I'm a genius

Did you remember a few weeks back when I wrote this post, Adventures in Dog Food... Well apparently I'm not the only one thinking about what goes into my pets bowl. I saw this on MSN Money today Does your dog need expensive food?...

Well apparently i'm just awesome.

Here's a quote from the article:

Ways to save

No matter what brand you buy, there are lots of ways to save. For example:

Shop big-box stores. Overall, Consumer Reports found better prices at Target and Wal-Mart than at PetSmart and Petco. Compare prices everywhere before you head to the specialty shops.

Buy generic. Store-brand dog food is often cheaper than other brands. Compare the labels on a store brand and a mid-range name brand. If they have the same nutritional content, you'll save money going generic.

What did we do? Just that!

... we shopped around
... we compared labels

and we went with that awesome generic and cheap brand from Walmart that had the quality we wanted for our pup.

After that post I thought it was funny that Walmart was mysterious running out of that brand of dog food for a week or two after I did that post...

So if you don't want to take my advice... you can listen to them!

Adventures in Dog Food

My husband and i were talking with some people from our doggie circle (aka- the neighborhood pets from all the condos that gather in the park after work to play and visit) ... about pet food.

We know that MEAT should be the first ingredient in a "quality" dog food and when we first got Roxy, we didn't have all the time in the world to compare every bag of food in the store since she was so scared at first. We just took some advice from the people in the store and grabbed a small bag from the "Better" section (At pet smart they segregate their dog food by aisle. Good dog food, better dog food, and Best dog food). We picked up a small bag to make sure she liked it and we figured it would give us some time to test the waters.

We paid around $12 for the 4.5 lb bag.

My husband and I want to be good to our little love bug and feed her quality... but we also wanted to be practical about it. SCB said he was okay with us continuing to get the "better" type foods from pet smart since she seemed to eat it fine-- but only if we took the effort to shop around first and try to compare the labels since the pet store was probably the pricier option.

A lot of time its hard to compare brands together because they are often are not sold in the same stores... or in the same packaging. But the key to comparison is the ingredient list (and if your dog will eat it).

Since we are almost through the bag (1/3 left), we decided now would be the time to hunt around. If we decided to buy something new, we would still have enough of her old food left to slowly mix into the new food so there would be less chance of anything not agreeing with her ... or we would have enough food if she didn't like anything new we tried.

So we started at Walmart. I couldn't remember what the ingredients were in ours from home and I didn't have a list on me, but since pet smart is next door to Walmart, we decided to just take a look and snap photos of any of the brands that listed Meat as the first ingredient.

We turned every bag over and they only had one brand in which meat was the first ingredient in the whole store... and get this... they wanted less than $7 for the small bag (which was a full 5 lbs instead of 4.5 lbs...)

So, we snapped the picture and went next door to Pet Smart so we could look at what we had been buying... and we were a little floored. Meat wasn't the first ingredient...

It was Chicken meal... I turned over the bag in my hands for a bit and kept comparing it to my phone picture. When I looked deep in thought, one of the store clerks (who happened to be the manager) came over to see if I needed any help. I fibbed and told her my "friend" sent me a picture of what she feeds her dog and I wanted to know which one was better... what we were buying currently or the brand from my phone.

The lady looked at my phone and then at me and said hands down, the black bag on your phone,

"Your friend probably bought that at some high end dog boutique..."

It listed both chicken and then chicken meal as the top 2 ingredients... and she pointed out that you could pronounce more of the ingredients in the pure balance mix than you could in the natures recipe so that made it also better. Being the good sales lady she was, she steered us down the isle where the BEST dog food is and told me that the brands on that isle would be more similar to what was pictured on my phone... and of course they wanted WAY more for those then Walmart wanted for the Pure Balance... even their store version was way more.

So we thanked her, left... and went next door... back to walmart and picked up the Pure Balance for $7...

The next day when I fed roxy we mixed in 1/4 cup of the new stuff with 3/4 of the old... Guess what she picked out first, nugget by nugget? The Pure Balance.

Look who's happy! She so belongs to us!

In case you were all wondering.... this is not a sponsored post and i'm not getting anything out of sharing this little story with you all. :)

Doggie Checkup

So Roxy and I went to the neighborhood vet for her free check-up... which ended up costing me $215.54 in the end. While the check up was free, the tests were not.

They wanted to test her poop for any "worms" and pests ($49.75) since she came from a shelter that's kind of got a wrap for being over loaded and they sometimes put more than one dog in each pen... and in order to put her on a once a month flee and heart-worm preventative medication, we would have to have her checked out for heart-worm too ($43.75).

Those two weren't so bad... and I knew we would have to spend some kind of money there for tests (my two friends that work at places like that told me so).-- They also agreed to come over to teach me how to brush her teeth and clip her nails so we won't have to pay grooming costs if we don't want to.

The $122.04 was for 6 month supply of a flee/heart-worm pills. Apparently flees are becoming immune to the droplet "Advantix" flee killer and its generics (plus apparently you can't wash your dog before and after applying it for a week to make sure there are enough natural oils to make it work so that means at best you can only wash your dog every 2 weeks). Normally Heart-worm wouldn't be an issue in my area, but after Hurricane Katrina, about 800 animals came into our area when they were sent all over the states to find new homes for them, and heart-worm is now becoming an issue again. It's apparently way easy to prevent and a heck of a lot of money to treat. So since we were going to go with the once a month pill for the flees, for a few dollars more they could give us the combo pill that included both flee and heart-worm so we are going to try that.

My poor little love bug was really freaked out by the doggie nurses (she liked the doctor fine) that when the nurses took her in the back for her "poop" sample, Roxy nipped one of them.

But other than that, she's been an angel and she's learning really well and I can't imagine life without her anymore...

and if you haven't guessed, she's more like my dog that SCB's. She likes me better since i feed her, brush her, and take her for walks. He's jealous that she follows me around and when given a choice, chooses me over him.

:)

Welcome Roxy

Me listening intensely about
dog food in pet smart...

For the past few months SCB and I have been thinking about getting a dog... and since we don't have to worry about paying the mortgage this month... I started hitting up the local shelters...

and then we went looking together...

and then we met Roxy...

and then Roxy came home with us...

and we have been happier ever since!

She is our new almost 3 year old Australian Shepard mix (mixed with what we don't know), but she's about 20 lbs and slightly over weight for her size. We are hoping regular walks will help slim her down to her healthier weight... but oh man is she a love bug.













She just wants to be petted 24-7 and loves to just hang out with us on the couch. We haven't gotten her to play with any toys yet, but she's great on a leash so far and has been a welcome addition to our little family.

Welcome Home Roxy!

Since this is a personal finance blog, here's the details on Roxy.

She was originally adopted from a shelter when she was 6 months old... but 18 months later, they brought her back because their kids had severe allergic reactions they couldn't live with any longer. She's house trained, smart, does well on a leash, and seems to like people and kids. She's a little shy but she warmed up to SCB and wags her tail at him all the time.

To take Roxy from the shelter: $165.95

• Adoption Fee: $88
• Lica: $24
• Micro-Chip re-set: $3.50
• Shots and medical terminology (Dhpp-bord, Advantix, Drabies, Drontal): $10.00, 11.25, 9.00, 17.50
• and a really cheap rope leash: $2.50
• tax: $0.20

Then we went to Pet Smart for essentials and spent $102.86 on

• Bone tag id, Harness, Collar, Milk Bones, 3 Dog toys, Water Bowl/Dish, Leash, Small bag of Dog Food, and a good dog brush.

We probably could have gotten a few things cheaper else where... but the perks of Pet Smart is you can take your pet in there and let them smell things.

The next day we went to walmart and got her a pop up kennel and a bed liner for her ($36.43). We have our house sitting this weekend and next week (we talked with them about bringing Roxy since she was a last minute addition and they are fine with it) so we wanted her to have a travel bed/place that feels hers regardless of where she's at.

All in all, Roxy cost us $305.24 in about 24 hours. She gets a free vet visit-- we just need to book an appointment at one of the places on their list.