My dog costs more than your dog

Duke, the first dog of my adult life, cost $100 and came from a shelter in southern Minnesota. For a time, I considered feeding him Ol' Roy from Wal-Mart, which is about $10 for 45 pounds of food. I'm pretty sure they put cats in it. Instead, he got Purina for a while.

ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
Eventually, thanks in small part to TW and the urging of veterinarians, he was upgraded to Science Diet and, even further down the road, a moderately expensive natural dog food.

Daisy, our 1-year-old chocolate lab, is not Duke. Her adoption fee was $375. I had to drive to Tennessee to pick her up.

After a couple of weeks in Maine, we noticed Daisy had troubles. A rash on her belly. An ear infection that would *not* go away. A constantly runny nose.

She was diagnosed with a food allergy when we got her back to Maine. We put her on hypo-allergenic dog food.

Mmmmmmmmmmm (one-letter caption day)
Have you ever had to purchase hypo-allergenic dog food? A 27-pound bag was $110. That's slightly more than $4 a pound. I could purchase live animals for her to chase, kill and eat in the back yard and it would be less expensive. But whatever. I'm smitten with this animal.

In deference to her allergies, today I overcame my cheap gene. I come by it honestly. My Mom and Dad wear the same pairs of shoes now that they had when I was in high school. I don't spend money easily unless it's in a restaurant.

Today required a visit to Fetch, our local dog shop. You can spend as little as you would at Petsmart on dog food and treats. But the sky is also the limit there.
Seriously?

The strategy today was simple: Buy things that Daisy hasn't been exposed to and thus probably isn't allergic to. I didn't know there was such a thing as Sweet Potato Dog Chewz. But there are. And they're $6 for 8 ounces or so of potatoes. I didn't know there was such a thing as buffalo-meat dog treats. There are, with 4 ounces for $11. Worth a try.

I also didn't know they put mint leaves, melon puree and other people-food ingredients in dog food. Orjen dog food taught me a thing or two today, with its fancy-dancy mixture of meats, veggies and fruits.
My dog needs to take up a job.

The damage: $37 for two bags of treats and a test bag of dog food (a 5-pounder). Of course, I bought the bag that was a dollar cheaper than the wild-caught salmon. Go figure.

Comments

  1. JillJune 2, 2011 at 7:53 PM

    Your dog is still really cute, but that's a crazy amount of money for dog food. The things we do for love. 46-5-4.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JPJune 3, 2011 at 7:02 AM

    This animal had me at hello.

    ReplyDelete
  3. BobJune 3, 2011 at 8:46 AM

    Think you've got me beat on dog food. My 6.5-pound chug (chihuahua-pug) eats half a cup of her kibble a day. But we also spend about two grand to have her deteriorating left hip socket removed. And adoption was $175.

    ReplyDelete
  4. CatherineJune 3, 2011 at 1:10 PM

    Orijen is really good, so is Taste of the Wild (that's what our dogs get). The cheesy graphics on Taste of the Wild bags are worth at least 20 bucks.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJune 3, 2011 at 5:03 PM

    ok, your dog is expensive but I just spent $600 to have my dog's teeth cleaned. Eric and I have a poodle (pure bred purchased from pet store for $500) and a Snoodle (adopted from CAWS $90).

    ReplyDelete

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