Why is dog kibble so expensive

The Pros and Cons of Cheap and Expensive Dog Food

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One of the most important factors to consider in your dogs overall care is what they eat. As a pet owner, youve undoubtedly looked at different food options for your dog more than once.It can get a little overwhelming if you arent sure what you should be looking for. There can be such a wide range in dog food prices that you might feel obligated to spring for the more expensive brands.

But are those expensive bags of food really worth it, or will your dog get similar nutritional value from their cheaper counterparts?

You should be feeding your dog food that fuels them and keeps them healthy, rather than just empty calories. With this in mind, lets look at some of the pros and cons of cheap and expensive dog food to determine if you should be spending more on your dogs daily diet.

Is Expensive Food Really Worth It?

The average bag of dry kibble will cost a dog owner anywhere from $100 to $250 per year. The same amount of food that is labeled as premium will cost anywhere from $200 to $400 per year. For some, that might not seem like much, but if youre on a budget, it can make a difference. Plus, some premium brands are even more expensive.

But are they really worth the cost?

It depends.

In order to determine if the extra money youre spending is worth it, flip the bag over and look at the ingredients. The most important ingredients a dog food should contain are:

• Meat
• Meat meal
• Grains (carbohydrates)
• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Fats
• Vitamins and minerals

Meat should always be the number one ingredient in your dogs food, especially if youre paying a premium price. If youre choosing food with all-natural ingredients, you will also likely end up paying more money. But, natural foods often contain more whole ingredients and they arent filled with preservatives or additives that can cause your dog to gain weight or even lead to health issues.

Additionally, paying a bit extra for your dogs food can be worth it if they have a pre-existing condition or digestive issues. Some dogs dont tolerate certain ingredients very well, including grain. Thats why their owners are encouraged to choose grain-free food options.

If your dog doesnt tolerate grain very well, switching to a grain-free option can help to boost their energy and change their mood. Grain-free foods are often more expensive, but if your dog has a special dietary need that will keep them happy and healthy, its worth it to most owners. Plus, its much cheaper than having to pay costly vet bills!

What are the cons of expensive dog food? Again, it comes down to the ingredients. If a food is expensive because of something like fancy packaging or the fact that it is enhanced with something, dont be fooled. But, if it contains real, natural ingredients and vitamins your dog needs, it is likely worth the price.

Is Cheap Food Bad for Dogs?

Inexpensive dog food, like bagged kibble, isnt necessarily bad for dogs. But, the ingredients matter here, too! Some cheaper dog foods still list meat as the top ingredient. These are the foods you should be picking up off the shelf if youre on a budget.

But, dont assume that just because a dog food contains meat that its okay for your furry companion. There are some common pet food ingredients that you should avoid at all costs, including:

• Corn and wheat gluten
• Meat byproducts
• BHA
• BHT
• Food dyes
• Rendered fat

If you see any of those on your dog food ingredient list, its time to change brands or spring for something more expensive.

Some people think that canned dog food, even though its usually cheap, is better for dogs because it contains real ingredients. Unfortunately, that isnt always the case, either. Just because something looks like actual meat doesnt necessarily mean it is.

Inexpensive canned dog food can be prone to contamination, and dogs who regularly eat it may be at a greater risk of dental problems. Once in a while, choosing a canned dog food with high-quality ingredients can be a real treat for your canine companion. But, stick with kibble when youre able.

If you can find cheap dog food with real ingredients, there is no reason not to feel comfortable feeding it to your dog. But, you may have to do some serious searching.

What Should You Be Feeding Your Four-Legged Friend?

We cant say it enough; the best thing you could do to make sure your dog is getting adequate nutrition is to check the ingredients.

For some people, constantly reading labels and bags becomes a bit of a chore. So, they opt to make their own dog food. This is a great option if you have the time, patience, and knowledge about what your dog should and shouldnt eat.

For example, you might think that all fruits and vegetables would be good for your dog since theyre healthy for humans. But, some are extremely harmful, like grapes, onions, and garlic. Other fruits and vegetables, like bananas and sweet potatoes, can give your dog the same beneficial nutrients that humans get. However, bananas should be given sparingly, as they are very sugary and will end up filling your dog up with a lot of empty calories.

Other ingredients, including milk, bread, and chocolate, should never be a part of your dogs diet, either.

A good rule of thumb for making your own dog food is to use whole, natural ingredients. After educating yourself on what your dog should and shouldnt eat, cook the way you might cook for yourself, but leave out common seasonings like salt and pepper. Your dog will be thrilled with a dish of brown rice, lean chicken, and green beans. Plus, you can feel good knowing every single ingredient they are ingesting.

Cooking meals for your dog takes time, even if you meal prep and get their food ready for the week in one day. So, whether its easier for you to buy a bag of food or make your own, we hope that reading this has given you a greater understanding of the importance of ingredients. They really make all the difference in the world when it comes to the cost of food. You dont necessarily need to blow your budget to feed your dog, as long as you make sure what youre giving them is as close to whole food as possible.

Why pet food is so doggone expensive

My dog, Jumanji, loves beef pizzle also known as bully sticks. Also known as dried bull penises.

I can tolerate what they are, and even the pungent smell these things exude. Whats harder to stomach is the price tag. Each stick can cost more than $10, and my dog tears through them in a matter of minutes.

Bully sticks arent the only pricey pet products. Foods, treats, and chews can cost owners hundreds of dollars a month, even though theyre often made with byproducts of the meat and poultry industry essentially, anything thats not muscle tissue, like udders, spleens, bones, and, yes, pizzle.

These costs are hitting more people than ever before. During the pandemic, a whopping 23 million American households about one in five adopted a dog or cat. And the prices are rising, too. Pet food was roughly 12 percent more expensive at the start of this year compared to early 2020, according to the research firm NielsenIQ.

Benji Jones

Cat or dog, mutt or purebred, your pet is probably pretty expensive, and theres a reason why food and treats are such a big part of the cost. For one, byproducts arent really byproducts as you might think of them. More importantly, though, dog and cat owners have a trait that makes us especially vulnerable consumers: We are completely obsessed with our pets.

Kibble is surprisingly complex

In a strange way, kibble is like infant formula, according to Marion Nestle, a professor emerita of nutrition at New York University whos written two books on pet food: You have a product that is the entire nutrition for that animal.

Those homely brown pellets need to have the right combination of fat, protein, fiber, and nutrients to keep a pet healthy, even if it eats nothing else. (The adult equivalent might be something like Soylent.)

Kibble also needs to last for weeks or months without rotting, which requires additional ingredients. The complexity is just amazing, George Collings, a pet food consultant, told me, adding that juggling multiple supply chains and thousands of ingredients comes at a cost.

The ingredients can be pricey themselves, too even the so-called byproducts of the meat industry. While Americans might not readily eat meats like liver and pizzle, theres a market for them elsewhere, such as in Europe and China. Thats why some experts call byproducts a misnomer.

Theyre not scraps, said Jennifer Martin, an associate professor of animal science at Colorado State University. Theyre high-demand proteins and high-demand ingredients that the pet food industry has to compete for.

The pandemic has also boosted meat prices overall. A couple of years ago, outbreaks of Covid-19 forced meatpacking plants to close. Farms responded by euthanizing an enormous number of animals, which squeezed supply and boosted costs. Those costs trickled down to the pet food industry, said Dana Brooks, president and CEO of the Pet Food Institute, an industry trade group.

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Pet food producers also pour money into research. The goal, Nestle said, is to make a kibble thats just gamey enough that tastes bad enough so that animals love it but it doesnt smell or look so awful that people wont buy it.

Companies run sniff tests with pets to find the most palatable kibble, Martin said. They put out a few different formulations of a particular food in a large room and then unleash dozens of dogs (or a handful of cats) to see which foods they prefer. They really enjoy getting to participate in this process, Martin said.

Bully sticks, specifically, face additional challenges that impact their price such as the one rooted in biology. Only bulls have pizzles, and they only have one. Plus, manufacturers can generally only get a couple of sticks per penis, Martin said. The faltering reputation of rawhide chews has also buoyed demand for bully sticks, she said.

Pet food companies also charge a lot because ... they can

Like any good company, pet food producers know their customers well; they know that humans love their animals and will do pretty much anything for them. So another reason why pet food companies charge so much is simply because they can get away with it, Nestle said.

Companies also know that people are paying more attention to whats in pet food, perhaps, because theyre spending more time at home with their animals. Owners are increasingly opting for foods that are similar to what they might buy for themselves all-natural, non-GMO, vegan, and so on. Usually, pet food trends lag about five years behind our own, yet that gap is shrinking, Martin said. The pets dont care about anything thats on the label, but the owners do, Nestle said. Theyre not selling to the pets.

This gets at a much bigger idea: The pet food industry is, to a large extent, built on branding. If you put peanut butter in a tube and call it Kong Stuffn, you can sell it for more than a jar of Jif. They know well pay for it, Martin said. The same list of ingredients packaged by different brands of food can also cost wildly different amounts, Nestle said.

Marketing also obscures the fact that there are just a handful of major corporations behind the majority of food brands you see at the pet store. For example, Mars Petcare a subsidiary of Mars, best known for making M&Ms and Twix bars owns dozens of brands including Pedigree, Greenies, Iams, Whiskas, and Royal Canin. Nestle Purina, a subsidiary of Nestle, also has several brands to its name including Purina, Friskies, Beneful, Fancy Feast, and many others. A lack of competition within an industry can be bad for the consumer and bad for prices.

Brooks, of the Pet Food Institute, argues that the pet food industry is still highly competitive. And to that end, a raft of startups, from firms offering vegan meals to online retailers, now threatens to shake up the industry, which some analysts say could triple in size over the next decade.

Should you buy the more expensive pet food?

Remarkably, theres not much research that compares the cost of dog or cat food to the health outcomes of the animal, according to Joseph Bartges, a board-certified veterinary nutritionist at the University of Georgia. Expensive does not necessarily mean better, Bartges said in an email. There are no good studies evaluating this.

That leaves a big opportunity for the industry, Shari White, Petcos senior vice president of merchandising, told me. Id love to see more research on health outcomes, she said. (She noted that Petco consults with a team of trained nutritionists and vets, and partners with brands that carry out health-related research.)

Popular diets for dogs like grain-free, which tend to be pricier, may not be better either, Gimlets Rose Rimler reported last year for an episode of the podcast Science Vs. While some dogs do have grain allergies and its important to be mindful of them these canines have evolved with us, and theyve evolved to eat grains, she reports. (The whole episode is excellent and worth checking out.)

Theres also not much evidence that feeding table scraps to your pup on occasion is a bad idea, Bartges said, as long as you avoid foods they cant tolerate, like macadamia nuts and chocolate. (You can find a full list here.)

Absent more information, its hard to know what to buy and, as pet food author Nestle said, its easy to see why pet food companies might want to keep it that way. The appeal of the more expensive foods is to pet owners who want to do right by their pets because they love them, Nestle said. The pet couldnt possibly care.

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