Are you suffering from Premium Pet Food Sticker Shock?

Title: Are you suffering from Premium Pet Food Sticker Shock?
Author: Susan Thixton

Are you suffering from Premium Pet Food Sticker Shock?
Many pet owners suffer `sticker shock' when considering
purchasing a better quality food. They look at the price
tag and gasp when considering how fast Fido or Fluffy eats
that bag of food. What they don't know is that with better
quality pet foods, you don't feed as much – cheap foods
have cheap `filler' ingredients that do not satisfy the
nutritional needs of the pet, thus they eat A LOT more
attempting to get the nutrition that their body is telling
them they need. Better quality foods/ingredients provide
the animal with quality nutrition and they eat on average
1/3 less.

So let's break it down to cost per meal… Let's say your pet
currently eats 1 cup of food per day. A 20 pound bag of
food will provide you with about 50 servings. If the food
costs you $15.00 for a 20 pound bag – that equals about .30
per meal.

Now with a good quality pet food – feeding about 1/3 less –
a 20 pound bag will provide you about 80 servings. If the
better food costs $30.00 for a 20 pound bag – that breaks
down to a little less than .38 cents a meal.

So even though the price tag of the food reads to be twice
as expensive – it's actually far from the truth. Using the
above example, at .30 cents per meal, two meals a day, in
one month you are spending around $18.00 per month to feed
a pet with the inferior food. With the apparent twice as
expensive higher quality pet food, at .38 cents per meal,
two meals a day, in one month you are spending around
$22.80 per month. Less than $5.00 per month difference
that can save you thousands of dollars in vet bills and add
years to their life. You must look at the cost per meal to
completely give the price of the food consideration.

Here is what has happened to us…for years and years we've
watched the television commercials of pet food. They
emphasize the words `for your pet's health' or `choice'.
We've trusted them and we've followed their directions to
feed our pet 2 or 3 cups of food per day. What we didn't
know was that those recommended 2 or 3 cups of food was
necessary because the pet food contained cheap inferior
nutrition sources like by-products, meat and bone meal, and
grains.

So, it has become our habit to feed more – which they do
need more with inferior ingredients. Then someone like
myself comes along and tells you how horrible ingredients
like by-products and meat and bone meal are – and you learn
that grains such as corn, wheat, and soy are inferior – and
since this recent pet food recall, you learn that chemicals
can actually be added to variations of these grains
(glutens)…so then you look over your options at the pet
store or online. And you think in terms of how much per
`bag' of food. After all, you've probably tried several
different types of pet food in the past – maybe even one or
two that cost a little more than the cheap brands – and you
still ended up feeding the same 2 or 3 cups of food a day.
Naturally, you look at the $30.00 for a 20 pound bag of pet
food and gasp at the cost – you are thinking just the way
they want you to think…in terms of the cost of the bag, not
the cost of the serving.

The determining factor for your choice of pet food should
not be cost or advertising. You must look at and
understand those first five ingredients. Of course there
is much more involved than the first five ingredients, but
in my research…if the first five ingredients of a pet food
are good, so are the rest of the ingredients. If a pet
food manufacturer cares enough to make the first five
ingredients quality – which is the majority of the
food…they care enough to make all of the ingredients
quality. Don't be mislead into any comfort zone of a pet
food manufacturers advertising…do your homework and read
and understand at least the first five ingredients of your
pet's 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. 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.

The daily amount of food our pets require depends on many
things such as activity level, age, breeding animals, or
neutered animals. As an example, my 100 pound German
Shepherd only eats two cups of food per day; 1 cup AM, 1
cup PM. My little guy (8 pound Papillion eats about 1/3
cup a day. Both dogs are active. However, my little guy
is young and is fairly high energy level. My big guy is 12
years old and much more sedate. Considering his little
size, the small dog eats far more for his size than the big
dog. His energy and activity level requires it.

My cat on the other hand free feeds – he has access to a
full bowl of food at all times and eats when he wants. He
has never been an over eater and this works well for him.
I could never do the same with my dogs.

So 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.

About the Author:

http://www.TruthAboutPetFood.com
Susan Thixton
Pet Behavior and Nutrition Consultant
Email: Susan@TruthAboutPetFood.com

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