Comparing the cost of pet foods

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Written by Susan Thixton

I recently received an email asking my opinion of a couple of brands of pet food. Both of the foods the pet owner asked about were what I considered to be very inferior. When I informed him of this, his response was they could not afford one of the better quality foods. While I understand that better quality dog and cat foods can be two or even three times more expensive than some of the cheaper brands, folks who think they can't afford it, unfortunately, will 'pay' in the end. When a pet is sick with kidney or liver disease, when a pet must be treated for skin irritations and ear infections - vet bills to 'fix' the health concern cost pet owners far more than the 'few cents' a meal to feed them quality nutrition. And I'm often questioned about this 'few cents a meal' theory - but before you question me too, let me explain.
Most pet owners suffer sticker shock when looking at purchasing a higher quality pet food. The price tag causes them to gasp considering how fast Fido or Fluffy eats that food. What most don't understand is that with higher quality pet foods, you don't feed nearly as much as you do with the inexpensive, lesser quality pet foods. Cheap foods have cheap ingredients thus the pet needs to eat more in an attempt to consume the nutrition their body is telling them they need. On average, pets eating higher quality pet foods consume about 1/3 less than that of an inferior food.

Breaking it down to cost per mealIf your pet currently eats one cup of food per dayA 20 pound of food will provide you with about 50 meals. If the pet food costs you $15.00 for a 20 pound bag, that costs you about $.30 per meal. With a high quality pet food, feeding about 1/3 less per meal, a 20 pound bag will provide you about 80 meals. If the higher quality pet food costs $30.00 for a 20 pound bag (double the cost of a inferior quality pet food) - that costs you less that $.38 cents per meal.

Even if the price tag of a high quality pet food looks to be twice as expensive as the cheaper brand - it is actually far from the truth.

With the example above, at $.30 cents per meal, two meals a day, in one month you are spending about $18.00 to feed your dog or cat with the cheap pet food. However, with the higher quality pet food, at $.38 cents per meal, two meals a day, in one month you are spending only $22.80. Less than $5.00 per month difference for far better nutrition for your pet. It's necessary to look at the cost per meal to completely consider the price of a pet food.

With better, more nutritious pet foods - they do NOT need as much as with the cheaper foods. Don't let the old habit of feeding more sway you when you switch to a more nutritious pet food - again, with more quality ingredients they just don't need as much food as with inferior ingredients. In most cases, if you switch your pet to a quality pet food and continue to feed the same amount as the lesser quality food you were feeding - your pet will gain weight.

Serving size for your pet is something you will need to experiment with. If your dog or cat has no 'figure' - shows no waist when looking at them from above - chances are they need to lose a few pounds. Cut back the serving size. If you can visibly see ribs - they probably need to gain a couple of pounds and you need to slightly increase the serving size. Please note too that a cup of food a day at 2 years old will more than likely be too much food when they are a little older. Keep a constant monitoring eye on them - a healthy weight is a healthier pet.

And please don't just look at the cost of the bag of food, look at (at least) the first five ingredients and consider the cost of the serving.

Susan Thixton
		About the author:
		http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/ Susan Thixton Pet Behavior and Nutrition Consultant Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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