Are you doing anything to cut livestock & pet expenses?

[Kia]

We're what horse people call "horse poor". For non-horse people, that doesn't mean being too poor to own a horse, but being poor because you own too many horses. Describes us to a T.

First priority for us is to cut the numbers. We're hoping to sell 1/3 to 1/2 our herd this summer. Our horses and goats don't use a lot of grain but hay's running about $175 a ton for timothy or orchard grass.

We haul all our own hay with a flatbed truck. We buy big bales because they're usually cheaper, and can unload and move them with the tractor rather than doing it by hand. (Have probably avoided paying for future carpal tunnel surgeries for both Dh and I!) We vaccinate all our animals (horses, goats, dogs & cats) ourselves with the exception of rabies vacc. which must be done by a vet. We stock livestock meds and do almost all first aid ourselves, even small "surgeries" requiring stitches. We use the vet only for situations we're unable to handle. We practice as much preventative medicine as we can afford, as it's always cheaper to avoid a sick animal than to attempt to fix a problem. Our horses don't need shoes and we do all the hoof trimming ourselves (goats too). Not always as pretty as a professional would accomplish, but it works. Dh trades farm work for free summer pasture.

On the flip side, we have far too many freeloaders. Due to circumstances beyond our control (illness in family, etc) we haven't sold any horses for several years and I quit milking my goats. Our rooster population is probably equal to the hens. With no chicken house, the hens lay everywhere so we lose some eggs. We tend to make pets out of most of our animals but currently our cup runneth over with pets! With the economy what it is, that has to change.

Selling some horses is the first priority, then getting the goats back in production and getting rid of the excess roosters. I'm hoping Dh will have time to build a chicken house this summer. If not, I'll try to make use of an existing building.

Anyone else in the same boat we're in? What do you do to keep costs down?

[colemank]

I just have 1 small dog, a yorkie... She doesn't eat much at all. I buy one small bag of dog food and it lasts at least 2 months. I do use coupons for every bag of dog food I buy. I can find them in the newspaper, at coupon services or on ebay... She is litter box trained (she gets absolutely sick in the heat so the vet suggested litter training her) so I do have to buy litter. This is where I have a big expense. She has EXTREMELY sensitive feet. In the beginning I bought dog litter which was pricey, but it was good. Great at odor control and everything. Then she quit wanting to go into her litter pan, so I switched to a cat litter that was smaller in size but same shape as dog litter, she was ok with that for a while and I was glad it was 1/3 the price of dog litter, then she decided she didn't like that so I had to switch again to the stuff I am using now it is called Carefresh small animal bedding. She doesn't mind it since it is nice and soft and sort of cottony, but it is EXPENSIVE! I was talking to DH and we are going to try that small cat litter again. I will pick up a small bag of it at the commissary and give it a try. I can always find coupons for it inside the bags and it will be much cheaper.

I used to take my dog to the groomer ever 3 weeks for a bath, nails, and a bottom shave... I have stopped that. I now take her about every 5 or 6 weeks and then do weekly baths myself... I don't get her hair as smooth and silky as the groomer, but it is much cheaper.

[Kia]

ONE little pet?! I can't even imagine. Much of our day is spent caring for animals or buying/hauling feed. I'm hoping this summer we start seeing some return off our investment but the horse market isn't good at present.

Could you perhaps try mixing the two litters? Maybe she'd be ok with that and it would still be cheaper. At least it might work better to wean her back to the cheaper stuff gradually.

[colemank]

Yep Kia, one little pet. LOL! We have only had her for 1 year now. If the kids and I had our way we would have a whole yard full of something or another, but DH says no not while we live here in Las Vegas. We have no yard for an animal to be able to run around. The kids and I worked DH for years to agree to the dog. Then it was "you can get 1 dog if it is a small dog" and he got me Maggie, I had been wanting a Yorkie since we were married...

I am going to try combining the litters to see if it helps. Thanks for the idea.

[Kia]

This isn't a real biggie, but today while I was taking a quick break, I pulled out my kitchen scale and weighed rabbit pellets into a small scoop, then marked the scoop for how much to feed the big rabbits, med. size rabbits and dwarf rabbit. I can "eyeball" the right amount but now Dd can feed the correct amount also so she doesn't over/under feed.

I still need to buy 2 feeders for the 2 new rabbits. The rest have feeders but I've been feeding these 2 out of a small crocks which tend to get dumped. Especially when the doe grabs hers with her teeth and slings it across the cage. She obviously doesn't care about the increase in feed prices.

[Bornfrugal]

I find the horses can be expensive, a sack of course mix here costs about 10 euros thats not too bad, but I find the bedding very expensive, a bale of woodshavings runs in at 7.00 !!! and it takes at least 5 of them to make a bed !!
My mare is on Straw which I muck out everyday properly, so in reality she costs me for bedding about 5.00 per week, but our cob (Paddy) is alergice to straw as it makes him cough, he also eats it which isnt good, so he is on the shavings, we have tried buying shredded paper at 5.00 per bale, but once its wet it is like trying to lift paper mache!! it also doesn't rot down very well..............I wish there was a easy solution ???

[yellowsprings]

We have one german shepherd, six cats and 12 chickens (two roosters). I buy the dog food in the largest bag that I can get and do the same with the cat food. The dog eats all he wants and the outside cats get fed once a day. They can hunt for their food as there are plenty of mice in the pole barn for them! None of the cats are starving, actually most of them are a little chunky!

The chicken feed is in 50 lb bags and I usually buy three at a time so that I can fit it all into the can. I will stack extras in the garage but rarely do that in the summer time as it can get pretty warm. The prices keep increasing on the chicken feed. I used to get coupons for buy one bag, get one free. Then they switched it to buy two bags, get one free. This year it is buy one bag, get $5 off the second bag.

I can supplement the chickens food by letting them out of the run and letting them eat to their hearts content in the yard and garden. The only drawback to this is that I need to be home when I let them out. There are too many coyotes and wandering dogs for me to feel safe leaving them unsupervised.

I also recently found out that I had unwanted visitors (skunks) in the chicken coop every night, eating the feed out of the feeder. I put a stop to that by closing the coop door and laying a cement block against it.

[Polly]

The chickens go out in the chicken tractor on grass in the summer, which cuts their feed bill quite a bit. Right now, I'm carrying them buckets of weeds that I pull/dig out of the perennial flower beds and those that have come up in the garden so far - they really enjoy them.

The chicken feed and scratch, I buy at the feed store in 40-50# bags; for every 10 bags I buy, I get one free. Dog and cat food, I buy at the feed store as well, dog food in 40# bags (2 large dogs), cat food in 18# bags (2 inside, 2 outside cats). I've not figured out a way to cut those costs - in fact; they just increased a bit. I used to buy cat food at the Evil Empire, but now I pay $2 more a bag (with a smile on my face!) in order to avoid that place.

[Maggie]

I have 2 goats (right now) & 2 sheep that all eat hay. We keep our eyes out for a good price, then stock up for the year. When it gets nice we try to tie them out to graze, as they can eat their pastures pretty bare. We also raise pigs & chickens. We keep 11 hens & 2 roosters year round, and their feed comes in 100 lb bags. We also let them range when someone is home, and we feed them scraps to keep costs down. For about 2 months we have meat birds. We buy 500 lbs of feed once & hope we get through till butchering They don't get any scraps. For 4 months a year we have the pigs. We also buy their feed 500lbs at a time, but it doesn't go as far as you'd think. They also receive kitchen scraps & corn cobs as a treat.

To lower overall costs to feed this menagerie we keep our eyes open for 'deals'. Last year a farmer lost a field to a windstorm and he let my son scavenge for any remaining cobs. He got 2 feed bags full. A lady he mows for has an old apple tree with buggy apples that are quite small. He brings what he can home to give to the pigs (who don't mind a bit )

We keep 3 bird-dogs & buy their food 50 lbs at a time. Our one small house dog doesn't eat much at all. I haven't found a way to lower their costs except for coupons, which I'm alsawys looking for.

[Jo Roma]

We are "down" to just 3 dogs, 2 are short hair but Durnick has the maddest coat you have ever seen(VERY) luckily a friend is a groomer & I get him shaved in the summer and trimmed in the winter for free. I buy the complete dog food from Lidl and feed them leftovers. I try to sneak in the odd raw egg into their food - great for their coats & also sneak in garlic to combat pests.
I just got great flea drops from the vet which also acts as a dewormer so don't have to buy that any more.
Must say I got tired just reading some of the above posts!!!