Any penny-pinching pet tips?

Sioux's Favorite Liver Treats

1 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. yellow corn meal
1 1/2 pounds chicken livers with juices, liquefied in blender
1 large egg
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp garlic powder

Combine all ingredients.  Spread in a 9x13 greased pan and bake at 415 degrees for 15 minutes.  Cut with a pizza cutter while warm.  These freeze well and make at least 5-6 baggies of soft training treats.  Much cheaper than Bil Jac or some of the other prepared treats, and it only stinks up the kitchen for a little while. []

Great ideas everyone! I agree on not skimping on food. I have tried many different brands in many price ranges and settled on Canidae as the best for my dogs at the best price for my budget.

I was spending a bundle on training treats at first and that had to stop! Right now, for everyday, low distraction stuff I just use dry cat kibble. The dogs love it and it's a very high quality brand so I know it's healthy. It comes in teeny-tiny pieces so I can do a ton of training with a small handful of food. For a high-value reward, I use string cheese. Lucy goes bonkers for it and I always have it on hand anyway for the kids. Plus, it doesn't stink as bad as hot dogs and is individually wrapped.

If you have a vet that agrees, splitting doses of flea products is very economical. We use Revolution and since an extra-large dose is only a few $ more than the regular dose our vet provides a dosing syringe and exact amounts to split up the large doses between the dogs and cats. Saves well over $100 a year for us on flea & heartworm control.

Thanks for all the great ideas. Next time whole chickens are on sale I'm going to stock up and crock pot them. That will be a cheap way to stretch the dog and cat food budget. I'll have to make a trip to Goodwill for some stuffies, too!

My advice, if there is something you can buy for a dog that can be bought for a horse....buy the one for the HORSE.  Mucho cheaper!  I have seen shed blades for dogs go for as much as $17. I got mine from a tack shop for $2.  Same goes for vet wrap, betadine and all that jazz. 
And I think I may even purchase a bottle of horsie shampoo for my dog.  I use it, so i don't see why he can't []

MARRY A VET! that's going to save you the most $$$....or do like me and marry into a family where there's a vet [] FREE Frontline, HW meds, shots, meds, minor surgeries, etc is MOST helpful on the budget!

splitting doses of flea products is very economical.

OH, I forgot about that one! Forget the vet, buy Frontine online, the largest size (catch a sale and save more!), and split them by your dogs' weights. This is best for those with mulitple dogs, of course - you can't save an open Frontline package very easily from month to month.

I agree that the cheapest thing you can do to keep your dog happy and healthy is time!

I caught on to the collar addiction very quickly and have halted it.

I use regular dog kibble for training treats. I think my dogs just like that they are getting fed from my hands and they love it. I am not doing any intensive training with the though...just normal obedience commands and a few tricks. They get two meals a day, and one is during training. They love the attention.

feeding raw meaty bones has saved me thousands because we don't ever need teeth cleanings done. One cheap way to feed raw meaty bones is to buy whole chickens-- cut the meat off for you, feed the wings and back to your dogs. It's cheaper than buying packages of pre-cut meat, too.
 
Don't pick a dog food by the cost per bag. Many of the moderate-quality foods that sell for around $1 a pound are actually more expensive to feed than the high-quality foods that go for around $1.50 a pound-- because you feed much less of the high-quality food per dog per day. 

Wow..there are some really great suggestions here already!![]
 
A few more to add…
 
1)       Crockpot like you mentioned doing… it saves me TONS of money and I just buy whatever beef or chicken is on sale. Lamb is my “splurge” but I only buy it when I can get it at Traders Joes since it is SO much cheaper. But I can normally get about 10 -12 meals from what I crockpot. I also add apples or pears sometimes to the meat.. it adds great flavor and is cheap!
2)       Buy canned fish (assuming you feed this) at places you might not expect. I stock up on sardines from the 99 cent store and I buy canned pink Alaskan salmon from Trader Joes or Wal Mart rather than the grocery store.
3)       We have expensive beds for them upstairs in our bedroom for night time sleeping… but during the day we just use blankets downstairs for them. To save money on washing the blankets so frequently, I buy the super soft faux fur or super soft fleece blankies from Ross or TJ max when they go on clearance. (usually pay about $8 per blanket).    
4)       I never buy frontline from the vet or Petco.. I always get it at my local independent pet shops since it is so much cheaper.
5)       We live in a condo so we HAVE to take them to potty in the complex every single time. This means we spend a TON on dog poop bags. If you have to BUY poop bags like we do, order them from Dog poop bags.com  http://www.dogpoopbags.com/
6)       Make treats for the pups yourself… like Anne#%92s recipe and Xerxes has been making ten TONS of homemade jerky just with a little garlic power and different meats. (pm him if you want the recipe or more info). He freezes them in big baggies too…
7)       If the place you buy the Canidae from doesn#%92t have a “frequent buyer” card, see if another place that sells it close to you does.

a LITTLE garlic added to their food is a decent flea preventor. Definitely not as good as Frontline or Advantage, but it'll do in a pinch.

 
I sautee my dogs veggies in olive oil with a little fresh garlic. One large or two small cloves in a large skillet full makes enough for three days with three large dogs. I use frozen veggies when I can't get good cheap fresh. During garden season, we get a lot of free veggies.  Last year we had to use Frontline only once, and all of our neighbors had to use it several times. I'm aware there are some concerns with anemia and large quanities of garlic/onion, but that amount is safe. Of course it depends on where you live too.

i noticed someone buying poop bags... why not just use the bags you get from grocery shopping?  i know they're not biodegradeable but otherwise someone else will just throw them out.... and, if you're like me and you have a few canvas bags for groceries that you re-use, usually neighbors don't mind donating their bags.  or if you buy a single item, you can double bag it[].  walmart can certainly afford to help us pick up our poop.
 
whenever i go to the laundromat, i play that "pick up the stuffed animal with a claw" game.  it's 50 cents and most grownups i know can get something on the first try[].  50 cents for a toy is great, especially if you're me and rosie eats one in 30 seconds flat.
 
a girlfriend of mine suggested buying "dog toys" at your local thrift store.  this goes for towels and blankets, too. 
 
having said that, sometimes the best way to save money is by spending; about the only things my dogs HAVEN'T ruined is their kongs.  pricey, sure, but i've had them for almost 2 years.  i also found this blue h2o bone made by hartz at wally-world, and though my dogs refuse it when it's full of water, they love it when it isn't and it was one of the most resilient rubber toys i've ever seen.
 
there are some great ideas here that i hadn't thought of as well!

feeding raw meaty bones has saved me thousands because we don't ever need teeth cleanings done.

 
Same here.  Whenever Kato goes to the vet she comments on how beautiful and healthy his teeth and gums are.  He's never had a professional cleaning and he's 5 yrs. old.  Those raw bones are working wonders and his breath has no odor at all.

i've always fed my dogs moderate amounts of fresh garlic and brewer's yeast and i've used chemical flea prevention only once or twice.  i think the natural way really works, and i just feel safer because the chemical stuff kind of scares me.

i noticed someone buying poop bags... why not just use the bags you get from grocery shopping?

 
More than 90% of the bags we get from the local grocery stores and walmart have holes in them. They don't make them like they use to []... Walmart use to have fantastic bags, but now the only bags that are worth anything in my area are from Target. Living in a condo we go through 200 bags a MONTH with our pups... so the only thing we can do is buy them.   We use to spend between $30-$40 a month just on poop bags buying them locally, but by going through dogpoopbags.com we now only spend an average of $7 a month and we buy 2000 of them at a time... so this is a GREAT savings for those of us who HAVE to buy poopy baggies![]

For poop bags, I go to the dollar store and get diaper clean up bags.  They are $1 for 100 of them and they work just fine.  I can easily tie them to the handle of my leash. 
Work at a pet store!  I get a discount so it helps out some.  However, since I'm there every day, I find too many cute toys to buy.  There were some really cute Valentine's Day toys.  So, to save money, I wait until after Valentine's Day and they are 50% off.  Add my discount, and thats 70% off!  I could not resist a couple of the Easter ones yesterday though.  But, they were really cheap.  More expensive toys, like the IQube, I buy online. 
I have been buying my rabbit food/hay from work, but its so expensive for hay.  For 48oz...about the size of one flake of hay...it was $12.99.  I could buy a whole BALE of hay for half that price!  But, I don't have a good source.  I have been wanting to get Oxbow, so I checked prices and if I buy in bulk from them, I can get it cheaper, including shipping, than from work with my discount.  I have a friend in vet school and they get it at a discount plus pay no shipping, so she said she would order mine at the same time. 
It really pays to shop around and buy in bulk if at all possible.  I buy that chicken jerky at the feed store because theirs is higher quality, no salt added, and half the price!  They also usually have nice leather collars and leads for half the price.  I also bought two new rabbit cages there.  $40 each.  Comparable cages at a petstore would be around $80-$100.

For poop bags, I go to the dollar store and get diaper clean up bags. They are $1 for 100 of them and they work just fine.

I do the same.

I also buy dollar blankies at Goodwill[]

I do have that teensy problem of collars needing to match outfits (theirs, not mine!) and holidays and toenails and such.... I've GOTTA stop that!