If you have ever done the math on a 30-pound bag of dog food and realized you are spending more on kibble each month than on your own groceries, Black Friday is the one week a year built to fix that.

Nearly every retailer that sells dog food runs some version of a sale during the week of Thanksgiving, and stacking the right combination of discounts can meaningfully cut the cost of feeding a dog for months.

Here is what to expect from this year’s dog food deals, which retailers take part, and how to actually save without ending up with more food than your dog can eat before it goes stale.

What to Expect From Black Friday Dog Food Deals

Black Friday dog food deals typically combine a percentage-off sale price with a stacking discount for signing up for a subscription program, which is where most of the real savings come from.

Discounts on individual bags rarely exceed 20 to 25 percent at full-price retailers, but subscription programs like Chewy’s Autoship or Amazon’s Subscribe and Save can add another 5 to 40 percent on top, especially for a first order.

Premium and prescription diets see smaller percentage discounts than mainstream brands, since higher margin categories like treats and toys tend to get marked down more aggressively than food itself.

Which Retailers Run Dog Food Deals

Chewy, Petco, PetSmart, Walmart, Target, and Amazon all participate in Black Friday with some version of a dog food sale, though the structure varies a lot between them.

Chewy and PetSmart lean on their own subscription programs, Autoship and Repeat Delivery, to add an extra discount at checkout on top of the sale price already showing.

Walmart and Target tend to discount mainstream brands like Purina, Pedigree, and Kibbles ‘n Bits more than the premium or prescription lines, while Amazon’s marketplace structure means pricing on the exact same bag can vary by seller and by whether you use Subscribe and Save.

Chewy already tested this pattern earlier in the fall, discounting dog essentials by up to 65 percent for its Labor Day sale, and Black Friday tends to go at least as deep on food and treats specifically.

Autoship and Subscribe and Save Are Where the Real Money Is

A first-time Autoship or Subscribe and Save order has historically carried the steepest discount of the entire sale, sometimes reaching 35 to 40 percent off a single bag when combined with a manufacturer coupon.

That discount usually only applies to the first shipment, with the ongoing subscription rate settling closer to 5 percent off each recurring order afterward.

Canceling immediately after the first shipment is technically allowed at most retailers, though it defeats the purpose of the discount and most retailers make you sit through at least one more delivery before the cancel option becomes simple to use.

How Much Food Actually Makes Sense to Buy

Dry dog food keeps for 12 to 18 months when stored properly in a sealed bag or airtight container, so buying two or three months’ worth during a Black Friday sale is usually reasonable for most households.

Buying six months or a year’s worth to chase a bigger discount often backfires, since fat in the kibble can go rancid well before the printed best-by date once a bag is opened and exposed to air repeatedly.

Wet food and any treats with a shorter shelf life are worth buying closer to what you will use in the next month or two, since the deep discounts on those categories are not worth the food going bad in the pantry.

A Few Things Worth Checking Before You Stock Up

Checking the FDA’s pet food recall page before committing to a large order is worth the two minutes it takes, since a recall on a specific lot or flavor can happen at any time regardless of how good the Black Friday price looked.

If your dog’s food budget is tight even outside of the sale season, it is worth knowing that free and low-cost dog food resources exist around the valley for households that need help bridging a gap between paychecks.

Comparing the per-pound price after any subscription discount, rather than just the percentage off the sticker price, is the most reliable way to tell whether a specific deal is actually better than what you would pay on a normal Autoship order any other week of the year.

Retailers typically do not require a promo code for these sales, so setting up a subscription account ahead of Thanksgiving week and watching for the first-order discount to appear is the simplest way to catch the best version of the deal before it changes.