April 6, 2005 - A Dog Eat By-Products World

There's an old expression - give a man a pizza, and he'll eat for a day; give a man a bag of dog food, and his pooch will eat for a month. Yesterday, the dedicated staff of edhat.com put our noses to the trail to find out exactly how much a bag of dog food costs.

The biggest question hounding us yesterday was what brand we should price. There are the grocery store brands, like Alpo and Puppy Chow. There are the healthy alternatives available in pet stores like Science Diet and Eukanuba. And, there are the foods for extreme eating that you can only get online or at doggie boutiques. Fortunately, there are more "what to feed your dog" websites on the Internet than you can wag your tail at. One common theme that runs through all the threads is that Science Diet, the industry leader, is not very healthy.

The term that comes up a lot in the dog food discourse is human grade. Not at all like a human pyramid, human grade implies that the dog food is good enough for people to eat. Food that isn't human grade contains stuff like by-products, a catchall phrase that includes bones, blood, intestines, lungs, ligaments, heads, feet, and feathers. Or, it could contain BHA or BHT - three letter chemical abbreviations that remind us of DDT and other bad things. The food could also contain animal fat - that could be just about anything.

So, if you are one of those guys who try to impress girls by eating dog food at parties, maybe you should think again. Unless you're in training for Fear Factor.

Science Diet, it turns out, contains by-products, BHA, and animal fat. It also contains corn meal, filler that experts claim is hard for dogs to digest. It could even cause flatulence, something that dogs are often blamed for regardless of whether they suffer from it or not.

So, yesterday, using our phone as our leash, we doggedly called around to all the places in town that sell canine cuisine. After all of our research, we decided to call about Science Diet (the most expensive) in 40 pound bags. If they didn't sell that, we would ask for an alternative. We even called veterinarians, because they often have bags of Science Diet for sale in their waiting rooms.

There is quite a discrepancy in dog food pricing. Most places sell the 40-pound sacks for around $39.00. However, All About Pets, located in the old Ralph's Center on De La Vina, sells Science Diet for $28.99. Western Animal Supply on lower Anacapa told us that they sell it for $39, but said that they would match other prices - including All About Pets. PetCo sells Science Diet for $36.00 in the store, but they currently have an on-line sale price of $26.99. But don't start running around in circles barking. Once you add on the shipping price, the total comes out to over 40 bones.

About the vets - apparently, much of the Science Diet sold there is prescription food - for dogs with weight problems or other canine maladies. Santa Barbara Pet Hospital sells the regular stuff, too - for $37.49/bag.

We put the dog food prices on a map for you to see.

The average price for all food was $37.14. El Dwightio wins an Axxess Card in the daily contest with a guess of $37.00. Every dog has its day!

Want to get instant fame and cool prizes? ... enter today’s contest

We want to hear from you ... tell us what you think of this tidbit