Making Your Dog Food Supply Affordable

You have searched the web tirelessly for the best dog food supply.

Finally, you think you found it - the perfect dog food. You get your credit card ready and type in your zip code - WOW - shipping doubles the price of the food!

I was spoiled when I lived in the dog food mecca of Fairbanks, Alaska. Even my local food mart carried premium dog food! Now, it is a constant struggle to find a good local dog food supply store.

At first, I ordered food online thinking it would just be a temporary fix until I found a local supplier. It has been 6 months and I am still looking. So far we have driven 60 miles one way only find out that the dog food store had moved. We found the new location and they did not carry the particular brand I was searching for any longer.

I thought I had lucked out when I discovered a local pet store that carried a brand of food I could be satisfied with. When we walked in the door we were met by rows and rows of puppies.

We do not support puppy mills, and we could not support a pet store that does either. (I know, it is a slippery slope between having pet dogs and using animals in pet food.) As my husband and I left the pet store I realized he was more disturbed than I was because he said You better find a dog food supply that does not have puppies or I will order our dog food myself! For the record, my husband stays out of the dog food arena. He gets frustrated much faster than I do when it comes to playing the ingredient game.

Why not make our own food?

We do. But we live in the warm climate of North Carolina, and keeping large amounts of raw meat and potatoes around is not feasible. Hence the search for dry food.

I love Wysong dog food, but shipping can be pricey. I tried Flint River Ranch dog food because they include the cost of shipping in the price of each bag of dog food. I will say that I was not impressed. I do not think it is bad food, but once you see what really good food can do for your dogs, you just cannot easily go back.

The Happy Medium.

The problem with ordering your dog food supply online is the cost of shipping is related to the weight of dog food, and as gas prices rise, so does the cost of shipping.

Our dog Joey suffers from allergies so we make all his food, but as I said before, storing large amounts of fresh food to feed all the dogs is not feasible for us.

Shipping dog food is not cheap, but sometimes it beats driving 120 miles to get quality dog food. The larger the shipment the better the deal. I found it to be the same price when you consider the amount of time and gas involved in a road trip to buy dog food every month.

I also order Annamaet Endure and Annamaet Impact. I use Endure on Larry and Kyra for achy stiff joints, and Impact is a high protein energy supplement that I keep on hand as an extra protein boost.

There are other good dog foods available besides Wysong (of course). I choose Wysong because I think they make the best dog food, but they are also committed to education and the environment (I am an idealist at heart).

Other foods that I have been happy with are...

Eagle Pack

Annamaet Dog Food

Red Paw

Caribou Creek

In fact, if you want to know how obsessed I am about dog food I have also tried Eukanuba, Iams, Science Diet, Solid Gold, Wellness, Diamond Dog Food, Flint River Ranch, Canine Caviar, and there are others, but I have forgotten the names.

Our dogs will eat anything, but I do notice a difference between the foods. Some food made their coat dull, they lost weight, had diarrhea, or wanted to eat grass more and vomit.

How To Store Your Dog Food Supply

1. Keep it frozen if possible, or at least cold.

2. Store it in the bag in an air-tight container like a rubbermaid.

3. Keep it dark, do not let it sit in the sun, or in a clear storage container.

4. Only open one bag at a time

5. Keep it dry, damp bags grow mold.

I do not think any dog food is perfect. When I try a new food, I buy a small 4 pound bag of whatever new food and see what happens. I do not switch foods slowly (don't tell my vet), and rarely have any trouble with diarrhea. Of course if your dog is sensitive you will probably want to try new food slowly.

Finally, I always follow the motto There is more than one way to do something right! when feeding dogs or finding the best dog food supply.

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