When I was at the vet’s office last month, she mentioned how she likes to feed her dogs freeze-dried dog treats, and I thought that was a brilliant idea! So, while I was at Sam’s Club the other day, I picked up three packages of pink salmon (a total of six pounds) for $41.94:
I was able to play Tetris and get all the fillets on two baking sheets:
I then cooked the fish for about a half hour before breaking them up into smaller, bite-sized portions as best as I could with a spatula; I’m thinking maybe I should’ve used a fork:
After about twenty two hours the Harvest Right said it was done, and I agreed:
Sadly, some of the fillets broke up more than I’d expected they would, basically becoming little more than dust, so I ended up with some unusable pieces, at least as far as dog treats go.
In any case, I decided to try something different this time. Knowing that I was going to use the salmon over the next few months, I opted to use my Potane vacuum sealer and mason jar attachments to hold the treats:
Truth be told, I don’t use the vacuum sealer as much as I used to, especially since I mainly use the impulse sealer for the Mylar bags, but it’s still good to have one for various waterproofing uses and whatnot. Today, it was useful for my dog, and that’s good enough for me. He’s tuckered out from another hard day of playing, but he did look up long enough for the photo:
I ended up with 18.1 ounces of pink salmon. After factoring in the cost of electricity at 22.5 hours of use ($3.10), I figure the total cost of purchasing and freeze-drying the salmon was $45.04, excluding tax. That’s a hefty price for some dog treats!
As always, I was curious how I did as compared to purchasing the same food online. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find just freeze-dried salmon on Amazon, but I did find it at Walmart of all places. A #10 can of salmon fillets sells for $119 and, from what I can gather, equals four pounds of fish when rehydrated. Thus, I would have needed to purchase 1.5 #10 cans to equal what I freeze-dried. Not bad as money savings go.
But what about freeze-dried salmon dog treats? Well, I found these Nutri Bites freeze-dried salmon pet treats on Amazon for a mere $23. Each package holds 14 ounces, more than three-quarters the amount of food I freeze-dried. Uh oh! My freeze-dried salmon treats aren’t looking like such a good deal anymore. That said, the package ingredients list salmon and something called mixed tocopherots, which I had to look up. I’m not sure how much of these mixed tocopherots are included in the freeze-dried dog treats, so I can’t say whether I’m winning the freeze-dried salmon contest or not.
In any case, I looked again and found a 9.5 ounce package of Stewart freeze-dried salmon treats for $33.24. Their only ingredient appears to be salmon, and if I do the math, I would need to pay about $65 for an equivalent amount of dog treats. Yeah! I’m winning again!
Honestly, I’m feeling more and more like the Nutri Bites treats must include a lot of mixed tocopherots, whatever those are. Granted, there is something to be said for each freeze-dried treat–whether it’s from Nutri Bites or Stewart–being uniform in shape and size, but I’m sure my dog won’t mind too terribly much either way. 🙂
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