Cat food scarcity

Factual Questions
1

Cat food has been getting scarce lately. For the last couple months, there’s not been very much on the shelves and what there is is either the expensive stuff or less popular flavors. I’m talking about wet food here. I don’t buy dry food, so have no idea if there’s a shortage of that.

Another customer thought she’d heard it was a shortage of cans, but there’s some brands that don’t come in a can (MeowMix, for example) and there’s none at all of that at my grocery store. So does anyone have an idea what’s causing the shortage? Something more specific than “coronavirus epidemic”, that is.

2

I hate to be just a little more specific than “coronavirus pandemic”; it’s the usual underlying cause: Supply chain problems.

Another reason, according to the third article, is an increase in pet adoptions.

3

My cats seem to strongly prefer the wet food that comes in chunks or shreds, especially the ones that have cheese or extra gravy.

Lately I’m lucky if I can bring them home the pate varieties that come with mystery names like “Country Style Dinner” or “Sea Captain’s Choice”.

Not that they’re going to turn up their noses at any variety of meat-flavored paste in some kind of sauce, mind you.

4

That sounds like a good one until you think about it. It implies the cats weren’t eating before they were adopted.

5

It’s a supply chain backup, but where in that chain is hard to say. Something to do with metal, at a guess, but it could equally be some main necessary ingredient they have in common, or there are container loads sitting somewhere rotting in the sun. Who knows.

And I hear ya. I have 12 cats, and while they have dry food available always I also give everyone a dollop of canned every morning so that they get extra moisture into their systems (I make it a little soupy with extra water). I also do it so I can lay eyes on everyone at least once a day to make sure everyone is well and happy. And of course because they like it :slight_smile:

I spent a stupid amount of time last week on Chewy trying to find something to order that they’d eat and that wasn’t stupid expensive. I ended up having to go to 3 different stores that week to cobble something together. I’m getting low again though, I should probably start looking now …

6

FWIW, I did find some of my regular stuff on Chewy just now, but there are still a lot of gaping holes in their inventory.

7

That had me wondering also. Maybe it’s just that shelters feed whatever dry food is cheap/donated to them.

8

I would also think the system would have adjusted by now. Wasn’t that surge of adoptions back in 2020? It’s been nearly two years.

9

I’ve generally been doing OK on Amazon for the Friskies Pate my cat likes (if I serve the chunk or shred styles, she’ll lick off the sauce and leave the solids). Walmart and other sources can be iffy, and while I’ve heard good things about Chewy, I haven’t tried them myself. Over on the thread about shortages in Quarantine Zone, I’ve seen some discussion of other possible pet food sources.

10

Costco has been pretty reliable with stocking their 60 can Friskies pate assortment, and the price hasn’t skyrocketed either. I have one diabetic cat so they’re both on wet food only and only the pate style–those gravy ones have too high a carb content for a diabetic critter. Petsmart has been fairly good as well but they’ve upped their prices quite a bit.

11

Just remember that, worst comes to worst, you have a reserve supply of a couple hundred pounds of wet food in your home. Your cats remember.

12

Nicely warmed, too. At first.

13

Today I researched re-stocking the larder for the beastie, I found in my area, high end/independent shops have very little to no stock of the big commercial wet food brands (Friskies, 9 Lives, Meow Mix). The pricing is disturbingly consistent among national pet store chains, Target, Walmart and local grocery stores. Amazon did have three consistent offerings and almost everything else very unreasonable pricing. The sweet spot for variety packs seems to be 32/40 packs. 24/12 packs same price for both per can, 60 packs were across the board over-priced. The specific treats and litter I buy were also low variation pricing, variations would be more not less, definite established floors. House brands have disappeared, I used to buy PetSmart’s but I have not seen it in well over a year.

14

I’ve been getting our wet cat food from Chewy for a while and they’ve had problems keeping the brand we buy in stock (Royal Canin), but I put it on Autoship and they seem to set aside product to cover Autoship orders before adding it to the general inventory for sale.

(Just speaking from personal experience, I don’t know how it really works; I’ve just seen it consistently listed “out of stock” on the product page, but we always get our Autoship orders right on time. I haven’t found it in a b&m store in over a year.)

15

We’ve been OK because the cat overlord refuses wet food. Luckily, he’s good about drinking from the water dish after eating dry.

16

Our local stores have plenty of catfood but I have noticed that certain brands and styles have holes. One week they will be nearly out of Purina, the next it’s well stocked and the Friskies are low.

17

Canned cat or dog food was pretty sparse at the Walmart I went to today, and there were noticeable holes in dry as well, along with cat litter. The rest of the store had some disquieting sparse areas, too.

18

Conversely, remember all the warehouses full of institutional-sized this or that after the shutdown? Yes, people were still eating just as much, using as much toilet paper (d’oh), etc. but it was just that they were not doing it at home.

19

For the most part, you are probably right, unless an animal requires a special diet.

20

Local Wal-Mart had kibble (with many bare patches on the shelves) and virtually no canned food. Not Friskies, not Fancy Feast, nor the shitty house brand my cats will barely touch.

I took one single can, and left the remnants for the other desperate souls.