The Cost of feeding your Doodle

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

I was in the Pet store and standing by the checkout counter when a woman came up with a bag of 'cheap' dog food.   I couldn't help overhearing what she said to the checkout guy.  She said she had to buy it because she needed to save money and had to move to a cheaper brand.  This got me wondering if there has ever been a proper cost analysis done here.  Perhaps we could post how much it costs us to feed our dogs per week and perhaps go someway to find out if better foods are much more expensive and if so by how much?

[Donna K & Quincy]

I have never paid attention much attention to how long my bags of kibble last, when I start to get low I just get more. At the moment DH and I have a different opinion as to how long it lasts. I bought a 26lb bag of Fromms Surf and Turf on July 3 and we are about half way through it. I only know this because I want to prove DH wrong. I think it will last at least 6 weeks or more. It cost just under $100 for the bag, the grain free is a little more expensive.

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Wow, I didn't realize fromm was $100 for a 26 lb bag. I will have to look at my reciepts if I saved them.

[Donna K & Quincy]

I think it is actually about $86 plus we pay 13% hst. That is for the grain free, the reg 4 Star is about $78 I think.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

That's way more expensive than it is here!  I pay $28 for the 4-star (salmon and whitefish ones, others slightly less). The big bag is $50ish.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

$75.00 per month for 2 dogs.  We feed Acana.

[Jane Smith]

We feed them Avoderm lamb and brown rice.  It's $45 for a 30lbs bag and one bag lasts about 2 weeks.  So, right about $90 to $100 a month.

[Cindy M, Zachary & the Frenchies]

I try so hard to not think about how much I spend on my dogs. My credit card company breaks it down for me at the end of the year and I skim past it. My heart breaks for people who have had serious downturns during this economy and are making such difficult decisions such as buying cheaper food for both their human and canine family members or worse yet give up their dogs. Interestingly movie attendance has gone up - cheaper to go to a movie than to take a vacation - just an isolated factoid.

[Camilla and Darwin]

We feed Darwin Wellness Core. It is 30 dollars for a 12lb bag. We buy a 12lb bag every 3 weeks, and when it's all added up we are paying 40 dollars per month.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Because of my guys' digestive problems I'm feeding the Honest Kitchen freeze dried food which is $70 for a ten pound box (dehydrated).  A box lasts me about 10 days.  I also add fresh cooked chicken to this, so I'm probably spending about $250 a month to feed them.  It's mostly Murph...because at 22 lbs, Guinness isn't eating that much.  It is very expensive food, but it's worth every penny to me since we are no longer paying for weekly anal gland visits to the vet and monthly Stanley Steemer bills.  I was actually just able to give up my carpet cleaning contract....

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

There are so many variables involved, it's hard to compare. The size of the dog makes a big difference. The size of the bags you buy makes a difference also, and sometimes shopping on-line can be cheaper than buying locally. Even the formula makes a difference. Orijen regional Red is more expensive than the 6 Fish, and the 6 Fish is more expensive than the Adult. JD eats about 5 lbs of kibble per week, so if I bought a 30 lb bag of the Adult formula, it would come to about $12 a week for 6 weeks. But I don't buy more than one month's worth at a time, for health reasons. In fact, I buy the 5 lb bags, and alternate between two different flavors, and a 5 lb bag of regional Red is $22 at my local Pet Supply Store. So that would be a difference of $10 a week for the same dog, same amount of food and the same brand.

I alternate between the Adult formula and the Red, so I pay about $20 a week for kibble. That would be $1040 per year, but every 13th bag is free, lol. I'm too tired right now to do that math.

Is it cheaper than feeding Purina Dog Chow? Not upfront. But down the road in vet bills, maybe.....

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

How do you figure the lbs of kibble JD eats?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I buy two 5.5 lb bags at a time, and I usually go through them in about two weeks, sometime s a little longer. Because I participate in the frequent buyer program, I have to make entries on the form for each bag I buy with the date, so it helped me figure out how much he was eating per week.