Anyone ever tried making your own cat litter? I read about it, but I don’t know if it’s worth it!

I put a thin stick under a blanket and keep moving it. It excites my new black beauty, Sophia, and she keeps pouncing on top of the blanket to capture and stop it.

CATS
Litter— Feline Fresh pellets. Last much longer. Much cheaper. (and neutralizes urine odor. thank goodness). As well as environmentally friendly.

Toys— We have a few store bought toys and also some homemade ones. We find that they have their individual favorites, but the toys last much longer and keep their interest much longer if there are playtimes and not all toys are out all the time.

Food— We feed them only the good stuff. Fromm and Stella and Chewy’s, but here’s our reasoning: GOOD FOOD IS PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE. I love our vet, but I don’t want to ever see her for anything but routine checkups. We give them nothing with preservatives or artificial chemicals. They eat grain free the majority of the time, but we rotate varieties. A little extra on food now beats a lot extra at the vet later for kidney issues, allergies, cancers, etc. And we spay and neuter which also cuts down on cancer.

DOG
Toys: BUY QUALITY. We don’t use tennis balls. We pay a little extra for the good toys, but then they never need to be replaced (unless lost, which hasn’t happened yet). We use fetch toys that are made from recycled plastics. Fetch toys are for fetch only and are not the same as house toys (plus, it helps to keep games separate training-wise). Also, the toys are less likely to hold bacteria like tennis balls, and are more giving, so more tooth friendly. We like West Paw and Planet Dog. If it lasts longer, it ends up being cheaper in the long term. Not to mention the waste and production is significantly lower than something that needs to be replaced often.

Food: See above. Same as cats. I have a ton of dog recipes, but I really don’t have the time at the moment. I wish I did, but it’s just not possible right now.

BOTH

We do as much of our own grooming as possible. We rarely have to take anyone in for professional service. It’s time consuming, but its good bonding time. We started getting the cats used to nail trimming, teeth brushing, and baths and brushing, when they were baby kittens, so they’re pretty ok with it. They’re long hairs, so we also trim their fur on their bellies. They’re not super into it, but it prevents matted clumpies.

The pup is not into nail trimming (we adopted her at a later stage in life and weren’t able to develop the good habits early), but we’re working with her. She’ll get there. We have lots of sidewalks to run on, so they stay relatively short.

Seriously, nothing goes to waste at our house. That old myth about table scraps being bad for your dog is a hoax perpetuated by an industry that does nothing else but scavenge up scraps of a much more unsavory kind and sells it to you with the picture of a happy dog on the bag or can.

My mom used to fry up chicken necks and liver and kidneys for our dogs and every one that did not meet with an accident lived to be a ripe old age. No secret supplements there!

Considering what that crap did to my Brandy that only began with the $126.00 bill for euthanasia, the burgers are a bargain.

My only problem these days is that I simply dont have enough left overs for two healthy setters and I cringe each and every time my wife dishes out another bowl full of “meatie-Os”. I’d rather see them chewing on a road kill carcas.

Also we save the broth from making chicken soup and freeze it in ice cube trays. I heat it up in the microwave and pour it over his kibble.

We also freeze pumpkin goo/water in ice cube trays.

…probably saved the most money when I *ahem* realized he only really needed ONE collar. Hey, he’s my first dog.

I do buy most of my pet pharmaceuticals directly from both my small and large animal vets, because, frankly, I need all the goodwill from them that I can get/buy. But I had to do something about the >$110/month cost of Clomicalm for what can best be described as my severely autistic rescued GSD. He simply cannot function without drug therapy. My vet understands both the dog’s for-life need of the drug and it’s obscene retail cost, so I started looking for a way to keep my dog sane and me out of the poorhouse.

While discount pet supply stores (for Clomicalm) and the local drug stores (for Clomipramine, the human version) offered some price relief, it was the generic only, cash only, no-insurance-allowed godsend of a pharmacy near the local hospital that saved the day. A month’s supply of generic Clomipramine costs me $23. A pharmacy designed as a safety net for uninsured humans sure helps me help my dog.

I told his assistant, when she called to find out how my cat was doing, they gave me back the wrong cat. This one was too lively.

I usually get much better service by being a good customer. However, I must STOP TEASING MY VET!

Beds — sleep on or under mine. (Three Dog Night = savings on heat.) Old blanket or bath mat in crate for those who are crated. I made two inner-spring dog beds for the Old Ladies by taking the mattress from a nasty sofa bed we were throwing out (good mattress, awful couch). I cut the mattress in two, removed one row of coils from each piece, sewed the open ends down, and made zippered covers for them. Those were priceless when each of them was on her way out and needed extra support, but could no longer come up on our bed. A crib mattress works just as well and doesn’t require sewing skills or bolt cutters! You can cover it with crib sheets for easy washability. Get these at garage sales.

Toys — other than kongs for stuffing (last nearly forever) and the SAR dogs’ reward frisbees (bought en masse at the dollar store, last just as well as the $15 ones from a pet supply place, which is to say, not long at all), they don’t want or need “store bought” toys. And one can stuff old marrow bones and avoid the cost of kongs, too. The last litter of puppies mostly played with natural materials and knotted bits of old rags. The kittens play with moths, paper bags, one another, and the dogs’ tails. (Tail-docking costs you in cat toys?) The GSD finds her own tennis balls everywhere we go — I think she wills them into existence.

Don’t forget Craig’s list for crates and kennels. I’ve bought kennel panels and crates cheap from people that way, and got some 30” x 7’ heavy-duty wire grid panels (used to make mall kiosks) for $7 each from a guy — they make outstanding sturdy modular panels for pens — right now I’m using six of them for a small chicken pen, and they’ll be great for puppy pens.

Dogs and cats don’t really watch the commercials. They won’t feel deprived if they have no possessions. An old bath mat by your bedside is LOVE; a $100 monogrammed dog bed from Orvis in his own “room” is deprivation.

One cost-saving measure on a non-negotiable (for us) expenditure — tick control. My vet showed me how to measure and split the dose for Frontline, using a small syringe with a plastic tip. We buy the size for the largest dogs — barely more expensive per vial than the smaller doses — and split one vial between 2-3 of our medium-to-large dogs, + cats when indicated. (The cat formula of Frontline Plus is the same as the dog formula, we checked.)

This can cut my tick control costs by 2/3, saving many hundreds of dollars a year. Someone with many cats or tiny dogs could realize even greater savings. And I titrate the dose for the exact center of the manufacturer’s ml/kg guidelines, so nobody is getting over or under-dosed, as can happen when going with the stock packaging. Everyone has his or her exact dose written down on a card that stays with the stuff.

And yes, I do use cattle ivomec for heartworm prevention. I measure it *correctly* and dilute with glycerol, and I use it on dogs that I *know* are MDR1 normal/normal. (Most farmers who do this seem to give the dog an exponential overdose each month, often on the advice of a vet who apparently failed math. The dose for a medium-sized dog is less than a drop, and you cannot dilute with water or alcohol.) IMO, the retail price for Heartguard is criminal.