Saving in 2007 on your pet costs, Part 2

Did you make a resolution this year to save extra money for reducing debt, building up an emergency fund, or investing?  One place to look might be pet expenses.  MSN has an article with 13 tips for keeping pet costs in check.  This post continues with the last seven tips in the article.  (The bold wording is from the article; the rest is paraphrased or added by me.)

• Avoid emergency clinics when possible.  They are very expensive.  Sometimes there is no other option, especially if something serious happens after hours, like your dog gets bitten in the face by a copperhead.  That happened to one of our dogs.  The face was swelling up, so there was no waiting until the weekend was done and the vet was open.  There you just eat the cost.
• Consider pet insurance.  Also consider your needs with your pet.  Pet insurance isn't the same thing as the package deals that some vets offer, which covers services for a period of time and may allow for some discounts on emergency procedures.  When we saw the one our vet offered it was pretty clear that it wasn't that good a deal.  But hey — she has to keep the lights on somehow.
• Think twice before adding pets.  You may be able to save a small amount by buying larger quantities of food, but you're still paying more.  For everything.  Now, having said that, I don't really know whether a pet with a companion will be healthier (and therefore, cheaper) to maintain, but the experience my parents-in-law had with their dog after his buddy died indicate that the dog left alive becomes decidedly less pleasant to deal with.   As H. Jackson Brown, Jr., said: “Never acquire just one kitten.  Two are a lot more fun and no more trouble.”
• Save for end-of-life care.  One previous dog got really bad really quickly, so there weren't long drawn-out expenses at the end.  Our euthanasia was pretty inexpensive, and we opted for mass cremation instead of individual cremation which saved us about a hundred bucks.
• Don't buy the cheapest food.  Cheap food has a lot of filler.  Costco has a Kirkland brand dog food that's reasonably high-quality, and noticeably cheaper than the name-brand.  The amount of high-quality food that you give the dogs is deceiving; you need to give them less volume than the cheap stuff because the high-quality food is more nutritious.
• Don't overfeed.  One of our dogs will eat anything put in front of his mouth, so it's easy to overfeed.
• Spay or neuter your pet.  Child support is expensive.  (Just kidding.)  But seriously, the pets tend to be healthier and they tend to get hit by cars less often because they're not wanting to be “on the prowl” as much.

But what's the biggest way to save money on your pets?  Not getting them in the first place!  But assuming that you've already made the pet a project, then these thirteen from the MSN are good tips.  I inherited my pets, and once you have had some good pets you'll wonder how you lived without them.  But there is no doubt that pets are a serious financial commitment.  If you want a few dozen more articles on the cost of pets, then have at this.