Pet owners try their best to provide their pets a human grade ingredient pet food. While we fully understand that human grade ingredients are significantly more expensive than feed grade ingredients, we still struggle to be able to afford a 100% human grade diet for our pets.
One option for pet owners to save money on their human grade ingredient pet food is to purchase bulk packaged pet foods. While purchasing a dry (kibble) food in bulk is not always a good option – quality of ingredients can deteriorate in an opened bag of kibble, purchasing a frozen human grade ingredient pet food doesn’t come with the same risk. The integrity of the food ingredients are maintained as long as the products are kept frozen.
Unfortunately, not all human grade ingredient pet food manufacturers offer pet owners options to purchase bulk packaged pet food. To those manufacturers…please consider this a nudge.
On average, savings can be $0.50 to $0.75 a pound when you purchase bulk packaged pet food. For those with a large dog or multiple pets, that savings can be significant.
For Pet Owners: if you purchase from an independent pet food store, they will know (or can easily find out) if your brand of pet food is available to purchase in bulk. If your brand does not offer bulk packaged pet food, ask them to.
Ask your independent pet food store how they handle bulk packaged pet food. Such as, many small stores don’t have the freezer space to store bulk packaged pet food. Pet owners might be able to special order bulk foods from their store, but it might be necessary to pick up the order the day it arrives because of lack of freezer space at the store.
My thanks to independent pet store owner Chelsea Kent for sharing her knowledge on this subject.
Wishing you and your pet the best –
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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Lynn and Paul
April 5, 2022 at 10:06 am
Susan and Chelsea,
Thank you very much for this gentle nudge on behalf of pet parents, and for acknowledging the challenges of making human-grade pet food in bulk, especially for small-batch pet food makers. We’d love to be able to do so and will take seriously the suggestion.
In the meantime, we do prepare fresh, therapeutic food for pet parents pursuant to a veterinarian/veterinary nutritionist’s prescription; those we package in daily feeding amounts — even for large dogs. We look forward to being able to apply that same approach to our six prepared complete and balanced foods for adult dogs.
It’s truly exciting to see the growing demand for fresh food, isn’t it? There’s no going back now. Thank you, Susan, for all of your efforts.
Warm regards,
Lynn and Paul
Lauroe Raymond
April 5, 2022 at 10:26 am
This is a comment for the manufacturers of such human grade pet food. 20 years ago when I opened my store, There were 2 companies that put up their frozen raw food in chubs – 2#, 5# and 10# each. This catered to a small but devoted segment of the market that knew what they were doing. The chubs were minimally packaged in thin plastic with metal crimps at each end, and came in cases that were flat and fit beautifully in chest freezers. Both of those companies, AFS (Now Vital Essentials) and Bravo! (NOT the one recently shut down for violations) are catering far more to newbies enticed to buy more processed diet formulas packaged in thick plastic with lots of fancy colors and slogans. But I think it’s time to revisit the concept of frozen chubs for all human grade pet food. Do your marketing separately from the packaging. OR send stick-on small labels the retailer can affix when selling by the each. Market this packaging style for its environmental benefits. Nuggets, patties of different sizes, other novel forms only add to price. When you buy meat, there’s none of that kind of packaging. Ground beef, chicken, turkey, etc comes in rolls that assume you know what you’re buying and what to do with it. This would open up a larger role for knowledgeable retailers to teach people how to use these foods in increasingly varied and healthy ways and adapt them to their individual pets’ needs. We want people to become as knowledgeable and skilled about feeding their pets as about feeding themselves. We need to stop with the over-packaged marketing hype and figure out how to get them there. Manufacturers need to cater to the customers who really build their recognition for quality — not getting stuck on “brand labeling” but reverting to earned reputation.
Robin
April 5, 2022 at 10:29 am
I have been trying for a few YEARS to persuade one of the newer “subscription” human grade pet food companies to give me this type of option. The main reason is, I am a groomer, AKC exhibitor, I board dogs, doggy daycare, and occasional breeder and at any given time I have a houseful of dogs, many are NOT my personal pets, but are here for boarding, daycare, grooming, showing, etc. The subscription food service wants a lengthy “profile” on each pet prior to beginning the ordering process. I asked for a professional courtesy, or a “breeder package” so I could get food in bulk and I OFFERED in exchange (keep in mind I did NOT request any sort of discount) to refer MANY of my well heeled multi pet clients to the company as SUBSCRIBERS. They have now TWICE replied with an idiotic email response stating that because they need these lengthy “profiles” to determine each individual dog’s “recipe” ( Really??) they cannot offer me bulk at any price. It was very discouraging, but I guess they are doing great without my referrals because lately their commercials are on every channel.
Ann
April 5, 2022 at 8:33 pm
Assume Farmers Dog which did not care for (by far the most TV adds though less lately). I like Raised Right no grain beef and port – and recently added one Petplate turkey/rice recipe which is bit lower per ounce (mixo about 50/50). But the cost for a 30 pound 8 month old dog is about $260 a month delivered frozen including sales tax (about 16 ounces day as still growing bit). Out of reach for most people.
Tammy Norris
April 5, 2022 at 10:55 am
I am so happy to see that you published this article! After I obtained your 2022 food list I went through it and only came up with two options out of all those companies that I could afford to even try because I have TWO Great Pyrenees (each weigh 105 lbs) and a cat and a lot of those other companies were good companies but good grief by the time I added up the monthly cost to feed it was anywhere between $670-$850 a month. In which case I have to stick with my DIY raw and with multiple sclerosis I would really like a premade and a backup dry for emergencies that is healthy for my dogs but doesn’t cost more than my personal food budget. I hope they listen to you. Again thanks for writing it.
Tammy Norris
Mary Pickens
April 5, 2022 at 11:26 am
Wonderful ideas here! I was delighted to see the very finest pet food I have found, BJ’s Pet Food has bulk packaging . Lead there from an interview of Billy Hoekman by Dr. Judy Morgan. Cheers!
Toni
April 5, 2022 at 1:07 pm
If you ordered a case or two at a time, will the store give a discount?