How to save money on dog food
How to Save Money with Homemade Dog Food Cooking
The costs of feeding a dog are one of the major concerns dog owners have which impacts their decision of adopting a pet. And rightly so feeding a dog, especially a large breed, can amount to a hefty sum of money over the years.
Dog owners who cant afford quality dog food to feed their pooch end up relinquishing pets to shelters or even leaving them on the streets. Another reason for dogs getting abandoned is the rising veterinary costs, particularly for older canines, and it's often related to food since lower-quality meals result in more health issues.
Optimizing the way you feed your pet seems to be a key factor in lowering your overall dog-related expenses. You must seek out cheap dog food but can't compromise on quality to avoid extra future veterinary expenses.
It's true that some homemade dog food meals are often more expensive than buying regular commercial foods. However, if you learn the ropes of cooking for your dog, and find well-balanced cheap dog food recipes that fit your pooch, it's possible to save money simply by making your own food for the dog.
SEE HERE:25 Vet Approved Homemade Dog Food Recipes (Costs Included)
Homemade Food is Cheaper Than Premium Brands
This is something that comes as a surprise to many people at first, but high-quality commercial dog foods are actually more expensive than human foods. Let's do the math.
A 15-pound bag of high-end dry dog food costs approx. $42 per bag.5.5 oz. can of high-end wet dog food is worth approx. $2 per can.
Now, a medium dog requires about 2 cans of wet food or 2 cups of dry food which amounts to ~$5 per day.
However, using affordable homemade dog food recipes, you can get the same two cups of food cost around $3 to $4. Even when you add the cost of additional vitamins, minerals and calcium supplements you need to add to your dogs homemade diet, the sum will be just slightly lower compared to commercial dog food.
Of course, this doesnt account for the time you spend cooking, but if you cook your dogs food in bulk and you become proficient and fast enough, the cooking time will decrease. Overall, regular (average priced) kibble will likely be cheaper, but high-quality premium dog food brands will be painfully expensive compared to a homemade dog food meal.
Homemade Food is Healthier Than Many Average Brands
Pet owners are sometimes forced to buy cheap dog foods due to budgetary constraints. However, cheap dry kibble is deceptively expensive in more than one way.
First, the nutritional value of the average cheap kibble is lower than expensive dog foods, and it's lower than properly made homemade dog food meals. This means that your dog requires more food and then the price for the extra cheap kibble starts piling up.
Second, when feeding your dog with nothing but cheap kibble, you can expect dangerous and expensive-to-treat health problems to start developing soon. One major reason why some dogs get abandoned is exactly that their owners have been feeding them badly for years, the dogs have started developing health issues, the owners havent been able to pay for the necessary treatments, and so theyve dropped off the dogs at the shelter.
Investing in more expensive and higher-quality dog food saves future medical expenses. Or, alternatively, you can cook a well-balanced homemade dog food for the price of average commercial food, and save the future vet bills without overpaying for food at all.
Buy in Bulk + Freeze = Save Money
Balancing between the quality and the price of homemade dog food can sometimes be difficult. Even though some homemade foods are cheaper than many premium store-bought brands, its not free of cost.
While compromising on the quality of the ingredients or skipping essential supplements is a big No-No with homemade recipes, there are other ways to save money. Cooking your dogs food in bulk, then freezing it for weeks or months ahead is a great strategy. A lot of the ingredients for homemade dog food are much cheaper in bulk than they are in small batches. Plus, by cooking it all at once you can save yourself time.
Having your dogs food always be fresh is obviously the better health option, but a well-prepared and well-frozen homemade dog food is still a far superior alternative to cheap commercial dog food, and it's cheaper than premium brands.
Make Friends with Wild Game Processors or Hunters
If you live in an area where hunting is a common pastime, consider contacting a local hunter or a wild game processor. They often dont or cant use the entirety of the game theyve hunted and are looking for ways to get rid of some parts like bones and organ meat. From such a source you can often get high-quality ingredients for your homemade dog food for a much lower price (if not even free).
Get in Touch with Local Farmers
Similarly, try contacting a local farmer. Most farmers, particularly ones that work on a larger scale, have found ways to optimize their meat-processing practice, but it doesnt hurt to ask. Its not that uncommon to find a farmer wholl be willing to sell you all sorts of high-quality meat, organs, and bones at a much lower price than youd get at a store.
READ NEXT:A Science-based Guide to Home Cooked Dog Food Recipes
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Ollie Dog Food Pros and Cons (Tested and Reviewed)
Key Points
- Ollie provide fresh dog food recipes and baked dog food recipes
- We share our Pros and Cons based upon testing and reviewing Ollie
- Ollie represent a good option for dog owners who want to feed fresh
- We recommend Ollie and you can save 50% when you click here
Are you considering a switch to Ollie dog food but you want to learn about some of the Pros and Cons before you commit to their dog food subscription plan?
Ollie is a fresh dog food company who have been providing human grade dog food to pets in the USA for the best part of 10 years.
Ollie dog food recipes are made using fresh and natural ingredients in recipes formulated by a veterinary nutritionist.
Ollie (Photo: hellobark.com)
Although weve previously written an Ollie dog food review, we wanted to discuss the Pros and Cons of this fresh dog food brand.
With the introduction out of the way, lets take a brief look at Ollie dog food before we get stuck into advantages and disadvantages of the pet food company.
If youd like to learn more about the intricacies of their fresh food, you can read our dedicated Ollie dog food review by clicking here.
What Is Ollie Dog Food?
Ollie (Photo: hellobark.com)
Ollie provide fresh dog food in a fresh food format and a baked food format to cater to picky eaters who like to have variety despite eating high quality food.
Ollie use human grade ingredients in their dog food such as beef liver, chicken liver, beef kidney, butternut squash, fish oil, chia seeds, sweet potato and turkey breast.
Like most fresh dog food brands, Ollie fresh dog food and baked food is formulated by a veterinary nutritionist and meets the standards set out by the American Feed Control Officials.
Ollie (Photo: hellobark.com)
You wont find any artificial flavors in their fresh dog food, while Ollie baked food is minimally processed. Its just fresh ingredients in customized meal plans to provide health benefits to pets.
Ollie offer customized meal plans to tailor your dogs food to meet their specific requirements, whether youve got a dog with food allergies or concerns about your dogs health.
At the time of writing, Ollies recipes include fresh food and baked food. Ollie offers fresh fresh food recipes beef, chicken, lamb, pork and turkey. There are two baked food recipes beef and chicken.
Once youve completed your sign-up questionnaire, youll find out how much will Ollie cost you. You take the plunge and sign-up to receive a normal-sized Ollie fresh dog food delivery or you can get a starter pack to test the waters and see if your picky dogs will enjoy Ollie food.
When youve received your Ollie dog food, youll have to store Ollie food packs in the freezer (make sure you have freezer space before the new food arrives) and keep a couple of Ollies recipes thawed in your fridge ready to serve.
Ollie Pros and Cons
Ollie (Photo: hellobark.com)
We invested our money in an Ollie starter box before signing up to receive regular meals in order to test their range of dog foods over a sustained spell.
Before we take a deep dive into our Ollie Pros and Cons, I want to emphasize that the Pros and Cons listed below are based upon my experience feeding Ollie dog food to my pets.
I can only talk about Ollie dog food from my experience, but every dog is different and pet parents will have their own opinions about Ollie dog food.
If youd like to learn more about the dog food brand before reading my Pros and Cons, you can check out my Ollie dog food review here.
Ollie Dog Food Pros
Human grade ingredients
Ollie food container (Photo: hellobark.com)
If youre looking to invest extra money in fresh dog food, you want your dog to be eating natural, human grade ingredients. I like that Ollie use clear labels to make it easy for dog owners to read the ingredients included in their dogs diet.
Its ingredients that pet parents will recognise and perhaps even consume as part of their diet lamb liver, turkey liver, beef liver, sweet potatoes, fish oil, dried eggs, salmon oil, coconut oil, cod liver oil, butternut squash and more.
Customized meal plans
Ollie will tailor their dog food to meet your furry friends specific needs. Ollie require dog owner to fill out a sign-up questionnaire to give the dog food brand some insight into your pet and their needs.
These include questions about your dogs age to find out if their puppies, adult dogs or senior dogs, what your dog eats, whether theyve got sensitive stomachs or youve got picky eaters. Ollie will provide custom feeding guidelines so dog owners can practice portion control (and weight control!).
Ollie recipes
Ollie (Photo: hellobark.com)
If youve typically fed dry food to your dog and youre a little cautious about feeding 100% fresh new food, Ollie offer fresh recipes and baked food recipes. The latter is elevated dry food.
Not only do Ollie offer different textures, but theyve got a great range of protein sources to keep picky eaters motivated. They include a beef dish, chicken recipe and lamb recipes. You can also try a starter box to find out which of the human grade meals your dog likes the best.
Different subscription plans
We like that Ollie dog food offer a range of different plans. You may have to make an adjustment to your monthly budget to accommodate Ollie dog food.
Ollie offer a full fresh plan, a half plan and a mixed bowl plan. If you go for a full fresh plan, your dog will be eating 100% fresh recipes. A mixed bowl plan comprises of 50% fresh and 50% baked food. A half plan is the cheapest plan but your dog will only receive a half portion of fresh meals.
Adopting this approach allows pet owners to pick which plan works best for their dog and their budget. If youre happy with your current dog food but youd like to add Ollie dog food, a half plan could work. If your dog prefers different textures in their pet food, you could go for the mixed bowl plan.
Meal container and scooper
Ollie fresh food in meal container (Photo: hellobark.com)
Its a small gesture but I really appreciated the fact that Ollie include a meal container and a scooper in your first box. When you receive your Ollie food, youll need to pop the majority of the pet food in the freezer but keep some meals thawed in the fridge.
In our experience, it can get messy feeding fresh dog food when youre squeezing meal packets into your dog bowl and youve got half opened packets of leftover food in your fridge. The meal container removed some of the mess and the scooper made it easy to feed to my dogs.
Having reviewed a lot of dog food brands, its surprising how few other a simple touch like this.
Popular with dogs
As I mentioned earlier in the article, we invested our money to give an honest Ollie dog food review.
My food motivated dog enjoyed eating Ollie and we didnt have to encourage him to lick his bowl clean. Ive got a fussy eater and she tucked into a healthy dose of Ollie but I wouldnt say it was her favourite fresh dog food brand.
When reading reviews online, Ollie get an average score of 4.7 stars based upon over 3,000 reviews on independent online review website Trustpilot. Thats a lot of happy pups!
Ollie Dog Food Cons
Premium price
Ollie beef recipe (Photo: hellobark.com)
If youre accustomed to feeding dry dog food or wet dog food, youll need to brace yourself for the cost of Ollie dog food. Like most fresh dog food brands, Ollie will cost more than traditional dog food.
Having said that, youre getting dog food thats made from fresh ingredients, minimally processed, formulated by vets, doesnt contain artificial flavors, customized to meet your dogs needs with high nutritional levels.
Theyve got a good variety of dog food recipes to cater to the different preferences of pups.
Wider range
While Ollie do have a decent range of dog food, Id like to see slightly more variety. Theyve got a chicken recipe and a beef dish, plus lamb, pork and turkey. But it wouldve been nice to see even more -perhaps a fish dish.
No pre portion element
Ollie (Photo: hellobark.com)
While Ollie explain theyll tailor their recipes to meet your dogs needs, they dont offer a pre-portion element. You have to follow your custom feeding guidelines to make sure you dont overfeed or underfeed your pup.
It would have been great if Ollie used pre-portioned meal packets or offered a customized scooper to take the brainwork out of getting the portions right at mealtime.
Picky eaters beware
While my male dog happily ate Ollie, I found my picky female pup wasnt overly enthusiastic about Ollie dog food. Of course, every dog is different and this is just my experience with a fussy eater. You may find your picky pup loves Ollie but Id remiss not to mention this.
Freezer space
Ollies fresh recipes do require significant freezer space and some fridge space. This could be a con for some pet owners who have big families with a jam-packed fridge freezer. Ollie baked food can be resealed and stored in the cupboard after mealtime.
Where To Buy Ollie
If youve read through our Pros and Cons and youve decided Ollie is worth a try, you can get 50% off your first Ollie order when you click the button below.
Anything Else To Consider?
Ollie (Photo: hellobark.com)
If youve got any questions about Ollie, we recommend reaching out to your vet to learn more about Ollie and whether its the right option for your dog.
Ollie dog food delivers high quality food but your vet may be able to enlighten you about the ingredients used, whether its sweet potatoes, fish oil, cod liver oil, vitamin e supplement or copper amino acid chelate.
Your vet can explain the merits of each ingredients and discuss whether theres anything to keep in mind should your dog have food allergies.
Wrapping Up
Ollie fresh recipes (Photo: hellobark.com)
Weve reached the end of our Ollie dog food article taking a look at the Pros and Cons of their dog food.
Just like any fresh dog food brand, Ollie have Pros and Cons to consider before you sign up to receive their tailored dog food meals.
Overall, there are more pros than cons when feeding Ollie so if youre ready to swap regular dog food in favour of a fresh approach, they could be a good option for you and your dog or dogs!
