Fancy Feast Classic Pate Poultry Beef Petsmart
Courtesy Bill Hengstenberg
Barbara Hengstenberg has had trouble finding specialty cat food for her pet.
Debra Bishop feels like she hits the lottery every time she finds Purina Friskies Shreds canned true cat nutrient on store shelves for her two rescue cats, 3-year-quondam siblings Max and Willow.
The chicken- and turkey-flavored meals are hard to find these days because of a widespread pet food shortage. Canned cat food — from well-known brands like Fancy Banquet, Friskies and 9 Lives — is the most elusive. Several factors are responsible, including pandemic-related manufacturing delays, bad weather condition, and an uptick in pet ownership and pampering.
The situation is reminiscent of last year's toilet paper sales surge, and the contempo shortage of Grape-Nuts that had some fans paying equally much as $110 a box through an online black market.
Bishop says she ofttimes finds herself muttering nether her breath as she searches the shelves for something her cats won't turn their noses up to.
"I'yard clearly not the only ane wondering what their kittens will eat," says Bishop, 51, who lives in Penfield, New York. "I've shared smiles — under masks — with other shoppers talking to themselves in the cat food alley."
'Customers are frustrated'
Chris Anthony, director at Land Harvest Family unit Market in Palmerton, Pennsylvania, says his supplier sent an email in February stating that pet food producers Nestlé Purina and J.Thou. Smucker Co. were experiencing COVID-xix-related supply issues. Supplies — including aluminum packaging — were deficient and the companies no longer could run across demand, a state of affairs expected to last at to the lowest degree until May.
"One delivery we'll get some Fancy Feast and diverse flavors, and the adjacent delivery we don't get anything," Anthony says. "Our customers are frustrated. They're tired of the whole thing."
The United Kingdom is also dealing with a national shortage, with one supplier now rationing merchandise to exist sure every bit many pets as possible tin be fed.
Lots of reasons for shortage
Natural pet food manufacturer Freshpet has reported manufacturing shutdowns due to astringent winter storms. Other companies are running into problems with labor, machinery and packaging.
"In that location'south so much that goes into making a product, and if there's a break in any part of that process, it causes a problem," Anthony says. "Increased demand doesn't help, either."
PetSmart attributes its shortages of moisture food, both in stores and online, to people calculation pets to their families throughout the pandemic.
"Nosotros are committed to doing all we tin to help pet parents feed and care for their pets, and are actively working with our manufacturing and shipping partners to ensure supply is increased to better meet the current demand," says Erin Gray, PetSmart'south senior director of corporate communications.
The same diet is necessary for some
For Frosty, a rescue cat who has belonged to Barbara Hengstenberg and her husband, Bill, for 7 years at present, eating the same nutrition is important for his astringent gastrointestinal issues.
Hengstenberg, 59, said she was nervous when she couldn't detect Frosty's preferred 9 Lives Meaty Paté Super Supper canned food. Luckily, he weathered a couple of days with a substitute make ameliorate than expected. Hengstenberg, of Bear Creek, North Carolina, at present stocks up on his usual fare on the rare occasions she finds it. (He eats in his ain room, built specifically for him with a tiled alcove for the litter box, wooden cabinets and counters, and true cat-themed artwork.)
"We don't have children, and so our pets accept always been very, very special to us," she says.
A long search ends successfully
Not everyone is noticing the scarcity.
"I've seen it on the internet, but we've got cat food out the wazoo here," says 1 clerk at Nashville Pet Products in Nashville, Tennessee.
But for those like David Saltz, 49, of Auburn, Massachusetts, searching for Fancy Feast's Classic Tender Beef Paté has been a tall order. He has 2 cats, and the older one, Tiger, is "very picky." In the commencement of his search he scoured Google and every possible brick-and-mortar store — from pet stores to big-box and dollar stores — within 50 miles, all with no luck.
"I tried literally every other variety of soft canned cat food in the store — including a few cans of some mode overpriced, niche, microbrew, small-batch, all-natural, wild-animal-approved, non-GMO, grass-fed (did I mention ridiculously overpriced?) canned food," Saltz says. "Almost all were turned downwards. Simply occasionally would she consume a bit of a particular flavor, and I would get purchase more of that kind, just she was having none of it."
Saltz even posted a plea on Reddit. When someone in the thread noted that Chewy.com had the food back in stock, he immediately ordered a case. The side by side twenty-four hour period, when he went back to the site to order more, it was sold out again.
Finally, a few weeks ago, Saltz found the favored Fancy Feast on Amazon. He ordered two cases and signed up for automated deliveries every two weeks. He also fix an alarm on Chewy.com.
"Tiger is happy again," he says.
Robin L. Flanigan is a contributing author who covers mental health, education and human being-interest stories for several national publications. A former reporter for several daily newspapers, her piece of work has likewise appeared in People, USA Today and Teaching Calendar week. She is the author of the children's book 1000 is for Mindful.
Source: https://www.aarp.org/home-family/friends-family/info-2021/cat-food-shortage.html
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