Oh mom....

[Akari_32]

In August, I moved 8 hours away from home to go to college. Leaving my mom with 3 large dogs, a rabbit (who has since passed, from old age), and my Mali Uromastyx (who just about all of you know LOL).

She was having trouble paying the bills, and feeding the dogs, (Rex's diet is easy for her, she eats just like him lol), so she had to get a 2nd job, and finally she changed the dogs food to Publix brand dog food. Seriously? As if Purina Dog Chow wasn't bad enough!

*For those who don't know, Publix is a southern grocery store. They have good store brand people food, but I wouldn't feed my dogs their store brand dog food. Just sayin'...*

She even got them Publix canned food (which, what ever, canned food is fed in a small amount over dry food for something different to eat), and Publix dog treats. (I'm so glad I brought them home 3 bags of Pedigree treats and 10 cans of Pedigree canned food....).

And, IMO, she has the money to keep them on the Dog Chow. She goes out to eat several times a week, is taking a weekend get away to a theme park this weekend, and so on. All its really doing is saving her less than $2 and a trip to WalMart every 2-3 weeks.

How can I tell her that just because their human food is good to eat, doesn't mean their dog food is good for the dogs to eat?  

[kage no neko]

Just wondering.. have you actually checked the ingredient list between the two brands? And if she's insisting that it's too expensive, why don't you buy it for them instead? Can't you buy dog food online and have it sent to your mom's house?  

[Akari_32]

kage no neko

Just wondering.. have you actually checked the ingredient list between the two brands? And if she's insisting that it's too expensive, why don't you buy it for them instead? Can't you buy dog food online and have it sent to your mom's house?

I cannot find a list of the ingredients online for the Publix food, but I have a list of the Dog Chow ingredients.

If she'll let me, I'll give the $20 every few weeks to pay for their old food, or a better food, what ever. I doubt she will, though, but I'll try.

I don't know if you can or not. I guess you could, but that wouldn't save either up money, when I can transfer money from my bank account to hers, right online.  

[~ Aki - Fairy ~]

Read the pages this page links you to, and copy down some of the worst nasties to show your mom (the site even helps and has the ingredients colour-coded... red is bad, yellow is iffy-but-not-good, green is good, blue is the rest)...

http://tailblazerspets.com/tailblazers-pet-ingredient-dictionary.php  

[kage no neko]

Akari_32

I cannot find a list of the ingredients online for the Publix food, but I have a list of the Dog Chow ingredients.

If she'll let me, I'll give the $20 every few weeks to pay for their old food, or a better food, what ever. I doubt she will, though, but I'll try.

I don't know if you can or not. I guess you could, but that wouldn't save either up money, when I can transfer money from my bank account to hers, right online.

If you order it online and have it delivered, then she can't complain about having to go to the store to buy it either. xd That was my point.  

[Akari_32]

~ Aki - Fairy ~

Read the pages this page links you to, and copy down some of the worst nasties to show your mom (the site even helps and has the ingredients colour-coded... red is bad, yellow is iffy-but-not-good, green is good, blue is the rest)...

http://tailblazerspets.com/tailblazers-pet-ingredient-dictionary.php

Thanks! I have a link to a site that lists a bunch of brands and their ingredients, so that'll help some.

kage no neko

If you order it online and have it delivered, then she can't complain about having to go to the store to buy it either. xd That was my point.

Oh, I gottcha. Well, considering it takes longer to drive to Publix, there really shouldn't be much complaining anyway. Both stores are literally less than 5 minutes away. She just hates WalMart, I think.  

[imderanged]

I completely sympathize with having to cut back due to money issues. I haven't worked in over a year. There's 5 us us living in this house and only 2 people working & their hours have been cut... while the cost of living continues to climb. We were feeding Wellness but it became to expensive. We switched to "Chicken Soup for the Petlover's Soul". We took a look at the ingredients and it's actually very good food...GREAT for the price. Maybe that could be an option for your mother?

Also, according to this website:
http://www.petfoodratings.net/dogtable.html

KIRKLAND, yes the Cosco brand, is supposedly good stuff for the price. They rate it much higher than the Purina Dog Chow, and I would bet it's even CHEAPER. Something to look into anyway.  

[Des_Gato-The Warrior]

Yeah, it sucks having to leave a pet at home with your parents. I had to leave my cat back in Texas while I am here in New York. I still have to pay for my cat though.  

[xXGabriella-ShadowfireXx]

Try Diamond Brand. There is Naturals Diamond brand and you can get a 40 pound bag for $31.99 (Lamb and Rice) $28.99 40 pound bag (Chicken and Rice) If you have a Menards they have it with those exact prices. But you can get it at any farm store there.  

[Akari_32]

xXGabriella-ShadowfireXx

Try Diamond Brand. There is Naturals Diamond brand and you can get a 40 pound bag for $31.99 (Lamb and Rice) $28.99 40 pound bag (Chicken and Rice) If you have a Menards they have it with those exact prices. But you can get it at any farm store there.

And how long would it take for two 75 pound dogs and 130 pound dog to eat one of these bags? Right now, the smaller two get 4 cups a day of Dog Chow/Publix, and the bigger one gets 6 cups. We buy 44-48 pound bags of food every month-ish.  

[xXGabriella-ShadowfireXx]

Akari_32

xXGabriella-ShadowfireXx

Try Diamond Brand. There is Naturals Diamond brand and you can get a 40 pound bag for $31.99 (Lamb and Rice) $28.99 40 pound bag (Chicken and Rice) If you have a Menards they have it with those exact prices. But you can get it at any farm store there.

And how long would it take for two 75 pound dogs and 130 pound dog to eat one of these bags? Right now, the smaller two get 4 cups a day of Dog Chow/Publix, and the bigger one gets 6 cups. We buy 44-48 pound bags of food every month-ish.

Im not sure. All I have is a 30 pound and a 55 pound and it takes them 1-2 months. The 30 pound gets one scoop a day (thats about 2 cups maybe a little less.) and the 55 pound gets 3 cups to last him 2 days. It should fill them faster if you follow the feeding measurements on the bag.  

[~ Aki - Fairy ~]

Akari_32

And how long would it take for two 75 pound dogs and 130 pound dog to eat one of these bags? Right now, the smaller two get 4 cups a day of Dog Chow/Publix, and the bigger one gets 6 cups. We buy 44-48 pound bags of food every month-ish.

For high quality foods you feed less, because there's more nutrition in a cup of food and way less filler.
For Orijen, which is often considered 'top-of-the-line' as far as kibble goes, it's around $70 for the ~40lbs bag (mind you, this is in Alberta, so it'd probably be more where you are). For the 75lbs dogs, you'd be feeding 2-3 cups of food a day, depending how active they are, and for the 130lbs dog about 4-4.5.

I realize this is probably out of your price-range at present, but I only know the prices of it and Acana in the large bags (as far as high-quality foods go). I'm not saying you should switch to top-of-the-line, but there are lower-priced alternatives that are still of good quality/similar feeding amounts.

When you feed higher quality foods, you'll also notice changes in general health - nicer coats; smaller, less stinky poops; less illness/disease (stronger immune system); lower chance of cancer (yay for no BHA/BHT or ethoxyquin in higher quality stuff)...  

[Akari_32]

So, mom ran out of the Publix stuff. What did I do? Ran out and bought the biggest possible bag of Purina Dog Chow LOL Walmart has 44 pound bags, with 4 extra pounds for free. So $20 for 48 pounds of food sounds pretty good to me. I looked at the price on the Publix food, and its a smaller bag for the same price. WTF??? Talk about lazy -_-

I may go back out and buy another bag of the Purina before I leave at the end of the month, so she doesn't have to. I was looking at high quality foods, and, wholy dang $50!!!! But most of them were 2-3 cups for the smaller dogs, and 3-4 cups for the bigger one. I think most of the bags were 20-ish pounds. What are your opinions on Eukanuba, and even Purina One? I'll get a bigger list as soon as I have another chance to go back out.