#and people who feel scammed because anything veterinary is already expensive to the point not everyone can afford it as regularly as needed

[is-the-owl-video-cute]

i think the most annoying part of dog food discourse is how many people will act as though proplan/hill’s/Royal canin diets aren’t extremely and prohibitively expensive and that THAT is the reason so many people look into healthy alternatives.

People complain about corn being in the first five ingredients on most of those feeds because, regardless of other factors here, that is not an expensive ingredient. But it makes up a large chunk of the dry food. So the dry food should be fairly affordable, right?

Oh… with tax you’re spending about $100 for one 45lb bag of food where the third ingredient is wheat and the fourth and fifth ingredients are corn.

Oh… well! It’s slightly cheaper! But the second ingredient is rice, third is wheat, fourth is corn, and then fifth is poultry byproduct. None of those are very expensive so this just must be the low end cost of dog food unfortunately. The vets recommend it so surely that means prices aren’t inflated, right?

Oh? This one has similar ingredients with the only real difference being no corn? And it’s half the price?? Well surely that’s just a fluke.

Oh. Oh no.

This one even has CORN in it and it’s $20 cheaper?? Wow!

Like listen at some point I don’t care if your dog food has the ichor of the gods in it, I’m not spending $100 every five days if there are cheaper options with just as many “good” ingredients in it. If you think I’m a dog abuser because I can’t afford this overpriced garbage, that’s too bad. I don’t care. My dogs are perfectly healthy with the food I give them. Great weight and great coat. People giving dog food recommendations that aren’t those top three hyper-expensive dog foods aren’t trying to epic own those dastardly vets half the time, but I really don’t blame the ones who do lose trust in vets when the only heartworm protection they recommend lately are expensive triple-action brands like Simparica Trio that costs $120+ as opposed to the other heartworm protections that are only about $40-$60 on average, which is still cheaper even if you add on a $20-$40 flea and tick protection separately, and only recommend dog food that costs $85+ a bag even if your dog doesn’t have specialized dietary needs.

Those top three foods are GREAT at making competent prescription diets, I don’t deny that. I do still have to criticize the pricing of those prescription diets though because I have spoken to DOZENS of people who had to pull their pets off of a prescription diet and struggle to find something comparable because they couldn’t afford the food, and that’s terrible! These are not poor companies! Purina, Royal Canin, and Hill’s can ABSOLUTELY afford to lower their prices to make their food accessible to people who need it for their animals but they don’t. They probably never will. Because at the core they are run by greedy corporations. It doesn’t matter how many good nutritionists are on board if the company is run by people who put profits over customers and make the food impossible for people to afford.

#I keep seeing posts from people on both sides of this #and it is frustrating to see how many vets don’t seem to acknowledge #that a MASSIVE part of the dog food debate has and always will be #the inaccessibility of these three brands #because whether corn is good or bad or neutral for a dog #It’s a cheap ingredient #any meat byproducts are a cheap ingredient #wheat in any form is a cheap ingredient #rice is a cheap ingredient #they aren’t putting Diamond dust and gold flakes in the kibble it’s very accessible and affordable ingredients for the most part #and many comparatively smaller companies use very similar ingredients and make food people can actually afford #So yeah when people look at these factors it does make them distrust vets who will almost exclusively push expensive brands #and that’s where the distrust is coming from #it’s not primarily smug tiktok kids who think they know everything #it’s just people who have less money than you and get treated like they care less for their animals because of it lol #and people who feel scammed because anything veterinary is already expensive to the point not everyone can afford it as regularly as needed #the fact people have to give pets vaccines themselves to make ends meet because most vets charge so much just to walk in the door #is a sign of a larger problem #I criticize people who avoid taking animals with surprise sickness or injuries to the vet #but it’s not exactly hard to see why that isn’t even an option for a lot of people #people can’t even afford surgery on themselves if they’re suddenly injured out of the blue in this country #So I can’t pretend to be shocked they don’t have $10k squirreled away if something unavoidable happens to a pet #no one is entitled to an animal they can’t afford yes yes but a routine vet visit shouldn’t be $600-$1000 per animal sorry #give me a copay or something