5 Secrets to Saving Big When Ordering Pet Supplies Online

5 Secrets to Saving Big When Ordering Pet Supplies Online

Photo A. Higgins

If you are like most pet parents, you enjoy scoring a great discount every now and then. Pet expenses are always on the rise and your goal as a pet parent should be to buy quality products and supplies without paying more than you should.



While wholesale places like Costco offer great discounts on pet products, they often fail to match the prices offered online. However, finding the best prices on pet supply stores takes a bit of effort. There are a few tricks you can employ to get the best discounts consistently. Few of these tips are going to be pretty obvious, but you would be surprised how many pet parents actually forget to utilize them. Before we reveal our tips, remember our one and only rule.

#1 Rule: Never Trust a Shady Online Pet Store

Without further ado, the following are 5 secret tips to save big when ordering pet supplies online.

When Possible Buy Generic Pet Medications

Did the vet prescribe an expensive pet medication? Stop the urge to shop at the vet’s office, where you are least likely to get a proper discount. Instead, ask the vet to write down the generic name of the medication. Generic meds are usually significantly cheaper than their branded counterparts and they are identical in efficacy and quality. However, when you order pet meds online, it’s important to buy it from a reputed store (remember our #1 rule). A lot of unethical stores sell counterfeit pet medications and generic drugs are even easier to fake than branded ones.

Become a Member

If you shop at one particular store, then it makes complete sense to become a member. Online pet stores reward members by giving them assured discounts on both pet supplies and medications. The cost of the membership fee is usually recovered in the first few months if you buy all your pet products from one store.

Buy Pet Food in Bulk

Pet food is one of the few supplies you know you are going to need. As long as you have the space to store them safely, it makes sense to buy dog and cat food in bulk. Here’s an example to help you understand how much are likely to save. We compared the same pet food product of different pack sizes after all the discounts. The 15lb pack costed us $2.15 per pound. When we bought the bigger 28lb bag we paid $1.89 per pound. Simply put, you can buy the same exact pet food for a cheaper price per pound if you buy in bulk. This is barring the fact that most online pet stores give you additional discount coupons for buying more at a time.

Keep Multiple Tabs Open to Quickly Compare Prices

Okay, this one’s super obvious, but something that most shoppers simply forget to do. Before you do this, however, remember our #1 rule. Don’t trust a shady online pet store offering massive discounts. Keep multiple tabs open of sites you know and trust and compare the prices after adding items to the cart and applying coupons. This is the final price and that’s what matters at the end of the day.

Hunt For Coupons

Hunting for coupons at independent coupon sites is a great way to score additional discounts. You can even check the coupons section on the online pet store website.

5 Tips on Dog Nutrition

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Dogs give us humans a lot back in terms of love, affection, support, warmth and happiness… of course, with the correct training they can even save our lives, but in a day to day context, the love and emotional support of a dog is second to none.

For this reason, it’s important we keep our dogs in the best shape possible and in addition to ensuring plenty of exercise, we must focus on their nutrition as canine nutrition is just as important and impacting as human nutrition.

Whilst the topic of dog nutrition sounds simple enough, it’s easy to forget the impact food has on our pets and some dog owners are so busy they might be better off keeping fish, as you can simply visit Pet Gear Lab, buy an aquarium filter, throw a few flakes of fish food into the water and that’s as arduous as it gets.

Dog’s require a lot of attention, exercise, love, company, and solid nutrition. In this vein, let’s take a look at five tips on dog nutrition.

1. TOXIC FOOD

Whilst you might view chocolate as a treat there are a number of foods that are poisonous to dogs – including chocolate, avocado, and the sweetener xylitol. It’s important you familiarize yourself with these, if you often give your dog human food.


2. DISCARD THE HYPE AND CHECK OUT THE LABEL

There’s a lot of marketing hype around dog food, indeed dog food manufacturers spend as much on advertising as human food manufacturers. You need to look past the label, with its myriad of positive claims and head for the label on the back.

A lot of dog food is heavily processed and full of ‘fillers’. You therefore want to check the label, just like you would with human food, to confirm the main ingredient is a high protein meat and not all filler or junk.


3. DO NOT OVERFEED

We all love our dogs so much that we often overfeed them, as a treat. There are only a few ways we can express our love; the predominant channels being walks, cuddles, and food. The latter, can lead to an overweight dog, particularly if you’re guilty of dishing out dog treats in order to emotionally compensate having to leave your dog for a period of time.

If you have an overweight dog in need of a doggy diet, one of the best and most simple tips is to feed earlier in the day and increase exercise… just like you would with a human.


4. NATURAL SUPPLEMENTS

Humans spend billions on vitamins and supplements; yet animals can benefit from these too. A chronic condition that plagues most dogs, as they get older, are conditions like arthritis – by supplementing with preventative remedies such as omega oils or natural anti-inflammatories like aloe vera can really help.


5. WATER

Dogs need to drink little and often, particularly in summer, as dehydration can cause serious health problems… even death.

Just like humans, the higher the temperature and amount of exercise – the more your dog needs to drink. Having access to a plentiful supply of clean drinking water is critically important, as dogs can survive for a long time without food, but a very short time without water.