out extremely cheap.

There are many online suppliers and you can get free delivery if you buy in bulk. It costs me under £1 per day to feed two dogs (both large whippets weighing around 16kg each) and they have never been shinier, healthier or happier! There are some well priced, good quality complete foods around too (Wainwrights at Pets at Home is one I have in stock for any times I can't feed raw) but a lot of cheap complete foods are a false economy; you need to feed more because their nutritional value is lower.

Other tips would be to buy worm/flea treatments online rather than from the vet. Also, ask around for quotes for routine vet visits/neutering etc. Obviously for neutering etc don't just go on price: you need a vet that has also been recommended that you can trust. I saved £100 getting one of my dogs neutered at an alternative local vet, recommded to me by a friend, rather than my usual vet.

Katiehound

As already said buy your worming tablets on line. Cestem is same drug as the very popular Drontal wormer, but cheaper. If you group together with friends to bulk buy it brings the price down too- one year I bought 300 wormers at Crufts!!! Huge saving. Do not buy things like Bob Martins- false economy.

My dogs always have fruit & veg with their meals- generally raw. At least the equivalent of half an apple per day. They love grated carrot- cheap carrots whizzed up in the food processor, do a couple of days worth at a time. Stir fry cabbage, broccoli stalks, kiwi fruit skins(:eek:)you name it they eat it! Except of course for things that are toxic like grapes.
I try to buy the fruit and veg from local greengrocer- they have 25pence bags of marked fruit, wonky carrots etc.or I stock up when the supermarkets have a lost leader.

For crunchy biscuits- they only get a few- home made things like cheapest rolled oats mixed with filtered water and small amount skimmed milk powder. Pressed into baking tray , marked into fingers and baked till hard. Only when oven is being used anyway. Cheap bread made into rusks or cheap crumpets cut into fingers (They adore those!)- I mean when bread/ crumpets etc have yellow stickers at giveaway prices.

I buy good quality food, if possible working dog variety. Bargain with local retailer- if I buy 2 bags what will he charge? Could possibly buy online cheaper but delivery is a problem.

For beds they have the oval plastic ones all bought cheap- car boots etc @£1 each. Then I make doggy duvets from human duvets that would go to landfill. I like using half singles, I also make removeable covers, if there are no fastenings then I make like a huge pillow case with tuck in. (These are so popular I make and sell them for charity and have raised over £1000 in 2 years. They only cost £3.50- all washable and recycled, how money saving is that??)

SneaksyWhippet

sunshinesadly wrote: »

Is the dog getting all the right nutrients with this diet? Not a criticism, just a question. Dog and cat food commercially bought has added vits and nutrients - not sure if these are necessary or just hype.

Ah, I've just read the original post and seen that the mince is given cooked rather than raw. I would still think this is a good diet but would probably be even better if the mince was fed raw (saves time and money cooking it too!) and the diet was supplemented with raw bones e.g. chicken wings

This is a great website for determining what are good/bad ingredients in dog food. It really helps to work out if a food is simply cheap or actaully good value for money

whichdogfood.co.uk/dog_food_ingredients_br.php

SneaksyWhippet

Another money saving tip: make your own dog training treats. They can be very expensive to buy but are very easy and cheap to make!

I use little pieces of pig's heart or liver, cooked in the oven on a low temperature until they are dry and hard. You can do it in batches and freeze in bags until you are ready to use them. My dogs go wild for them and they are super cheap and healthy too

nameloc_2

sunshinesadly wrote: »

Is the dog getting all the right nutrients with this diet? Not a criticism, just a question. Dog and cat food commercially bought has added vits and nutrients - not sure if these are necessary or just hype.

Generally alot of the dog food out there is full of the parts of the animal we humans wouldnt dare dream of eating! If you read alot of the ingredients of food like Bakers or Pedegree, it would say meat by product or animal derivatives. It is dicreetly declaring that this food is the equivalent of giving your kids McD's every day.

Digestion in a dog is a much shorter cycle than a human so they get alot of goodness from raw meat like mince, beek/lamb chunks etc and they just love raw bones which you can get for free from your butcher. Just buy a couple of chops and ask.(just dont cook the bones or they will splinter).
I tend to keep away from chicken wings though as they do splinter without being cooked